The Magic of Harry Potter Harry Potter has enchanted readers from all over the world since 1997. Films based on these books are some of the most popular films in recent years. Harry Potter fans, young and old, eagerly await each new film release. As a medium, cinema is younger than literature. It often feeds on literature. Cinema’s 100-odd years of history shows many literary adaptations. Not all popular books adapted to film enjoy Harry Potter’s popularity, though. It is therefore instructive to see why the Harry Potter films are so popular. Hollywood has long regarded cinema as a business enterprise with an aim to create profits. The American film industry has developed certain formulae about film-making that maximize profits. A typical Hollywood film starts with something exciting, so that viewers remain glued to their seats. This is followed by something exciting every now and then – say every fifteen minutes – to end with a big climax, more exciting than anything earlier. You will find that Harry Potter films follow this rule of many mini-climaxes ending with a big bang. Another Hollywood rule: there should be two sides fighting each other – a good side (with a hero) and an evil side (with a villain). In this case, Harry Potter is the hero, and Voldemort the villain. Harry’s friends and some teachers from the magic school Hogwarts fight on his side. Death Eaters and others fight on Voldemort’s side. This good-evil fight and constant, exciting mini-climaxes leave little room for complexity. The audiences easily identify themselves with the good side. Sometimes a bad character is revealed as a good one, or vice versa. For example, Sirius Black seems evil, but turns out to be good. This adds to the excitement, since you expect something to happen, but a surprising turn of events reveals something else. Hollywood films want audiences to relate to characters’ emotions. The Harry Potter films basically show boarding-school life. Each film starts with a term beginning at Hogwarts and shows events during it. Rivalries between houses, friendships and enmities between children are a part of this world. Some teachers are stern, some affectionate and popular with children, some are merely incompetent or comic. This reminds us of our school days and makes us identify with the film. Since cinema is a visual medium, characters’ looks become important. Harry Potter looks like a scholar with glasses – not the kind you imagine fighting demons. This is similar to other superheroes like Superman – they look like ordinary people, but have supernatural powers. Compare this with Harry’s rival student Draco Malfoy, who looks handsome. We love this, because it suggests that ordinary-looking people can be heroes. The films show Harry becoming mature enough to fight Voldemort. This fulfils our fantasies of succeeding in the grown-up world. Sometimes Harry is misunderstood by others, which makes us empathize with him. Harry and friends also display another appealing quality – they sometimes break school’s rigid rules instead of blindly obeying elders!
Parents like Harry Potter, too, perhaps because of the moral lessons in the stories. An important lesson is Professor Dumbledore’s advice to Harry – not the abilities we are born with, but the choices we make decide who we become. It means that Harry becomes a hero by making the right choices, but Voldemort makes bad choices, making him a villain. Are things as simple as that, really? From the beginning, we are told that Harry is special – because he survived Voldemort’s attack as a child, because he can speak to animals, and so on. No other wizard can kill Voldemort. The films then seem to contradict themselves in their message, because everyone cannot be a hero like Harry. There is another moral message in the rivalry between Harry and Draco Malfoy. Draco and his father believe in racial purity of wizards. They think that only people born in families of long wizard heritage should become wizards. They ridicule Harry’s friend Hermione as a mud-blood, because her parents are not wizards. This makes the Malfoys evil. Harry and his friends do not believe in this theory. They think that anyone can be a wizard, regardless of parentage. The lesson here is that abilities and hard work matter more than purity of blood. Is this really how it seems? The story happens in today’s England. Since cinema shows everything, it is obvious that all the important characters (good and evil) are white-skinned. Today, almost 10% of England’s population is non-white. People from the Indian subcontinent are in all professions. As if to reflect that, there are some non-white students in Hogwarts, but in unimportant roles. They do nothing in the main action. Is this not racist and, therefore, contradictory to the film’s message? Harry Potter’s popularity in India seems to ignore such things. Is it because we don’t mind discrimination, or is it because we are used to watching films without thinking? There are many other films about children that do not follow the “good versus evil” formula. From Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” to the recent Marathi film “Shwaas”, there are many such Indian films with small budgets and without expensive special effects. Iranian films like “Where is my friend’s home?” by Abbas Kiarostami or “Father” by Majid Majidi are examples of such films from abroad. Without an evil Voldemort and a boy superhero, these films still have an emotional appeal and are enjoyable. They also make you think. Will such films ever become as popular as Harry Potter?