Variety is the spice of life

What is real and what is fake.  This has been the basic and barest of all existential question since the beginning of time itself. Some call it Maaya. Scientists may term it hallucination.  But what is real in the "real" sense?  The movie Matrix was a classic example that literally shook the concept of reality, despite being a fiction. People were so smitten and taken by the concept that many still believe that we all live in a Matrix while the reality is something else! Considering the rampant advancement in AI tech and related tools, specifically on the media space, no one can be sure on the authenticity of any media - be it audio, video or images. The deepfake media content is so authentic that even the concerned individuals may get confused for a moment on the content. And proving them otherwise seems to be the most demanding task at present. So many celebrities take to the streets on proving their "innocence" or "ignorance" on potential controversial ...

As i mentioned before, i was on a spree to finish all of the Alex cross series a while back and was ploughing through the whole series. Of the 34 books and counting, i managed to come till the 24th and more than fatigue it was terribly repetitive. Right from the titles, most of which are the starting lines of famous rhymes, to the villains whom most of the time happen to be patients or stalkers of Alex cross, to the way in which they get killed/captured only to return back in another book, or copy cats of the famous villains. But this book felt slightly different as the beginning itself gave hints that this might be more on vigilantism. A bike driver, capable of going at more than 100mph and still shoot without missing the target on an equally fast moving vehicle, starts of the novel by killing some one for violating speed limit, by violating the speed limit even more than the victim to shoot them. There are spate of murders, even by the count mentioned, grossing more than 50 in body c...

Life in a Metro (hindi movie) is a favorite of mine mainly because of its music track. Pritam's best i would say. And some of the stories in that anthology were nice as well. Especially the ones involving Konkona and Irfan alongside the one involving Kangana and Sharman (a direct lift off from "The apartment" movie). There were couple of other story lines as well, with the core theme being, relationships and love between couples of varying age groups and social status. It was the decade that began to normalize depiction of gay/lesbian characterization on screen and there are sequences involving those relationships as well. Overall the story was about how people fall in love, fall out of it and while some manage to fall back in love, some retreat into a shell and few ends up relinquishing it, living with the support of memories. When i heard that there is a "spiritual" sequel to the movie i was actually feeling bad, being dead sure that they would've screwed ...

There is a favorite quote of mine - venda veruppa pullaya pethu gaanda mirugam nu per vachaanam. Maareesan movie does quite fall into that description, but looking at the way it ended, made me wonder, indha padathuku kaanda mirugamnay per vachurkalam. But why Maareesan??!!!  Malayalam movie world has made Indian cinema take note of its success and its mastery in the thriller genre. The movie begins in similar note to any Malayalam crime story with even the lead actor being borrowed from there - Fahadh Faasil. Vadivelu in a "Maamannan" lite avatar, hardly gets to crack an emotion on face except for sticking very close to the character of being an Alzheimer patient. Alzheimer's patient na emote panna koodathu purinjintaangalo enamo!! Or probably it is called under play?? ennamo onnu. He comes with same pose mood and performance throughout the first half and the story moves from one town to another, taking as much time to travel in real time in reel as well!!! All just for s...

 Whenever you see some one saying, first halfu nalla irunthuchi second half was lagging or not upto expectations, outside a movie hall after watching a show, i used to wonder, had there been no interval, would they've still felt the same about the movie? Interval block nu onnu ilaati is it even possible to split the story into a good half or bad half? Possibly it can be categorized as good sections and bad. But this book by Patterson is definitely making a case for great first half and torrid second half!! May be the way he started the story at a break neck pace and the speed with which things unfolded, it was reminiscent of a Sehwag innings against Srilanka where he would've scored almost a double century over 100+ strike rate (obviously!!) in a single day only for the whole team score to still fall under 400!!! I was reading the entire series of Alex cross novels (almost 30 plus and counting i guess) and gave it up half way after halfway through, for the pattern became too bo...