Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is short, racy and predictable

I got up early this Sunday morning all excited. It did not take me long to get ready and charge in the shortest time possible. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was releasing today. And for the first time I’m in a place where I can actually buy it on the day of its release, a dream I had and never realised until today.

So I paid Rs 900 and bought the book at 11.38 a.m. today. After causal chit chat and lunch, I was home. At 2 p.m. I started reading the book and did not dare take my eyes off from my hard bound until it was 5.30 p.m. when I was done.I don’t know what you call it, when you are at the end of a book and did not want it to end. As I turned every page, I hoped pages would increase. But of course it did not. It moved on, pretty fast, almost nostalgic with grown up Harry and all that.

Harry is the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, as you know married to Ginny, and has three kids – James, Albus Severus and Lily, with her. Hermione Granger is the Minster for Magic and has two kids – Rose and Hugo, with Ron Weasely. Draco Malfoy has a son, Scorpius who is lovable surprisingly and for me he was the real hero who moved the story along.

As the reports said the book is about Harry Potter and his second son Albus and how they confront the dark past that wouldn’t let them go. But plot per say is nothing new. You know how the story is going to flow and how it is going to end. But then again it was written for a play and though the story was detailed it was not very deep. 

It is a very fast read, took barely four hours to finish 300 odd pages. But it satisfies your curiosity about how your favourite characters have grown into. It might be a 40-year-old Harry who is still struggling with the dark past but trying his best he could to be a great dad. It could be Ron, as funny and lame as he could possibly be or Hermione as bossy and clever, as in the past. You even get to see Dumbledore in the photo frame.

It gives you a glimpse of everyone’s life and what they made themselves of after the Battle of Hogwarts. Something we all wanted to see for ourselves. I loved what they have become.

But at the end of it, when all ends well you just can help asking for more. What to say, we potter fans are greedy. 

To Harry, With Love

To Harry,

Harry Potter and I go way back. I met him when I was in Class 6 separated just by a television screen. He was short, rather docile, and bespectacled with hair that looked like it needed a trim. He looked ordinary. I was fascinated and I did not know why. It started then, my affair with a wizard on the magical ground of Hogwarts.

I loved him like only a 9- year- old could - innocent and oblivious but happy to just look at his face. It was a very nice face. If you had asked me if it was Daniel Radcliffe, the actor, or the character Harry I liked, I wouldn’t know. For me, Daniel was Harry.

As I grew older, the way I began to look at him changed. It was that of an adolescent, who is just beginning to understand and differentiate between a girl and a boy. I found him attractive. I had started to read earlier installments of books by then. I began to understand Harry, his quirks. I began to like him for his flaws, and they were many.

I was in Class 11, when fourth installment of the book, ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire’ was made into a movie. The book featured a ball, where Harry mustered his courage to ask his crush Cho Chang for a dance. He was rejected of course. They were looking for Asians who would play the role of Parvathi Patil, his date for the dance and Cho Chang, his first love, in the book. I was split between which roles to play; regardless that there is no way I was going to be cast. It was a worry of a teenage girl at the clasp of love. My friends bore the brunt as I ranted non-stop until the casting was over. I did not stop brooding for a long time.

A year later, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was released. I forced my dad to get the book for me as my birthday gift. He did not refuse. I was in Class 12. Reading it was absolutely forbidden, for I had my final exams that would determine my future. But how can I not.

Back then, I would rather learn curses than do mathematics. I wanted to brew potions than do titration experiments in chemistry. I wanted to tame wild beasts and dragons than dissect cockroaches and frogs. I wanted to fly on a broom more than learn about rockets and its fuel efficiency.

Such was youth that keeps redefining the boundary for stupidity. As always stupidity wins and I finished the sixth book first before my subjects and of course it reflected on my final year scores. But I do not regret it.

I was stupid yes but you are allowed to be one when you are young. Adults have way too many consequences to face. I was stupid and happy just immersing myself in my fantasy with Harry and I’m happy I did so.

For, when I look back now I could laugh at myself and tell myself that I have grown and come a long way. I’m no longer a giddy adolescent I was back then. Nothing excites me as much. Precisely for those reasons, I cherish those times when I pretended to study when I was actually reading the book. I know now that these are the feelings that could only be felt then. Thank you Harry for those memories.

For me, Harry is one of the very few links to my past that connects all of me right from Class 6 till the time I was a Sophomore in college. While other links are either forgotten or faded away with time, Harry continues to remain through my fragmented memories and tattered books.

As Harry turns a year older tomorrow, all those memories come rushing and teleport me to early 2000s where I see a giggling, blushing girl in pigtails I hardly recognise now. It is a sense of nostalgia one feels when you go back to your roots. It is the same for me.

Now as someone inching towards her thirties, I still see the bespectacled boy with hair that looked like it needed a trim, but in a man’s frame and think, you have grown up to be a good man Harry. So have I.

With love, Swathi.

Kabali da – Rajini prevails…

Kabali, the overhyped ‘thalaivar’ movie we were all looking forward to and going great lengths to get first day tickets. Most of us were disappointed for we couldn’t manage to get our hands on tickets even if we were willing to pay Rs 700 at Kasi Theatre.

As July 22nd dawned with a note of disappointment, came the reviews that rated the movie from worst to average, blaming the director who couldn’t do justice to Rajini’s image and the aging star for losing his yesteryear charm. But when I finally got to watch the movie this Sunday, I realised reviews couldn’t be more wrong.

Rajini’s introduction more or less justified his larger than life presence, donning a grey suit and salt pepper hair, his style and charisma intact. The movie takes off like a regular Rajini flick but soon moves on a different tangent devoid of punch lines and duets with younger heroines, one not usually associated with a typical Rajini movie. That’s exactly what I liked about it. Rajini’s role on screen matched who he was, an aging star, but a star nevertheless commanding respect. 

Here, we got to see the vulnerable side of our favourite hero who loves his wife Kumudavalli and misses her deeply. You know at that moment he meets her again, he feels alive again. It was as if those decades they did not see each other disappeared. The film captured those tender moments between Kabali and Kumudavalli, that was nothing more than meeting of the eyes, so beautifully. The romance though not the main theme, was fulfilling and powerful. 

You would be a little disappointed if you were expecting the likes of Baasha or Padayapa. Could it have been taken in a better way or project Rajini in a better light? Probably. Could the movie have a better villain? May be. 
Yes, it is not a usual Rajini flick, but it is not the same Rajini either who can sing and romance like a 30-year-old when he is 60.  

But you could still immerse yourself in the movie, whistle as he makes his moves and clap as he prevails over his enemies.

For all those who comment how the bad movie is and the actor is senile, after all these years he is one of the very few stars who can still charm and draw people like no other. And it is this Rajinikanth that we love and will continue to.