Harry Potter and Murder of the Story

Why does Dumbledore have to die? Why does Snape have to turn good? Why does Hermione pick Ron over Harry? Why does the story end in the seventh part when there could be much more to write and so many readers just dying to gobble up more.. And many more questions were asked during and after the end of the Harry Potter book series. Little did the inquisitive fans know that even more will be left unanswered by the movies that would follow.

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince was again one of the disappointing movies which was highly anticipated and went down the surge faster than a rock to the ocean floor.

Agreed and accepted that compressing a 600-1000 pager into a three-hour movie is a tough task and being loyal to the extent of fidelity is difficult. Agreed that some modifications are at times essential for the on screen success and no one knows this better than the director himself. But what's with the brutal murder of the story itself. It's like selling the soul of the story for getting a better box office collection. And to what avail? Disappointed fans, hard-hitting critic reviews and a totally dismal way of presenting something that was probably no way intended by the author. There is no point discussing where and at what points the story of the movie goes away from that of the book because those follies and flaws are glaring for ardent fans and available dime-a-dozen to others.

The point is, why at all, in the process of making the story of a book silver-screen-friendly do the film makers at times grow unfaithful of the original plot of the book. To say the least, there is gross violation of the storyline at many points. May it be a science-fiction-cum-drama by Dan Brown, a thriller series-made-to-movie by Robert Ludlum or our-very-loved- Rowling's Harry, the screen conversion has always been an arm's length away from the book. Much has been written, said and blogged about it. Still, it continues to be a trend.

Of course there have been authors who have also been in the business of writing screenplays directly for movies and the small screen. A few well known examples are Sydney Sheldon's creation "I dream of Jeanie" which went on to be one of the most popular television shows. Also a lesser known fact about Mario Puzo who did the same for earlier versions of Superman. So how do you expect they'd react in case of a creation of theirs badly mutilated to be shifted to the silver screen? Maybe it's far too late for these questions at least for the two mentioned stalwarts.

Let's at least hope for the best for the authors who are yet alive and kicking and expect that the further incarnations of books-turned-movies be a shade more loyal to the originals.
Hopefully, the future shall be bright. And closer to facts rather than a shoddy representation to mint the box office..