PANTHIBHOJANAM: A Story of Adaptation

Abstract

Adaptation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has a plurality of meanings and applications, but mostly alludes to the process of changing to suit an alternative purpose, function, or environment; i.e., the alteration of one thing to suit another. Adaptations are not new to our times. Shakespeare transferred the history of his culture from page to stage. Aeschylus, Racine, Goethe are all known to have done the same, retelling the old familiar stories to a new audience, using a new medium. Adaptations are a big part of the Western culture that they seem to affirm Walter Benjamin’s saying that “storytelling is always the art of retelling stories”.

            Here, I am attempting a reading of Panthibhojanam, a Malayalam short story by Santhosh Aechikanam, from the collection Komala, first published in 2006, and later adapted into a short film of the same title, by Sreebala K Menon. The story takes us through the mindscape of five young advocates (four women and a man).