For the first time the Movie defeats the Book!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2006)

As an omnivorous reader movies are always second to books to me. I believe....movie can never defeat the book because while reading book we use our own imagination....and movie narrows down the imagination.....it only allows us to see how the director has imagined the book.
But Believe me...this is not the case of The Shawshank Redemption...which I rate as the best movie I have ever seen.For the first time in history the book(the Stephen King Novella) has been defeated by its movie version.After watching the movie I was crazy about reading the book....I thought wow!the movie is so good...how will be the book!!To tell U frankly,the book is good, but the movie is best.There are some unforgettable scenes in the movie which were not in the book.Some examples are: The scene when Andy locks up the guard and play the opera on the microphone.The narration goes on like.."I didn't understand a single word that Italian lady was singing...but I tell U..for that single second every soul in the Shawshank prison felt free..."The scene just fill my heart with Andy's yearn for freedom...I was kinda shocked when I didn't find it in the original book version.
I can remember another scene.While Andy creates the prison library and starts listing books sent to prison from charity organizations...a fellow inmate tries to read a name on the book...Alexandre Dumas as "Dumb-Ass". Andy says...."its not Dumb-ass...its Dumas..and U may like the book..The Count of Monty Cristo...its about a jailbreak.And the category it falls is Fiction" Then Red says.."Why don't we put it on Educational category?"(Right before Andy listed an engineering handbook as "Educational" category).As Count of Monticristo is one of my favorite books, I was hysteric watching this sophisticated joke.This was also not in the book.
This DVD is my favorite gift I give my friends. And after they watch it....they always thank me . Like many other IMDb friends commenting on this movie..I would also like to say.."Shawshank Redemption is the best movie I have ever seen in my life".Thanx to all.