Yet another weekend comes
Yet another weekend is about to be squandered doing nothing ...
But this time, I managed to watch a movie, the much awaited 'da vinci code'. Was quite disappointed when the controversies surrounding it managed to postpone the release of the movie by about a week. But this weekend, I managed to watch it - adding to the list of very few Hollywood movies I have seen. Having read the book, I was more excited to see the movie, and with Tom Hanks, The excitement was even more. So there I was, seated at a not-so-good-yet-expensive multiplex.
I am making an assumption that most of the people who are watching the movie would have read the book. I may be wrong. Maybe, many of us old be tempted to believe the 'facts(???)' stated in the movie(in fact the book), we usually love what is spicy, especially if it is said with such conviction as in the book, where the demarcation between the 'fact' and 'fiction' are not exactly distinguishable. Dan Brown says that the facts of Christianity ia the biggest cover-up operation. Maybe, he is true. Maybe, the 'facts' in the book are one of the biggest lies in terms of magnitude and extent of impact it may have. History is written by victors. Maybe the church doctored the history to project an extraordinary 'human' named Jesus Christ as the son of God. Maybe, the extraordinarily researched novel with all its meticulous insights and 'facts' deviates from what is the 'truth'. Still, one may be tempted to believe much of what is written in the novel. Anyway, the book is a bestseller, and the religion may still remain an enigma. And a movie based on such a book seemed inevitable, and with Tom Hanks it seems a sureshot blockbuster ! Whether it is or it is not ... only time will tell.
One thing was clear after seeing (or while seeing) the movie. That it is not as gripping, not even close to being so as the novel. Tom Hanks was clearly not at his best. In fact very few characters managed to impress. And for the people who haven't read the book, may find it difficult to understand many a things. The 'facts' presented were OK, but the thrills and action sequences were far from impressive, and had a long way to go before being believable (though this is the case with many movies).
With the movie not so gripping, some crazy thoughts were coming incessantly in my mind. Like, if someone did a 'probability analysis' (don't think there is any such term). How minimal was the probability that Robert Langdon will crack all the codes. There are infinite ifs and buts in this case. Firstly the curator left so many symbols, and Robert Langdon was in the same city at that time. What if no anagrams had been thought of, or they might bave missed a single anagram. Or if they had taken some tim more to crack an anagram ... maybe they would have been caught. What if Teabing was't residing near that place.What if the bullet hadn't stuck while closing the door, when the banker was about to run away with the secret? What if their plane had landed a couple of minutes later? And in the sequence of cracking so many codes, they had missed even single link ?How minimal wa the chance of cracking the code! Anyway, possibilities in the 'if' case are plenty.
Another passing thought ... The disclaimer said that all references to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. Again the probability comes into play. Was the name Jesus Christ or Sir Issac Newton or Leonardo da Vinci which were mentioned in reference to the story merely coincidental?
And, what if they attempting remaking it in Hindi, or making something similar (as they do so often by blatantly copying Hollywood flicks in Bollywood); maybe our very own Mithun da could be the lead actor (though it is unfair to compare him and Tom Hanks ... but the fight sequence in the movie brought that name to my mind), and the movie name could be somewhat like "Birbal ka Bhed" (the secret of Birbal !!!) ... who knows?? The Da vinci code was somewhat disappointing (though it had some good moments), the latter may be a complete farce !!
Yet another weekend is about to be squandered doing nothing ...
But this time, I managed to watch a movie, the much awaited 'da vinci code'. Was quite disappointed when the controversies surrounding it managed to postpone the release of the movie by about a week. But this weekend, I managed to watch it - adding to the list of very few Hollywood movies I have seen. Having read the book, I was more excited to see the movie, and with Tom Hanks, The excitement was even more. So there I was, seated at a not-so-good-yet-expensive multiplex.
I am making an assumption that most of the people who are watching the movie would have read the book. I may be wrong. Maybe, many of us old be tempted to believe the 'facts(???)' stated in the movie(in fact the book), we usually love what is spicy, especially if it is said with such conviction as in the book, where the demarcation between the 'fact' and 'fiction' are not exactly distinguishable. Dan Brown says that the facts of Christianity ia the biggest cover-up operation. Maybe, he is true. Maybe, the 'facts' in the book are one of the biggest lies in terms of magnitude and extent of impact it may have. History is written by victors. Maybe the church doctored the history to project an extraordinary 'human' named Jesus Christ as the son of God. Maybe, the extraordinarily researched novel with all its meticulous insights and 'facts' deviates from what is the 'truth'. Still, one may be tempted to believe much of what is written in the novel. Anyway, the book is a bestseller, and the religion may still remain an enigma. And a movie based on such a book seemed inevitable, and with Tom Hanks it seems a sureshot blockbuster ! Whether it is or it is not ... only time will tell.
One thing was clear after seeing (or while seeing) the movie. That it is not as gripping, not even close to being so as the novel. Tom Hanks was clearly not at his best. In fact very few characters managed to impress. And for the people who haven't read the book, may find it difficult to understand many a things. The 'facts' presented were OK, but the thrills and action sequences were far from impressive, and had a long way to go before being believable (though this is the case with many movies).
With the movie not so gripping, some crazy thoughts were coming incessantly in my mind. Like, if someone did a 'probability analysis' (don't think there is any such term). How minimal was the probability that Robert Langdon will crack all the codes. There are infinite ifs and buts in this case. Firstly the curator left so many symbols, and Robert Langdon was in the same city at that time. What if no anagrams had been thought of, or they might bave missed a single anagram. Or if they had taken some tim more to crack an anagram ... maybe they would have been caught. What if Teabing was't residing near that place.What if the bullet hadn't stuck while closing the door, when the banker was about to run away with the secret? What if their plane had landed a couple of minutes later? And in the sequence of cracking so many codes, they had missed even single link ?How minimal wa the chance of cracking the code! Anyway, possibilities in the 'if' case are plenty.
Another passing thought ... The disclaimer said that all references to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. Again the probability comes into play. Was the name Jesus Christ or Sir Issac Newton or Leonardo da Vinci which were mentioned in reference to the story merely coincidental?
And, what if they attempting remaking it in Hindi, or making something similar (as they do so often by blatantly copying Hollywood flicks in Bollywood); maybe our very own Mithun da could be the lead actor (though it is unfair to compare him and Tom Hanks ... but the fight sequence in the movie brought that name to my mind), and the movie name could be somewhat like "Birbal ka Bhed" (the secret of Birbal !!!) ... who knows?? The Da vinci code was somewhat disappointing (though it had some good moments), the latter may be a complete farce !!
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