Tuesday, July 19, 2011

My tryst with Harry Potter & Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara

I hate to say this.. I enjoyed ZNMD.

What should I say!! Potter. I think its got to do with the expectations that you have with a Potter franchise. It cant be anything but sheer excellence.

Dont get me wrong. Its a good movie. It stays true to the book, mostly. And is visually as appealing and as close to the actual vivid picture drawn up in the book, as possible. And that is something I maintain about all HP movies. They have been very very realistic in how they portrayed the fantastic imagination of JK Rowling.

So when you go to watch the movie, you are already expecting the visual treat that these movies are. You dont expect any less.. and I can easily say, that this expectation is met quite well.

But somehow, I dont know why.. this movie did not thrill me as much as the book did. Dont get me wrong here. I know no movie can ever ever match up to the book. I think to that extent HP franchise has succeeded in coming close to the book.

Its just that the book tends to build up anticipation nicely. The war sequences are amazing - I remember reading about the moment when Neville walks in through Arianna's picture.. it was so thrilling. And the entire war as described in the book. It was awesome. in movie, I felt like we were zipping through it.

In the book, JK Rowling  has taken a lot of pain to build each and every character.. and they each have a story.. a beginning and an end. Obviously its difficult to capture all that in a movie. But I kind of felt cheated. They whizz through the individuals to focus on the story.. there is no mention of Hagrid's brother.. Hagrid himself appears towards the end... Fred / Lupin / Tonks, they are just declared dead. Maybe they could have extended the movie by about 30 mins. No one would have minded. And the Voldemort vs. Harry fight was not much to talk about.

I was let down.
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ZNMD - now thats a movie I went to watch with no expectations. And it turned out to be good. A breezy movie, yet not. 3 central character with their own demons to deal with. I quite liked the story. It was nicely presented. The" hot quotient" of Hrithik Roshan just skyrocketed with this movie.. it certainly helped.

The conversations were easy, free flowing. There were no heavy weight dialogues.. just a simple story of 3 men who kind of find themselves through a 3 week trip in Spain.

And all 3 were brilliant. Farhan Akhtar was a bit over the top. But he was great still. Abhay Deol as always is good. The surprise package to my mind was Hrithik Roshan.. his transformation through the movie.

I quite enjoyed watching the movie.The songs were just superlative. It was a fun 3 hours. And again I am inspired to think of myself - am I really free? Is my mind really free? When was I last free?

7 comments:

Ru. said...

I too felt same way! The Harry Potter movie was more of a 'performing the duty' and not very enjoyable :( but again as you said this is all one can get in 2 hr movie and huge expectations.

Moonshine said...

@melee Thank god you said it. I thought I will get a lot of brickbats for saying I didnt enjoy it as much!!! :)

Scarlett said...

Oh, wait for my post on HP.

I'm surprised you didn't mention that they skipped the entire bit on Grindelwald. And there was so little of Ron & Hermione!!!!!!!

Shruti said...

You are right, Moonshine. It didnt make the cut for me too :( And Scarlett is right, there was absolutely no mention of Grindelwald!

And what was that dialogue of McGonagall's when the teachers were securing the castle? I dont remember the book exactly, but i doubt it was in the book!

Moonshine said...

@Scarlett the entire Grindelwald and Dumbledore story was skipped.. it should have appeared in Deathly Hallows Part 1 and not 2 in any case. There was so little of anyone!!!!!!!!

@Shruti I think she said something like I always wanted to do this!!!

Bluestocking said...

HP movie was good but the book was better. I remember whizzing through the book and thinking it would make a great movie because it already is so detailed. And I waited with bated breath for Dumbledore Army to make an appearance because in the book Rowling makes everyone a hero. Somehow that went slightly missing in the movie, even Ron and Hermione kind of lost focus. And they could have so done without the 19 years later. But I still enjoyed it. Hard not to :-)
ZNMD was all about Spain and poetry. That's what I took with me more than the characters.

Moonshine said...

@Bluestocking Seriously. ALl the characters were so fuzzy including Ron and Hermoine sadly! And that 19 yrs later!!!!!!! So not required!!!