Books and their Cinematic counterparts: Part 1

Just finished reading my own apna copy of "To Sir with Love" (ER Brathwaithe). Immortalised by Sidney Poitier's acting, the epynomous film has beaten the novel.

This is a rare and difficult feat considering how tricky it is to convert the pauses and punctuations of the story into a screenplay usually lasting an hour or longer. Books allow introspection and leisured assimilation and critique. Cinema- dictated by Box office profits- does not allow comparison via leisurely assimilation.

This set me off thinking about similar examples of Cinematic versions being better than the Novel/ Story.

My list is HIGHLY contestable, but without any emphasis on relative rank or merit within the list.

To Sir with Love (ER Brathwaithe)
The Godfather (Mario Puzo)
Ben Hur (Lew Wallace)
Shatranj ke Khilari (Munshi Premchand)
The Green Mile (Stephen King)
Guide (RK Narayan)
1947 Earth (Bapsi Sidhwa)
Sherlock Holmes:The Sign of the Four (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Forrest Gump (Winston Groom)
How Green was my valley(Richard Llewellyn)...also adapted as Kala Patthar
Pather Panchali (Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay)... English translation
Mckenna's Gold (Henry Wilson Allen). This one's nostalgic.
Where Eagles Dare (Alistar MacLean)
Guns of Navarone (Alistar MacLean)
West Side Story (adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet)
Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrman's adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet)

Jaanta Raja (Babasaheb Purandare)
...ok Jaanta Raja is not a movie. But I am personally yet to see a better mounted theatrical performance. Actually, the heroic and humane Chattrapati Shivaji has been portrayed better on stage and celluloid rather than paper.

Shawshank Redemption (Stephen King). Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is a part of the novella "Different Seasons" by King.