Charisma of Figurative Language in Folklore Adaptations: A Case Study of Dilemma And Paheli

Abstract

Oral tradition of storytelling has had an enticing and everlasting impact that has kept this art alive and thriving to this day; either adapted in a written fictional form, theatre performance, animation, graphic tale or a film. The paper has picked up traits that have become trademarks of the two story telling artists; Vijaydan Detha and Amol Palekar, discovered in the course of savoring their artistic renditions. Detha’s Duvidha, a folklore, retold as Rajasthani short story, translated as Dilemma in English and adapted into Palekar’s Paheli a feature film in Hindi, each revived in refreshing style, is the focal point of this paper. How far the two have been able to bewitch the contemporary readers and spectators respectively, in their own inimitable style, the paper would further strive to find out. It would be interesting for academicians to figure out and determine whether it is just to re-tell the story stylized differently, adorning it with idioms, conversation, words of wisdom, scathing comments, witty dialogues, puppetry, and soliloquies, and to be reminded of a bygone tradition or whether the real worth lies in exploiting their existing revival into some constructive relevance.