My tryst with the Code....

Saw Da Vinci code on Saturday….had to go and see it….why?, because I had read the book and enjoyed it immensely (even though I know that many of his premises were based on theory and hearsay, but hell, it was a great story) and I wanted to see what was there in the movie that couldn’t be found in the book and why all of a sudden, there is a danger to the Christian faith from the movie when the book had enjoyed historically unprecedented sales and had remained for more than a year in the top position on Amazon and New York Times bestsellers list…..

From what I saw, I saw the reason why the critics were panning it mercilessly…..after the book, everyone was expecting a lot (too much in my opinion) from the film version (everyone cuz well, everyone has read the book!!!)…..everyone was expecting the same kind of rush that they got from the book and its revelations…..

I maintain, as I have maintained with my friends, that the book is a very difficult one to put on film…..the reason why people around the world got hooked on to it was because of the kind of revelations that were put forward in the book and I am not only talking about Jesus being a family man….the divine ratio, the Viturvian man, the puzzles and the awe inspiring secret societies and high conspiracy resulted in a book that combined the best of thriller formulas that have developed in novel writing…..conspiracy and secret societies and secret, ancient wars going back two millenniums will always evoke interest especially because we know so little of them and such things have an aura of danger and mystery and romance about them…..the author has skillfully woven history with an adventure of a treasure hunt…..

Now the problem with putting the book in a cinematic form has two problems as I see it….

For one…..if one were to try and put every fact that so excited everyone in the book, onto film, the film would become a Discovery Channel documentary (which it looked uncomfortably close to in some scenes)…..and it IS the facts that makes the book alive…..so you cant leave anything out either….

Secondly….there have been so many discussions on the book in the last couple of years (online and offline), and the ‘facts’ in the book have been so much thrashed out and examined in minute details that most people know every thing that is there to know in the book and consequently in the movie…..not only is there constant comparison with the book in every scene (where the movie loses out, as was inevitable) but the element of surprise (what happens next?) that makes or breaks a mystery-adventure movie is gone from the start itself….we all know how its all going to work out….so all that remains is the work of comparison….




So of course, it’s to be expected that people are not going to be kind to the movie…..

There is another cinematic reason, of course, why people have mocked the movie…..poor acting by the main two characters….Tom Hanks is poorly suited for the role (what kind of weird hairdo was that??) and Audrey Tantou looks like a zombie (which suited her admirably in Amelie)…..but I think that there was small scope for real acting for either one of them….. adventure/mystery movies have never relied on acting to get them through….its the adventure and mystery and whodunit that has ensured its success….Indiana Jones movies had no acting, did they? Yet they are cult favourites….

In any case, except the two, the other guys played their role superbly; especially Silas (Paul Bettany)….he was wonderful….

In any case, I think that a non-partisan view can be taken from a person who hasn’t read the book and doesn't know the story…..I had one….

My eldest Masi…..she hasn’t read the book yet and we didn’t tell her the story….and believe me, she enjoyed the movie immensely mainly because of the two reasons….the suspense and the ‘facts’ revealed….and when I thought on the same lines, ie putting myself in the shoes of a person who hasn’t read nor knows the story, I think the movie is good enough, atleast not bad enough to elicit boos and downright horrible reviews…..

But then, Customer is the King…so this movie is going to go down as a movie that was a huge money racker (as everyone is going to go see it atleast ONCE no matter what reviews) but a movie that no one really liked….and some hated passionately….

Would be the first such paradox in movie industry I guess….

Ah well, everything begins sometime:)