Dear Kittya,
How lovely to hear from you after so long! And thank you so very much for your comments about my take on Harry Potter. Let me guess who the 'other' favourite author of yours is, Tolkien?
As for what you have said about the need to create a recognisable world with characters one can identify with, I agree with you totally, except that it is very rare to find anything of the kind on TV. The only one I can think of in recent times was Yashraj TV's
Powder, telecast for 6 months from Jan-Jun 2010, in 26 one hour episodes, one a week. It was about the global narcotics trade, whence the name. As I know a good bit about the official agencies working to curb the drug trade in India and elsewhere, I was thrilled by the authenticity of the screenplay and the direction, and the excellent casting. Perhaps predictably, it did not do well in terms of the TRPs, in part because Sony did not promote and handle it well, and after a few more attempts, including a very good adaptation of
Kane and Abel as a daily, again for 6 months, called
Kismat, Yashraj gave up on TV, more is the pity. So we are left to the tender mercies of Balaji and the rest.
Let me wish you a healthy, peaceful and fulfilling 2013. Take care.
Shyamala
Originally posted by: Kittya_Cullen
That has to be one of the best summaries I've read of Harry Potter in a long time. Funny how you've mentioned another one of my favourite authors as well😆. If only more writers today, including screenplay writers, would spend time concentrating on the details in their stories, and the world that they are attempting to create. One should be able to live and see everything through the eyes of the character with a relative amount of ease. What appears illogical is always closed at some point in the story and unanswered questions remain tastefully unanswered.
Originally posted by: sashashyam
Dear Strega,
Ah, a fellow Harry Potter aficionada! 🤗🤗
To my mind. JK Rowling's success was not only in creating a splendidly detailed and internally consistent alternative world, but in still keeping it recognisable, like a sort of combination of Enid Blyton and JRR Tolkien. Plus the core values were very simple: friendship, loyalty, compassion even to the likes of Draco Malfoy (remember when Harry saves him from the Fyiend Fire that one of his cohorts unleashes by mistake?), and above all and again, consistency. We the readers are never worried that Hermione and Ron will suddenly start undermining Harry, no matter how crabby and unreasonable he is at times.
Then, as a sort of crowning glory, the ultimate embodiment of a truly Pavitra Rishta, that of Severus Snape with the woman he loves beyond her death, and I am sure his as well. I never forget the scene between him and Dumbledore, in chapter 33 of the Deathly Hallows, when Snape releases his own Patronum, the silver doe, which is the same as Lily's. When Dumbledore asks "After all these years?", Snape replies "Always." Can any other love match his?
As for PR, it is a joke, and a bad one that is getting worse all the time. There, that should be enough to keep me from being warned for going 100% off topic!😉
Shyamala
PS: What is your name, my dear, unless you would rather keep it confidential?.
Anupamaa
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