The Odyssey - Take Me Home

When a piece of literature survives and thrives for 2,800 years, and still resonates in the age of AI, with its universal themes of love, war, wanderlust, belonging and the siren call of home, you know you are dealing with a classical masterpiece. Like the Ramayan and Mahabharat in India with their similarly evergreen and resonant ideas and tenets, the Odyssey written by Homer from ancient Greece is one of the canonical works of Western literature. (There are many similarities to Indian mythology and history from the stringing of the bow as a rite of passage for matrimony to the postwar trauma of Ashoka after the Kalinga war showing how stories probably traveled far and wide even thousands of years ago. The concept of Xenia or Zeus's law is to put it simply, "Atithi devo bhava" or the guest to be shown hospitality as a god). Such a weighty tome coming in at 12,109 lines divided into 24 books deserved a movie treatment and a director worthy of its caliber. The simple, crisp and clear answer to that in today's age was none other than Christopher Nolan.

Over the course of a 24 year career since his breakout hit Memento (2002), (on which Ghajini (2005) was so shamelessly based), he has made movies of singular distinction and merit. Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), one of my most favorite movies Inception (2010) with that amazing Hans Zimmer soundtrack, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020) and Oppenheimer (2023). Any one of these movies would be enough to ensure his name in the pantheon of auteurs. Taken together, it's a breathtaking achievement of Olympian proportions deserving its own gallery in the movie history Louvre.

The Odyssey, begins in the island nation of Ithaca where the queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and her son Telemachus (Tom Holland) are awaiting the return of the king Odysseus (Matt Damon) from the Trojan War. It's been 20 years since he left and she has been warding off the legion of suitors willing to take his place led by the evil and opportunistic Antinous (Robert Pattinson). Telemachus convinces his mother to go looking for his father. The story then shifts to the aftermath of the 10 year Trojan War and its siege of Troy culminating in the famous Trojan Horse as peace offering leading to the defeat of Troy. (For those of my loyal readers who consider even a single line of plot reference as too much information, and may prefer that I write in invisible ink like Hamza Ali Mazari in Dhurandhar, I trust that this Trojan Horse revelation is not considered a spoiler, given that its statute of limitations expired about two millennia ago). Thus begins the long journey home filled with trials and tribulations, challenges to be overcome, monsters on land (Cyclops) and sea (Scylla and Charybdis), witches (Circe played by Samantha Morton), nymphs (Calypso played by Charlize Theron), sirens and other creatures and features of Greek mythology. All culminating in the boffo climax which had the audience in the packed to the gills IMAX theater in Chicago whooping and cheering like the seetis and taalis of Hindi movie single screen cinemas back in the day in Mumbai.

In addition to the stellar cast mentioned above, there are Lupita Nyong'o in a dual role as Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, the faithful servant of Odysseus, Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Jon Bernthal as Spartan King Menelaus, the husband of Helen and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, second in command to Odysseus. They are enabled by the directorial choice made by Nolan to shoot the entire movie on film in the IMAX format, a first in the moviemaking world, where previously movies were displayed in IMAX even though they were shot conventionally or only partially in the large film format. Also, the use of CGI, which nowadays is an extremely cheesy crutch for lazy filmmaking, is very limited and most scenes have been shot in the real world on actual seas and oceans. Nolan even insisted on Damon growing a real beard for a year to get the right level of hirsute verisimilitude.

For those who find his science fiction movies too esoteric or unfathomable or arcane, they will be glad to note that he has kept the story telling and editing mostly linear as befits a classical tale that has withstood time. The Odyssey with its 2hr 52 min runtime, is appropriate for a tale of such literally magnum opus epic proportions, else the odyssey of Odysseus would have felt shortchanged. The 20 year journey back home of Odysseus pales into insignificance however to the one of England's football team who after 60 years haven't been able to get the Cup back home. There are some tragedies even beyond Homer's and the Brit Nolan's capable hands.

July 17, 2026