Farah Khan On Libraries Of Leaders: Devouring Enid Blyton And Adapting James Hadley Chase

Like most kids, Bollywood filmmaker Farah Khan grew up devouring the books of the inimitable and legendary children's writer Enid Blyton, day-dreaming about the boarding school life of the Malory Towers and St Clare's series, replete with their midnight feasts and high teas.

In a freewheeling and typically candid interview, Khan who dons many hats – choreographer, scriptwriter, actor and director – shared with us the books she grew up reading.

Growing Up

Blyton's Famous Five, Five Find-Outers, Secret Seven, and Malory Towers series transported generations of kids into a magical world of adventure featuring children who did grown-up things, while tucking into scones and ox tongue sandwiches while sipping on ice cold lemonade.

And they were the mainstay of Khan's childhood reading. Malory Towers, a series of six novels about life at a boarding school, made her long for that life and often sent her tummy rumbling. The books, she said, taught her a lot of life lessons around friendship and loyalty.

But are children still reading Blyton? Were her works racist, sexist or xenophobic, as critics have later alleged? The answer to both questions is no, if you ask Khan. And though her triplets never took to the English author, for her, the charm of Enid Blyton never really went away even when she grew up.

The Fifth Or Sixth Standard

By then, Khan graduated to James Hadley Chase and Sydney Sheldon. “I was rather advanced for my age,” she said, adding that the books “were considered were very racy for that time but very tame now that you think about it ”.

A lot of Chase titles were made into Hindi movies in the late 1970s, she said, and in many cases they were copied more than adapted. For instance, World In My Pocket became Duniya Meri Jeb Mein.

“Even Salim Javed used to take a lot of plots out of these books and make them into movies,” she recounted.

Lasting Impressions

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is a popular choice and has featured several times on Libraries of Leaders. Admitting that the choice is “very cliched”, Khan said the book changed how she thought of life and how to go about living it. She said that she re-visited the book, which she first read when she was 18, every decade or so and it gave her fresh perspective every time.

According to Khan, Rand was the kind of radical liberal thinker that the world needed at a time where the conservatives were taking over.

Indian Authors

Khan discovered Indian authors fairly late in life. Rohinton Mistry is one of her favourite authors. His novels make her nostalgic about the Bombay of the ‘70s and ‘80s, she said. Family Matters is her favourite novel by Mistry. Q & A by Vikas Swaroop is another book she thoroughly enjoyed. The book is about a young man who has just won a game show and a billion rupees despite having no formal education. This leads to his arrest on suspicion of fraud. The narrative takes the form of an explanation to his lawyer about episodes in his life which gave him the answers to every question. Khan said that she had discussed adapting the book for the silver screen with her friend and actor Shah Rukh Khan but that plan had to be shelved as Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was released soon after.