Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts(Amazon Prime)
Rating: ****
2021 was a game-changing year for feature-length documentaries, with Procession(on sexual abuse), Velvet Underground(on the legendary rock band), Peter Jackson’s sprawling 8-hour marathon The Beatles Get Back and In The Same Breath(on the persistence of the Pandemic) competed with the biggest of feature-films for eyeballs.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is not just a documentary on 20 years of the Harry Potter franchise. It is a chronicle of three lives, three very special individuals and their transition from childhood to maturity while these eight epoch-defining films were made.
The Harry Potter franchise passed through the hands of three directors: Chris Columbus, Mike Newell and David Yates. But the core cast remained the same. Daniel Radcliffe , Rupert Grint and Emma Watson were 10 years old when they did the first Harry Potter movie , little knowing that the next 10 years of their lives will be completely consumed by the eight Harry Potter films that were shot over the next decade.
This is a unique circumstance whereby three principal members of the cast literally grew with the Franchise. Their reunion in this stupendous documentary is historic , and deeply moving. One can see the deep and indelible bonding among them, although we also get the feeling that they haven’t met much after the Potter films were over.
One of the three directors describes Emma Watson as the most intelligent person on the Harry Potter set. She does come across as wise beyond her years and the two men in her life seem hopelessly smitten though not in any romantic/sexual way.
This is an outstanding docu-talkathon about a film franchise that beat all other film series including James Bond in terms of reach and popularity. The documentary doesn’t let us forget the gravity of this reunion. At the same the atmosphere is constantly light continually convivial, as the other distinguished members of the cast speak feelingly on what it was like to be a family beyond the normal definitions.
The 2-hour documentary is replete with flashes of humour and nostalgia: director Mike Newell wrestling on the floor with one of the kids, and breaking his ribs in the process.A custom-made coffin for Emma Watson’s pet hamster Millie….by the time the three youngsters came to Harry Potter & The Order Of Phoenix they were global superstars with lots of hormones flying around.
The sexual energy of a tribe emasculated by an ingenuous fantasy that gripped their lives is never the focus of attention here. What is highlighted in this deftly edited smartly packaged mix of nostalgia and wistful longing for a lost childhood, is a sense of inevitability surrounding the experience. Harry Potter was a global cultural experience destined to happen. Those who were caught in the act were blessed and cursed at the same time.
