Books and Movies

While reading Pather Panchali , I could not help but compare the average Indian Novel with the average Bollywood movie. Ok so average Indian book is a misnomer. The books are certainly not average. Perhaps I should be comparing Art movies with the Bollywood potboilers. Anyway the best Indian books by Indian authors mainly deal with typical Indian lives. Typical as the authors know it. But the books are almost always devoid of happy endings. The book normally ends at some point of the life of the major character with some things left unresolved. Certainly i can't remember a they lived every happily ever after ending. On the other hand , the movies almost always have a happy ending. The poor villager overthrowing the zamindars. The angry young man getting rid of the oppressors. Deaths of only minor or supporting characters. And while i accept unhappy endings in books, I know that i too would not accept unhappy endings in the typical Bollywood movie. The good guys must win and if it involves some fight sequences so much the better.