Variety is the spice of life

M.K (Mun Kurippu)  When I saw the note from Thala about a guest post, it was the piravippayan scenario for this blog. With great pleasure, immense happiness and honor, hosting this heartfelt tribute from Thala for his most favorite host.  Here you go.  Whose is the most recognised voice in India ? For forty years, the answer to this question was the same. Ameen Sayani. Readers of this blog, and of course this blog’s owner, were not born when this phenomenon happened and can be forgiven for asking Ameen who ? Read on, for this is the story of India’s finest broadcaster from a bygone era. Gils might find it difficult to believe, but there was a world before OTT. Forget OTT, there was a world before YouTube. Forget YouTube, there was a world before Cable TV. Forget Cable TV, there was a world before TV, period. When the only entertainment option was the radio. There was, of course, only one Radio broadcaster – All India Radio. These were the days of Nehruvian socialism,...

I’ve began to watch “Superman and Lois” series, which is the emotional sequel to “Smallville”. Not sure if it as per comics or a fictional setup created specifically for the series, “Smallville” happens to be a town in Kansas where the friendly Kryptonian crash landed and spent his childhood, till he moved to Metropolis as a journalist in “Daily Planet”. The “Smallville” series ended with Lex Luthor becoming US president posing more headache for the caped crusader. “Superman and Lois” begins with Clark Kent losing out on his job due to layoffs and his mother’s demise causing an unplanned change in the Kent family, who relocate to Smallville from Metropolis. Superman is blessed with twin boys, both in their teens and the first season deals with a Kryptonian villain, who happens to be half-brother of Superman, crash landed in England, unlike our American superhero. Their brought ups and childhood stories couldn’t be more different. A major chunk of the entire first season deals with teen...

I saw a movie called “God’s crooked lines” few weeks ago. It was popping up on the timeline and was curious to watch it when the genre mentioned it as thriller. Typically, English dubbed movies from European languages are not my cup of tea for the level of translation and dubbing, often feels unsynch. Europeans seems to emote more or at par with Asians while the American movies are bit low on the melodrama and histrionics. Even if you don’t follow a word of their dialogues, as compared to their acting on screen to the subtitles and dubbing, it feels weird at best. Despite all this, the reviews for this movie were quite good and from the first scene, it had an eeriness about it that hooked me in.  The leading lady is brought into a mental hospital and is left at its doorstep by a guy who praises her for her brave decision. She promises him to do her best and boldly marches into the campus that looks like a castle. At the reception counter, she produces the letter issues by her psych...

Usually, movie releases are clubbed along with the flavor of that period, like – summer blockbusters, festival releases etc. February being the month of valentine’s days, typically, romcoms are slotted for this window. Romance and love used to be guaranteed hit themes at the box office that many a leading hero have established their careers based on romcom movies. One Mr. Shahrukh being a glowing case, where he pushed the envelope to such an extent that, he made spoof of his own characters in one of his movies, where he tagged himself as “Mohabbat man”. Most of the leading actors who started their career around his time, tried to repeat his approach with varying levels of success. Some of them branched out to try action genre, which is usually dubbed as the “last resort” genre for a movie hero to pick up, for there is only character artist role if this genre also lets them down. Amitabh is a decent example for this case where he made a name for himself as an angry young man, angry midd...

After watching 2 seasons of “Jack Reacher” on Amazon Prime, was very curious about the series by Lee Child. With each of those episodes having a running time of nearly an hour, with literally as much budget as a full-length movie being spent on them, visually the series were quite appealing. And as compared the movies where the titular role was played by Tom Cruise, the guy who dons the role in the web series seems more like how the author has envisaged the character. In fact, after reading the book I realize how much of a misfit, Tom Cruise had been, physically at least, for playing that character. Jack Reacher is 7 feet tall and is bulkier than a bull. Imagine Tom Cruise in that role you will understand what I am talking about. If I remember correctly, Killing Floor happens to be the first of the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. The giant ex-army man visits a town, with literally no purpose and ends up destroying half the town. The way to story begins and proceeds till halfway thro...