The Krishna Key - India's Own Dan Brown Unlocked

Dan Brown - What's the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear his name? The Da Vinci Code? Angels & Demons? Robert Langdon?  Tom Hanks ? Controversies? You will be having your own perspective on him regardless of the 'n' and 'n+1' number of controversies that always surrounds him whenever his new book is published. However, no one can deny the indubitable fact that all his works are based on extensive research to give that perfect combination of fact and fiction to his fans. Be it the mind-numbing techno thriller Digital Fortress or the scientific thriller Deception Point to the fast and furiously paced Angels & Demons or the chock-full of controversy loaded The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown ensured that his novels had a solid foundation of exhaustive ground work and exploration on the core theme of his books before it is written.   

Much like Dan Brown, Ashwin Sanghi had also made enormous study and thorough investigation of facts for his latest novel - The Krishna Key. Anagrams, numerous places from Dwarka to Himalayas, treasure hunt sort of expeditions,  a murder in the beginning and a historian to decode the clues left behind, The Krishna Key revealed and reminded of Dan Brown's style of works instead of the author's unique style. However, the level of detail which Ashwin Sanghi had covered in the book will surely make everyone to be proud of our ancient Indian culture and our forefathers - the knowledge they possessed in their arsenal and the science behind their actions to prove that they did not do things randomly without observations and justifications. Unfortunately, as you are already familiar with Dan Brown, The Krishna Key was more like a encyclopaedic bombardment of information from his study on various books rather than a work of fiction. In fact, there are 2 parallel stories that runs throughout the novel - Mahabharata written in his own words and the present day cat and mouse story where the hunter becomes hunted and the hunted becomes the hunter.

The characters walk , ride , run , climb, swim , get buried etc. However, you do not get to be under the character's skin to feel their emotions. It's like "yeah..they are doing...so, what". You don't actually empathise with any of the character including the person who falsely thinks himself to be the next Kalki Avatar or the historian Ravi Saini making trips to most of the corners of India. 

The climax was very predictable but the only saving grace was that it did not drag for a long time. The epilogue was very much reminiscent of Deception Point's final conclusion. 

Bottomline: The Krishna Key is a very honest and straight forward herculean attempt to showcase India's advanced scientific contribution of the ancient days with a touch of fiction. But since, you are conversant with Dan Brown's works, the Krishna Key seemed more like finding new facts about our ancestors and temples rather than the storyline or the style of writing

New Yorker - Yummy Yummier Yummiest

As I was travelling on the KNK road for my personal reasons, my stomach began to rumble and growl like a distant thunder and suddenly I felt that rats were skipping, jogging and running in my tummy. A swift nonchalant glance at my Fast track watch displayed the time to be close to 12. Then, I remembered that I did not have my breakfast either. KNK road has no dearth for restaurants. But, the problem which posed me at that critical juncture was to choose which restaurant to satiate the grumbling rats in my belly. Like an expert soldier on the Indo-Pak border, I quickly scanned the place for a good place to sink my teeth in. It was then New Yorker caught my attention which was just diagonally opposite to CCD square and next to Amadora. As ever, let's-just-walk-in and see how-the-food-is attitude made  me to park my vehicle outside to venture into New Yorker.

I was greeted in by a quick fun fact on New Yorker about their history when I was climbing the stairs to the first floor. The ambience was nifty and spacious with lots of sunshine streaming into the place where I was seated. The service was more than prompt. They were very courteous and pleasant. Now, it was time for the food to impress me.

Sliding through the items one by one with a rapid browsing on all the pages of the A la carte revealed that New Yorker offered Lebanese, Italian, Mexican and Indian cuisines and the fact that it was a ONLY vegetarian was an additional bonus to me as I need not have to be overly cautious to not to order a non-vegetarian dish by mix up and mistake! So, I went ahead and ordered the Chef's special - Manhattan French Fries as starter and an Orange Fizzy drink to start my course. For main course, I went ahead with Mexican Beans Tacos as I was unsure how much French fries they would be serving me.

A Nataraj pencil was placed before me and I couldn't resist to solve the puzzles in front of me till the time they brought in the ordered items. By the time I was solving the puzzles in 10 minutes time, French fries and Orange Fizzy drink were served. OMG! The French Fries were out of the world. It was so god damn good that I completely indulged myself without even realizing that Tacos were placed on my table. It was simply amazing with the nachos cheese sauce. I was feeling giddy after diving into the fries and poking every stick by dipping them into the sauce and placing it in my mouth. I was literally relishing the delicious experience. After I felt that the French fries itself had silenced the rats in my tum, I still proceeded with the Tacos so as not to waste it. The tacos were wonderfully presented with lettuce and cabbage. But, as I was completely reeling under the heaviness of the Chef's special, I couldn't get myself engaged with the tacos as much as I had enjoyed my time with the fries. Nonetheless, the tacos were good and the Orange Fizzy drink ensured that it provided the right proportion of zing and tanginess to my taste buds.

Overall, New Yorker is a place which I would love to visit once again to indulge in their rich and scrumptious dishes. Oh! One more important thing. You need to forget the price column when you are choosing and selecting your desired cuisine.

Premam - Cuteness overloaded with lots of extra love

MAAVA..MAAVA...LOLMAXXXXXXXXXXXXXX......Henceforth,whenever someone mentions JAVA to me or to anyone else in front of me, my immediate and spontaneous reaction will be to burst out laughing internally with a big grin on my face outside and nod to their explanation on whatever they were telling prior to mentioning JAVA. 

So, is it the only hilarious scene in the movie? NOOOOO (Screaming literally!). When George tells his friends that Malar is going to teach them how to dance for the cultural fest, they simply nod and look at her to see whether what he said was true. But, when Malar was still immersing herself to the tune of the music and showed no sign to dance, their face clearly showed that Malar had made a fool out of George. Later, when she takes a couple of steps forward and puts in her quick and complicated steps to the beats, they were not just taken aback with surprise by her dance movements but also were rendered speechless with George breaking the monotony of silence by asking her to teach them only simple steps. However, it is that priceless moment of flabbergasted expressions etched upon their faces that simply made me to freeze the screen and watch the scene over and over again just like how I used to sit in awe and watch again and again without getting bored whenever Sachin strikes a full-blooded straight drive. 

Are these the only scenes that are hilarious? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO (Screaming loudly and clearly now!). The entire movie is simply and purely laced and laden with lots of funny moments and these 2 scenes are just at the top for me.

Review for Premam: I have no idea now where to start and what to say but it has already started with the fact the the film is downright and unadulteratedly humorous that it will tickle your ribs to the extent that your ribs start aching so painfully that you need to visit the doctor after the movie! Scenes involving Mary and her dad, JAVA teacher and Malar, George's sheepish grins when he sees his love at different points in time and not to mention the dialogues added the extra spice to the whole ingredient.

Nevertheless, be it George, Mary, Malar, George Friends, JAVA teacher or even George's father who comes only for a scene but literally steals the show by lambasting the principal, every character in the movie is so well-chosen and handpicked that it did not feel like I was watching a movie at all. All their performances including the kid Celine were so natural and genuine that it evoked in me a strong sense of sincere warmth towards the complete cast. 

If I am saying that it is only the cast and humor that are the highlights of Premam, then I am committing a cardinal sin for which even Jesus would turn his face away from me. Songs especially the soul-stirring Malare was simply outstanding. I was transported and lost myself in an elysian world of time and space in my own emotions and feelings when I was listening to this beautiful rendition. The BGM particularly in the second act when George comes with his full grown beard in college was peppy and high on energy that it was a dynamic dynamite of a background score by the composer.   

Though the basic premise of Premam is somewhat similar to the Tamil movie 'Autograph' by Cheran, the handling of the subject is totally 180 degree contrast to the storyline of Autograph. Likewise, the director had also ensured that no stones were left unturned. Just when I was wondering what exactly happened to the conversation between the school George and kid Celine, another scene pops up (humor is of course there also) in the end credits thus neatly tying up all the loose ends to give a wonderful and power-packed entertainment that will definitely guarantee a big smile on everyone's face when they finish watching the film.

PS:

I am so so so so so so so sadddddddddddd that I had missed out on this really good feel-good and zippy film all this while and that I had to write the review only today after watching it.   

The Hateful Eight - Tarantino's BLOODy Best!!

Tarantino has always been never afraid to show the blood and gore splattered and dancing in his frames right from the famous or rather infamous scene in Reservoir Dogs where an ear is simply severed with a razor. In fact, just like Reservoir Dogs in which 8 men planned a heist, The Hateful Eight has also 8 notorious people who had taken refuge from the blinding blizzard in Minnie's Haberdashery. 

The film is set just after the American Civil War and is divided into chapters. I am not going to go in detail on the storyline to spoil the fun and suspense for you. Do head ahead to the nearest theatre and enjoy every 180 minute of QT's 8th film in all its splendour.

In the first half of the movie, QT rolls the dice and assembles his ensemble cast with some rib-tickling and intelligent dialogues and actions in Minnie's Haberdashery. As the tension in the first half slowly builds up, you get that ominous feel that some one is going to die for sure but who? I was scratching my head for that million dollar question and got the mind-boggling answer just moments before the interval served to the audience in a chilling way. Samuel L Jackson as Warren was simply unbeatable with his powerful dialogue delivery matching and syncing up equally with his sinister and maniacal laughs. But, there was one person who gave SLJ a run for his money - Daisy Domergue. Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy was the cynosure of this entire movie with her breath-taking mannerisms and expressions. Even in the most serious of scenes where you want to feel for her, she makes you roar with laughter through her witty dialogues and countenance. 

The second half can be best described as barbaric and brutal for which QT is well-known in all his 8 films. Just like water is sprayed from a water sprayer, the bullets were showered from the pistols with ease thus soaking everyone in their own blood. This is where QT ensured that he not only handled the aestheticization of violence with his traditional Tarantino-esque style and flamboyance but also kept the element of mystery close to the heart of the movie itself by revealing Daisy's secret in a rather humorous way. Kudos to him for imagining such a heavy scene in that fashion.

The other 2 strong pillars of the movie, apart from QT and the cast, are Ennio Morricone's eerie and mysterious background score and the cinematography by Robert Richardson who had captured the spectacular landscapes in a beautiful way. 

The Hateful Eight - a typical Tarantino movie but quite long - 3 hours film - that will definitely make you admire when you walk out of the theatre on QT's ingenuity to handle yet another Spaghetti Western confined to only a single room filled with 8 vermins who are left to their gruesome fates.

OK Now, Who's my Santa - An Awesomatic Hilariously Entertaining and Emotional Read

The first page of the first novel written by Vaishnavi Nair Kolli started off with the rantings of the ever effervescent Annika Pillai to none other than our beloved Saint Nicholas a.k.a Santa Claus or simply Santa! It set the tone and the stage perfectly for the plot to take its own time to unravel itself with the continuous back and forth responses from every character either through mails or by chats. The writing style is fresh ,original and different with heavy doses of slapstick and wit spread intelligently from the beginning till the very end.

The story is crisp and neat. There were instances when the narration could have become melodramatic or effusively sentimental. But, Vaishnavi showed her adroitness by reigning in the ropes tightly thus ensuring that the emotional quotient of the narration did not cross the border line and become sugary or mawkish. Likewise, the story has also its own suspense that is woven into the very fabric of the novel - Who's my Santa? At first glance, you think that you have decoded who might be the Santa. But, certain distractions peppered in very cleverly by Vaishnavi in the quintessential Agatha Christie-esque style ensured that the cat wasn't out of the bag until the climax.

If you are not an emotional type, then you can proceed to the next paragraph unless curiosity wants and makes you to read the current paragraph completely. But, if you are an emotional person, then kindly have a hand-kerchief with you so that you don't drench and wet the pages with your tears. I belonged to the latter and I did not have a hand kerchief! 

ONWMS is a picture-perfect Blockbuster Bollywood material. To bring in the element of subjectivity to the fore now, as I was reading the novel, only SRK as Abhay and Kajol as Annika were gently streaming in, strolling and dancing into my mind. Yeah. I am a big time DDLJ fan with subtitles. So, they were my natural choice to don the hero and heroine for this script.

Quirky. Off-beat. Wacky. Insanely funny and Highly Emotive. Humorously suspenseful and delightfully breezy. It's really hard to believe that Ok Now, Who's my Santa is written by a first-timer as it seemed more like a novel written by a seasoned writer. Awaiting more such awesomatic works.

Of Bridges Among Us - Concretely Constructed!

I have never written a proper book review in my life except at school where our library teacher usually asked me to give a short review of the books that I used to read every week and returned to her promptly on the due date. In hindsight, when I used to think about those days, I am in complete laughter now as those reviews were very very amateurish. It's more like reading the short synopsis given at the back of a novel in an elaborate manner!

I wondered for a long time why not try my hand at book review again and see how I am faring - whether I am still at the same old level or whether I have improved at least  marginally. That is left up to the reader of the blog to give their feedback to me. 

So, here goes the review for "Of Bridges Among Us" by Neeru Iyer.

What is it that excites people about marriage? Your dear and near ones getting married? Fun and frolic with friends and relatives? New dresses and jewelry? Yes. Very much. The reasons are aplenty and is certainly distinctive for every individual. But, there is one more important constituent in a wedding ceremony without which a marriage ceases to exist and which unites all the people from every social strata together. Of course, it's the mouth-watering and delicious food. 

Be it the grand Kerala Sadhya where you are served with a variety of indispensable necessities like Parippu, Sambar, Rasam, Olan, Kaalan, Avial, Pachadi, Papadam, Chips and Mango pickle or the famous Tamil Nadu Saapadu with an amalgam of different essentials such as Thayir Pachadi, Kootu, Poriyal, Curry, Sambar, Rasam, Payasam, Vadai and Appalam, any marriage cannot even think of existing without the celebrated wedding cuisines. 

What relevance does a ceremonial food has got to do with this book review? EVERYTHING!

Just like the distinct and independent delicacies in the menu on the plantain leaf which offers a sumptuous meal to the guests, "Of Bridges Among Us" is a collection of several short stories that is as unique and tasty as the food items in a marriage union. 

Every story has something or the other to offer to the reader. For instance, O Henry would have been really proud if he had read the 'Falling Stars'. The twist was such that it would really give the reader an unexpected and shocking surprise at the end of the story. 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' and 'Moonwalker' are extremely progressive and ahead of time in character and nature that would make any person who truly believes in the equality of all the people, irrespective of professions and conventional marriage system, to be very very happy. Likewise, the rest of the collection had their own clear-cut moments of romance, hope, optimism, faith and tragedy. 

The abyss mindset of the female protagonists in the stories has been well-explored in breadth, length and depth for the reader to clearly understand how a woman thinks from her point of view and how she perceives the world to be from her perspective. It is very insightful to get to know at least the partial functioning of a woman's highly complex brain at a cerebral and emotional level so that as a reader , you are able to empathise with the grief, anguish , happy and jubilant  states of the heroes a.k.a heroines in the stories.

"Of Bridges Among Us" is an exceptionally satisfying and very palatable nourishment to make it an enjoyable munching and crunching experience. The concluding story " She's not afraid of spiders" ends up with the line " It was definitely worth it". Yes. The book was definitely for sure. I am expecting and wishing Neeru Iyer all the best to write a full-fledged novel soon.

The Revenant - DiCaprio's ticket to holding the Oscar finally!

Certain performances leave you scratching your head and make you give a big yawn. Some will make you say not bad thereby utterly confusing the other person whether you meant the film to be good or bad. Still others demand you to clap and whistle. But, there is an elite category of stupendous performances which leaves you literally frozen to death and dumbfounded on seeing the sheer magnitude of the effort, determination and commitment that a person has put in their heart and soul to make you actually feel not for the character but for the person himself who had portrayed the character.

DiCaprio, as Glass, has shown the world what it really means to pursue your passion to the letter t. Be it slithering in the frigid land mass with his beard and mustache growing rigid with frost to sliding and wading through the bitterly cold waters to eating a liver of a bison,  DiCaprio has given one of the most astonishing and phenomenal performances of a life time by battling the harsh weather conditions thereby taking heavy toll on his body - read hypothermia - to demonstrate his single-minded devotion to his passion which goes beyond his profession. Even though everyone knows that he is a vegetarian, DiCaprio forced himself to eat a bison's liver as the character demanded and he just went ahead to be the character just like Heath Ledger's portrayal as Joker in The Dark Knight! 

The premise of the story is very simple and straight forward and can be said in a  matter of 2 minutes - Glass is mauled and hauled by a grizzly bear and is left to die by his comrade who not only feels that Glass would slow down their journey and risk the chances of their survival but also kill his son in the process. How does this highly injured and mutilated person seek and take revenge against this particular comrade braving his own physical pains and mental sorrow and having nothing but revenge as his sole aim forms the rest of the plot. What transcends and makes this uncomplicated storyline so spectacular is not only DiCaprio's raw and feral performance but also the stunning visuals of the landscape by the cinematographer which completely gave a thorough surrealistic and dreamy touch throughout the course of the film. The BGM was also at its haunting best and it seemed, sorry heard, like the music was coming from the outside the realms of our planet Earth. It's not going to be only a single hats off but infinite hats off to Innaritu for his persistent insistence to use only the natural light instead of the sets and also to the entire team for having undergone a laborious and gruelling time through the punishing and inclement weather of the remote locations to transform and buoy up an ordinary film into a really and truly mesmerizing revenge saga.

Just like how the blood and gore was literally making a red mark in the film, your heart will surely bleed and root for DiCaprio, who has gone beyond the natural call of duty to deliver a magnificent performance of tough endurance and heavy resilience, to hold his first 34 cm tall and 3.85kg oscar statuette for pushing himself so naturally and brutally to the unlimited limits. 

If the Oscar Jury does not give the coveted award to DiCaprio for the Best Actor, it means that either they are blind or they have slept through the film!

  

Sizzling Singapore - Part 1

When Vikram tells in the movie 'Anniyan' that Singapore is a very small country yet their growth is tremendous, I had always wanted to visit the Lion City to catch a glimpse of the flourishing development and immerse myself in the melange of cultural diversity that pervades this 697 sq km of  rich heritage. Tiger Airways was the bestower of my fantabulous trip for a dirt cheap price @ 15K. The fact that it was a round trip was too good to believe as fares for a two-way trip to Delhi would be surely more than that!

So, what makes Singapore so special with few natural resources? 

Simple. The people living in the country are very well-organized, systematic and highly disciplined with innovation that awestruck me and left me wondering as to why people in our country cannot follow such elementary rules. Despite the 120 crore population comprising several religions and castes to the significant length and breadth of India, the attitude of the people to be disciplined without hampering the creative freedom in the day to day activities could have been easily instilled had it been not for the power-hungry and money-laundering politicians who had rightly invested their time and effort in all the wrong places. According to Transparency.org, Singapore stands mighty tall handsomely at rank 7 with an overall score of 84 whereas India's rank of 85 is more than the score of overall score of Singapore!

But that still doesn't answer the question how come Singapore prospers so verdantly with limited natural resources?

Being subjugated under the British Empire, Singapore thrived to be one of the great entrepots under their regime.Then, during the late 1960s, Singapore persistently pursued export-centric industrialization by liberalizing their economy. With the advent of technology and developed countries progressing at a rapid pace, Singapore took the cue and transformed their labour-intensive industries to technology oriented firms like electronics.

But, the tourism and financial institutions are the mainstay of this blossoming economic centre of activity apart from being a major and dominant Entrepot in the Southeast Asia. Travel and Tourism has contributed 10.9% of total GDP in 2015. Although Singapore is heralded and touted as the global financial hub, issues and concerns have cropped up time and again for harbouring black money from  other corrupt politicians. Despite the single blot on the face of Singapore, the government has ensured that inflation is between 1% to 2% and unemployment rate stands at 2% which indicates that the government in collaboration with management and unions have ensured that the right plan of action has been put in place for the welfare of the people.

--- to be continued & concluded ---