Variety is the spice of life

Title a thappa padichitu Mallu series pola nu was thinking. Couldn't blame me for Malluwood is giving Hollywood a tough run for their genre jumping trend and churning blockbusters - be it our own home grown super hero Minnal Murali or our own Van helsing (helsingi rather) in Lokah and so on. But apparently Noir is much different in concept and theme than Nair which becamse evident the moment Nicholas cage popped on screen. And interestingly the series was shot in black and white. And considering Cage, probably it was a hat tip to his age!!! I've seen a fair bit of spidey's courtesy Junior, but never in my life i thought Cage would play one!!! He was old in National treasure series and that movie came two decades back!! May be due to the actor or may be by design, there is not much the usual swing and jump that one usually associates with Spidey movies. In fact, there are hardly couple of occasions where he even shoots web. The entire series is dialogue heavy and witty like ...

RCB pona varusham cup win panapo saw a meme that said, innum paaru adutha varusham Vijay CM aagi TVK ruling party aagi oru shock kudupaanga paarunu. This day that memory nu Facebook reminded of that post. Oru one month gap la ennalaam nadanthu poachu!! Weekend was watching Pokiri on some channel and then only the realization struck that the guy on screen is the current CM!! Probably something similar my dad and his generation would've went through watching MGR becoming the CM 5 decades back. Nothing wrong or right in anyone from movie industry or any industry becoming a democractically elected ruling party and the CM, but TN some how has this penchant for picking its leader only from the entertainment space!! For a state that has shunned national parties continuously since last 6 decades, picking a new party outside of the 1 A 2D 2M and 2 K combination is in itself quite something. But the way in which they've went about electing their representatives is a case study in itself ...

Happened to see two movies - Youth and Happy Raj - over the weekend. Both were widely reviewed and supposedly box office hits. Especially Youth seems to be a bigger hit of all tamil movies released this year. It is directed by Ken, the son of actor Karunas and is based on the school life of a guy, whose only aim is to fall in love before finishing twelth!!! And he manages to fall in love not once or twice but thrice with the third one being the final one before he takes a different decision in the end. Even by the one liner about the story, you could've easily made out the kind of scenes or about the character of that boy and the school environment. It has become a norm nowadays that, rouges and ruffians who have mastered indiscipline and excel in it, are the defacto heroes in movies and they've started pushing the limit within school. Anyone who is shown as a studious person will almost always have something shady are caricaturist about that character. The head master or the p...

Michael Crichton along with Arthur Hailey is my favorite author. It gives immense thrill to read their books and their storylines are full of insights on the industry or genre or the institution about which the premise may be based, almost like reading a subject matter book but interestingly written in simple language which can be followed by laymen. I remember reading this book sometime around my college first year or may be bit earlier around that time. It was obviously a hard copy and was shared with me by a school mate of mine, who was also the one who introduced me to Asimov. He gave me "Prelude to Foundation" that i read for almost an year. "Timeline" was intriguing and kept me interested sheerly by its concept of time travel and i was smitten by the thought process when i read it first. This time, co-incidentally, i was also watching the movie based on the same story in parallel and somehow both the book and the adaptation were disappointing! I can understand...

Despite this coming up on the "Next to watch" timeline, i kept skipping it for no reason. When i felt really bored last week, started watching it and after a slight binge watch, i am into season 4 in no time!!! Not that it is that interesting or racy for that matter. But there is something earthy and grounded about the whole premise which keeps you entertained!! The story is about a real time oldie who joins the LAPD as a Rookie cop, having only a decade or so for his retirement. How he comes up in grade and his team's exploits form the storyline so far. The way they've set the storyline, it makes Los Angeles seems to be the bed rock of criminals and illegal activity!! Every episode has at least one gun fight or a drug bust or a kidnapping or murder!! Of course, with the premise being based on police activities, you can't show anything else. It is like having a drama series on doctors and complaining that all episodes deals with diseases and death!! I agree! But c...

Kudos to Malluwood for having owned the sci-fi and other fantasy genres from Hollywood. They've managed to create hits on the most difficult genres to succeed in India. Be it Minnal Murali or Lokah chapter 1 and several other horror/thriller genres as well, Malayalam story writers have aced the art of coming up with mind boggling scripts rivalling their Hollywood counterparts. Even for those that are lift offs from Japanese Korean movies, when the same is available for every other director, the best work comes from their industry and credit should be given where its due. I am not sure if this movie is an inspiration from any other European/Asian or American version, but the presentation, picturisation everything keeps you spell bound and is quite engaging as well. Storywise, it is about time loop concept, possibly the most interesting yet potentially confusing of plot lines. A police officer gets transferred from city to a remote village. He sees an accident on his way to the stati...

What makes a drama series tick, in OTT, that too in Tamil? The question should've been pretty straight forward and not as difficult as it is for making a successful movie, for drama series are dime a dozen across scores of TV channels and none of them are found wanting for audience. The more the cry the merrier the TRP. In that context, the only challenge that OTT platforms might've had while streaming tamil series must've been to choose the path - either the well trodden and worn out cryathons aligning with Satellite channels or try for something genre specific like how they do across English and other foreign languages. This is where Heartbeat series in Hotstar finds the fine balance between being a soap oppaari (no pun intended) in tv and carving a niche OTT audience.  While the setup might've been familiar one for Hindi audience with so many series happening on hospital based storyline, i guess this is a first for tamil. The first season was more on establishing the...

With Junior entering the next stage of his schooling life, it is all the more emotionally tumultuous period for over enthu pattani parent like me, who often compare their own childhood for reference in handling their kid, either to follow or digress from what they went through. It made me realize, how much of a "Santhosh Subramaniam" Prakash Raj i am turning into when it comes to dealing with Junior. On one hand, i want to make sure his path is devoid of any trouble and has a smooth take off, i contradict myself at every step of the way, not realizing that take off means, spreading wings to fly and not remain on the palms of your hand! The other side being not knowing when to let go! When it comes to junior, even slight things that deviate from expected results tend to throw me off handle for it induces the kind of panic reaction and response solely out of guilt of not doing the right job as a parent. I often look back at what my dad would've done and it makes me wonder, ...

This book by Rollins is not part of the famous Sigma series and is a standalone one. It has all ingredients of a typical Rollins novel in a lighter dose. More of Rollins latte i would say. The book begins in the usual template format of Rollins, with a situation involving a famous historical figure and a real one at that, with a slight dose of fiction in such a way that, you wouldn't be able to differentiate between fact and fictitious account of that incident. Count Saint Germaine, a supposedly controversial figure, capable of performing magical things and always had a mysterious aura about him, leaves behind a book with one lady, who was the assistant to the famous queen who was executed during French revolution, something that was predicted by Germaine several years before. She doesn't seems to be a big fan of him but still keeps up her word in securing the book, which becomes the bone of contention between two groups, one of whom are followers of the cult or Germaine himsel...

Again, another book of Crichton that i felt had read long before but forgot about it. In fact, whenever i re-read such books, which i am sure had read before but not able to remember anything about the plot or storyline, reminds me time and again that, there was a reason why it wasn't so memorable. Either the plotline would've been too confusing and for someone who hop-skip-jump read such sections very frequently in the past, i would've either lost interest in the story and would've dropped it half way or would've finished it quick, without actually liking anything about it. Sphere, for what its worth, is somewhere deep in between. The premise is fascinating with a group of academic scholars, being air dropped into middle of ocean, and then deep into the ocean to study about a wreckage, that later turns out to be an alien craft. While there is continuous debate till the end, whether it was something sent from the future or from a far away planet, the situations invo...

Self peethal time again. Crossed a kutty milestone of 1 million hits and is more than half way into the next 100k by the time i posted this. The trend of the hits and views increasing when i don't post and the same decreasing whenever i post continues well into this cycle as well!! Enna thaanya solla vareenga. Post podrana iliayanu paathu pogra gumbal post padikaratha vida jaasthiya iruko? Oru vazhia kadaiya mooditana nu check panrathukaga athana per visitinga?? :D :D Hehehe..either way. Varugaikum tharugaikum nandri.  Anaithu creditsum Thalai Rameshkay urithaaguga. He is the foremost inspiration, perspiration and respiration behind all these posts. Thanks Thala for regularly commenting and unga comments vandhurkanu paakrathukaga naan selfa adichay visit countay oru 40% hits ethirukum nenakren. Mikka nanri for all other regular and irregular visitors as well. Intha milestonelaam indha blogspacela activea iruntha palar reached decades back. Like the proverbial tortoise, it has liter...

When i saw the trailer of this series, i was so curious and was eagerly awaiting the launch for the very concept of a series involving Sherlock being awesome, the one tracing his origins or young self would surely have been a fantastic premise to explore. True to the expectation, the series began with a bang, involving a jailed Sherlock being rescued by Mycroft and the first episode runs away to a finish like a 1000 wala cracker with several characters mushrooming at every turn and most of the main players already getting established, including Moriarty(!) and a Chinese lady. Pretty soon the crime gets established and Sherlock, for a change, is on the run as a suspect/fugitive from law for a murder he didn't commit. The story goes steadily and speedily downwards from then onwards and the climax resembling 1970's Bollywood movies, involving the hero and his dad and their sacrifice!! It could've been a hat tip to the very similar setup involving Sherlock/Moriarty at the Reich...

 I vaguely remember reading about this book a long while back but wasn't sure if i had finished. When i started reading again, i couldn't recollect any major situations or plot lines except for the fact that it was a medical thriller. After finishing the book, i realized why i hadn't bothered much!! Michael Crichton is one of my favorite author right next to Arthur Hailey. They both have penchant for doing deep dive into the respective genres which would put a PhD scholar to shame. There will be way too much information that would be bombarded on the reader, page after page, that at times it would feel as if you are reading a theory paper on the subject, albeit presented in an interesting manner! Wiki says Crichton was about 26 years old when he wrote this story, under the pseudonym of Jeffrey Hudson. May be he predicted his fame down the line and despite winning awards for this book, he knew the topic was at best controversial. The book deals with the big taboo in American...

A while back junior was asking which countries were at war in the ongoing conflict. We were listing down the number of countries and the next inevitable question came in - why so many are at war. A we continued on that topic, i was wondering how many are actually not at war!!  Couple of decades back, Africa would always be in the news solely for war related topic. Like Weather, International news, Business, Sports, if there was a section for war in news, it would most probably about some African country were conflicting ethnic tribes would be hell bent on clearing out the other, some army coup, dictator being thrown out and getting replaced with another equally if not more bad one. Locally, it would be some unrest or stone pelting or occasional infiltration/ gun fight in Kashmir, that would be hogging the headlines. It would be followed by number of soldiers martyred or army causalities. But in recent times, the news seems to have slightly changed. Yes there are warring nations, be...

Usually the love stories shown in movies have villains, who could be the very parents of the lead pair, or circumstances or their would be's, forced fiance/e so on and so forth. In this movie, if you literally had to put a finger on the villain, it has to be the very character or personality of the lead pair(s) involved!! Adhuvum, you might've seen triangular, even quadrangular love stories. This one is a tetrahedron love story to say the least!! Wonder how in the world, the director explained the story to the producer to get this project financed. The hero was in love with a girl during his school days, who was in love with his friend. His love story breaks up even before he could propose. The heroine is in love with her class mate and her story doesn't even take off due to lack of response from the guy side. Simplea thaana iruku. idhuku edhuku tertrahedron nu feel panreengala. Inimay thaan matter. The heroine and hero are set for a blind date by the hero's elder siste...

This book is the penultimate one in the William Warwick series, which culminates with End game, the first book i had read and posted about in this space, from the series. The story begins with a British national, a wealthy and well connected individual at that, who is assigned the task of mediating a defense contract for the British with the Saudi's. The contract has lot of competition in the form of French and Italian delegations. With British and French being the finalists, the responsibility of swaying the result towards Britain lies with that person who reaches out to a shady contact in Riyadh and before he could realize, he is arrested for a murder he didn't commit, but which happened in front of his eyes, as that of the Italian mediator, who gets killed by the son of the Saudi minister. Having been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, he realizes the murky world of politics is not for individuals like him, but for heavy weights who always have higher targets in mind...

I've been noticing this more recently, possibly because the pattern is repeating across almost every movie or drama series, but it seems to be only getting worse with every other release. The directors are hell bent in proving a point that they are not just making dark themed movies/series but literally want to stamp that message across every frame on screen. The species called light boy is long extinct i guess, for every shot and frame and screen time is filled with nothing but darkness!!! In fact, this approach comes with lot of advantages for the producer and director for they don't have to budge to any threats from actors. All they need to do is set the scene in some dark corner and have a body double perform the scene or just dub it out!! Another advantage is cost wise, there is no need to spend on any light and all those electricity and all the money (pittance actually) they may need to pay for light boys and their association. With more darkness, it forces the audience t...

There is a scene in "Abhiyum naanum" movie wherein, when Prakash raj enters the house, he will see a beggar sitting inside. Looking at his wife, he will playfully ask is that her relative for which she will glare at him angrily and storm away from that place asking him to check with his daughter. Apparently that kid would've brought that beggar "uncle" home for she would've felt bad at this state. Out of love for her, Prakash raj will allow that person to stay with them who literally becomes man friday for them. Innum andha extreme pogalainalum something similar happened sometime back. Junior's pickup van comes near a roundtana where there is an auto stand as well. One day he had asked his mother where is the uncle with 2 dogs who apparently had been missing for couple of days. Neither her nor me had even noted that there was a guy, leave alone having two dogs ( kandipa dogs pathirupen nenakren sheerly out of fear for them!! ). When he kept asking about ...

Athepdi ithana pada review poatutu, India's second highest grossing ever movie pathi post podama irukarathu!! What the world watches i the also same gadikaaram.  One word of caution for those who'ven't yet seen the movie. Better stay a few feet away from the screen - whichever it may be. If you are watching on mobile, even more caution is advised, for any moment, you may feel queasy and drop the phone. Chumma therikka vitrukanunga used to be a catchphrase to describe action movies. But in this movie, literally therikka vitrukanunga rather kotti vitrukanunga. Edhai kekareengala - bucket bucketa blood !! Dhurandhar a dhoorama darroda paaka vendiatha poachu!! After watching the movie, felt like taking a bath!! Avlo gore and torture genre movies like Saw, Wrong Turn may tip a hat for this one!!!  Story wise, nothing new. It starts with Kandhahar plane hijack (and very beginning scene the way they are slicing the neck of someone and that sound...uvvaaaks!!) followed by typical k...

This movie was making rounds on SM ever since it was released and had been a big hit. Despite its limited budget, Malluwood has been steadily increasing its foothold in the Indian movie industry. While Telugu movies have made a big splash with their overseas BO clout and also making the word Pan India as a regular terminology across every movie industry in the country, it is actually Malayalam movies who have literally owned the OTT space across most genres. Be it thriller, of which they've literal monopoly or soft romcom movies, Malayalam movies are a league of their own. With Sarvam Maya they enter into the ghost comedy genre, which has been the only source of hit genre for tamil films in recent past. The other aspect in which Malluwood dominates is their ability to churn top talents - nepotism or otherwise. They've always been the go-to region for heroines who ruled the roost across Indian like the East India company, having been introduced in Kerala, entering into Tamil, mo...

The book is interestingly title to start with and right from the beginning is noticeably a much fast moving story than the previous books in the series. Archer is at his premium form in the book and does what he does best - bring in the fiction element amidst well known facts. This time it happens to be Queen's address of the first meeting of the newly formed government after each election. There are certain ceremonies involved like presenting the Crown jewels for the meeting and the story is about how Miles Faulkner, the series villain is set out to steal them and humiliate William and his team who are responsible for the royal protection unit. The story begins as a continuation from one of the conversations that happens between Miles and William regarding a painting donated by the villain to get favorable verdict on an almost convictable case. Only for William to figure out that the painting donated by Miles happens to be a fake and the original is at his US residence. Coincident...

Of all the movies, that i wanted to see, never imagined i would be posting a review for this one!! Such has been the low profile entry of this movie that, apart from couple of interviews where it was mentioned as a decent one in recent times, i never came across any promotions or even reviews for this movie!! But again, a good product is its own advertisement. I happened to watch this one over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised. It has a run time of 100 odd minutes and if you skip through the 2 montage songs and small bit of romance portion involving Vikram, not that they were bad or dragging, but didn't feel like it. The story, for its run time, is quite taught and engaging. Surprisingly, despite being the only famous name in the movie cast, Vikram prabhu is not the hero, though he has more screen time than the hero character himself. The story is about a person on trial who has to be produced in court. Being the escort for that prisoner, what happens during the journey, how...

As mentioned in previous posts, this being the 4th or 5th book in the William Warwick series, Archer hardly makes any effort to reintroduce the characters. The story begins as abrupt for those who follow the series or like a pilot episode of a fresh season for those entering new, with a new assignment being given to William Warwick and his motley bunch.  This time, they've a dual responsibility to unearth potential corruption in the royal protection unit at the same time, perform the protection duty as well for the most beloved royal scion possibly, ever - The Princess of Wales, Diana. With Ross Hogan assigned the task of protection duty for the princess, while rest of the crew are split into teams shadowing the existing cops at the royal household. how they go about uncovering the misdeeds and corruption in the existing team, overcoming initial resistance and then slowly gaining their trust, only to investigate further to unearth evidence against the cartel and eventually resultin...

At the beginning of every year i always lament about how drastically the climate is changing and how terrifying it is to imagine increasing summer months with increasing temperature. Edhapathi thaan nee polambama irunthirukka idhu pathi sollama irukkanulaam kekkapdaathu. Last year, around early Feb itself it began to sweat and we had to resort to air conditioners from the second month of the year itself. With the heat wave, agni natchathiram, increasing its span from the designated 20 odd days to months together, coupled with ever increasing slab rates for electricity consumption, people are not just caught between a rock and hard place, but a very hot rock at that as well. Every year, the number of months of summer, heat rather, has been on the increase with the supposedly cooler months on the reduce, but the cooler temperature are now moving towards colder temperature. The supposedly monsoon months have reduced in duration while the volume of rain has more or less remained the same, ...

On a spree to finish off the Warwick series and since the entire novel goes like an episode or a season of a drama series, posting the review of "Hidden in plain sight" , "Turn a blind eye" and "Over my dead body" as a combined one. The series follow a set template with William Warwick, getting introduced with a promotion to next level and being moved from one squad to another. If he was in Artefacts and rare paintings squad in the previous one, and then goes undercover to expose the black sheep in police department to Drugs division. His team of officers remain the same and they tag along with him, under the leadership of Hawksby. Alongside the regular recurring foe of Miles Faulkner, there is another villain in this book, Rashidi, who happens to be the drug kingpin. How William and team manage to arrest him, only to find him escape by the barest of loop hole made possible by Booth Watson, the knight in not so shining armour who appears as the defense cou...

After finishing "End game" the next book that i picked in the series was the very first one where William Warwick begins his career as a detective. It felt and in reality as well, as if i was watching the origin story of a new super hero comic. But not as cinematic. For those who have followed the "Clifton Chronicles" they may've a different opinion, but since i'ven't read those yet, it felt a refreshing change from the other series that i've been reading off late by different authors.  The story begins with how William enrolls as a policeman, despite his father's wish to see him as a QC(Queen's counsel). The story traces his life as a beat cop, who befriends his fellow partner and learns the tricks of trade from him. A tragedy strikes and on the last day of his beat, post which he was to be promoted to a different role, his partner is killed in a street encounter, in which William is also badly injured. After he joins Scotland yard as detect...