National Webinar on Literature and Cinema: A Dynamic Relationship
REPORT
National Webinar organized by Department of English
On 28.06.21
Topic: Literature and Cinema: A Dynamic Relationship
Department of English organized a National Webinar on “Literature and Cinema: A Dynamic
Relationship” on June 28, 2021. Dr. Amit Kumar, Organizing Secretary of the webinar, while
conducting the proceedings of the webinar, shared the schedule of the programme with the
audience. Principal, Dr. Raj Pal Singh formally welcomed the Keynote Speaker, Resource
Person and all the virtual participants. He congratulated the Department of English, for
organizing such an informative and interesting literary event. Dr. Neena, Convenor, presented
the theme of the webinar. Dr. Anju Jain, HOD, Dept. of English formally introduced the
Keynote Speaker, Dr. Jyoti Sheoran, Chairperson, Dept. of English, CRS University, Jind,
and Resource Person, Dr. Ritu Sharma, Associate Professor, Dept. of English, Dyal Singh
College, Karnal. She said that during the modern times, when people were increasingly
inclined towards adapting literary works as it was very important to establish the relationship
between cinema and literature. She also hoped that the popularity of films in postmodern era
did not undermine the importance of books.
In her Keynote address, Dr. Jyoti Sheoran, said that literature had always been a great
inspiration for cinema all over the world. She informed the audience about several versions of
cinematic adaptations of epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana on the silver screen of our
country. She discussed several novels of renowned Bengali writers, Gujrati writers, Urdu
writers, and English writers which had been made into films over the years. She emphasized
that cinema impacted the viewers both cognitively and emotionally. She also called literature
and cinema as tools for change of society. Dr. Sheoran further differentiated between cinema
and literature by saying that apart from technical differences, in cinema, viewer had no choice
to response critically, the reader of literature had that choice.
Dr. Ritu Sharma, Resource Person of the webinar, expressed her views regarding Cinema and
Literature as two distinct but equally extraordinary works of art. She said that though both
these art forms had certain connections and differences, they had a similarity of taking the
readers/audience to a different world. According to her, while literature took its readers on
an imaginative journey, cinema showed such an imaginative world before the audience. She
focused on the interdependence of cinema and literature and showed how the books are
converted into films. She proved her point by giving examples of some old Bollywood
movies like Devdas, Guide, Tere Mere Sapne, Parineeta as well as some recent ones like 3
Idiots, Kai Po Che, 2 States, Aisha, Bride and Prejudice, Maqbool, Omkara, Haider, Raazi,
etc.
Ms. Kamlesh, Co-convenor of the webinar proposed a formal vote of thanks to Dr. Gurdev
Singh, President, College Governing Body, Dr. Rajpal Singh, Principal of the college, Dr.
Anju Jain, Head, Dept. of English, Dr. Neena, Convenor of the webinar, Members of
organizing committee, Dr. Amit Kumar, Dr. Anshu Chaudhary and Dr. Jyoti Sorout, Mr.
Shyam Raheja, Technical Expert, Ms. Shivani and all the virtual participants for making the
webinar a success.
