Anasi Boys

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Gaiman's "Anansi Boys" is a joyride for anyone who has been fascinated by age old folk tales, magic and wacky humor.
The book starts with Anansi, the trickster Spider-god, dying all of a sudden in his regular night club. His estranged son, Charles "Fat Charlie" Nancy, lives across the pond in London burbs and gets the news when he tries to locate his father to invite him, on the behest of this fiance, for his impending marriage. Fat Charlie likes a normal life with a 9-to-5 job, a few extra inches around his waist and not an ounce of magic or trickery about him. Heartbroken, somewhat to his own surprise, Fat Charlie, comes down to the US for his father's funeral.
At the funeral, he realizes that his father was a God (of sorts) and that he has a long lost brother, Spider. A brother who inherited Anansi's magical legacy and Godhood. In order to make up for lost time, Fat Charlie invites Spider to come and visit him. Spider turns up and singlehandedly almost destroys Fat Charlie's career and love life. What's more, Spider refused to get out of his un-magical brother's simple life. Desperate to get rid of his seemingly evil brother, Fat Charlie ends up making a deal to evict him with forces that are way behind his comprehension. The deal proves to be very expensive for Charlie.
The book is magical mostly because of the protagonist's journey from, er, Muggledom to that of a demi-God. It is, in its roots, a coming-of-age novel. Gaiman's clever prose and subtle yet wacky humor makes this a fun, fast read.
Highly recommended.

Turbulence

Turbulence by Samit Basu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Before you start reading this book, you should learn to ignore the "first Indian superhero novel" tag, it doesn't really do justice to the book. Samit Basu's "Turbulence" is a mixed bag. It is rather fun to read but also feels like a parody of a number of books and graphic novels in the superhero genre (not by accident, if I had to wager).
The plot's quite interesting: Travelers on a certain seemingly normal London-New Delhi BA flight disembark without knowing that they all have acquired unique superhuman powers. Some can fly, some have super-human strength, some can replicate themselves, and so on... As time goes by, the unassuming superheros start understanding and using their superpowers.
The book starts in the middle of the things when there are already the quintessential "Good and evil" factions created. The latter is head by a Jai Mathur, an Army Veteran whose powers have escalated him to become to toughest warrior in the world. Jai has plans to start a new world order and for this, he starts gathering other powered people around him. Those who deny are ruthless put out of action. Meanwhile, somewhere in Mumbai, the "Good" faction is gathering together at the behest of a certain Aman Sen, who led a nondescript life before gaining the superpowers to manipulate all sorts of communication networks, particularly the internet. Things come to a head when Jai and Aman's forces clash, just to realize that they might be played by a certain third party.
"Turbulence" is a heady mix of "Watchmen", "X-Men" with a sprinkling of every piece of superhero fiction you would have ever read. Basu's tone swings from dead serious to blatant spoof way too many times to slot this novel as anything. It is unabashedly good fun, no doubt but it ends abruptly with too many loose ends and an unsatisfying climax. Somewhat like the last pages of "The Simoquin Prophecies" where Kirin abruptly leaves Maya and rides off to find himself and rule his new found dominion of the Ravians. This promises a sequel.
I was a bit let down in the end though it was a really fast read. Some interesting moments along the way but in the end it is nothing new.

Shaitan

Cast: Rajeev Khandelwal, Kalki Koechlin, Gulshan Devaiya, Shiv Pandit, Neil Bhoopalam, Kirti Kulhari, Pawan Malhotra, Rajit Kapoor and Raj Kumar Yadav

Director: Bejoy Nambiar

"If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space", goes the tagline of the movie - the mantra followed by the protagonists, who happen to be rich young college going brats who like to drive fast cars, drink till they drop and snort cocaine whenever they get a chance.

The story starts with Amy (Koechlin), a young woman with a disturbed childhood, moving to Mumbai with her father (Kapoor) and step-mom. While Amy is struggling to get over the trauma of her mentally disturbed mother's death, her father and step-mom have a hard time dealing with her. In Mumbai, she meets KC (Devaiya) at a party and he introduces her to his gang (Pandit, Kulhari, Bhoopalam). The gang's idea of sticking together is to drive in the fast lane, loot drug stores in the middle of the night and generally party all the time. Amy takes to the group like a fish to water.

Things take a turn when the youngsters get involved in a freak accident where they end up killing a couple of people. Afraid of what their parents would say, they try to bury the matter but are caught by a cop Malwankar (Yadav). However, Malwankar turns to be a corrupt cop and demands a hefty sum to dismiss the matter. Scared and unsure, the gang decides the best way of handling things could be to stage Amy's kidnapping and ask her dad for a ransom. However, things go horribly wrong.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to a tough-as-nails cop, Arvind Mathur (Khandelwal), who is under suspension. As the gang's plans go awry, it becomes a high profile police case and the commissioner (Malhotra) brings Mathur back in to handle this case. Unknowingly, Mathur stumbles across nightmarish criminality as he chases the gang across the underbelly of Mumbai.

With "Shaitan", Nambiar presents a disturbing yet not unfamiliar portrait of the contemporary Indian youth. Without a care or a life-goal, the gang represents what could go terribly wrong with youth. However, this is not the high point of the movie - the high point is how the subject is treated. "Shaitan" never gets preachy or moralistic, it just tells the story as it is without taking sides. The protagonists are morally corrupt, aimless and hardly role-model material but the movie neither glorifies them nor does it condemn them.

Among the cast, Khandelwal stands out with his rather brief but effective role. Shiv Pandit is very effective as Dash, the seemingly cool-headed and calculating master planner who has a sociopath lurking underneath, is particularly good. As is Gulshan Devaiya in the role of KC, the unofficial gang leader and the jester of the lot. rest of the three (Koechlin, Bhoopalam and Kulhari) do a good job as well. Raaj Kumar Yadav (of "LSD" and "Ragini MMS" fame) is rather brilliant as the corrupt cop who sets this whole crime roller-coaster into action. Actually, I think everyone in the cast has done a fantastic job!

The film has some serious flaws though. For one, there is an overdose of the psychedelic visuals throughout the movie. Nicely done, but it distracts after a while. Second, Amy's recollections of her mother and her disturbed childhood are very distracting and completely redundant. Third, the movie changes tone very so often - it turns from a buddy film to a crime thriller to a dark comedy and then back again - this works in some parts but on a whole the movie looks somewhat disjointed.

My Rating: 7 out of 10. A brilliant first effort by Bejoy Nambiar, "Shaitan" tells a compelling tale. I hope to see more impressive stuff coming from Nambiar.

Zindagi na milegi Dobara

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin

Director: Zoya Akhtar

For starters, ignore all the people who go around declaring this movie to be a cross between "Dil Chahta Hain" and "The Hangover". Every movie that has some male bonding elements is not a "DCH" wannabe and every movie that's about a bachelor party doesn't mean it is aping "The Hangover".

As it is with any movie, if you know what to expect, "Zindagi..." is a fairly entertaining movie in its own right. It is about 3 childhood friends who have made a pact to celebrate their last few days of bachelorhood by indulging into extreme sports of each other's choice. The movie begins with Kabir (Deol) getting engaged to his girlfriend Natasha (Koechlin). So their long pending pact comes into effect and the 3 friends meet up in Barcelona, Spain.

The rest of the movie is how the 3 boys rediscover themselves and re-evaluate their life and relationships. Arjun (Roshan) realizes that his current workaholic routine so that he can retire by 40 is not allowing him to stop and smell the roses. Imran (Akhtar), who just realized that his biological father is not the person that raised him, finally comes to terms with his life. Meanwhile, Kabir starts doubting whether he wants into a marriage right now.

The movie is good fun, the interactions between the friends is quite nicely scripted and often delivers some genuine laughs. Farhan Akhtar is particularly effective as an easygoing, disorganized guy who doesn't take anything seriously. Katrina Kaif, as Laila - the deep sea diving instructor, looks like a million bucks and for once has a meaty role that she delivers fairly well. Roshan and Deol are underused.

There are some problems with the movie though. One, I think they overdid the TV teaser and promos - all the fun moments are already captured in those and if you have seen every teaser, the movie gets predictably boring. The score and the songs aThe other problem is due to the locales. Exotic Spanish locations and the extreme sports angle distract more than they contribute to the story. Finally, I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending (the song in the end credits). I think the final still where all the 3 friends run in the encierro should have been a good ending for the movie, leaving the user to wonder what decisions did the friends make.

My Rating: 5.5 out 10. Fun to watch but doesn't stay with you. Full points to the styling, Farhan Akhtar and Kaif. I had expected better from Zoya Akhtar after the brilliant "Luck by chance".

The Cobra

The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Classic Forsyth novel. This one is about an all-out war on cocaine machine by a mysterious ex-spook Paul Devereaux aka The Cobra, assigned to this mission directly by the POTUS.

The Cobra surveys the cocaine industry and decides that the best way to put an end to the cocaine traffic is when it is being shipped over the sea. The Cobra books the ex-bounty hunter, ex-lawyer and Forsyth's old hack, Cal Dexter as his right hand and it is Dexter who does most of the groundwork - from co-ordinating with various governments of the world to blackmailing drug lords.

Overall, a very fast read. Forsyth's writing is a little conventional, often predictable but anyone who has read him before will not be disappointed.

The twist in the last few pages is brilliant.

Delhi Belly

Cast: Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Poorna Jagannathan, Shenaz Treasury, Vijay Raaz

Dir: Abhinay Deo.

From the initial promos, I was convinced that "Delhi Belly" is one of those new-gen movies trying too hard to connect to the young audience by by using colloquial languages. I was not impressed by the "Bhaag DK Bose" song at all. Seemed too stupid to me (though the rock tune itself was not bad).

Anyway, after dilly-dallying finally caught "Delhi Belly" in theaters last night before the courts act on the PILs. Turned to be a fairly funny movie.

The story is about 3 average single-and-working Delhi boys - Tashi (Khan), Nitin (Kapur) and Arup (Das) - who share a rundown flat in the by-lanes of Delhi. Shit happens when Tashi's air-hostess girlfriend Sonia (Treasury) picks up a mysterious package on behalf of a friend from an unknown Russian and promises to drop it off somewhere in Delhi. Sonia hands over the package to Tashi, who offloads it to Nitin who passes the responsibility to Arup who finally drops it off to the lair of a local goon (Raaz). Hilarity ensues as the precious package gets exchanged with a stool sample from Nitin, who has an acute case of Montezuma's Revenge aka Delhi Belly.

Writer Akshat Verma's script is reminiscent of Guy Ritchie capers - street-language, violence and completely over-the-top situations. A lot of people will be put off by the scatological references all over while others may find it interesting just for the same reason. Beyond the expletives and the toilet humor, "Delhi Belly" has a good story going and has it own touches that are funnier than the superficial packaging everyone is raving about. What cracked me up is not the stool-sample exchange but the fact that it was collected in an old Chawanprash bottle. More than the gaalis, it is life-style the bachelors lived in that rings true. Any single male sharing an apartment in an urban Indian city would relate to the protagonists' messy apartment overrun by cockroaches and with a perennial water shortage.

My Rating: 6.5/10. Don't go by what the critics say - it is doesn't really redefine Indian cinema nor is it the best movie you would have ever watched. Don't watch just to feel thrilled to see actors swearing like you and me. "Delhi Belly" is a comedy-thriller in its own right - funny in parts.

Shor in the City

Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Nikhil Dwivedi, Sundeep Kishen, Pitobash, Radhika Apte, Preeti Desai and Zakir Hussain

Directed by: Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK

For those who came in late, Raj N. and Krishna DK were the guys behind the laugh riots - "Flavors" (2004) and "99" (2009). Funny one-liners, interesting characterizations and a fast paced script - these seem to be in the director-duo's signature style. "Shor" has all that.

Like the duo's past 2 ventures, "Shor" has multiple interlinked story lines. The setting is in Mumbai during the Ganesh festival - 10 days from Chaturthi to Visarjan. First story is about Tilak (Kapoor), who runs a pirated books racket along with his never-do-good friends - Mandook (Pitobash) and Ramesh (Dwivedi). While the trio tries plan their next big "hit" - getting a manuscript from a famous author before it is publicly released, Tilak learns to deal with his new marriage. While Tilak picks up the reading habit, his 2 friends come across a cache of fire-arms in a local train and they don't know what to do with it...

Meanwhile, Abhay (Ramamurthy), moves to Mumbai to start his life afresh, undoubtedly with some leaving behind some ghosts of his past in the US of A. Even as he starts to establish his office, he gets sucked into a protection racket run by a crafty local goon (Zakir Hussain). Things go out of hand when the goons threaten Abhay's girlfriend (Desai)...

The third story is about a struggling cricketer Sawan (Kishan) who is just out of luck on the day when he has to qualify for the Mumbai team - his path to riches. As his desperation to keep his promises to his girlfriend increases, he decides to go bribe his way through the selection committee. Only problem is he doesn't have the money...

All the 3 different stories collide into each other as expected and the jigsaw is complete. Oh, and yes, all the individual stories are inspired by true life events.

"Shor" is a dark, dark thriller with enough elements to keep the viewers' interest. It also deserves all the positive responses it has received from the critics. However, speaking for someone who liked Raj N.-Krishna DK duo's first 2 movies, I must say I am somewhat disappointed. It doesn't have the spunk of "Flavors" or the hilarity of "99". It seems to be succumb under its own weight at times.

Still "Shor" is excellent film-making and is several notches above the crap hits the screens every Friday. Watch it for some clever twists, some good acting performances (particularly Pitobash and Dwivedi) and some dark humor.

My Rating: 6.5/10.

Civilization by Niall Ferguson

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Niall Ferguson, the clever British historian-author, indeed has the gift of explaining things. In "Civilization", he looks at the "West" as we know it (both as a culture as well as the socio-economic state that it is) and the "Rest" - the erstwhile colonies, 3rd world countries, South American countries, etc. and tries to see what sets the "West" apart.
The book starts with a peek at the world in the beginning of the 16th century - when Asian cities were not just the largest but also the much more prosperous than the cities of "West" like London. So what happened in a span of 500 years that turned things completed around. Then, as Ferguson walks down the paths of history, he proposes six "killer applications" that help the "West" get where it is and these are i) Competition, ii) Science, iii) Medicine, iv) Property rights and legislation v) Consumerism and vi) the Work Ethic.
Each of the six arguments are brilliant, no doubt. The problem with the book is that Ferguson tries too hard. What could have been a superlative 100-page essay is dragged to over 325 pages allowing the author to ramble away throwing in bits of interesting, but seemingly unrelated, historical notes. A bigger problem is that his justification is not consistent: To prove one point, he picks up a particular set of players (say, Ming dynasty in China vs. British colonizers) but completely drops these players for the next point. I am not saying I was expecting his arguments to be universal, but the point is that Ferguson spends thousands of describing the subtleties of the social condition of the players - which is a complete waste of ink and the readers' time. For instance, I do not see why should I read all about French colonization in Senegal when the topic is about Medicine - what happened to the Italian and British pioneers of medicine?
Also, the book tries to extrapolate, in patches, to apply history to future - using several references of how civilizations are cyclic in nature and death feeds new life and stuff. What is the point? If I need to read speculation and "connect-the-dots" kind of literature - I will pick up whatever Malcolm Gladwell or Steven D. Levitt print next.
Not really impressed beyond the base point of the book - the six "killer apps" that worked in the West.