For as long as I can remember, I have been a self-proclaimed “tragedy junkie.” For reasons I’ve never been able to explain to readers within my family, my teenage fiction writing days were fueled by angst and pain, death and suffering. Maybe that’s why falling utterly in love with John Green’s 2012 novel The Fault In Our Stars is such a memorable moment for me.
In April 2014 I was living away from home for an apprenticeship placement of sorts, my first time living in another Swiss city and with other youngsters also in training in their respective fields. Since my sense of direction is beyond hopeless, one of the few outings I made in my area at the time was the local train station, my way to get home every weekend. I now own a Kindle absolutely loaded with my favorite books but back then the train station’s little bookstore held a magnetic pull for me. The TFIOS movie starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort was being advertised massively in those days and it was the infamous film poster as the book cover that compelled me to pick up the novel.
As with any book to film adaptation, changes had to be made for the screen. But whatever ingredient it is that makes this story a tear-jerker is present in both the book and big screen versions. In this case I read the book just before the film was released because the story was right up my street of romantic tragedies. As I searched for the muse that reminded me how much I love this story, it felt like fate that news of a Bollywood re-make crossed my path. As an Indian growing up in Switzerland, Bollywood films have been my link to my culture ever since I was old enough to appreciate them. As such I can fully appreciate how melodramatic and over the top the Indian film-making style is if one is not used to it. Bollywood films are already known for extreme melodrama so I can only imagine how anything based on this story might turn out.
My Mom once wanted to know why I felt inspired by Woodley’s portrayal of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a cancer-stricken teenager. I related to both Hazel and Augustus in their shared passion for the fictional novel in TFIOS, Peter Van Houten’s An Imperial Affliction. Their common interest in meeting the man behind their favorite book was easy for me to relate to as a fangirl and fanfiction writer myself. When Hazel got Gus to read her favorite book and he called her in the early hours of the morning to rave about the cliff-hanger ending of the story, it felt incredibly familiar.
Perhaps it was partly in the prone to romantic declarations portrayal of Augustus Waters, but my crush on Ansel Elgort was one of the few times I had a fangirl crush on a celebrity younger than my current age. It just goes to show I suppose, whoever said fangirls grow up was wrong. We just adapt and change the objects of our affections with the times. In any event, this story of two terminally ill teenagers bonding over shared passions in spite of their own doomed circumstances is definitely one of my go-to movies whenever I need a good cry.
Considering Shailene and Ansel played siblings in the Divergent film adaptation just months before TFIOS released and then transitioned successfully to an epic and tragically doomed romance, it’s no wonder they’re such close friends offscreen.
I mentioned how the TFIOS soundtrack cemented my memories of a trip through the canals of Brugge a few years ago, the closest I’ve ever been to Hazel and Gus’ destination, Amsterdam. Besides the painful Kodaline ballad All I Want featured in the film, the catchy anthem below was what I ended up associating with both Hazel and Gus’ Amsterdam adventure and my own in Brugge.
Since then I’ve read one or two other John Green novels and find myself in total agreement with this ranking. While The Fault In Our Stars is one of my all-time favorite books and films, even Green’s debut novel Looking For Alaska had me in tears. That’s what I get for being drawn to sad stories, but the way I see it’s better to revel in sad fiction which one can walk away from than having to deal with that kind of pain in real life.
The song All I Want touched me so much that as soon as I got a new laptop capable of video editing again, it was one of the first songs to inspire me to do just that. In the years in between, One Tree Hill and the Evans family claimed my fangirl heart and I end this piece with the result of those stirred feelings. Enjoy and until next time!
Have Courage And Be Kind 