First and foremost, if you do not know Cyrus Broacha and his brand of comedy, you may not enjoy the book as much as I did.
Anybody who grew up in the 90's in Mumbai (no this is not the beginning of one of those chain mails and facebook notes) will relate to the first few pages of the book. It describes the childhood and college hood of the protagonists/best friends Karl and Kunal. The characters or rather caricatures are spot on, although they seem to be written by an attention deficit 10 year old and the story keeps jumping around and about and through some weird ramblings. But if you read with Cyrus in mind, all of it suddenly seems to make enough nonsense to be termed as hilarious. There were some paragraphs where i wanted to laugh out loud but had to do the 'jerking silent holding in laugh' (I was at Colombo airport and coming from Tamil Nadu, i didn't want to give them an excuse) with tears streaming down my face. I annoyed a whole lot of people and scared a lot more. The meanderings of Karl and Kunal through life and the changes in fortune and fame they go through are interspersed with real life characters and places with a comic twist, so we have Pearl Padamsee who 'discovers' the two. We have Prahlad Kakkar too. Some incidents, me thinks follows Cyrus's own life. Bollywood, politics and even the pleasure of digging noses is delved into :) There is a bit of Mumbai snobbishness and a whole lot of tongue in cheek - a little too much, come to think of it. The acknowledgments and the preface all fall under this category.
All in all for those who like "mokkai" jokes or pj's and 'groan out loud' jokes will enjoy the book. All the rest - stay away!
8/10
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Silent Raga -Ameen Merchant (2008)
Janaki Asgar, the name says it all. This story of an orthodox Tamil Brahmin, agraharam girl from Sripuram, marrying a Muslim Bollywood hero (yes, you read it right!) reads like the name of the book. A slow drawn tune carried through one of my favourite cities (chennai, in case your wondering). The novel follows a non linear narrative, going back and forth between the early life and the current one of our heroine.
Explanations are few and far between, the journey from Janaki - the housebound brahmin girl to Janaki Asgar, wife of bollywood actor and Veena exponent is drawn out, played with, tuned carefully and often left to the imagination. Each character is so well thought out, their lives so well plotted and revealed in tiny nuggets at a time, that you empathise even with the lowliest of them. From the lascivious Gayathri Chitti as the stepmotherly aunt to the grudge holding sister Mallika and even the gossip mongering neighbour, everyone is painted in tiny revealing strokes that ultimately leave you with a believable, whole and very human picture. And to make a very sexist comment, I had a hard time believing that a man had written this, and a non brahmin to boot. The smell, taste and atmosphere of an agraharam are so beautifully brought out, that at times I could catch a whiff of the fried potatoes and the crunch of dried vathals. For that itself, Ameen Merchant has been placed on my list of beautiful writers. This apart from the fact that he describes Chennai in a manner I wish, I had - Not with too much emotion, but with a fond familiarity and a feeling of home.
Now for the little flies in the pure Brahmin ointment. The non linear style sometimes seemed to hiccup along. Most of the actions of the current Janaki Asgar seemed rushed, not like the slow but interesting untangling of the young one. The novel is on the longer side, but a bit more could have been done at the end. The reader is left a little breathless and flustered, like a slow melody suddenly ending in a clash of cymbals and then silence.
6/10
Explanations are few and far between, the journey from Janaki - the housebound brahmin girl to Janaki Asgar, wife of bollywood actor and Veena exponent is drawn out, played with, tuned carefully and often left to the imagination. Each character is so well thought out, their lives so well plotted and revealed in tiny nuggets at a time, that you empathise even with the lowliest of them. From the lascivious Gayathri Chitti as the stepmotherly aunt to the grudge holding sister Mallika and even the gossip mongering neighbour, everyone is painted in tiny revealing strokes that ultimately leave you with a believable, whole and very human picture. And to make a very sexist comment, I had a hard time believing that a man had written this, and a non brahmin to boot. The smell, taste and atmosphere of an agraharam are so beautifully brought out, that at times I could catch a whiff of the fried potatoes and the crunch of dried vathals. For that itself, Ameen Merchant has been placed on my list of beautiful writers. This apart from the fact that he describes Chennai in a manner I wish, I had - Not with too much emotion, but with a fond familiarity and a feeling of home.
Now for the little flies in the pure Brahmin ointment. The non linear style sometimes seemed to hiccup along. Most of the actions of the current Janaki Asgar seemed rushed, not like the slow but interesting untangling of the young one. The novel is on the longer side, but a bit more could have been done at the end. The reader is left a little breathless and flustered, like a slow melody suddenly ending in a clash of cymbals and then silence.
6/10
Monday, June 28, 2010
A Team (2010)
Do you remember those old hindi/english movies of the 80's and early 90's where everything was blown up, but nobody died and there was huge dose of humour to go along with the dynamite? A Team takes you back to those days. When men were dirty and crass, women were beautiful and bitchy and there was a "twist ending" but the heroes always saved the day! Again the movie is inspired by a series that ran during the 80's ( me thinks) so full fledged masala, action, drama, comedy, tragedy can be expected.
As for the characters - Liam Neeson as Colonel Hannibal brings the necessary "madness with a suave gravity" Bradley Cooper is Face, the casanova, Jessica Beil is cute, but not very bitchy as Capt Sosa and Baracus played by Quinton Jackson, finds Gandhi, non violence and facial hair in between and then losses it all :). The background is Iraq and Saddam is mentioned a few hundred times (still?!)
[spoiler] The team is assigned a covert operation to get back some dollar engraving plates that were lost. Its actually (and obviously) a set up and they are sent off to prison. [spoiler end] How they get out, clear their name and smash the bad boys to oblivion forms the rest of the movie. There were enough explosions to keep my husband happy and just enough brains in the plot to keep everybody interested without taking away from the sheer masalafication!
[spoiler] The team is assigned a covert operation to get back some dollar engraving plates that were lost. Its actually (and obviously) a set up and they are sent off to prison. [spoiler end] How they get out, clear their name and smash the bad boys to oblivion forms the rest of the movie. There were enough explosions to keep my husband happy and just enough brains in the plot to keep everybody interested without taking away from the sheer masalafication!
7/10
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Raavanan 2010
Mani Ratnam's latest promises a lot and delivers nothing. Touted to be a "different take" on the Ramayana, it just ends up being half baked idea of a movie that could have been much more. Take away the breathtaking cinematography, the soulful Rahman music and all you will be left with are stilted dialogues, some constipated acting by Aishwarya Rai (now with a famous add on - Bachan) and a whole host of talented actors looking lost because they don't have enough material to work with. The storyline is non existent, most characters appear out of nowhere and then disappear, even the main characters are not fleshed out. They just do certain things without motivation or a background explanation. Ramayana is a complex story with so much scope to work on, Mani just skimmed over it superficially and made a humongous mess. [spoiler alert]Veera's sister is raped and tortured by the cops. What has Veera done? We don't have a clue apart from the introduction voice over saying that Veera helps those that need it. He then kidnaps the SP's (A surprisingly good Prithviraj) wife (Aishwarya) and then can't kill her because she is brave. (I have no other way of explaining it. This is how it was clumsily explained in the movie) A few more gorgeous but empty scenes later, the husband - a trigger happy cop is introduced. Now we cannot have Ramayan without Hanuman, so Karthik is wasted in a 2 min role that looks like patchwork. Prabhu is also wasted in a side role that requires so little work, its almost an insult. And not to forget the talk of the moment - Ranjeetha in a non speaking, sidelined, what the hell is she required for role. Btw she appeared on screen and the crowd burst out into claps and whistles for the first and last time.
Mani has tried the non linear narrative to disastrous effect. It was like he watched a few brilliant non linear narrative foreign movies on UTV and then decided he had to do it - after he shot the movie. The editing is horrible. There is no other way to describe it. Amitabh Bachan was right for once in his famous assessment. Mani Ratnam took too much on himself, shooting two languages simultaneously and it shows. Vikram is the only one who comes out looking relatively ok, he does his best with whatever little was on offer.
Mani the story teller has failed miserably this time.
4/10
Mani has tried the non linear narrative to disastrous effect. It was like he watched a few brilliant non linear narrative foreign movies on UTV and then decided he had to do it - after he shot the movie. The editing is horrible. There is no other way to describe it. Amitabh Bachan was right for once in his famous assessment. Mani Ratnam took too much on himself, shooting two languages simultaneously and it shows. Vikram is the only one who comes out looking relatively ok, he does his best with whatever little was on offer.
Mani the story teller has failed miserably this time.
4/10
Friday, June 18, 2010
Mary and Max 2008
This is an existential Australian masterpiece. Clay Animation with adult themes. Mary an 8 year old kid in Waverly, Australia comes from a dysfunctional family (father never present, mother drunk). She finds Max's address from an address book in the post office where her mother is in one of her "borrowing" sprees. She writes to him and it is the beginning of a troubled but beautiful friendship that causes a few nervous breakdowns, drunken binges and thesis papers among others.
This gorgeous gem of a movie is certainly not for happy, springy people. In shades of brown (Mary's favourite colour) and gray, each sequence unfolds painstakingly and with such depth and irreverence that you feel drawn into a world where you know everything is not perfect, but it is beautiful in its own ugly way. Each humiliation and every bump in the pathetic characters lives is shown with a black humour and in a surprising but cute choice of children's book language. It is under comedy on imdb.com, but I wonder how many people will be able to appreciate the dark, sarcastic, pessimistic humour. A little overworked and preachy at times, I would definitely put it under drama. A nice movie for those philosophy book buffs and a for movie buffs, it an interesting interplay between a dramatic script and animation.
7/10
This gorgeous gem of a movie is certainly not for happy, springy people. In shades of brown (Mary's favourite colour) and gray, each sequence unfolds painstakingly and with such depth and irreverence that you feel drawn into a world where you know everything is not perfect, but it is beautiful in its own ugly way. Each humiliation and every bump in the pathetic characters lives is shown with a black humour and in a surprising but cute choice of children's book language. It is under comedy on imdb.com, but I wonder how many people will be able to appreciate the dark, sarcastic, pessimistic humour. A little overworked and preachy at times, I would definitely put it under drama. A nice movie for those philosophy book buffs and a for movie buffs, it an interesting interplay between a dramatic script and animation.
7/10
Monday, June 14, 2010
Okuribito (Departures) Japan 2008
The orchestra where our protagonist - a cello player played has been disbanded. He realises he is not talented enough to continue as cello player but not before he has spent a few million on a new cello. At this point we are drawn in by the story. He encounters a live octopus, sells his cello and moves with his wife to the countryside into a cafe/house his mom left for him when she died. He is broke and has an irritating wife who keeps smiling (he doesn't think so, but I do) A chance ad leads to a job cleaning, decorating and encoffining dead people (yes I know, you have to be dead to be encoffined - a word I learnt from the subtitles :)) This gives the script a chance to go into dead body humour, heart wrenching sobbing etc etc.
The plight of lonely old women, shunning of people who handle dead bodies, lost fathers and scarred childhoods is all handled in between scenes of the hero playing cello in the green japanese countryside with geese and flowers for company. (Very DDLJ)
I'm not saying it was a bad movie, apart from the wife, everybody else did a decent job. There are a few funny and a few touching scenes and overall it is a sweet movie. The rituals shown are really fascinating and among the best portions of the movie. And maybe if had not won an Oscar for best foreign language film, I might have been a little less harsh in judging it.
The plight of lonely old women, shunning of people who handle dead bodies, lost fathers and scarred childhoods is all handled in between scenes of the hero playing cello in the green japanese countryside with geese and flowers for company. (Very DDLJ)
I'm not saying it was a bad movie, apart from the wife, everybody else did a decent job. There are a few funny and a few touching scenes and overall it is a sweet movie. The rituals shown are really fascinating and among the best portions of the movie. And maybe if had not won an Oscar for best foreign language film, I might have been a little less harsh in judging it.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Invictus 2009
Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood. The names are enough for a great rating, but somehow it all doesn't come together as easily as I expected. Morgan Freeman gives one of the best performances of his life. Even though he physically doesn't resemble Mandela much, the spirit was there. Matt Damon didn't have much to do but look inspired or look dejected. The rest of the cast also does a good job especially Tony Kgoroge who acts as the head of Mandela's personal security. But somehow the wow! factor is missing. It seems Clintwood sleepwalked through this movie. Everything is in place but the magic is missing.
It is the year Mandela is elected as the President of South Africa, apartheid has been abolished but the wounds still run deep. The economy is not in a good condition, nor is the country. While he should have concentrated on more worthy "presidential" duties, Mandela chooses to encourage the Springbrooks - South Africa's much hated symbol of the apartheid, an Afrikaaner rugby team with just one whitewashed african to win the Rugby World Cup for the new South Africa. Glimpses of how Mandela works, his sad family life at that point and the loyalty he inspired are very well portrayed. The Springbrooks led by Matt Damon are at first resistant but soon fall in line with Mandela's "Human calculation"
If you want to watch a feel good movie that is based on an inspiring true life story, this is for you. But forget about any Clintwood magic in this one.
6/10
It is the year Mandela is elected as the President of South Africa, apartheid has been abolished but the wounds still run deep. The economy is not in a good condition, nor is the country. While he should have concentrated on more worthy "presidential" duties, Mandela chooses to encourage the Springbrooks - South Africa's much hated symbol of the apartheid, an Afrikaaner rugby team with just one whitewashed african to win the Rugby World Cup for the new South Africa. Glimpses of how Mandela works, his sad family life at that point and the loyalty he inspired are very well portrayed. The Springbrooks led by Matt Damon are at first resistant but soon fall in line with Mandela's "Human calculation"
If you want to watch a feel good movie that is based on an inspiring true life story, this is for you. But forget about any Clintwood magic in this one.
6/10
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