Spider Man - Far from Home

Tony Stark - where are you? 

The latest spider man movie post Stark's death is all about Tony Stark. Stark entrusts his own glasses to Peter Parker and it is delivered to Peter through Fury.

Meanwhile, Peter lives in a era of blip where the population is brought back to earth(from extinction) earlier than expected, Thanks to Avengers. Hence Peter is 16 and back at school where they plan a trip to Europe. He intends to express his love to his class mate MJ during the trip. There are numerous attacks on Peter and his friends while the trip is displacing from one city to other. Peter with the help from Beck saves the world. Beck is an old employee of Stark and avenges his own dismissal from employment by Stark. Peter realises this and tries to get back Stark's glasses he gave to Beck. 

The movie is light hearted high school kinds. It is a relief after the high drama of the End Game. There are no twists or turns. It is plain good vs evil. The visual effects is scintillating with drones and technology. But spider man becoming the next IRON MAN? Thats asking too much of Tom Holland.

The precious token

Some 7 years ago, my husband came in contact with a mobile phone manufacturer owner from somewhere in Nigeria. She was one of his rich patients. She loved everything my husband did to her. She was delighted. She seemed to be overly interested in my husband(to a questionable level). She gave him a smart phone(which at that time frame, was an expensive and an exquisite one) as a token of her admiration for him(or I am not sure what more was in it). Husband was thrilled. He took care of the phone like it was some precious thing he found in himalayan mountains. 

2 years later, he set his eyes on something more shiny. He moved on. This phone was rotting. My mother was phone less at the same time. So hubby darlings gave it to her as a token of gratitude for giving away her daughter to him. Her time to be delighted. She made pretty good use of it. 

Then was the turn of my father. On a eventful day, my dad's phone fell down and broke. My mother turned to philanthropy and gifted him that same phone as a token of sympathy. After an year, daddy found a newer version of his broken phone and bought it. This precious phone was once more left in the locked chest of drawers. 

My aunt is a 70 year old nagging lady with bad ears. My mother has always been affectionate about her. So she thought why not make aunt's life a little colorful. At the same time, she wanted to get rid of this phone due to decluttering at our home. She gifted her the precious phone as a token of "get lost" to both the phone and her. 

My aunt had been ecstatic about the whole new thing. She learnt to whatsapp, watch videos on youtube and read e newspapers. She got in to a co live dependency on the phone. She was finally happy in life. 

7 years fast forward, she got her internet recharge and to her horror, the shop keeper said the phone does not have the sim trays(both) anymore. She reached her grand daughters but they could not find. The shop keeper had told that the sim trays were missing for 2 months and he had fixed the sims in slots using scalpel. It would no more work due to slot expanding(due to heat or wear and tear). So came back the precious phone to my home. 

Husband had fuzzy reactions. He tormented himself in lookout for the sim trays. He travelled to nook and corner of the city and met expert technicians. No answers! He bought a new phone to aunt and kept the precious phone to himself as a token of "making peace with the past".  

Pailwan and Sudeep

The movie begins with a little Krishna taking birth to abolish all the evil in the world. Krishna(Sudeep) is brought up by a good samaritan - Sunil Shetty famously known as sarkar. Sarkar is also a star pailwan in the local hood and wants little Krishna to win the national wrestling championship and bring pride and fame to his village.

Krishna caught between the girl he loves and the national championship, chooses the girl and takes the oath not wrestle anymore. During his pailwanish days, Krishna would have garnered quite a fan-ship and a few enemies also among who one is the King of one of the dynasties living near by. The king is constantly prying Krishna in to taking up wrestling again so he can beat Krishna. As usual there is drama and action. Children are involved which is not a good sight to see. To make the movie worth while, there is a twist that Krishna wants to help the homeless children to pursue their sports interests.

Sudeep is the highlight of the movie and the rest all play up their part fairly ok. The pace is slow and you whine when the movie gets over. Direction and screenplay are sloppy and make for an ordinary kannada movie.

chhichhore

This movie is a 3 idiots relived. A good hearted director Nitesh Tiwari has got his job right.

The message that the movies come with is

1. Do not force children to study to secure a seat in a college,
2. Let children have plan Bs and Cs,
3. Teach them to face failures
4. Loser/Winner tag is defined not by the result but rather the effort we put

In delivering the message, the cast has put up an awesome effort and won our hearts. The older crew in the cinema, though look redundant and pushed hard to look old, they dont fail to keep the frames rolling.

On one of the low days, I watched this movie. It felt a real refresher. Whats more, My son cried when they cried, rejoiced when they laughed and finished a big tub of pop corn. 

The Lion King

A cute little lion cub takes on the destiny to become the king of the pride. A 100 recitals and enactments to my son and he finally gets it. Since the day, we watched the movie, its simba everywhere in my home. My son is gaga over the little lion and his mischief.

Simba is influenced by his uncle Scar to defame his father Mufasa and dethrone him. Simba loves his daddy though and does not understand the bad intentions of Scar. 

Though the movie is in animation making it a children's choice, it gives profound wisdom to elder ones. The animation is first in class and the pictures and scenes(especially of little simba's eyes) will keep coming back to you even after you have left the cinema hall. The songs in between are too catchy and holds the children's' attention. Some of the wise things the movie has thought are 

Believe in yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you. - Mufasa

Look beyond what you see. - Rafiki

Love will find a way, anywhere we go. We’re home if we are there together. - Simba

Look, sometimes bad things happen — and there’s nothing you can do about it. So why worry? - Simba

It’s times like this my buddy Timon here says: you got to put your behind in your past. – Pumbaa

Oh yes, the past can hurt. But from the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it. – Rafiki

I laugh in the face of danger. – Simba

Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble. – Mufasa

Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope. – Mufasa

It's the Circle of Life and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place on the path unwinding. - Rafiki, 

The invisible guest

After an eventful day day before yesterday at office, to insulate myself from the events, I watched this movie on NetFlix.

Its the spannish original of our own bollywood movie Badla staring Amitabh Bachan and Tapsee Pannu. The original has a male protogonist instead of female as in the case of Badla. Its a crime thriller where a prestigious defense attorney - Virginia Goodman confronts the Spannish business man Adrian Doria for the murder of his secrete lover Laura Vidal and Daniel Garrido.

The story is a narrative between the attorney and the businessman. Its a bit off pace through out. It makes you think quickly and in all possibilities until the thruth is finally revealed. One would over think and look for a 4th culprit too, in which case the ending is disappointing.

Though I have not watched the actor's or director's any of the movies earlier, I can say the cast has done tremendously well.

On the side lines, I have been reading the "The collected short stories of Roald Dahl" at the same time, the scenes and people seem to interchange between the book and the movie in some strange way. 

Inspiration

I would be inspired by someone who says he is doing OK in his lows, loss, despair, failures, self loathing, uncertainties and wrong doings - than a person who says he is doing cool after winning a gold medal.

Uncertainty makes or breaks a man. The quest for certainty, the control over mind and things around drives excitement. AND what does one do when uncertain? Embrace irrational fears.

Holding on to positivity and focusing on what matters the most could be the keys to unlock uncertainty.

As some great man says
"Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept things I can't change and courage to change things I can and wisdom to know the difference"

Nobody's somebody

I heard somebody say he's nobody
I heard somebody say he's nobody

I rather have somebody who's my everybody(God)
I would like somebody say he can be anybody to somebody
I would love somebody become anybody for anybody

Can somebody be everybody and anybody to somebody?

#Brokenthoughts

Iron Man

Tony Stark is a character one falls in love with as time goes. In the first, he is a cinematic play boy - rich and handsome, genius in science and a business man.

This movie is the first of the Iron Man series with Stark being shown as the newly appointed CEO of the Stark Industries that manufacture the weapons to wage wars and bring peace. He is in Afghanistan modelling one of the missiles that his company has made. He is ambushed while returning and taken for imprisonment in a cave.

He meets a scientist from Gulmira in the cave and asked to build a missile that will counter attack the weapon he displayed earlier. Stark manages to create a artificial heart for himself and an iron armour that helps him escape from the cave and the troops that captured him.

Once Stark is back in the US, he learns that his own and his father's partner Obadiah Stane is involved with the terrorist troops. He avenges Obadiah who also develops a iron man kind of armour with the help of his engineers. In all this mean time, he falls in love with his present assistant and future wife Pepper Pots.

The final battle between these two is a great watch. The arc reactor phenomenon is fantastic scene. The plot is curiosity grabber. Robert Downey Jr is the man to look for in this one and all the next movies to come for 10 years. 

Dumbo - circus movie

Its a kids movie I watched with my toddler son in Playhouse PVR. Its the theatre that my son enjoyed more than the movie.

The movie is about mother child bonding. The mother jumbo is taken away from the little dumbo. The little dumbo has big fanny ears which helps him to fly. He is adored by two children at the circus who help him get to his mother.

The movie is an entertainer for older children to some extent. The plot is lengthy to withstand the interest. Some unnecessary threads take away the main intent. Above all, the movie is 3D which children generally cant bear.

After the movie experience, it felt like I could've done something better with the Saturday I had with my son. 

Avengers - End Game

The Avenger drama has ended with Storky gone. Its a bad feeling to see Stork die.

The movie is once again a visual spectacle with a mega war between the avengers and the Thanos army. The whole of the Avengers unite to abolish Thanos from the universe. Hope he does not return from another universe.

Late Stan Lee makes a cameo in one of the scenes where he pledges to make love and not war while Stork strides ahead of Lee on a highway scene.

The energy is OK OK and appeals generally in the infinity saga. Cap America retires. There is a bunch of new entrants who might take the avengers to saving planets and universes to the next level.

The bit that really hurts is to see Stork's funeral. I love him more than 3000.

Hope from shawshank redemption

Last week, me and few friends were talking about having and deserving the best things in life. We were imagining ourselves to be the prison inmates of Shawshank gossiping about the new  entries and happy for the exits. Eventually we spoke about the "Hope" tonic that we missed.

Living without hope is the most terrible thing one can experience. We come and visualise the spectacle of life and consequentially vanish. Hope is what distinguishes a man from everything else.

Here are a few inspirational quotes on Hope from the movie

Hope is a good thing, may e the best of the things and no good thing ever dies - Andy

Salvation lies within - Warden Samuel Norton

Geology is a study of pressure and time. Thats all it takes - Pressure and Time. That and a goddamm poster! - Andy


I have to remind myself that some birds are not meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice!! - Brooks

Hunter Killer

My fetish with submarine movies continues with this Gerard Butler movie called Hunter Killer. The title goes by the name of the submarine which is also the hero of the movie.

There is US submarine that goes missing when US is trying to snoop on the Russian ports. Gerard Butler is called to rescue the missing submarine. There is another team headed by Toby Stephens is sent to observe the Russian naval base. They find out that Russian president is imprisoned by the Russian defence minister.

Now the show turns in to action in rescuing the Russian president by US team on land and on Hunter Killer. Gerard Butler finds an abandoned Russian submarine and tries to resucue people in it. He gets to meet the Russian captain of the submarine.

On the land, in US, defence ministry plans to wage war on Russia on finding out the president's imprisonment while president is swiftly taken to Hunter Killer.

Hunter killer is attacked by the Russian forces headed by a destroyer war ship. The captian who trained the men on destroyer ship is in Hunter Killer. He along with Russian president call out to not attack the submarine but in vain.

The final show down happens when the Hunter Killer is attacked by forces on naval base. The destroyer war ship nullifies the attack and retaliate the naval base. The president is saved and there is happy ending.

The movie is high drama with a lot of nail biting moments. Gerard Butler delivers the best. Submarine is the main character to look for. Good weekend movie to watch out for.

THOR - 1

After the death of the great Stan Lee, I thought of watching the marvel movies once more and started with Thor.

It is a super hero movie staring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. Directed by Keneth Branagh based on the marvel comics by the same name.

Odin - the king of Asgard (one of the 9 realms of the universe) has 2 sons - Thor and Loki. Both Thor and Loki want to prove their father that each one is capable of heir from Odin. Thor in this attempt, wages a war on Frost giants of Jotunheim. Odin would have won wars on Frost giants and conquered their source of power - casket of ancient winters.

Odin punishes Thor by expelling him to earth. Thor meets Jane(Natalie Portman) who is a astrophysicist and falls in love with her. Thor's weapon - Mjolnir is also banished from Asgard along with Thor but Thor cannot use it. Loki is told by Odin that he is the biological son of Laufey (King of Frost giants). Loki attempts to kill Odin and Odin goes to deep OdinSleep this time.

Loki visits Thor on earth to tell that their father is dead. Thor is met with his friends from Asgrad and they plan to take him back. Thor fights the deadly automaton sent by Loki. Loki makes a nexus with Laufey. Thor fights with Loki only to be rescued by Odin. He holds Thor and Loki together on the falling bridge from Asgard that connects it to the other realms. Loki leaves the hands of Thor and commits suicide.

Its a thrilling movie with spectacular visual effects. The story line is average but Thor never the less holds the attention of the viewer.

Imaikka nodigal and Anurag Kashyap

Imaikka nodigal is a 2018 psychological action thriller starring Nayantara, Vijay Sethupathi, Atharva and Anurag Kashyap.

The protagonist is an intelligent CBI officer in the name of Anjali Vikramadithyan - played by Nayantara. The movie is about avenging few guys for the death of Vikram - Anjali's husband played by Vijay Sethupathi.

I happened to casually watch this movie over weekend for no apparent reason. I was surprised to see someone closely looking like Anurag Kashyap in the negative role. I did not bother to cross check whether it was really Anurag Kashyap as movie was hell engrossing with each scene.

Being an old timer watcher of Anurag Kashyap movies, watching almost all his works including Sacred games(Will write another post for this) and lust stories, this came as a pleasant surprise to see him acting in Tamil movie.

He plays a dual role of ACP Martin Roy and Serial killer Rudra with his voice dubbed to tamil by Maghizh Tirumeni in the movie. His acting is so commendable that I found myself looking for Rudra in every scene in the movie. He has played the negative role with much of ease that it looks like someone in real life is threatening you.

The story line is gripping with every scene being the edge of the chair experience. The fan girl in me for Vijay Sethupathi had to wait till the last minutes. Nayantara has done a great job being the imperfect - perfect police girl.

Inheritance of loss - Kiran Desai

I read when I am joyous, I read when I am angry, I read when I am rejected by the world.

Today happens to be the last day when I hold up a wonderful book - Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

Since the time the book won the man booker prize, it was on my wish list. I borrowed the hard copy from Chandu uncle of Gurudutt library and could finish in a week's time.

Its about Sai - young girl living in Kalimpong with her grand father. Grand father is a retired judge. There is a cook in the house and a dog by name Mutt. The story is also abou Biju, son of cook and Gyan - romantic interest of Sai. The plot is set in Kalimpong around 1986 when there used to be internal conflicts between Gorkha national liberation front(GNLF) and govt.

Sai is an anglicised girl born in Russia to a supposed to be astronaut. The astronaut and his wife die in an accident rendering Sai orphan. She attends a boarding school and later transferred to her maternal grand father's house - Cho Oyu in Kalimpong.

She is arranged with a local teacher called Noni to teach maths and science. Noni and her sister Lola live together near by Cho Oyu. Sai has other neighbours like Uncle Potty, Uncle Booty and the princess of Afghanistan.

Cook;s son Biju is an illegal migrant in America hopping restaurants for job as a chef. Sometimes he is kicked out, sometimes he leaves. He meets people with diverse backgrounds. He gets in touch with Saead Saead from Pakistan and befriends him. He constantly writes letters to cook and for the cook, looking forward to those letters are the way of life. Cook boosts in the village about his son being in America and sends all the recommendations to Biju from local friends.

At the same time, Lola boosts about her daughter being in England as the reporter in BBC. The story is set up in the time when there was no telephone and radio. But Noni and Lola would have a radio and listen to BBC every night to listen to Lola's daughter.

Cook is irritated with the judge for the ill treatment he receives from judge. Cook spread lies about the judge in return saying judge was from an affluent family and a rich one where in real, judge would have married a rich man's daughter to fund his Cambridge studies. Cook says judge loved his wife where actually judge never loved his wife and he would beat her. When cook says these lies to Sai, Judge remembers his callous ways of treating his wife, when he pushed her face to toilet when she squat on it because he wanted her to be English like.

Gyan joins GNLF and Sai discovers it when she has gone to return library books. In sometime, the tension between GNLF and local groups increase and all the main roads are closed. Judge's dog, Mutt is missing and everyone at Cho Oyu are worried. The dog would have been kidnapped by a poor woman who wishes to sell it in return for money.

Biju gets to hear about the conflict in his home land and decides to return. He buys all the many souvenirs from America for his father. When he lands in Calcutta, he discovers there are no buses to Kalimpong and takes a ride with GNLF.  He is robbed on the way. He meets the cook at Cho Oyo.

Review: Its a book that talks of the loss of India's true identity due to the British influence for a long time. The story of Judge is the true impression of how the Indian's got the British way of living. I was in the context that all Booker award winners are hard core emotion based or event based books. This one is a thoroughly easy one to go. There is a light heart humour with a lot of irony in every page and line. 

Aleph By Paulo Coelho

Go and experiment. It’s time you got out of here. Go and re-conquer your kingdom, which has grown corrupted by routine. Stop repeating the same lesson, because you won’t learn anything new that way - master J

 It is a personal account of Paulo Coelho's journey across African, European and Asian continents specially in Trans Siberian railway inquiry Russia.  

Paula Coelho is unsatisfied with his spiritual progression and contacts his master for guidance. Master directs him to take a journey to conquer back his kingdom. 

On the journey Paulo meets a young woman by name Hilal. She is a gifted violinist. She demands Paulo to accompany him in the whole journey. Paulo realizes that she is his past love in a different life dating back to 500 years. He urges to seek Aleph - a point where time and space converge and become one. He tries it Hilal. He is confused at the same time whether to act on the current life's mannerisms or past live's unfinished work. 

Hilal is constricted. Paulo wants to set her soul free. She says 

"The girl forgives you, not because she has become a saint, but because she can no longer bear to carry this burden of hatred. Hating is very wearisome. I don’t know if something is changing in Heaven or on Earth, if my soul is being damned or saved, but I feel utterly exhausted and only now do I understand why. I forgive the man who tried to destroy me when I was ten years old.’ She continued: ‘I also forgive myself. May the misfortunes of the past no longer weigh on my heart. Instead of pain and resentment, I choose understanding and compassion. Instead of rebellion, I choose the music from my violin. Instead of grief, I choose forgetting. Instead of vengeance, I choose victory"

Review: It's been sometime now I read Paulo Coelho. I could not connect to this book and felt bull shit when I read about reincarnations. May be I missed on reading the past books and there is the link. It's not a book for anyone looking for spiritual elation. Often times, I simply read Paulo Coelho because of the lines that leave a lasting impression on me irrespective of the context. This book too had few of those magical lines that keep coming back as an after thought.

URI

Hows the josh? High Sir! Hows the josh? High Sir! Hows the josh? High Sir!!. Good.

Its a movie about the surgical strike India did on Pakistan as an answer to Pakistan's attack on URI base in Kashmir.
It starts with an attack on the Indian army in the India-Myanmar border where the militants kill a dozen of army men. The government as well the nation is troubled. The retaliation comes from the protogonist - Capt Vihaan Shergill that heads a deadly ambush on the NSCN militants.

Vihaan has a ailing mother who needs his support and help. He takes the desk job at the high end office instead of borader line. He loses his brother in law in the Uri attack. Vihaan is emotionally moved.

When the surgical strike is planned, Vihaan personally meets the army general requesting his presence in the strike. He successfully completes the surgical strike.

The movie is a thriller in parts. There are punch dialogues like "Unhe Kashmir chahiye and hame unka sar", "Yeh Hindustan ab chup nahi baitega, Yeh ghar me ghusega bhi aur maarega bhi", etc, where one feels high and mighty about the nation.

The role of Govind which models the national security adviser Ajit Doval is interesting. Kaushal playing the Capt Vihaan role has given the movie the adequate invigoration. Yami Gautham plays the role of intelligence officer. Other characters are played well too.

Good for short lived one time watch and high kick. 

A hundred little flames

This is a book written by Preeti Shenoy. 

The narration is by a young man called Ayan who loses his job and joins his grand father in Kerala. Ayan sets off to Kerala to tend to his muttacha(grand father) who would have had a fall and broke his leg. 

Much of Ayans life incidents are controlled by his father Jairaj. Jairaj is a devious man planning to sell the house - thekke modem that muttacha lives in. 

To Ayans surprise, he starts liking the village his muttacha lives in. It's called poongavanam. He enjoys playing football with local team. He starts loving every aspect of thekke modem. There would be a care taker for muttacha as well as the thekke modem by name velu. Ayan loves being with velu. Ayan explores every nook and corner of the house to see if muttacha has kept those toys that he used to play with when he was kid along with his cousin Nitya. He speaks to Jairaj and aunt shaila on regular basis from thekke modem. 

Muttacha is angry as both his children don't come to visit him. But incidentally once when Ayan has gone for a job interview, Jairaj visits thekke modem. He convinces muttacha to go and see a doctor for regular checkup. But muttacha is actually shoved in to asylum by Jairaj and looks like only Jairaj is the legal visitor to visit muttacha. When Ayan returns home from interview, he learns from velu that Jairaj has put muttacha in a mental hospital. Velu and Ayan are spell bound about Ayans father behavior. All that Jairaj want is to put muttacha away and sell thekke modem. 

Ayan gets help from his friends and the local football club in finding out where muttacha is admitted. He succeeds in getting till muttacha posing as a journalist and documentary maker. He promises muttacha that he will release him out of the hospital soon. That is when muttacha asks Ayan to read his diaries to understand that Rohini is not any imaginary person. 

Ayan reads all the diaries that grandpa has kept and understands what truly to love someone means. He gets muttacha back home the next day. He suggests to muttacha he go find Rohini to which muttacha agrees. 

Ayan goes to Pondicherry where he find Rohini and calls muttacha. Rohini and muttacha are reunited. Ayan takes muttacha to Pondicherry from poongavanam and sees muttacha pass away when he and Rohini see each other. 

The book a nice fable about true friendship and love. The chronicles of muttacha has made me believe and realize that love does not need to have a relationship to express, experience and enjoy. Love is a form we all need to surrender to. 

The description of thekke modem is really appreciable as I started looking for thekke modem in every random village building that looked like a home. Muttachas character is simply good and one could feel the loss when he finally passes away. 

What I had thought as a time pass book really kept me going till the finish. It inspired me to experience true love at some point. After the initial reluctance, it captured me and made me see scenes from book every where I went.