As far as I can recall, I never entered the magically magnificent world of HARRY POTTER because of the hype, but it was that I just got a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from somehere (without knowing that it was the second part). I saw it like fools, without having read the novel or being the part of craze, all I had heard was “Harry Potter” from TV may be, I just didn’t knew who played what or what the heck was going on, most of it went over my head. Even if I couldn’t understand what I was supposed to, I loved the movie and no HP movie till date has been able to break its spell.Later on, when I got the first part i.e. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, i could finally fill the gaps that the second movie left for me. Since then I jumped in the worldwide club of Harry Potter fanatics, that goes gaga over Harry Potter every time he makes a new move. I couldn’t catch up with the books, because I never saved the money for them and whenever I asked for them in the library, they were always taken by someone else before me.
The first movie in which I flowed along the hype, browsed the net, raised my expectations was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I caught this one also on a VCD. It turned out to be very different from the previous editions; it was darker, deeper (along with the voice-boxes) and confusing (because of the time travel). Amidst all the confusion, I still loved the movie and it turned better and better with multiple viewings.
Since then, I watched every outing of the Harry Potter saga in the theaters.
Cut to: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, before I watched the movie, I could finally get my hands on the novel from the library which turned out to be the first novel I actually “loved” and wished that the celluloid interpretation could be as effective. But alas, another change of director, another change in age and the Emma Watson erotism spoiled the movie. I never found Emma Watson so beautiful (specifically in the Ball scene) ever before, may be because finally, I was of the same age as that of the character she potrayed. And most importantly what spoiled the movie for me was that I had read the novel and that they had gulped many of the scenes I wanted to see. Heard from many that the novels are better than the movies, this one proved that true for me. Apart from Emma Watson, the three tasks, the mad-eye moody moments, the voldemort-Harry duel, it all began with the 4th movie, great scenes but something missing.
But with the 5th movie i.e. The Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, the ultimate degradation of the most magical movie series I had ever seen took place with David Yates playing the captain of the ship, which would enhance the CGI effects of the movie, but would submerge the overall FEEL of the movie. The 4th movie hinted at it , but the 5th movie degraded Harry Potter like never before, it crushed my expectations just like ‘The Bride’ crushes the eye of Elle in Kill Bill 2, it was the first movie in which I could find myself getting bored and my younger brother drowsing. The movie was plain boring in the pre – interval part where there was less ‘CG action’. It was dark, it was gloomy, it was action right at frame1, But just like Dursley had lost its fat and gained height, the movie had lost its charm(which had very little to do with the age of the actors) and gained audience.
The only thing I liked in the movie was the final minutes of the movie, the demolition of the prophecies and the death of Sirius black. Leaving a couple of scenes whose credit goes to the CG department, the movie was equivalent to shit. May be it was expectations, may be it wasn’t, the expectations were mine so I could defend them, but Yates wasn’t mine, he was neither of the screenplay nor of the novel. He was the pimp that made Harry Potter a whore.
Finally, this Friday I got the opportunity to catch the first “first day, first show” of my life as The Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince filled the screen with the first movie title which didn’t alter in hindi. No “Aadhe khoon wala RajKumar”. I had already assassinated my expectations the day I came to know that the movie will be directed by David Yates, but when the trailers trudged the screen of my TV, computer, PMP, a tinge of expectations etched my head again. I was expecting a dark insight into Voldemort’s history as I had known from my cousin and the wicked web of novel spoilers about almost everything; still I hadn’t read the novel except the chapter Lightning Struck Tower in which Dumbledore dies. But whatever I knew, it had created the image of the movie as the darkest of the HP movies, but unexpectedly what it turned out to be was a funny partial teeny-bopper, partial tongue in (opposite sex’s) cheek comedy, which had more smooches than spells and for the first time Dumbledore behaved as ‘tharki buddha’ staring at the girl in the hoarding, collecting magazines and keeping check of Harry’s love interests. May be he wanted to ‘live’ before death.
According to Imdb and my cousin who had read the novel (who was snatching my cell phone at regular intervals in the movie, may be because of the boredom, may be because he had felt that the movie had lost somewhere along with him) they had not only altered the scenes but created new ones which were entirely useless apart from showing what they should have. The most to-be dramatic and intense scenes in the movie looked forced (the intro to horcruxes, whore-cruxes as pronounced by Voldemort, the death of Dumbledore, the funeral etc etc) and didn’t created the impact they ought to create. The only scene in the movie, which I liked, was the zombie one. The 5th movie degraded the FEEL; the 6th not only degraded the FEEL but degraded the scenes also.
Now that I have already read the Deathly Hallows part, in which JK Rowling had herself killed the charm of previous novels, what can I expect from Yates Bhai who will make 2 damn movies on it?
May be I can expect something.
Hope Swine Flu takes care of him!
Published at Passionforcinema.com on July 20 2009
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