Sunday, May 21, 2006

A Word is mightier than a...

With the Da Vinci code, being the latest in the list of movies that are made out of literary best sellers, I thought, is it ever possible to depict and showcase a literary work so perfectly in a movie. According to me, how much ever one tries to make a visual out of words, it is just impossible to reach hundred percent. Through words one can describe the scene in a much powerful manner than showing the same visually. No matter how well the actor expresses the feel. Right from the God Father, the Harry Potter series, I have always felt that the book is much better than the celluloid. That’s the scope and challenge, a moviemaker gets from such literary works. Be it the use of extensive visual effects and 3D graphics in Harry Potter or the screenplay of God Father, or the gigantic settings in the Lord of the Rings, moviemakers have done it all to bring out the same essence of the book. One good try that is worth mentioning here is the picturization used in ‘Virumaandi’ to show the difference in Viewpoint when two people narrate an occurrence of the past. (Needless to state, I am a huge fan of Kamal Hassan.) But through words, one could have put forth it very easily.
Giving life to words on a paper is not a simple task, and that too showing a 592 page story in lesser than 100 minutes is not a joke. Salutes to Ron Howard. The effort should always be appreciated and I do it. And the biggest advantage with movies is the reach and spread that the creation gets among the public, that is the only sense, in which the silver screen beats the pen and paper hands down.

3 comments:

Bharani said...

Even i felt the same..When movies are made based on books...they usually fail to re-create the same thing....Though i understand there are some practical diff in doing that...it shld not happen the movie shld spoil the stuff.....

Davinci code avlo onnum super-a illanu kelvi pateen...Unmaya??

Magesh G said...

yes. I also read the reviews. Its bad. That too its too shocking that many criticisms are against Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. Donno whether I shud watch the movie or not. But I enjoyed the book a lot. Reading it again now ;-)

Nil said...

"A picture speaks thousand words"; still, movies do/can not portray a book well.
What an irony! I am making a blog out of this comment Maggy - check on my blog!