Dickens Redux

Next week,Miss Havisham will hang out with Oliver Twist,and Uncle Scrooge will make merry with Pip — for the city is celebrating 200 years of popular British novelist,Charles Dickens. Starting February 16,the two-day event organised by the British Council will feature one of the oldest film adaptations of Dickens’ work,the silent movie Oliver Twist,made in the ’40s,followed by a 2005-version of the same,directed by Roman Polanski. Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol are the other movies to be showcased at the event.

“In addition to film screenings,we’ve invited 10 Indian authors to write on how Dickens would have written his novels if he lived in this era. As for the youngsters,we have asked them to stretch their imagination and write a ‘Dickensian’ piece and submit it for an all-India competition,” said Adam Pushkin of British Council,adding that such events are being organised all over the country. The British Council has been hosting a series of events in India to commemorate Dickens — starting last month at Jaipur Literature Festival,followed by Kolkata Literary Meet and Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda Festival.