In the movie 'Munich', the first target of Eric Bana's crack unit, about 30 minutes before he was assassinated, was addressing a small audience about the power of the narrative. It was an address about his own book - a translation of the 1001 Arabian Nights into Italian - but he was explaining why Scheherezade succeeding in keeping the Emperor captivated with her stories. It was simply because of the power of the narrative.
Now I dont have the expertise to decipher the power of the narrative, but to add my two cents on this, I have to comment on the movies that made it to the Oscars this year. Most of them, apart from Avatar, I thought, had powerful storylines. Avatar turned out to be a big bore, a typical Hollywood melodrama that we've already seen in varying degrees and versions in many other flicks.
The good flicks, with good storylines, include Crazy Heart, An Education, the Sandra Bullock film (forget the name now and am too lazy to google it), and Precious. Even The Hurt Locker.
Back home in Bollywood, I liked the Ishqiya narrative. The movie itself may not be on par with Vishal Bharadwaj's other classics like Maqbool and Omkara, but it did have a good storyline. What makes it even more likeable is the fact that Maqbool and Omkara were adaptations of Macbeth and Othello respectively. This story, I think, was an original from Bharadwaj's stable.
Man, even as I think of these movies, I'm wondering, these are the kinds of stories I would like to write!
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