After screening Maqbool in class, it was evident that much was changed from the source material in order to fit the new locale of the Bombay underworld. The main adjustment I noticed was the dismissal of the supernatural. While we still got some nervous, guilty hallucinations from Maqbool, the characters of the witches were switched to crooked police officers. This is a necessary change because that type of supernatural, while easy to accept in a play, is going to be strange and out of place in a film like Maqbool. Often today, one of the main reasons for change and disloyalty to source material when following the process of adaptation is the inconsistency of what is believable and accepted in the source format to what is acceptable on screen.

A huge trend in today’s Hollywood system is the emergence of the comic book film. In the past five years we have seen both Marvel and DC release films based upon their popular comic book heroes. In the adaptation though, things have to be changed to account for the differences in what is believable in a comic book and what is believable in a film. Hugh Jackman has played the famous Wolverine character in seven films yet we have never seen him in the classic Wolverine blue and yellow costume. This is because that would look goofy and ridiculous on the screen. The costume would completely crash with everyone the character represents. It would completely take the audience out of the film.

Arguably the most famous, successful, and acclaimed comic book adaptation of our time is Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Nolan is praised for creating a world where it seems both realistic and believable that a superhero such as Batman could and does exist. He even brings back many characters from the comic books. Robin, Batman’s famous sidekick, makes an appearance in the final installment of the trilogy, yet he never appears in the famous red and green tights. He simply cannot because although that is seen as normal in the source material, The movie versions call for a dark and grittier surrounding and Robin simply cannot be showing up in a green speedo.

This all brings up the question of how we can find a rebellious antihero wearing a ridiculous yellow jumpsuit acceptable in a comic book but would disapprove of it in a film. You could argue that a comic book platform is not held to the same standards when it comes to realism. They may have certain rules that don’t have to be spoken such as the fact that heroes wear tights. A film universe, however, has to start from the beginning. It has to recreate the universe the comic book established but it has to do so at the realism standards that we expect from Hollywood blockbusters. We are often quick to jump at the main problem of adaptation being its inability to maintain the orginal prose of a novel or encapsulate all of the action of a longer source material that could never fit in the two hour constraint of a film. An overlooked “issue” with adaptation, however, could be this inconsistency of realistic expectations. This may not even be an issue as much as it is an argument for why we cannot judge a film against its source material. It is a further argument for how a film is an original piece of art and should not be compared to its source material but rather just said to be different.