Synthesis of the Real and Fantastic: A Comparative Study of Magic as a Crucial Weapon

Baijayanti Mukhopadhyay and Madhurai Gangopadhyay Present: Synthesis of the Real and Fantastic: A Comparative Study of Magic as a Crucial Weapon in the Battle of Good vs. Evil Between Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Satyajit Ray’s Gupi Gayin Bagha Bayin

Harry Potter Academic Conference 2025

Abstract
Reality, in itself, is a subjective notion. Everything that does not fit the normative standards is often discarded, but we fail to understand that these standards are essentially arbitrary with no fixed grounds to validate them as the only truth. Magic does not imply the absence of reason and rationality, but a broadening view of the same to seek an alternative version of the truth. This paper attempts a comparative analysis of the use of magic in the defeating of the evil and the triumph of the good between Rowling’s Harry Potter series and the Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen film trilogy of the Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The paper shows how, in the Harry Potter series, though a wizard by birth, Harry’s journey into the world of magic begins when Hagrid tells him that he is a wizard. This journey, going through various phases, culminates ultimately in the defeat of Voldemort and the end of a dictatorial regime. This paper studies this journey of Harry in comparison to that of Ray’s Gupi and Bagha, two simpletons whose journey into the world of magic begins, unlike Harry, not by birth, but after three magical boons are granted to them by the King of Ghosts. Like Harry, they too have to traverse long paths to establish the triumph of good over evil. The paper studies the similarities and dissimilarities in the way the two masters have organically synthesized the real and fantastic in their texts.