At
160
minutes,
Wicked
is
too
long,
and
knowing
the
undercurrents
running
through
the
plot,
the
candyfloss
cheeriness
gets
too
much
after
a
point.
Still,
it
is
a
worthwhile
page-to-stage-to
screen
journey,
observes
Deepa
Gahlot.
Before
movie
franchises
started
creating
their
own
mythology,
L
Frank
Baum
had
done
it
in
1900
with
his
Oz
series
of
books,
the
most
famous
and
most
adapted
being
The
Wonderful
Wizard
Of
Oz.
The
books
were
hugely
popular
and
in
1939,
it
was
filmed
as
the
Wizard
Of
Oz,
with
Judy
Garland
in
the
role
of
Dorothy,
who
travels
from
rural
Kansas
to
the
mythical
Oz.
In
1995,
Gregory
Maguire
wrote
the
novel
Wicked:
The
Life
and
Times
of
The
Wicked
Witch
of
the
West,
making
Baum’s
scary,
green-skinned
witch
the
focus
of
his
novel
and
humanising
her.
This
was
turned
into
a
Broadway
musical,
Wicked,
in
2003,
and
has
been
running
since
then.
The
stage
production
with
music
by
Stephen
Schwartz
and
book
by
Winnie
Holzman,
is
the
basis
of
the
two-part
movie,
directed
by
John
M
Chu.
On
the
surface,
it
is
the
story
about
fitting
in,
about
obsession
with
perfect
beauty,
about
friendship
and
love,
but
it
also
has
some
subversive
political
content
about
the
discrimination
against
minorities,
government
tyranny
and
misuse
of
power.
In
the
Wicked
story,
Elphaba
(Cynthia
Erivo)
—
the
name
uses
L
Frank
Baum’s
initials
—
was
born
with
green
skin,
due
to
her
mother’s
affair
with
a
stranger.
She
was
immediately
shunned
by
her
father,
Governor
Thropp
(Andy
Nyman),
and
tormented
by
other
kids.
She
discovers
her
magical
powers
early
in
life,
like
being
able
to
levitate
stones
with
her
mind
and
flinging
them
at
jeering
boys.
But
she
does
not
know
how
to
control
or
channel
the
emotions
that
bring
on
the
magic.
She
remains
the
friendless
freak
till
she
travels
to
Shiz,
the
school
her
wheelchair-bound
sister
Nessa
(Marissa
Bode
)
is
to
join.
Later
to
become
The
Good
Witch,
Galinda
or
Glinda
(Ariana
Grande),
the
classic,
vain,
blonde,
entitled
beauty,
arrives
at
the
same
time,
in
a
Barbie
parody
of
pink
suitcases,
pink
dresses
and
has
a
pink
suite
allotted
specially
for
her.
The
school’s
sorcery
teacher
Miss
Morrible
(Michelle
Yeoh)
gets
a
demonstration
of
what
Elphaba’s
rage
can
do
—
things
fly
and
crumble
when
she
is
mocked
by
the
students
—
and
insists
on
taking
her
under
her
wing.
Glinda,
who
wants
to
learn
sorcery,
is
scornfully
rejected.
Much
against
her
wishes,
Glinda
is
forced
to
share
a
room
with
Elphaba
and
treats
her
with
utter
contempt.
It
is
not
till
the
arrival
of
the
‘callow
and
shallow’
Prince
Fiyero
(Jonathan
Bailey)
that
things
happen
so
that
Elphaba
and
Glinda
become
friends.
Glinda,
confident
in
her
beauty
and
allure,
sets
her
eye
on
the
prince
right
away.
He
has
already
met
Elphaba
in
the
forest,
and
far
from
being
put
off
by
her
green
skin,
he
is
attracted
to
her
defiant
personality.
Meanwhile,
Elphaba,
who
was
raised
by
a
bear
nanny,
has
discovered
that
in
the
land,
ruled
by
the
supposedly
benevolent
Wizard
(Jeff
Goldblum),
the
talking
animal
professors
are
being
harassed,
removed
from
their
positions
in
Shiz
and
losing
their
ability
to
speak.
When
history
professor
Dillamond
(voiced
by
Peter
Dinklage)
is
taunted
with
Nazi-like
graffiti,
he
has
to
quit
too.
Elphaba
turns
into
a
sympathiser,
learning
the
truth
about
the
Wizard
she
admired
from
afar,
while
Glinda
bats
her
eyelids
and
twirls
around
the
prince.
The
messages
in
Wicked
are
so
obvious
that
they
could
be
flashing
in
neon
—
mainly
that
everybody
should
be
accepted
despite
their
diversity
and
nobody
is
born
wicked,
they
are
forced
to
react
to
how
others
treat
them.
However,
fans
of
the
musical
built
over
two
decades
are
enamored
of
the
lavish
song
and
dance
numbers
that
Chu
has
filmed
with
joyous
flair
on
the
sets
of
Oz,
Shiz
and
Munchkinland,
created
with
a
pleasing
aesthetic
extravagance.
That
foot-stomping
Dancing
Through
Life
sequence
set
in
the
school
library
is
a
delight,
along
with
numbers
like
Popular
and
Defying
Gravity.
How
Elphaba
acquires
the
pointy,
black
cape
and
broomstick
that
have
become
the
signs
of
the
Halloween
witch,
how
she
and
Glinda
become
Wicked
and
Good
Witches
is
in
there,
and
more
is
to
come
in
the
Part
2
scheduled
for
November
2025.
(The
origins
of
Dorothy’s
friends,
Tinman,
Scarecrow
and
Cowardly
Lion
are
revealed
too.)
At
160
minutes,
the
film
is
too
long,
and
knowing
the
undercurrents
running
through
the
plot,
the
candyfloss
cheeriness
gets
too
much
after
a
point.
Still,
it
is
a
worthwhile
page-to-stage-to
screen
journey,
made
watchable
by
the
wonderful
performances
by
all
the
actors,
Cynthia
Arivo
and
Ariana
Grande,
above
all.
Wicked
Review
Rediff
Rating:
