Variety is the spice of life

Till I started with the title this time, I didn’t realize when the “mandatory year end post” actually became “mandatory”!! I actually checked the back dated entries and looks like it’s been the case at least since 2015! What started as a copycat attempt, reading other bloggers year ending posts, became a “tradition”! Idhelaam our pozhappanu kekapdaathu. This year was nothing different from last year, but for the same cribbing’s in professional space and losing touch with few more familiar faces on personal side. Afraid that at this rate, I could soon be the Jack Reacher of my own world – minus the Hulk-y figure and height. For the uninitiated, Jack Reacher is a character created by Lee child that is presently into its second season on Amazon Prime. Somehow it feels like a repeat of everything that has already happened in my life, be it the kind of people I get involved with or for the situations and scenarios that I undergo. I read an article about “Glitch in Matrix” kind of situations...

I follow James Rollins regularly for he is one author who publishes a book per year - specifically on sigma series. Not sure if he is prolific across other genres as well but sigma series is my favorite for its mind-boggling premises and pacy presentation. I was attracted by the title of this one and when I saw the author as Rollins was under the impression that it might’ve been ghost written or co-written by someone who is leveraging on the fame of Rollins. But apparently this is completely a work of Rollins and to be honest after reading the book the initial doubt still recurs strongly – was it really written by Rollins?!! Not just the theme but the language and presentation every single aspect that is a trademark of his other books are completely missing. Language, of course, is different because of the genre and the way in which it has been presented, but the simplistic approach and straight forward story telling via dialogues was majorly missing in this book. At over 600 pages thi...

When I was a school going kid, I hardly remember Chennai being hit by any unnatural weather condition with the only constant weather being hot sun all day and humid nights. Cloud bursts, unseasonal rains, historic heavy downpour, months’ worth of rain falling on a single day were all unheard-of phenomena. The only indication for rain, other than the usual retreating monsoon, being, if it was more than usual hotter during the daytime, it may potentially rain during the night. The street next to my house, on the way to my school, will become a mini swimming pool even for slight drizzles. We were staying on a chawl kind of setup with common bathroom toilet, that would overflow with stagnant water. The door frames of the restroom and the pipeline inside will be teeming with cockroaches of all sizes and color, that made might have traumatized me for life. Different post for a different time.  During my college days, the rains began to get messier with water logging becoming a common occ...

Yet another horror/thriller/ghost/psychological genre presentation from Vikram Kumar, whose previous creations include 13B (Yaavarum Nalam in Tamil and probably one of the best ghost thriller movie), 24 (the triple action Surya movie), Manam (a wonderful movie spanning 3 generations which was originally played by 3 generation star from Akkineni household) and couple of other movies as well. Kudos to the director for not meddling with what he was trying to tell and how, sticking to his strengths and having the ending as how it is.  The series start off with Naga Chaitanya, a corrupt reporter, trying to reach his wife and while searching for a charger he finds a box load of newspaper clippings. The clippings play a pivotal role throughout the series across all episodes and literally move the story forward. Of the 2 female leads, Priya bavani who plays his wife has a slightly bigger role than Prachi who plays his assistant. There is a surprise element which is maintained throughout th...

Off late the thriller movies that come out of Malluwood are top notch. Probably the stupendous success of Drishyam has lent a fresh breath to this genre. Garudan is the latest offering in this genre and is quite up there when it comes to story telling and presentation. The story begins with a college girl getting assaulted in a rainy evening and basis eyewitness accounts and DNA tests, the culprit is caught quite easily by the police. The way they collect DNA samples, would that be admissible in court and all those nitty gritty loopholes apart, the culprit is sentenced to prison immediately. His entire world collapses, having been shunt out by his own family and friends, losing out on his job and even subjected to routine assault within jail premises as well. After finishing the sentence, he comes out and tries to reconcile with his family who would’ve nothing to do with him. He is humiliated wherever he goes and one fine day, a very particular day as well, he decides to file a lawsuit...

I finally realized what was needed to push me back to clear up my backlog of books, a cyclone and complete power shutdown!! Hopefully for the remaining books, I wouldn’t require such a “strong” motivator!!  After the Jack West series got over, wasn’t sure of what to expect next from him. There was a movie which he made that was, well, typically his style with all mayhem and doomsday level destruction awaiting to happen at a literal click of a button with just the lead character being the last line of defense/defiance between apocalypse and aftermath. The other standalone novel “Cobalt Blue” which he may potentially turn into a series, was again not so enthusing as it felt like reading a script of a Marvel movie minus the visual effects.  In Einstein’s secretary, he produces an interesting way of storytelling, more on the lines of “How I met your mother” drama series, where clips from future episodes are strewn all around the season, making the audience curious and hooked on to...