Red Riding Hood 2011

If you have read/studied the basic of psychology, this movie is no surprise. If you haven't, then too its no big surprise. The moment I heard Twilight director, should have stayed away. But I ended up dragging myself and 7 other poor members of the public to the theatre. Amanda Seyfried is red riding hood that sleepwalks and uses to blue blue eyes every five minutes to glower, glamour and glance seductively at everyone around. Everyone else seems incidental including the two leading men who do anything but lead.They seemed to have endlessly watched Rob Pattison and then reproduced his single expression all through the movie.What Gary Oldman is doing in the movie is a mystery, even to Gary Oldman himself. The only cool thing in the entire movie - that beautiful scarlet cloak and Gary Oldman's silver nails.
All in all - Avoid at all costs!
3/10

Known Turf - Annie Zaidi

I first came to hear the name when she won a poetry competition, later at the local library, the name again caught my eye and since there was nothing else interesting I could pick, I picked up Known Turf.

Thank god for that. I am not a big fan of non fiction and prefer flights of fantasy that good fiction offers, but this book kept me spell bound. I even read the statistics avidly. It brought the news you hear everyday onto a more personal level. The authors dilemma's and soul searching included along with the stories flow without the usual rankle of preachiness and morality that looks down on the reader.

Empathy, frustration and sometimes a small smile for those tiny happy pauses.From Dacoits to Bonded labour and malnutrition. From eve teasing to women panchayats, each page rang true and you could almost smell the blood, sweat, tears and even the fear that went into the words. No highbrow language. Just personal tales framed by the bigger picture.Though most of these have been beaten to death, it did not sound  too stale. It felt more like a dialogue between two people, the author and the reader. (I have no other way of describing it) I closed the book with a strange feeling that I was listening to a close friend for a few hours.
Albeit one who waxes on a little too much about tea.

Joan Rivers - A piece of work

I knew little about Joan Rivers until she started appearing on bad plastic surgery lists. And even then I thought little of her until snaps of her acid comments started appearing.
Then this documentary came along and I was curious.
She was with Johnny Carson for 20 years as a co host! Black and white clips show a daring, caustic tongued, witty woman. With jokes that would have been shocking in those times. And the fun part is, she shocks you today too! From Vagina farts to Michelle Obama termed as Blackie O for her style. (From the previous stylish first lady Jackie O) everything is fodder for her jokes. But apart from the comic timing its the enthusiasm at 74 (when the doc was filmed) and her untiring scramble to the top even after getting knocked down more than a few times. Itsy bitsy spider, in human terms.

7/10

The Conch Bearer + The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni -

Indian. Predictable. A little preachy.


The same can be said about her novels, right?
A poor little boy is given a magical conch and has to go through lots of adventures to return it to its home in a utopian valley run by a brotherhood of monks. Accompanied by Abhaydatta, a healer monk and a street urchin girl. I found it a little tedious. The second book was much better than the first. Though the conflicts and moral dilemmas in both the books were resolved so easily. We don't empathise with the characters much and the end of the novel the only person that I could relate to was the girl who was often delegated to the back. The protagonist boy seemed a little uptight and too goody shoes for my liking.

4/10

Turbulence - Samit Basu

Hail!

Double Hail!

I have read his trilogy and loved it, now this genre bending novel with Indian super heroes and supervillians in true filmi style but realistic (does that make sense? no?) The story is fast paced, has the required moral dilemmas but doesn't sound preachy and has some cool powers. He calls it literary fiction bitten by a mutant spider. I disagree.
It's a superhero novel with a comedy sidetrack and a moral spine.
Buy it people! Buy it!
PS: I have a huge crush on his writing.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlAuvu8IYrQ

I don't understand how I missed him.

Read some more:
http://samitbasu.com/
http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.com/2010/10/turbulence-by-samit-basu.html

Mr. Dixon Disappears - Ian Sansom

Detective silly Realism.

Part of the Mobile library mystery series. My first read and I'm guessing this is the 2'nd book. Its not exactly a murder mystery detective series. There is murder, there is mystery but the detection is non existent. The hero - a bumbling english librarian called Isreal runs a mobile library in Ireland. He lives in a chicken coop and has 'romantic' problems.  He stumbles into the suspect list then stumbles around and finally get the mystery solved and a 100,00 pounds. With a lot of help from Ted, some sort of assistant/driver.  Very urban in a rural background story. Refreshing.

6/10

The Good man Jesus and the scoundrel christ - Philip Pullman

This is a story.


Well sort of. Mr. 'atheist' Pullman has pulled another one off. His Dark Materials author (I haven't read it - yet) has divided 'the son' into Jesus and Christ. One modeled after  eastern mystics and guru's, the other one after what seems to me is Mr. Flanders from Simpsons! Christ documents and later impersonates Jesus for what will later become the church. That is the story.

It's a fast paced book with nothing extremely good except the controversy. The point of view has been debated by everybody who has pretensions of being an atheist. After seeing hindu gods being slaughtered at many a writer's altar, I wasn't too taken aback by the controversy too.

5/10