The Dark Knight (drama)
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Direction: Christopher Nolan
Critics rating:
HOLY smoke! Batman may be the Dark Knight, but guess who's the Shining Knight who steals the show away from the super-hero? He's none other than the super-villain, the manic, irrepressible, jaw-dropping Joker. Yes, Heath Ledger pitches in a breath-taking performance as Batman's arch rival in Christopher Nolan's breath-taking renditition of the comic book hero's second caper after Batman Begins . It wouldn't be wrong to say that Ledger's Joker is even more mesmerising than Jack Nicholson's Joker in the 1989 film, Batman . Nor would it be wrong to salute Nolan for bridging the gap between pop art and pure art with this high-energy, explosive battle of good versus evil.

Like the earlier film, Batman Begins , our super-hero is still in an introspective mood, not too sure about his role in vice-ridden Gotham city which needs a hero with a face, rather than a mysterious, masked man in a rubber suit. And he feels it's time to take a back seat when the city actually finds such a hero in the district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) who seems to have successfully put most of the criminals behind bars. Except the Joker, a painted-faced, master craftsman of evil who calls himself an agent of chaos and likes to carve smiles on people's faces after posing the query: ‘Why so serious?' The Joker has a mission. He wants to corrupt the soul of the city and send it reeling back to vice. His mission seems to be accomplished when hero Harvey metamorphoses into Harvey Two-Face, the heart-broken, disfigured district attorney who feels there's nothing good about being decent in an indecent world.

But hey, there's Batman, remember. Although we do confess we almost forgot him with the hypnotic spell the Joker seems to cast on us, each time he swaggers onto screen with his devilish, lipsmacking act and his quotable quotes about virtue and vice; heroes and villains. Of course, the magic of the Batmobile and the batty antics - flying, and all that - is still heart-stopping. Even as is the topicality: once again there's an attempt to portray Batman's heroics as post 9/11 American heroism. But finally, the Joker hits the nail on the head, when he gate crashes into a party and declares: Ladies and Gentlemen, we are the entertainers for the night. Truly, a posthumous Oscar lies in wait.