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Godfather revisited.

‘She’s Hysterical’, Mike Corleone continues ‘she’s hysterical’. Loosening his necktie, he walks away from his wife. ‘don’t ask me about my business’ he responds to her inquiry ‘is it true?’ (that you killed your sister’s husband). Lights his cigarette and bangs heavily with an incredible mental power about him on the table before her. She stands incredulous of the man she once knew, who was now a total stranger to her. ‘no’ don mike Corleone replies, slowly the office door closes on her and the ending credits remind you vainly that it was just a movie. Nobody, not now, not anytime in the future could resist the temptation of noticing the gradual unceremonious accreditation of the young Corleone into the don.

Scathing aggression delivered by men of sublime power ever so pragmatically. ‘Mr. Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news immediately’ Corleones’ family lawyer conferring with one of their clients, opines at the dinner table that ends abruptly. The next shot is that of a bright morning, yellowish leaves tapping the bedroom window, an old man is still asleep and sun is slipping through the blinds. We are shown the view from the roof; under the sheets is something dreadful. The client’s prized possession, his horse is beheaded and the head stuck underneath the sleepy client’s bed sheets. He is drenched in blood. Back to corleones- no celebration, business as usual. The movie affects its viewers like a predator hunting its prey on a wild life sanctuary photographer. The mere pawing of the tiger on the ground or the rolling of its tail high up from that of a drooping one hitherto affects the photographer, he silently admires the beauty of power resting on tiger’s shoulders. The admiration turns into adoration sometime during the process of photographer following the tiger with his clever little gadgets.

Godfather affects its viewers almost instantaneously, the close shots on powerful men makes them very likable. ‘What have I done to you that you treat me so disrespectfully?’ prompts the don. Wooden but trustful; man of power, also a man of his word, the older Don Corleone on screen patronises every casual viewer who watches movies for entertainment. Godfather is powerful-background score ominous; incongruous family fun, festivals, celebrations. ‘A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man’ prophesies the old don to his son mike’. But the advice, viewers realise, is a bit too late into the movie, for mike is running the family business by now. The old don’s pragmatic dealing is mesmerizing. I wonder if it was the adaptation of the novel onto celluloid that made the characters so memorable.

Opulent halls, beautiful women dressed in gorgeous white and pink frocks, immaculately dressed men, lovers, traitors, middlemen, mercenaries. The movie has everything. Revenge, rhetoric, bullies, tragedies, travesties and torturous revelations of truth; It is so gratifying to watch godfather again. Now that I have tasted it, I am going to have to watch the other movies that godfather spawned directly or indirectly. Perhaps Scarface!

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