Sharon Writes

The link between fantasy and Hollywood is absolute. Decade after decade West comes up with more films from the genre to add to their pile of classics. The credit for this lies in their rich heritage of fantasy literature. Authors from different ages have created worlds that are magical, fantastical, and magnificent beyond measure. These worlds have friendly beasts, historical magic schools, fellowships, and even scissorhands. There seems no end, which means it only gets better. The credit for this diverse history of fantasy does not lie in just the hands of literature. In cinematography, the vision is of utmost importance. Not every novel that is a good read turns out to be a good watch, for example, Percy Jackson. The fantasy novel series has been a classic for years, yet when directors tried their luck and converted the books to movies, they failed. So, as a whole, both literature and cinema in the west have worked together to shape the genre of fantasy. Hollywood and its con...

                 When Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them came out in 2016 with Hedwig's Theme to tease all Potterheads, the Harry Potter universe breathed once again. This may sound like an exaggeration, but the Harry Potter universe is like a mafia, once you get in deep, there is no way out, as Daniel Radcliffe himself states. The movie was everything a fantasy-buff would have wished and expected. The thrill of seeing the beasts we only knew from the books by Rowling, the introverted mad genius with his suitcase filled with magical beasts and the unfolding of Grindelwald's life completes the movie perfectly. Now some might not agree with me on this, but FBAWTFT is one of the best movies from Harry Potter and its extended universe. The success of the first installment set precedence for the movies that would follow. However, the wizarding world failed to deliver. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was a disappointment and ...

If you're a movie buff and have watched Indian cinema for quite a few years now, you would have noticed a pattern. This pattern shows a repetition of films, with a few changes here and there. These films have similar plots, similar climaxes, and most of the time they are directed by the same directors. A very simple example of this is Karan Johar and his films released under the Dharma Productions banner. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has blinding similarities with SOTY 1&2 and also Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Most Indian cinema is either Romance, Biographies, and Drama. We do have a few Gangs of Wasseypur-types and nightmarish attempts at Horror, but that's about it. The lack of variety in cinema has made Bollywood predictable. We know that Salman Khan will save the day in the end, we know if its a Rohit Shetty film car-flying will be witnessed. However, when you watch movies like Arrival, Platform, Tumbbad, and most films by Nolan, you'll witness mixed feelings. When Tumbbad ends, ...

It won't be wrong to say that the fantasy genre in India has not been experimented upon, in comparison to other genres like romance, drama, and non-fiction. When I started looking for reasons as to why fantasy did not work as a genre in Indian cinema, my reasons boiled down to one particular line of thought. Around this line of thought developed more reasons linking eventually to the failure of fantasy in Bollywood movies. The old Bollywood Hollywood debate We often compare the cinema of India with that of the west, it would be a disgrace not to say that the cinema created by the west in this genre is less than grand. Hollywood has created fantasy films and TV series for the entire demographic following this genre. From The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter for a younger audience to Game of Thrones and The Witcher for adults, Hollywood offers an array of options for its viewers and it does it well. Indian filmmakers are notoriously lazy Coming back to Bollywood, th...

Bollywood has always been known for cheap-flicks, songs for every emotion the protagonist feels, and senseless action. Indian movie buffs are expected to leave their brains at home whenever they go to the cinema to watch a much-acclaimed blockbuster. It doesn't surprise the audience when movies like Golmal 3, Happy New Year, and more like these enter the 100 cr club, and movies like Tumbbad, Gangs of Wasseypur come and go like an evening breeze. The fact that a film like Tumbbad gained prominence when it was available of Prime Video proves that Indian cinema lovers have grown accustomed to the likes of directors like Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, and Rohit Shetty. The typical love triangle from the 90s, cars in the air, and unrelatable cruise trips is assumed as the content that the masses wish to watch.  The Bollywood vs Hollywood debate For years, the movie analytics and buffs have compared the two cinema giants, Bollywood and Hollywood . The topic of debate has two aspe...

Literature grows with every passing century. There seems to be a boom in one particular genre every century and that century comes to be known for that. The 19th-century literature can be attributed to the vast, detailed, and lauded works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Similarly, the early 20th century came to be known as the ‘Jazz Age’ and the latter as the ‘classical age’ of noir. In the 21st century, there has been an uproar in several genres of literature. In India, authors have started experimenting with genres such as non-fiction, romance, mythology, and drama. As the base of Indian literature is rapidly expanding, the genres Indian authors choose are becoming rather mainstream.  In this piece, we will discuss three different genres writers should focus on in the coming years. Noir In my previous piece, I dedicated the entire article to the lack of noir films in the modern world of cinema. I’m sad to inform you but the state of noir in literature is much...

If you’re hearing the word ‘noir’ for the first time, you are not alone. In the simplest of terms, noir is a style of writing. Whether it is a genre in itself is a topic of debate that is ongoing. Noir essentially comes from the German Expressionist cinematography. Its rise was seen during the Second World War years and came to be known as the ‘Classic Period’ of film-noir in America. Something that was seen commonly across noir cinema was a black-and-white style of visual, hardboiled crime fiction, and an influence of German cinematography. Films like ‘The Big Combo’, ‘Odd Man Out’, ‘The Third Man’ are some classic examples of noir during that age. - The Big Combo (1955) Noir through the ages After noir, which shone through the 1940s and 50s, came ‘neo-noir’. Movies like ‘Chinatown’ ‘Sin City’ ‘Blade Runner and ‘Memento’ fall in this category. The essential difference between noir and neo-noir is that neo-noir adopts the ques from the original noir style but is alte...