A novel is called a pocket theatre. It leaves so much to the imagination which is why it has to be the better. However there are certain kinds of novels which are enriched when portrayed in the visual medium; the historical, the mythological, the adventurous or the romantic.
Reading a novel is a more personal experience than watching a movie which is rooted in the theatrical tradition of community viewing. It is what phenomenology calls the Gestalt : the interface between the reader and the novel which is unique for each one of us. The novels of Dostoyevsky or Thomas Hardy where so much contemplation and internal strife is going on are extremely difficult to represent on screen and they may fall “flat” like a banal story. Anybody who has read Umberto Eco’ Name of the Rose and seen the movie version of the same will understand this better. Where as the novel is polyphonic and cross referential the movie is interesting but limits itself to being a superior detection film.
Yet there have been some fascinating renditions of the novel on the screen by gifted movie makers; Gone with the wind, To kill a mocking bird, Benhur, The God father, Tess of the Durbervilles, and BBC TV production of Pride and Prejudice are a few examples. The Apu triology by Satyajit Ray captivates the spirit to compel us to read the original of Bibhuti bhushan.