Ron Howard, the actor, had a great outing in ‘American Graffiti’. In the movie, he plays a confused teenager who gets into a mess when he takes his girl friend for granted. He sure did mend his ways in the real life:) It is a fascinating contrast to see Ron Howard, the director, respect moviegoer’s sensibilities and dish out a sumptous fare, every now and then.

With films spanning across the genres, he has etched a name for himself in the Hollywood. Most of his films though centred on family ties and the emotions that go with them, he still manages to offer a different treatment for each film. In ‘Parenthood’ he takes on Steve Martin and makes him deliver a Chaplinesque performance.  In ‘Apollo 13’ and ‘The Beautiful Mind’ he deals with two different battles–one waged in the outer space and the other in a mathematician’s mind.

You could call his liking for the human angle as his stamp. And, this stamp is obvious even in a thriller like ‘Ransom’ and  in the bio pic ‘The Cinderella Man’, where the protagonists resort to desperate and unconventional means to save their families.

Ron Howard now attempts the biggest film–and estimated budget of US$125 million–of his career, based on the best seller ‘The Da Vinci Code’.  The novel, though hugely successful, feeds very little on the relationships or family values. It would be interesting to see how he handles this extremely successful novel. Will he be true to the novel and visualize only the controversial (so called!) discoveries and the intermittent thrills, which are the main reasons for the success of the novel. Or will he steer himself through the controversies and focus on the plot, which is ain’t much in the novel. Or will he tinker with the original and play with the following of 40 million+ people who had bought the book.

Yup! It is a ‘beautiful’ problem for a creative mind:)
Let’s hope Ron Howard cracks this one.