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A Prophet


I am glad that I have seen ‘A Prophet’. Since Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘there will be blood’, there hasn’t been a movie as gripping with its deliberate slow pace and as eventual at the climax. ‘Prophet is the god father of prison tales’ I kept telling myself throughout the movie, it was not until the movie was over that it struck me-prophet the shawshank redemption’s doppelganger.

The movie is around 3 hrs long and the delicate schemes that the main protagonist weaves keep the viewers amazed throughout. None of the schemes appear planned, but none are isolated and each one of the little schemes adds to the final revelatory climax. The protagonist himself is an emotionless, guileless imperfect newbie. The scar on his right cheek, long drawn eyebrows make him look like an unfortunate man who has found himself in the midst of nerve shattering egoistic racial environment in the most horrendous of the places. But, his lack of agility, promptness and hesitation make him a tad too serious, trust worthy. However, the situations that he is thrown into by the collective elephantine forces of prison don’t seem to trouble him as much as the viewer expects him to be, this makes it easier on the psyche of the viewer to watch, for the newbie though being troubled is carefree.

None of the plots are truly cataclysmic of the hesitant attitude, none too oppressive, and none too conspicuous. The viewer almost ignores the change, for the protagonist is not truly changing, it is as if the people around him are changing. You almost miss it, and he has changed-become a monster, gangster? No. he never really changes. What really happens is that the transformation is subdued by his frigid character and even the scene where he turns into a epidemic impromptu killer at the end is but a lack of alternatives.

The director has made sure that audience missed the transformation, but to tease the audience of missing something very profound, he left this - the final scene of the movie is an offence to every intelligent viewer. Line of cars on the protagonist’s trail, woman and kid by his side, scene to relish in. and just so, everyone knows it, the boss’s corrosive annoyance is handled in as much a sublime manner as the whole movie, except that you have missed it all and have to watch again, for you had no clue that prophet was the movie you would be remembering as having watched when it was released-not godfather, not shawshank redemption, for I was too young then, but prophet yes. And remember, I will.
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Pushkar Bendre said…
I m seeing this tonight!!!!
February 17, 2010 at 7:53 AM
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