ABSTRACT
Thakara (1978), written by P Padmarajan, is the story of an intellectually disabled young man, who falls in love through careful manipulation of his friends. This ultimately leads to his tragic death. Narrated by a friend of Thakara in a matter-of –fact way that is devoid of any sentimentality, the story foregrounds the question of identity, normalcy and social perception of disability. The story was made into a successful movie in 1979. My paper reads the story against this inter semiotic translation which offers a different interpretation of the story. The movie changes the focus of the story to make it into a tragic love story and highlights Thakara’s rage and his role in bringing on the catastrophe on himself and also on those who are close to him. Thus a radical text that offers a strong criticism of society’s perception of disability, in its inter semiotic translation succumbs to social pressure to make it appealing to the target audience. This would also raise questions about ethical concerns of a translator when dealing with radical texts. The paper, through my reading of the story and the movie, attempts to highlight the role translation can play in retrieving texts that have been lost due to co-option into a conformist ideology.
