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Nine lives by Peter Swanson – book review

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I’ve been following this author ever since I read his first book and have posted about every single book of his in this space. Compared to his last couple of books, this one is much better is the verdict upfront. The author has been an unabashed fan of Agatha christie, as proclaimed in his past few books as well. In this novel, he has outright tried to produce an adaptation of the famous “And then there were none” by the queen of mystery novels. The fact that, this is going to be the premise is revealed the moment, 9 people get a motta kaduthaasu with just 9 names, theirs including. The author, keep stressing the same that this novel is an inspiration from the famous book several times towards the end, especially when the “reveal” letter has to be “found”. For those who are familiar with the master class from Agatha, the story is a given. In her version, the 10 victims land on an Island where each of them get murdered. The Modus Operandi remains the same here as well, with the killer g
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Lincoln Lawyer – drama series review

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Was bit skeptical when started the series, for it felt like yet another lawyer drama. I got the title confused with lawyer of Lincoln rather than as mentioned. When I saw the review, it was even more dull with the plot mentioning about a lawyer who goes about his business from a Lincoln car. After a while, when this series kept popping up on review circles was curious to give it a try. The major plus being, it is an author backed series based on a best seller novel. Michael Connelly has always been on the book reading radar and was planning to try his series once I am done with the present set. It turned out to be a nice decision to watch the series and the 10 part season 1 got over in no time. It has all the elements of a movie, with each episode running to nearly an hour’s time. Felt like watching a pakka tamil masala movie of thriller genre at many places. The ease with which the lawyer/hero (Mike Haller) cracks open cases and secures freedom for this clients, his family issues that
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Kingdom of bones by James Rollins – book review

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 This is one book that I’ve been waiting for almost 6 months to lay my hands on. There were multiple India release dates since late 2021 and finally managed to get a copy. Of the list of all James Rollins novels that I’ve read on the sigma series, this is the most voluminous, running to almost 450+ pages. Off late Africa has found a fancy amongst authors I guess, having already exhausted every possible European and American city. Came across a mention of half dozen African countries in a James Patterson novel recently and now this one. There is a common factor in utilizing the locations as well. Couple of words thrown in from the local lingo, mention of French/Belgian/Spanish colonization era, rampant corruption and lawlessness, harsh weather, mosquitoes, forests, exotic animals, natural resources and how they are being exploited and poverty. Replace the setting to anything European, it would be all about architecture, tourists, glowing weather and super smart people. Not a million god
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KGF2 – movie review

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Possibly the highest or second highest grossing Indian movie ever at box office. Apdi oru padatha pathi review pannama vitta saami kutham aaidum endra kaaranthaal this post. Having seen KGF one (which is quite accessible. All you need is a TV with Colors tamil channel subscribed. They use this movie as ad break amongst their other programs), I was waiting for a good print or some OTT to stream the movie. Anti-piracy apdinulam illa. The setting and the picturization has been royally rich on every aspect of movie making but for color! Even in the era of black and white film, this movie would’ve been termed as black and black. For a story based on gold mining, the setup looks as if they are working on Neyveli lignite!! Atta kari everywhere. Finally when KGF2 was released on Prime, started watching the movie. With runtime of almost 3 hours, was wondering the number of man hours people worldwide have spent on this movie, taking it into the 1000 crore BO collection club, feeling proud of my
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Of getting old and being old

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There was a conversation with one colleague couple of years back that I keeps ringing in mind. He was mentioning about a mutual friend who had quit his regular job and had taken up independent consulting offer with an European client. He was relocating to that nation and his remuneration was somewhere around 6 to 10 crores INR per year factoring the then exchange rate!! That colleague coolly mentioned that we don’t know what might happen the next minute while we keep planning for the future. He was philosophical about the uncertainty of life and not knowing when the end will come, quoting texts from Bhagavad gita and from one guruji whom he was following with all his heart. The fact that his rants sounded more out of jealousy apart (sic) it kind of did turn prophetical with pandemic letting loose its wings in couple of months. On a side note that European friend received his European salary on India currency was a happy story altogether different. But the reason I keep remembering that
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Of “mega”bharatha and other tales

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As mentioned prior, junior is very fond of funny stories. Even those stories where he is aware of the characters, would always insist that the stories should be funny, setting the terms clearly while requesting for one. He has a decent collection of Amar Chitra Katha stories where he reads about the original version of the mythologies and before going to sleep, the last action item for the day would be a retell of those tales in a funny format. Junior being my only and most vociferous audience, who applauds and laughs out loud for any and every silliest mokkai of mine, I used to mash up the known tales with a bit of spoof element. The Bheeman character in my stories is an amalgam of Kaalia and Mayabazaar Ranga rao. For familiarity sake that character is addressed as Bheem (minus the “chota”). He is always fond of food and eats continuously right from the time he wakes up till he goes to sleep. More than Ramayana, Junior is very fond of Mahabharatha. Possibly because it has truck load o
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Of books and movies

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Many a time, when you read a good book, you are tempted to think about its screen adaptation. Especially those genres that set your imagination on fire like LOTR or Harry Potter series. Thriller genres that kindle your intellectual curiosity and are really tricky to make it suitable for large screen audience. Especially murder mystery stories set in the template of Agatha christie, where most of the action happens over conversations, the facts that are available with the detective being presented to the reader as well. In such a cramped environment, where the only thrill for the reader being, are they able to out think the lead detective in breaking the case, making it into a 2+ hour long movie and still managing to keep the audience engaged is a skill in itself. Cinema being a visual medium primarily, makes it more challenging to engage the visual senses along with your aural and mental faculties and is a real test for the director/screenplay writer’s skill, in ensuring such genres/be
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