Potter nostalgia served with loads of heart

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts

English (Amazon Prime Video)

Rating: 4/5

Despite my protestations to myself that I have gotten over Potter and even with my current uneasiness about its author, the Harry Potter reunion left me goosebumpy and teary-eyed.

For many Potterheads like me, the 20th anniversary celebration, 'Return to Hogwarts', with most of the original cast members reliving their 10 years of filming the movies, is essentially a peek at our own past selves; it is us marvelling at how we grew up alongside Harry, Ron and Hermione almost in real time, just like the actors too did.

This is burnished nostalgia churned out with loads of heart. It has enough untold stories, warm anecdotes and genuine camaraderie to keep the Potterverse buzzing for long. The three main stars, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, chat sitting in the Gryffindor common room no less. Hands down the most hilarious part of the chat is the giggly and giddy discussion about 'The Kiss'. And oh, Rupert Grint is Ron Weasley. He says so too.

Interspersed are famous lines from the book and interviews with other important actors, like the one with the sensational Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) who showed us all a note that Radcliffe, who was then crushing on her, had written or the emotional Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) who says quietly: "You could be watching Harry Potter in 50 years' time… I will not be here sadly. But Hagrid will."

Unlike what many expected, J K Rowling does pop up a few times — her 2019 interview is threaded in cleverly in a weak attempt to avoid criticism about her exclusion. (Her recent controversies over her opinions about trans people being the unsaid reason for this blackballing).

But as much as the makers try to gloss over it, the absence (or the ghostly presence) of JKR feels like Hogwarts forgot to send an owl to Dumbledore for the year-end feast. But they do end the two-hour love-fest (that barely escapes being labelled maudlin) as they should — with Snape's doe-Patronus taking a majestic sweep over a stunned Dumbledore and the camera zooming in on the incomparable Alan Rickman. "After all this time?" asks Dumbledore even as he knows the answer. "Always".