Under the cursed child’s spell

As the world prepares for the release of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Mumbai finds itself swept up in the Pottermania once again.

“Things have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect,” said Luna Lovegood, Harry Potter’s quirky friend who first made an appearance in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. Her prophecy is about to come true soon in the Muggle-sphere where the eighth part of the series Harry Potter And The Cursed Child is about to hit the shelves. The book, which is due to come out on J.K. Rowling’s birthday on July 31, has become the most pre-ordered book of the series. However, it has not been penned by her alone. The two-part stage play is a collaboration between Rowling, English theatre director, John Tiffany and playwright, Jack Thorne. It picks up from after the epilogue of the last book and follows Harry, now a Ministry of Magic employee and his youngest son Albus Severus Potter.

As the release date is drawing near, the Pottermania is getting more intense. Book clubs, book stores and culture hubs have lined up a slew of Potter-themed events leading up to the release. “I am very excited about celebrating this event because I am a huge fan myself,” says Books On Toast’s Ayuna, who is organising a Potter-night at The Hive on July 28, where there’ll be a game of Quidditch pong, which is similar to beer pong but with Quidditch rules. The night will also include a treasure hunt for Lord Voldemort’s seven horcruxes and a Potter quiz. “Pinterest was our Marauder’s Map — we got a lot of ideas from there,” admits Anuya. “The moment you say that you are organising something that is Harry Potter-themed, you’re bound draw huge crowds of fans. We are fully booked with nearly 300 participants,” she adds. There will also be Potter food cooked by Tarika Singh. On offer will be ‘Sorting Hat Cupcakes’, ‘Butterbeer’, ‘Dementor’s Maggi’ to name a few items.

A sock puppet show is being organised by Ashwin Choithramani and Raihaan Attawala. “This will be our first show and kids can join in too. It’s a spoof play where we have borrowed instances from the books and turned them around to make them funny,” says Ashwin who will showcase it at The Hive. “We will be modulating our voices to sound like the characters and also design the sock puppets accordingly. We were a bit scared about copyrights but since Vox Pop, which has the official rights to distribute to Harry Potter merchandise is a partner, we were able put it all together,” he adds.

Those who fancied writing to Rowling or one of the Harry Potter characters, can well realise their dream at Trilogy where The Eternal Library is organising a letter-writing session. On July 31, fans will get to pen letters to the author and the characters, which the organisers will later mail to the concerned recipients — not by the owl post, one hopes. Speaking of it, co-owner of Trilogy, Meethil Momaya, says, “We have been able to obtain Rowling’s publicist’s contact details and will be sending them through her.”

They will also be hosting games and a photo booth. “We wanted to host around 100 people but we’ve had more than 500 people wanting to register. We finally had to settle for around 140 before closing registrations,” he adds.

Adding to the craze are book clubs too. Telling us more about it is Sanaya Fernandez, who heads a group of bibliophiles called T.A.R.{who}.D.I.S. “We reread the books and posted some quotes out of context on Twitter. The result was quite funny, since many came up with innuendoes and tongue-in-cheek statements.” They are also having a magic themed meet on the day of release. “We’re hoping that we will be able to get the book in time, to read it at the meet,” adds Sanaya. It is not just the bibliophiles. Scootsey, a pan-city delivery platform, has started a special service to deliver the book to fans’ doorsteps. Fans, say “accio”.

Even as the spell continues, there is also some amount of trepidation among fans about the book itself, considering it is not exactly Rowling’s work. Meghamrita Chakraborty, 24-year-old research scholar and Pottermaniac says, “It’s a nostalgic series for me since I more or less grew up alongside Harry. And yes, I’m a bit worried that it’s not solely written by Rowling. Also, when I read Harry Potter as a kid, there was this craze. Even though I am very interested in this book, I don’t know if it will bring back that old feeling.” Anuya of Books echoes the sentiment. “I think that the story is already over, so stretching it may have negative effects. I’ll probably read it out of sheer curiosity, though,” she says.

Author Anuja Chauhan, on the other hand, is optimistic and has even pre-ordered her copy. “Rowling is one of the writers of the book and even though it’s a scripted version, it’s still legit. I’m always worried about the movies being authentic. I’ve read all the Potter books as well as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them but I have not watched any of the movies, after the first two. I don’t have any worries about this book. I trust Rowling to do a good job of it. She usually comes up with something that’s better than whatever theories you come up with. So I’m looking forward to being surprised.”