Express News Service
“Great men are not born great, they grow great.” This is one amongst many, many fashionable quotes from The Godfather. It’s a line that may be mentioned about movies too. The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and primarily based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the identical title, was launched on March 14, 1972, and now, 50 years later, it continues to develop nice. Look at how this movie continues to encourage era after era of filmmakers the world over, who’ve provide you with completely different iterations of the unique. If ever there was a movie worthy of the ‘classic’ tag, this right here is it. Here are modern filmmakers talking on why this 50-year-old movie endures and continues to gasoline cinema the world over.
For Abhinav Sunder Nayak, the editor of movies like Uriyadi and director of the upcoming movie Mukundan Unni Associates, lastly getting to look at The Godfather on the massive display screen would be the realisation of a childhood dream. “I first noticed The Godfather within the early 2000s. My dad, an enormous fan of the primary two movies, who had seen it at Kozhikode’s Crown Cinema upon its launch, saved saying that these movies needs to be skilled on the massive display screen.
When we purchased a DVD participant for the primary time, this was among the many first movies we watched. And but, I may see that the CRT monitor didn’t fairly do justice. It even received me questioning what the massive cope with this movie was.” In reality, Abhinav went on to name the movie ‘overrated’. “I watched it again after years, out of sheer curiosity, and this time, I was stunned. I found it to be an extraordinary piece of cinema. With maturity and more knowledge about filmmaking, my appreciation had grown. I later rewatched The Godfather on a Blu-ray of the remastered version. I have since seen this film at least 10 times by now. I am stoked about seeing the latest 4K Remastered version.”
Rocky director Arun Matheswaran wasn’t conscious of the re-release after we reached out to him. “I am definitely going to catch it!” he started. “The Godfather is the bible for gangster cinema. It has inspired so many stories and films including my own film, Rocky. The introduction of Mani Maran (Bharathiraja) in my debut film is inspired by the first scene of The Godfather, where a grieving father pleads to avenge the wrong done to his daughter.” Arun says he realized the artwork of framing from this movie. “Notice Kay Adams (Diane Keaton), Michael Corleone’s wife, in the last shot of the film. As Michale becomes the don and men kiss his hand, Kay is outside trying to take a peek into their world. She stays an outsider. The film also serves as a character study—be it Vito Corleone or the impulsive first son… It’s an extraordinary lesson.”
For Malayalam filmmaker and screenwriter Salil V, the re-release is an important day as that is the primary time he will likely be seeing the movie! “I have read the book, of course, but not seen the film despite having the DVD with me. The novel is fantastic and I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing this supposed marvel of filmmaking on a huge screen for the first time. I hope that the theatres bring out the sequels too soon.”
For Telugu filmmaker Sudhir Varma, the director of movies like Ranarangam and Dohchay, even getting the possibility to talk about The Godfather for its fiftieth anniversary is an honour. The Swamy Ra Ra director is vocal about how he will get impressed by classics: “There are numerous remakes and inspirations of The Godfather-like Nayakan and the Sarkar series. My own film, Ranarangam, is part of this list. The visuals of The Godfather engrossed me the first time. There isn’t a single frame that’s boring. It was a visual spectacle made in the 70s without modern tech, and I daresay, no film has or will match it ever. Also, while numerous films get adapted from books, they usually don’t live up to the original work. I have read the book, and I think the film has outdone the novel.”
Echoing Sudhir Varma, Anjum Rajabali, screenwriter of Raajneeti, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Toofan, says, “There are few instances where the film is equal to, if not better, than the book, and that is the case with Coppola’s The Godfather. I’ve taught the film as a pristine example of adaptation and structuring. The book, a sprawling epic, establishes a lot about Vito Corleone’s childhood, his relationships, his psychology and all of that. Whereas in the film, his son Michael is the protagonist. And as Michael grows in power, parallelly his moral decline begins. His paranoia and isolation increase, breaching the family values his father held dear. This is captured beautifully in the holy-profane juxtaposition in the baptism sequence. Michael is a classic archetype that goes back to Arjun in the Mahabharata. Structurally, too, the film is masterful. All these factors make the movie such a fine cinematic as well as a literary achievement.”
The Godfather will be caught in restricted PVR theatres this weekend.
(With inputs from Sajin Shrijith and Shilajit Mitra)