Variety is the spice of life

There are many kinds of tortures in this wicked world. But the worst of all should be not knowing how the story ends in a book that you started but unable to finish it and yet not wanting to drop it without finishing!!! The story is so slow that at times, the words seem to simply hang in air, refusing to settle down into a sentence. To top it all, that this being a translated version with scores of characters having names that are as easy to remember as organic chemistry equations, doesn't make it any easier!! I began reading this book sometime early this year or was it a continuation from last year i don't remember. It picked pace when Thala mentioned it and i seemed to hit a dead end in the first part, that simply refused to move forward despite me doing hop skip and jump across several sections. The comfort of having seen "Galileo" series, which gave a face to Yukawa, Kishitani, Kusanagi and Utsumi, got lost pretty soon with the story dragging between two murders t...

Malayalam movie world has always been blessed with great looking actresses. But in recent years, they've churned out several good actors who are not just stars but fantastic performers as well. In the past decade or two, their lineup has been one of the best in the country which no other "wood" can boast off, right from Nivin Pauly to Fahadh, Dulqur, Kunchako, Tovino and in the recent years the list has only grown with the former lot holding steady. Basil thomas, Vineeth  srini are my latest favorite and looks like the general audience loves their movies as well. The more recent addition being that Gafoor boy who starred in Premalu and I am Kathalan. They seem to have the right set of actors for every age category with Mammooty and Mohan lal still going strong alongside Prithiviraj and co. And their way of storytelling has started to change as well, adapting to mainstream trends of other states. They were already master story tellers and melody still rules their songs, wi...

While watching Jurassic park with junior (for the umpteenth time) there was one guy who looked very familiar. If you've seen the same movie several dozen times, obviously some level of familiarity has to seep in. But this guy in particular, the one who steals the dino DNA/embryo thing from the lab, looked very familiar. It suddenly dawned on me from where and then only i realized he is from Seinfeld, where this guy plays a character called Newman, despite having seen that series several times i had never actually written about it!! Arthritis of the memory may be!! Many of my friends have told me that compared to Friends, they prefer Seinfeld better. While those who vouch for Friends are settled in India not one of the Seinfeld fans are here at the moment. Maybe it comes with the territory. The series is probably the most Americanist of series I've ever seen. It is openly racist in many situations, especially the one involving a Pakistani hotelier who gets deported back to his n...

Wifey has enrolled Junior in a group called Bala Muktas. That group is run by a dedicated bunch of ladies who teach slokas and stories on our Puranas to kids for free. They conduct bajans and special performances at their homes and whomever is graceful enough to give them space. It is such a positive group that kids relish going to their sessions. What started as an online class during Covid times is now a thriving weekly session attended by at least a dozen kids along with their parents. Last week they had arranged for a recital cum drama kind of a presentation on Ramayana (till Paaduka pattabishekam part), where in each kid was given a short speech on the character they play. They have to narrate their part as a character sketch and the filler portions where supported by the teachers and rest of the kids into making it a mini drama with small acts. Each kid aced their role and the way they spoke without stage fear, the eldest of the kid being from sixth standard with majority of the ...

 I have read that one of the easiest signs that you are getting of getting old is the taste in music. One will begin to appreciate the same set of songs, that they might not have cared much about in their youth, and more so, detest the current crop of songs. I saw it happen with my dad, when he used to term Ilayaraja songs as "dapaanguthu" and would appreciate only MSV. In our household music was mostly silent for we never ever had a fixed time to listen to cinema songs unless they were being played out aloud in streets or in some music channel. I began to listen to music and my sense for appreciating songs from different languages actually blossomed and died in Bangalore. I maintain almost the same playlist that was formed during those days and very rarely does a song manage to squeak in. That playlist was an amalgamation of likes from several people known to me, who used my hard drive as a common repository for storing songs. Whenever i travel to office or on a long distanc...

 Of all the OTT's Netflix is hell bent on infusing drug culture as the way of life in India i guess. Every other series they come up with, not just glorifies the narcotics and its effects, it makes the police who chase the criminals as bad or even more eviler than the sellers themselves, there by giving more credit to the actual antagonists, painting them as better amongst the two evils!!  This series is so downright blatant in its attempt to make drug peddling common place that, right from first scene, the leading lady or at least one of the quartet, secretly peddles some local drug for curing impotence amongst her customers who orders home made food from her. The famous dabbawalas whom every management firm wanted to study for their greater than six sigma level of performances should actually protest and put a case against the makers of this series for defaming their good name and their very line of business as something so murky!! What starts as a within the apartment activ...

 Today only watched the movie and wanted to post the review right away illaati saami kutham aaidum. When the trailer of this movie was launched, like several like minded people i had cursed it to the extent possible, especially the way at which the hero proudly proclaims he has 48 arrears!! On top of that he gets to romance two good looking heroine, smoking like no tomorrow and of course the mandatory liquor drinking scenes, all coupled together to form such a cringe opinion about the movie that it was hate at first sight (or view in YouTube terminology). If i keep repeating the same flaws that have become common place across all the movies, i felt like repeating myself and had stopped posting about movies for a while. But after seeing several positive reviews about this one, was really curious to test the extent of rot that had set in the minds of people, that they were praising such a rotten to the core movie. I was happily wrong. In fact, the movie preaches exactly what i wanted...

 Ever since they launched the New Education Policy, the current day scenario was ripening for its own sweet time, with every ambivalent opportunist politician, worth their salt, having a go at the poor masses, confusing them with their crazy concoctions of deceit and lies. With the three-language policy, the current government has opened a literal can of worms across the country with each political nut, turning the other into a zombie, with their crack pot ideologies, across the spectrum. Why should one read more languages? what is the use? why not? what is the harm? you are lying to bring in hindi. you are lying because you already have hindi in your institutions. These seems to be the standard quotes that you get..no..are forced to hear whenever, by mistake, you stumble across any news channel. The harsh reality is way different. If i take junior as example, the way they teach tamil in his school makes me cry in anguish. Despite my best of efforts to influence him into reading ta...

 Ever since i saw "The Intern" i've been smitten by Robert De Niro. Agreed that he had done several magnificent movies prior, but his performance in Intern made not just his character but the entire movie impressive. When i saw his name being mentioned in this drama series, that was the first cue to mark it on the watchlist. The initial few minutes into the series, chaos reign supreme, with America being under attack for yet another time in the web series world, this time with all their cyber systems, from phone to plane, getting hacked simultaneously. With no group claiming responsibility for the attack which lasted just a couple of minutes yet resulted in several train/plane crashes and loss of thousands of lives, entire country is panic stricken, with people on the verge of mass hysteria. If we take a step back and try to imagine the situation, it may not make that much of a sense in a country like India, even though with increased technological dependency we may nearl...

Recently Junior came up with a home work given by his class teacher on “one thing that he feels proud of”. The first question junior asked was, isn’t being proud bad? Didn’t’ Ravana and other asuras fell because of their pride? (Mind voicela overa Amar chitra katha vaangi kudutha ipdi than aagumnu thittikittay ) I, as usual, was stumped for an answer and was trying to cook up one on the fly. “Being proud thappu aana what the teacher means here is to share some good things that we do, which makes us happy, that others can also follow”. (shabba…ipdilaam history examla kooda suthi valaichu answer sonnathilla…ipovay kannakattuthay.innum enna kepaano nu while I was wondering, somehow that round about-ish answer settled further questions from him and he went to his mother for legal verification of the response provided by me. Ipdilaam naama padikarachay nammala ketruntha..hmm..as usual blank papera kuduthutu vandhiruka vendi thaan..for I was far too honest to lie and even for lying sake woul...

Not a day goes by without me missing my dad. With each passing day, I continue to wonder about the kind of childhood and care he gave us and the way he managed to hold the family together financially, at times thinking if it was all even real and possibly a scene out of matrix!! To put things in context, my PG course fees per semester was 9 times his salary at that time and he also had 4 mouths to feed at home alongside other expenses, including educational expenses of my sibling as well!! More than the money or the ability to earn it, I am amazed at the level of confidence he must’ve had in himself and the belief that he can pull it off!! Ditto goes for my mom who was a home maker and as I used to teasingly say then, which sounds emphatic now, that had she been the finance minister of India, we would’ve been a surplus economy several decades back! Somehow, they managed to not just balance out the expenses but also in ensuring what was “must” and be always available. It is not a surviv...

 I always wondered what would be the exact equivalent for the term "Rasika" in English. Connoisseur sounds more French than common English and kind of sounds too complicated, if not pompous. The tamil word sounds bit closer to heart and feels it is applicable to even laymen. Just like how you don't have to be an expert cook to enjoy a good food, it applies across all disciplines of art where in your ability to enjoy something good need not necessarily means you are completely aware of the nuances of that particular art or an expert to pass on any comment. Enjoyment, though is shown as synonym for "Rasanai" feels more generic. "Taste" was another option that google threw as possible equivalent which i felt was bit closer to what i was looking for. It might sound dumbed down a bit too much but my quest towards finding a good English equivalent for the word Rasanai ended there. I have often marveled at the devotion level explanation given by fans of respe...

There is a book by Sidney Sheldon called "Doomsday Conspiracy". It is a funky story that involves a worldwide hunt for a group of tourists who happened to witness a balloon crash, which turns out to be a UFO during investigation. The person who is sent to identify the witnesses stumbles upon one clue after another and unearths the whole list of people only to find them mysteriously dead, moments after he passed on information about them to their superiors. In the end it all turns out to be one global conspiracy of a cabal, who control every major decision on earth, when it comes to mooting money making schemes. Be it bypassing legal ways to promote their business or topple governments to push their agenda, voiding any agreement or treaty that comes in their way of exploiting earth's resources for their monetary gain. The aliens who are concerned about the status of earth, decides to make a visit to save the fate of the planet from the clutches of that evil cabal that stre...

Stumbled on this book while searching for "Galileo" web series. Whenever i read these english translated versions, I wish i could read the original Japanese version. Not that the translation is bad in this case. In fact, it feels too correct -  as if, Google translate has been run on every single line with UK accent as the base for translation. Some of the colloquial usages sound odd even if the book was originally written by an English native author. That apart, as compared to some of the other translated works like "the name of the game is kidnapping" where right from the title, it feels amateurish and filled with grammatical errors, Invisible Helix is definitely one of the better translated books of Keigo. Like his every other detective novel, this one is steeply into human relations and the strong family bonding. In fact, across all of the 4 books that i've read, the core plot involve homicide, where the cause of death would be as a result of retaliation for...

Sani pradosham is quite famous of all the regular pradoshams in shivan temples. Even during regular times, the number of people who turn up for this happens to be much more than the usual ones that fall on other days of the week. With Social media, whenever there is a random post claiming that particular one happens to be ultra special for some reason best known to Whatsapp university, you can easily make out its impact by the turn outs. The last one i attended, apparently was on such a timing it seems, for the entire stretch around the temple, all the 4 maada streets, where jam packed. Literally you've to walk over vehicles if you had to cross the road for there were hardly any space for pedestrians. And once inside the temple, it was even heavier with literal standing space being luxury. Engenthu thaan ivlo per thideernu varuvaangalo!! Many a times i've loathed in this very space the crowds that turn up at every nook andd corner worth visiting. Any hill station or water body ...

 Kudos to the curative team of Netflix, who rarely let the audience down when it comes to picking engaging story lines. Very rarely we get to see real life stories or book adaptations based on real life situations or events getting due justice on screen in India. Black Warrant ticks that mark in most aspects. It is a series based on few incidents on Tihar jail. Each of those incidents being landmark in their own and if i am not mistaken, it is adapted from the book written by the then jailor of Tihar. To me the surprise package of the list was "Billa and Ranga" - the title made famous by blockbuster movies starring Rajini. Apparently they both were gruesome killers who had killed a teenage boy and girl mercilessly and had been sentenced to death by hanging. The way the jail authorities go about preparing for hanging and how one of them ends up surviving the first attempt only for the action to be completed by force by the jailer team tells not just the human aspect behind tho...

 This Malayalam movie, probably had the most number of update news on media about when it will be aired on OTT and most importantly on which platform!! Eventually Hotstar won the tussle with Zee and just to understand the buzz around the movie watched it on the very first day. The casting is the primary reason and thriller being the toast of the theme for Malayalam movies, it was the perfect blend. Basil thomas is riding a crest of good and great movies and scores with this one too. Nazriya seems to be back at picking scripts that suits her to the T. Even though they are paired against each other with the lady being the protagonist pitting her wits against the villain (wonder who came up with the idea of portraying baby faced Basil as villain!!) story wise it might have not generated as much talk had it been for anyone else. Except for the twist, which seems evident almost 15 minutes before the climax, the rest of the scenes are quite ordinary with the heroine making one jump after...

 As registered in this space many times prior, I am a big fan of Keigo Higashino. Galileo is his famous creation in the lines of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, i wasn't able to land on any of the translated version of this series and to my sweet surprise, ended up with this drama series in Netflix, which are based on those books. The series is in Japanese with original audio but the subtitles are quite efficient and makes up for easy following. Each of the episode starts off with a murder or some mishap that might sound like typical police case only to have an unusual angle which piques the scientific curiosity of the professor, who is often approached by the police for scientific consult. Each of the ten episodes have such unique point of contention which seems perplexing to start with and becomes clear as water once "Galileo" clarifies the scientific explanation for those events. The very first episode in the series is my personal favorite of the whole lot. A group of rouge gu...

When i saw the first season, was appalled at the ease with which killing and gore was depicted and the blatant abuse of children's games as concepts to kill people. That shock effect is majorly subdued in the 3 years since the first season came is the ugly truth. That says so much about the content online and otherwise which has literally numbed the senses and what was seen as shocking couple of years back has become common place. Says so much about our society and fast degrading culture as well. Story wise it is a continuation from where the previous season ended, where despite having won the prize money, the scruple torn hero, goes after the organizers of the game to stop it once and for all. He spends money like no tomorrow and engages several gangs to find out if any such recruitment similar to what he underwent happens in identifying participants for the game. It takes almost 2 3 episodes before he lands up in the island where the games happen. The police officer who almost lo...