In April 2004, a very dear person sent me a copy of the then bestseller in India - Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code as a birthday gift. I read it and became an instant fan of Dan Brown’s way of story telling and his depth of research on the subject.
Years passed and I saw the movie version starring Tom Hanks and French young lady Audrey Toutou. Frankly I was disappointed as it does happen when you read the novel and then see its movie version. I felt that Tom Hanks, though a brilliant actor, was not the right choice for the film. I would have liked to see Harrison as the Professor. Toutou was average- both in acting as well as her looks.
Now in 2014, I heard a few days back that Dan Brown would be visiting India and making a presentation, I was thrilled. Last week, I saw the event on the TV.
Well I was disappointed when he used the well worn out and over used cliché’ “I feel like I’ve come home”! He instantly fell quite a few notches in my estimation. His assertion that 'science and religion were partners' too was nothing very original. I know that at times when the expectations are very high, we get unfairly disappointed. But his performance was just so very ordinary. Bringing out his parents’ licence plates along to prove it: his mother’s spelt out “Kyrie”, Greek for Lord and his father’s said “Metric” or his first ‘book’, were all too contrived.
And too watch one of my favourite authors read from a prepared text was something I was not prepared for. I suspect that the text from which he spoke (read out at times)was not written by him, as I believe he just can not write that badly.
Sadly my take is that not all good writers and reserchers are good speakers.
And now what?
I will have to read ‘Inferno’ to give Dan Brown the writer, another chance.
