[ '' WICKED '' ] BRIGHT WICKEDLY : FILM HONOURS

WICKED shines with its musical numbers and the powerhouse performance of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

Wicked is an adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation. Frank L. Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was adapted into Victor Fleming’s immortal 1939 golden age musical The Wizard of Oz, which eventually led to the revisionist series of Wicked novels by Gregory Maguire, which led to the stage musical by Stephen Schwartz (film viewers know him better from Disney’s Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted and DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt).

Given the little exposure I had of the last two entries, and the general air of the trailer, I wasn't too keen about the quality of storytelling in the two-parter [ yes, you read that right : there will be another Wicked film next year ].

I am not saying that my inclinations were wrong. Yet they were not as right as I thought them to be.

This film, by writers Winnie Holzman [ Roadies, My So-Called Life] and Dana Fox [ Cuella, The Lost City ], is directed by John M Chu, with a visual flair that, at times, makes the film seem like a big, brightly-lit television commercial.

Chu, whose directorial credits include romance-musicals Step Up 2 : The Streets, Step Up 3D, Jem and the Holograms, In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians, and the odd action blockbuster [ G.I. Joe : Retaliation, Now You See Me 2], knows when to let the material shine.

In this case, that would be Schwartz's musical numbers, the lavish production design by Nathan Crowley [ Wonka, The Greatest Showman, Interstellar], and the powerhouse vocal and acting prowess of Cynthia Erivo, who plays the ''evil''  Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba and - I didn't know I'd ever be writing this - Ariana Grande.

'' Evil '' is written with quotation marks, because  Wicked belongs in the company of movies that humanises, empathises with, and celebrates villains eg Maleficent, Cruella.

Like in those movies, the ''evil'' begins from a place of larger societal villainy. Here, elders [ often men ], are bad people, as are the norms of society.

So outcasts, after realising that they have been used by ill-meaning people, rebel and are, in turn, branded as villains by people in power.

The World Students Society thanks Mohammed Kamran Jawaid.