The Hindu : Front Page : Harry Potter flies into the city

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Friday, Jul 13, 2007
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Harry Potter flies into the city

Rakesh Mehar

This time it is only expected to get
much better

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

MORE ENTERTAINMENT: Magician Ramamurthy giving a performance at Inox in Bangalore during the preview of the latest Harry Potter film on Thursday.

BANGALORE: Potter season officially opened in Bangalore on Thursday with a special preview of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Kicking off the festivities at the preview at the Inox multiplex was a magic show by Ramamurthy who kept the young audience entertained with some interesting sleight of hand. “It was a good way to start off the show because the magic was here and live, before we stepped into the make-believe world of the film,” said Sunil A., a Harry Potter fan.

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, the fifth instalment in the successful Harry Potter franchise by J.K. Rowling, is also one of its most interesting parts, breaking the fantasy and romance of the wizarding world with the first real glimpse of the bureaucratic, inhuman side of that world.

In it, the young wizard Harry Potter is faced with a bureaucracy that is reluctant to acknowledge the return of the Dark Wizard Voldemort and hence, sets the rest of the wizarding world against him with the use of propaganda and the full force of the rule of law.

Although nowhere near as successful as their literary counterparts, the movies have managed to create excitement too. And that, said actor-director Ramesh Aravind who attended the preview, was one of the reasons he was drawn to the films. “Any filmmaker who can create such frenzy deserves respect. As a filmmaker, I am here to learn from them,” he said.

Certainly, “Order of the Phoenix” had much in store for Ramesh Arvind and for fans of Harry Potter and the others. Directed by David Yates, best known for hard-hitting dramas, the film is the darkest in the series yet. And as its main trio of performers have grown up in front of the camera, the series too seems to have reached a satisfying point of maturity, as has been pointed out by critics around the world.

Indeed, explained Mohit Bhargava, Regional General Manager, Inox, initial reviews and audience responses have suggested that “Order of the Phoenix” might be the most successful of the Harry Potter films. “The films have always got a tremendous response, and this time it is only expected to get much better,” he said.

Of course, as much excitement as the movies have managed to create, the Harry Potter series is also a triumph of publishing over movie-making, as was evident at the preview, where most audience members said that their love of the Harry Potter books was what drew them to the films. Still, the latest in the series might well be the closest the films have come to reliving the magic of the books, as many Potter fans at the preview conceded.

The film is also a treat for Potter fans in that it forms a welcome precursor to the mega event that is coming in just over a week, the release of the seventh and final instalment of the books, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”.

What with caricature and tattoo promotions, Harry Potter quizzes and contests to win merchandise being conducted around the release of the film, and the final book being offered at discounts and with a host of other sweeteners to boot, there couldn’t be a better time to be smitten with the world’s most famous boy wizard.

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