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.