This summer sizzles in unexpected ways. Tired of watching tawdry and uninspired Hollywood adaptations? Well here's the antidote: Several noted filmmakers have decided to turn luminously literary.

Heading the bright pack is debutant Pradeep Sarkar with his anachronistic adaptation of Saratchandra Chatterjee's "Parineeta". Like Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Devdas", Parineeta has earlier been made by Bimal Roy with Ashok Kumar and Meeena Kumari in the lead.

Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra has cast two extremely contemporary actors Sanjay Dutt and Shah Rukh Khan along with debutante Vidya Balan. The new "Parineeta" also trans-locates the original material from early 20th century Calcutta to Kolkata in the 1960s.

Saratchandra shouldn't mind. Didn't Baz Luhrman relocate the bard's "Romeo & Juliet" to a contemporary punky setting in his adaptation featuring Leonard DiCaprio and Claire Danes?

Incidentally, Anil Ganguly made another version of "Parineeta", called "Sankoch", in the 1960s with Jeetendra and Sulakshana Pandit in the lead.

Would viewers embrace "Parineeta" with the same gusto that they did Bhansali's "Devdas" three years ago?

For better or for worse, literature is the flavour of the summer season.

A fortnight after "Parineeta", it's "Paheli", which is based on a Rajasthani folk tale by Vijaydan Detha. The same story was filmed 30 years ago by avant garde director Mani Kaul as "Duvidha".

But as Amol Palekar, the director of the tale's contemporary version stresses, his take on the original material is far more contemporized.

Just how the purists will react to these literary tamperings remains to be seen.

Vishal Bhardwaj who adapted William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" as "Maqbool", has gone to Indian literature for his new film about children "The Blue Umbrella" which is sourced to Ruskin Bond.

Says Bharadwaj: "I see no reason to make stale repetitive films when there's so much literature to choose from. Why should we not dip into the rich traditions of prose instead of searching for foreign DVDs, hoping no one will catch you out?

"In fact I plan to adapt an Australian short story for a film featuring Aishwarya Rai and Vivek Oberoi."

Anant Mahadevan seems to agree with Bharadwaj. "Literature is so much more deep and adaptive than straightforward copies of foreign films... and so much more creative. I'm adapting Shakespeare's 'Comedy Of Errors' into an easygoing commodious Hindi film called 'Do Dooni Char' with Sameer Dattani in the lead."

Many moons ago, Gulzar had adapted 'Comedy Of Errors' with Sanjeev Kumar in the lead.

Mahdevan lights up.

"Yes, and Gulzar saab's 'Angoor' was such a delicious and devilish dollop of comedy on mistaken identity. I'm sure I can get the same comic crescendo out of Sammir Dattani as Sanjeev Kumar. I see in Sammir the same blend of innocence and roguish charm as Sanjeev Kumar. It could've something to do with both of them being Gujaratis."

Gujarati literature is also getting its place.

Apparently, producer Anil Kapoor's very hush-hush project directed by playwright Feroz Khan about the troubled and often-stormy relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his son Harilal, featuring Akshaye Khanna as the son, can be sourced to the same Gujarati novel that director Joy Augustine is planning to film.

Since Augustine holds the copyright of the novel, the other project has been undertaken in complete secrecy.

Have we come to a stage when fatigued by lack of screenwriting talent, Hindi filmmakers are actually squabbling over literary copyrights?

"That's a very healthy trend indeed, as long as the literary source is acknowledged by the filmmaker, as I did when I adapted O'Henry's short story in 'Raincoat'," says Rituparno Gosh.