A blog post after a long, long time. When this year began, I wrote a post urging everyone to update their blogs regularly, saying how bad I felt not to get a peak into the minds of my fellow bloggers anymore. But after my last post on this blog in September, I myself disappeared. No, I wasn't that occupied with other things, or particularly depressed for any reason. Frankly, I don't think I had anything to write about. But today, I have a very good reason to write a post. What better reason to write a post than the advent into our lives once more of the boy wizard? Yes, its Harry Potter I'm talking about.
No matter which city I live in, how could I miss a Harry Potter movie? 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows(Part 1)' is here and is here with great expectations, which I'm sure it will satisfy. Based on J.K. Rowling's last book of the Harry Potter franchise, this is the first part of the entire movie, the second part of which is scheduled for release in July 2011(so, its not completely over yet:-)). I think this division into two parts has been the wisest decision that the production team has taken. The seventh book, although shorter in length than its two immediate predecessors, is cramped with much more information. In fact, only after reading the seventh book does one realize that there's a lot more to the story than one thought there was at the end of the sixth book. So, a movie of even three hours couldn't have done justice to the book, and this is the reason for which the movie automatically becomes more engaging. It has stuck so well to the book that when I saw some of the scenes, I remembered that had pictured them exactly like that while reading the book. It doesn't eliminate the important stuff, provides the audience with the details and doesn't leave inconsistencies and jumble-ups like the sixth movie. The tense moments are really tense and the dark moments are really, really frightening, specially the two sequences featuring the snake. However, amidst all the violence and horror, the humourous bits wont escape the audience's notice. That is, I guess, the brilliancy of David Yates' direction and the actors' dialogue delivery.
Speaking about acting, I'm totally enchanted by Rupert Grint after watching this movie. He was, in a way, the best thing about the movie. All those paroxysms of jealousy against Harry, the dilemma, , the moments of realisation, the love for Hermione--the expression in Rupert's eyes are just like what Rowling had described in Ron's case in the book. Emma Watson again delivers this good, consistent performance as always and Daniel Radcliffe is actually a bit of a letdown in some scenes. But, its Rupert Grint who brings alive the sequences featuring the three of them. A special mention for the three actors who played the roles of the people into whom Harry, Ron and Hermione are transformed after drinking Polyjuice Potion: they were a hilarious trio. I also liked Tom Felton and Alan Rickman in their tiny portions in this movie. Their real parts though, come in the next one.
There are some people, even in my college, who are saying that this movie is not good. But, they belong to that roup who have always criticised Harry Potter movies and books. For people like me though, its different. My room mate and I were discussing last night that we have grown up with Harry. So, he's within us. We identify with him in many situations of our life. For us, the feelings associated with a a Harry Potter movie are bound to be different. From a very impartial perspective, this movie was much better, truly much better than the fifth and sixth movie and it was very good as a movie. But, even if there are some fine points of criticism, I'm bound to overlook them because every time, there's some new addition to the Harry Potter collection, life becomes happier and more energetic, like it has for the last one week. My spirit just got lifted a thousand times more!
