Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I

Director: David Yates

Harry Potter movies have been charming us from beginning of this millennium. With each passing year comes a film from the Potter stable, and with each film the movie experience has slowly but steadily stepped outside the shadow of their novels’ as the search for a better experiences continues in different dimension (of which 3D shouldn't have been a part though). There used to be the smug in the faces of the child artists that they are doing magic: there was even a dialogue in part 4 where Harry declares I love magic with an artificial smile that was so out of sync and cringe worthy. Performances apart, the screenplay was always weaved around the book with dire importance only for passing along all that was written in the book. Where was the setting, the aesthetics, the nuance, the wittiness? Oh there was wittiness all right- but it manifested the formulistic approach they took while writing. From part 5 there was a sea-change in the approach to tell the story and it got stronger in part 6. They didn’t delineate into the details of how Dumbledore’s army went about practicing; they didn’t ruminate over how the Order of Phoenix functions. But they brought alive the magic in the screen that was till then available only in their textbooks.

When they announced that the final part will be split in to two movies I felt it was done not to tell everything in the novel, but because the writers some how created a script that had a lot of captivating visuals to offer in a coherent story. To experience the movie as it is and not as an adaptation I decided against brushing up my HP facts and went straight ahead for the movie. After watching the film I am really glad I took a wise decision. Else I wouldn’t have enjoyed the narrative style taken by the writers for explaining the deathly hallows; I might have not been scared by the appearance of nagini in one crucial scene; I might have not glued my eyes to the screen when Ron was contemplating on breaking one of the horcruxes. These and many such moments in the films would have pleased the audience who had read the book, but they would have had just a smile in their face seeing their imagination come alive in a different perspective. But movies are meant to enthrall you with things you don’t expect. Only that can leave you spell-bound (literally in case of HP movies).

HP7-part1 doesn’t care much about educating you of the story; instead it dabbles with the plot to create the charming world; the world that any good cinema creates regardless of the theme or genre it deals with. There need not be magic deployed to cast a spell on the viewers; the chemistry among the three leads is more than enough to charm you. Once marred by poor screen presence coupled with fabricated dialogues, the same trio in this part engages us through out (be it their witty lines, their non-verbal gestures, the subtle conveyance of the matter, the mature acting) in a film which covers the dullest part of the 7^th book. This couldn’t have been possible without the swiftness in the screenplay. Sure there are few dull moments during the forest sequences. But this plot needs that for its own reasons. The way the screenplay steers the plot in the right direction every time they comes a slag is a pleasure to watch. One such scene is when Hagrid starts cribbing about the way he brought Harry to his house in London when he was a baby; Mad-E-Moddy cuts him short with his smart one liner. These kinda moments created by all the characters that occupy the screen liven up the whole experience and engage us with the happening till the credit starts rolling. For this unique experience of watching a Harry Potter movie for the first time, it is sure worth a trip if you couldn’t find any other reason.