Friday, July 15, 2011

The Boy Who Lived....will live on!!

The Boy Who Lived....will live on!!

Life could always be a matter of choices is what we learn..looking back at Harry Potter, whose life we lived at some point in our childhood or teens or may be continue to-even now. The Dark Lord(or should we say Voldemort)marked him is equal;Harry chose to be put in Gryffindor and towards the end he chooses to stay when he could so easily have gone on....all appallingly simple and imaginative bits of a storyline but so very inextricably woven into our lives.

The triumph of good over evil is a virtue that forms the core of mythology all over the world.But that you and I and just anybody else could defeat this evil is probably what Harry Potter taught us.Yes of course there were predecessors like "The Lord of the Rings",but Harry would probably capture our imagination like Frodo never did.

And as we file into the theatre this connect with Harry and Hogwarts is what drives us,for we know the story by the line but want to live it again...and probably again.The final instalment is probably the best of the lot and the darkest.But we would all want to live through the darkness just to see that light in the end.The movie stands up for all the values that all the Potter books and movies did.It is the little moments of great depth that stand out more than the eventual triumph of good over evil.

The death of Dobby the elf and the dignity with which he is buried transcends the age-old saying that friendship is among equals.It is destiny that brings people together but it takes a good set of values to bind them and forge a lasting friendship.Hagrid and Harry is an other example.

Love seems to be the core value that has been exemplified beyond others in all books.While evil rules the world,it is his mother's love for Harry that protects him.Be it this or Sirius' paternal love for Harry or the blooming one between Ron and Hermione...love takes the meaning of a sense of willing to sacrifice and a sense of deep mutual understanding,respect and ofcourse attraction and madness. The love Snape had for Lily and the sacrifices he is willing to make for that make him the true hero.There are a couple of mad moments brought out in the movie...Neville runs around just to say he is mad about Luna when the world around him burns(because he could be dead by dawn!!!); And Ron chases the Malfoy trio when they attack Hermione. Comical...but with that sense of depth I mentioned.

Neville Longbottom is again a character a lot of us would identify ourselves with.The courage,the valour,ability is all there.But then there is also a fear..a lack of belief that we don't actually belong.It takes a lot of motivation to bring the ability out...and his friends provide him that.

An other moment that makes a deep impact is the one in which Harry saves Malfoy from a fire,risking his own.Beyond the courage,the valour, it is the character Harry and his friends show in rescuing them,putting their animosity aside that strikes us.They would probably never be friends...but then....

Again towards the end,Harry becomes the owner of the most powerful wand in the world.But with characteristic simplicity,breaks it- more symbolically saying he is one of us.

It is this sense of simplicity,the way the characters have been built so naturally that draws people to Harry Potter,be it books or movies.The Muggle world is shrinking with respect to ideals and values and boundaries and the limitations we put on ourselves in the name of practicality.But boy,don't we yearn to be in an ideal place like Hogwarts??!!! As long as that sense to be a part of an ideal world lives on...Harry Potter will live on.

You may all know the books off by-heart.But do go and watch the movie....it is a fitting end to a legacy.And don't be surprised if you see a young mother egging Molly Weasley on as she fights Bellatrix Lestrange!!