Variety is the spice of life

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...