Julius Caesar - play by William Shakespeare

Last week, I happen to watch the Julius Caesar play by Abhinaya Taranga at Ranga Shankara.

This was the first play I watched without reading the book. It was a total chaos for me as I did not understand any point in the whole play though I had read the life story of Julius Caesar many many times.

The play is about ambitious Julius Caesar who wants to come to throne and rule Rome. To his dismay, he is encountered with Marcus Brutus a respected Roman senator. Brutus is contacted by Julius's lesser known enemies in pretext that Julius is going to cause devastation of Rome to fulfill his personal ambitions. Consequently Julius is assassinated by Brutus.

Mark Anthony - Julius's friend on his death gives a funeral oration that leads to civil war and Brutus and Cassius meet their death at the end of it.

It is originally written by William Shakespeare and translated to Kannada by OL Nagabhushan. The original version of the play may be full of kick, but the play was very dull and banal. The team lacked skills to narrate the dialogues in an effective way.

Total time waste for 2 hrs. 

Street Lawyer - John Grisham

This fictional story is about Michael Brock is a lawyer at Drake and Sweeney - one of the acclaimed law organisations in America.

One fortunate day, a street dweller enters Michael's office and holds hostage of 8 lawyers in his firm. The firm does everything to save the lawyers and kills the street dweller. Michael is curious to find why the homeless man tried the drama of the hostage when he did not want to kill anyone neither wanted any money. He goes in search of this homeless man and discovers that he was one of the tenants who were evicted from an old building in the city. Michael quits his job at Drake and Sweeney and joins a law clinic for the homeless.

He comes in contact with a homeless family of Lontae Burton and her four children while serving food at a shelter for the homeless. Later he learns that they all died in an unfortunate incident in a car that they were sleeping in to keep themselves warm in the mid winter. He finds that the homeless man who tried to kill him at his office and Lontae Burton were all evicted from the same building where they were not squatting but living on rent.

The eviction was a result of a greedy lawyer from Drake and Sweeny who put the client RiverOaks also at risk to liberate the building to accommodate a postal office.

Michael succeeds in proving Drake and Sweeney guilty. He also influence the director of Drake and Sweeney - Arthur to spend time helping the homeless.

The book is a slow pace read and almost drags in the middle though it picks speed in the last 20 pages. Do not expect a bone chilling high drama experience.

A good choice of book if you have fixed a time of the day to read ANY book - just to keep the good habit - meaning to say it does not make you come back to it unless you are disciplined to read anything. 

Gold Mine - Wilbur Smith

Sonder Ditch - remember that because that is where the next full month's of action is going to happen to you if you decide to read Gold Mine by Wilbur Smith.

The story is of two men -Rod and Manfred. Rod is promoted to be General manager of the mine when there is huge collapse of one of the floors in the mine. Manfred has a personal motive to acquire political advancement in the mining industry by conspiring with a bunch of wealthy men on destroying a couple of gold mines to hike the gold rate overall.

Manfred is told by these wealthy men that there is a big treasure of gold beneath the "Big Dipper" in the mine for which Rod is the manager. By this time, Rod has fallen in love with Manfred's wife Teresa who happen to inherit the power and wealth of Hurry Hirchsfeld - a very wealthy man in Africa.

A man of mining passion that is Rod - reluctantly digs deeper behind the big shaft to find a catastrophe waiting. He finds out a river flowing meddling with which, it would destroy all of the gold mines in the entire vicinity. He also finds that Manfred is up for killing all of his drilling employees by posting them in this region.

In a story that has all the elements of greed. lust, power, adultery, violence and love - the reader is never left without excitement.

Sphinx - TS Learner

Here is a book on olden day Egyptology that revolves around Nectanebo || and other renowned Pharaohs whose fate has been decided by mysterious electromagnetic device astrarium.

An archaeologist Isabella comes in contact with an artifact that she believes decided her date of death and many others of her predecessors from an astrologist in Goa, India. She goes on to believe that the artifact has a power of its own and guides the possessor of it towards the good will of the world.

She dies discovering this artifact in an ocean expedition that meets an unfortunate land slide inside the ocean. Her husband Oliver comes in possession of the artifact and do not know what to do with it. He meets numerous people both trying to safeguard it and destroy it. He puts his life on risk on a trail of incidents wanting to rest the device in the place where it belonged.

He learns that the device has a mind of its own and influences incidents around him. He tries to overcome those influences surrendering to more danger. He finds out about the secrete practices that Isabella's family were following in connection with the mysterious incidents that took place in Nectanebo, Cleopatra and other kings lives. He ventures in to the pyramids and finds out about the soul leaving the human body when death occurs. He is taken by shock at these moments but wants to explore more to understand the truth about the astrarium's real abode.

Oliver comes across a wealthy business man who is ready to buy the oil field just discovered by his team. Oliver later realizes that he is the man identified long ago as Nectanebo and rests the astrarium in his grave.

Though the book is a little draggy in the beginning, the plot picks up pace later on to an ever enthralling experience. TS Learner makes an outstanding writer to keep his readers jelled to the book. Many a times, I googled to figure out what each of his concepts mean by which I was able to contemplate the fine line explanations.

Great read if you are able to be patient with the initial 100 pages. 

Linga - A Rajanikant Movie

Its been a long time that I have not blogged. Reasons vary from busy office schedule to investing time on health and etc.

When I returned to blogging, I wanted to start with an auspicious post. So I chose the movie I watched long time, Linga - A Rajinikanth starrer with Anushka and Sonakshi Sinha.

The movie is directed by KS Ravi who is Rajinikanth's long time director. We have seen the two hit success with Muthu and Padayappa, With that in mind I started to watch this movie.

The plot of the movie is about an  engineer who builds a dam and strives to retain it that is in the verge of demolition to be used for industrial purposes by the villain(Jagapati Babu). The dam would have been constructed by the older Rajini in the times of British. He sells his property to British construct the dam on his own as British officers reject the proposal.

Somehow the British officer involved defames older Rajini and makes him leave the village. Rajini marries Sonakshi Sinha and gives birth to Linga (also Rajini). Anushka approaches Linga and seeks to help her grand father who is looking for Linga to open a closed Temple in her village

Linga opens the temple and finds a pendrive that contains the dam information. He managers to expose Jagapathi babu, now an MP, blasts a bomb mid air, saves the village and the dam.

First in Firsts - Rajini is too old for a Linga character. Though Rajini is like a demigod to me, I could not watch him in this movie.
The plot is not very catchy, there are some sequences too long that will let audience off the track
The older Rajini's train fight is worth a watch

The movie is a hit only because of Rajini, except which there is nothing to watch out here for.

The Parsifal Mosaic - Robert Ludlum

Oh! This book is a bundle of surprises. 
The story is so well spun, that it surprises you at each and every page. 

One man by name Michael Havelock is an intelligence officer at the state department of US. He witnesses his partner and love interest Jenna Karas being executed at Costa Brava because she is believed to be a KGB double agent. He meets a man by name Pyotr Rostav who confirms that Jenna was not a KGB agent. Michael later sees Jenna alive in a train station in Rome. She flees upon seeing him and Michael pursues her. 

He meets Colonel Baylor a former source at the US consulate and begins a search for Jenna throughout Europe. In the mean time, Michael is proved to be schizophrenic and terminated. 

One Anton Matthias, Secretary of State acknowledged by the entire world as a genius and trusted with powers far beyond those his office allow him, has gone completely insane. Before anybody realized that he was insane, he negotiated treaties with parties he believed to be representing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China, each agreeing to a nuclear strike against the third party, but in fact with a man who identified himself as Parsifal. Parsifal demands a huge ransom to keep the documents from being released, thereby triggering a nuclear war. Once the ransom is paid, however, he does not touch it, having confirmed how desperate Washington is. Havelock, who as a child had been one of the few survivors of the massacre at Lidice, has a special bond with Matthias, a fellow Czech who had advised him in graduate school. Somehow Matthias's insanity is linked to the order to terminate Jenna Karas.

For her part, Karas has been told that Michael is a Russian spy and that he is trying to kill her. Consequently, she is not especially eager to meet him.

When Michael finally traces Jenna to an isolated farm in Pennsylvania, they realize that they were both deceived and that each had been told that the other was an enemy. They then work together with the President of the United States, Charles Berquist, and several trusted advisory to find Parsifal and stop him.

They are opposed by Arthur Pierce, a brilliant and murderous Soviet mole highly placed in the State Department. Pierce has ordered the murders of the strategists of Consular Operations ( two of them are crushed by a bulldozer in their car and driven off a cliff and another is shot), and then a string of successive killings - all in his own quest to gain evidence of Matthias's insanity. Pierce is working not for the regular KGB, but the VKR (Voennaya Kontra Razvedka), a fanatical branch of Russian intelligence identified as an offshoot of the OGPU. He is also, for that matter, a paminyatchik - an agent under deep cover, who has lived in the United States since infancy. For much of the novel, Pierce's true loyalties lie undiscovered. One of Havelock's allies, Undersecretary of State Emory Bradford, realizes that Pierce works for the VKR, but he is murdered by the ever-alert Pierce before he can warn anyone else. Pierce also solicits the murder of Rostov, who loathes the VKR and has tried to help Havelock.

When Michael finally finds Parsifal, a friend of Anton and a Paminyatchik who is less fanatical than Arthur Pierce, he finds out that the documents were not produced to provoke nuclear war, but rather to demonstrate that no one man could be trusted with vast amounts of power. Pierce, however, has had his operatives murder Michael's bodyguards and breaks into Parsifal's house just as he agree's to burn the documents. However hearing that Rostov has been murdered, Parsifal decides to sacrifice himself by using his body to block Pierce's gun allowing Michael and Jenna time to get out. Michael and Jenna then kill Pierce's operatives by stabbing them and Michael then flanks Pierce and guns him down. They conclude that the documentary evidence of Matthias's insanity is best destroyed. Havelock tells Berquist of this; he is informed, in turn, that Matthias has just died. Finally safe, he and Jenna move to New England, where Havelock accepts an academic position.

Great read as it gives insights on the Cold War. Robert Ludlum as always amaze me with his elegant style and theme. 

ಕಾಡು ಮತ್ತು ಕ್ರೌರ್ಯ : ಪೂರ್ಣ ಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ

ಇದು ಪೂರ್ಣ ಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರ ಮೊಟ್ಟ ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ. 

ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರ ಮೊದಲ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯಾದ್ದರಿಂದ, ಅವರ ಬೇರೆ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ ಅಷ್ಟು maturity ಇಲ್ಲ. ತೇಜಸ್ವಿ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದಿ ಪಳಗಿದವರಿಗೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಅರ್ಥಪುರ್ನವಾಗಿದೆ. 

ಮೂರು ಜನ protagonists ಇಲ್ಲಿ. ಒಂದು ಸೋಮು - ಈಗತಾನೆ ಕಾಲೇಜ್ ಮುಗಿಸಿ ಪುಡಿ ಮೀಸೆ ಹೊತ್ತ ಕಮುನಿಸಮ್ ಪ್ರವಾದಿ. ಇನ್ನೊಂದು ನಳಿನಿ - ಹಳ್ಳಿ ವಾತಾವರಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳೆದ ಹರೇ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನ ಬಾಲೆ, ಮತೊಂದು ಸುಬದ್ರ - ಸೋಮುವಿನ ಕ್ಲಾಸ್ ಮೇಟ್. 

ಇವರ ಮೂವರಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ ಲೋಕೋಪ ವ್ಯವಹಾರಗಳು ಹಾಗು ಆಂತರಿಕ ಹುಚ್ಚು ಕನಸುಗಳು ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಮುಕ್ಯ ವಸ್ತು. ಮದ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ವೆಂಕು, ಮತ್ತು ನಳಿನಿಯ ತಂದೆ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ಹೋಗುವ ಪಾತ್ರಗಲು. 

"ಅಬ್ಬಾ ಆ ಹಕ್ಕಿಗಳ ಬಯಕೆ ಎಂಥದು. ಸಪ್ತ ಸಮುದ್ರಗಳನ್ನೇ, ದೆಶಾಂಥರಗಳನ್ನೇ ದಾಟಿ ಸಾಗುತ್ತವಲ್ಲ. ಬಯಕೆ ಪ್ರೇಮದ ಆರಂಭ! ತೃಪ್ತಿ ಪ್ರೇಮದ ಅಂತ್ಯವೇ? ಪ್ರೆಮಿಸೊದು ಅಂದರೆ ಚಲಿಸುವುದು. ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲೋ,  ದೇಶದಲ್ಲೊ, ಕಾಲದೇಶಗಳಿಗೆ ಮೀರಿದ ಅತೀತದಲ್ಲೊ ಚಲಿಸುವುದು. ಒಂದರಿಂದ ಇನ್ನೊಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗುವುದು. ಪ್ರೇಮವೆಂದರೆ ಯಾವುದರಿಂದಲೋ ನಿರ್ಗಮಿಸುವ ನಿತ್ಯದುರಂತ. ಎಲ್ಲಿಗೋ ಆಕರ್ಷಿತರಾದೆವೆಂದೆರೆ ಇನ್ನೆಲ್ಲಿಂದಲೋ ವಿಕರ್ಷಿತರಾದೆವೆಂತಲೇ? ಎಲ್ಲವನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಸರ್ವ ಸಾಫಲ್ಯತೆ ಬಹುಶಃ ಈ ದೇಹದೊಂದಿರೋವರೆಗೆ ಅಸಾದ್ಯ."

ಹೀಗೆ ಸೋಮುವಿನ ಯೊಚನೆಗಲು. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ನಳಿನಿ ತಂದೆ ತೀರಿಕೊಂಡ ನೋವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಬಲಲುತಿದ್ದರೆ, ಸೋಮನಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಣಯದಾಸೆ. ಅದರ ಮೇಲೆ ಗಿಲ್ಟಿ ಫೀಲಿಂಗ್ ಬೇರೆ.

ಟೈಮ್ ಪಾಸು ಪುಸ್ತಕವಾದರೂ ಆಗೀಗೋಮ್ಮೆ ಮನಸನ್ನು ಕಲಸುಮೇಲೋಗರ ಮಾಡುವ ಚಿಂತನಾತ್ಮಕ ಡೈಲಾಗ್ಸ್ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಕಾಣ ಸಿಕ್ತಾವೆ. 

"1" Nenokkadine

This is one movie that gives the "sitting on the edge of the seat and nail biting" experience. Directed by Sukumar, movie stars Mahesh Babu as Gautham - a pop singer in the same image as Ashique2 hero. He is suffering from a psychological disorder that fails him on his memory of his parents.

The plot begins with a boy(young Mahesh Babu) running for help after witnessing his parents murders. That boy is brought up in orphanage. Through his childhood, he visualizes three men killing his parents and also looking out for him to be killed. He wants to avenge them at any cost.

The movie is full of twists and twirls and makes you think every moment. There are no clues dropped in the story line. The team has made the best use of technology and editing is the next best thing.

I fans for Sukumar from the times of Arya2 and Arya and he's lived up the expectation. Mahesh Babu as always suits best for extra human roles and this one is a delight to a viewer. Débutante Sanoon has done a pretty role.

One thing in the movie is - there is no comedy and there are no comedians(Bramhanandam). That mostly is the reason why it is received with apprehensions. But for those fans of Mahesh Babu, this is a great watch.

Trade Winds to Meluhha - Vasant Davé

The plot begins with a murder of the merchant from Meluhha. A stable boy named Samasin is entitled a fish hook from the merchant. The boy is held guilty of the murder and imprisoned. He escapes the punishment and travels to Meluhha in search of the owner of the fish hook. The owner's name is Siwa Saqra which he learns from the dying merchant.

On his escape from Sumer he is helped by his master Nergal's wife Ela. He sets voyage on a ship to Meluha and meets Paravar, the ship captain. They develop a cool friendship and he introduces the boy to Velli - a very beautiful woman. They buy a foal from Paravar and boy accompanies them.

The boy continues journey, meets new people, come across hostile experiences, fights with bandits and treasure hunts. The book is a good read for days and keeps reminding you about the people of Meluhha in your routine even when you are not reading it.

Author has done elaborate research on the Babylonian and Mesopotamian civilizations and correlated the  events. He has developed an amazing piece of fiction with almost accurate references to the historical incidents.

The book keeps you reading and halts you down when you feel, you need to google and find out what the author is talking about. By reading this and googling simultaneously, I was able to acquire a big bank of knowledge.

I would simply say, the book is awesome with a few compromises on the typos and "Find Synonyms for this word" tool. The author has captured a remote and exciting concept of fiction which upon few improvisations would become a world wide hit like those of Dan Brown's.

About the author:


Vasant Davé was born in Kenya to immigrant parents from India. He was schooled there under teachers coming from all the races living in East Africa during British rule. He passed Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Bombay and served for 24 years in companies manufacturing electrical and electronic capital goods. For another 8 years, he took up industrial market research contracts from consultants based in Singapore and Hong Kong. He conducted face-to-face and telephonic surveys in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for multinational end-users such as Siemens, BASF, Henkel, Dow Chemical, AkzoNobel and Linde. His work in Industrial Market Research often took him to remote parts of the country where he could visit nearby archaeological sites too.

His interest in the ancient past of the sub-continent led him to write a historical novel after retirement in 2008. His technical background helped him to understand and apply historical, geographical, environmental and cultural nuances bearing upon the life during 3rd millennium BC, the period in which Trade winds to Meluhha is set.

Bhag Milka Bhag - Review

This movie was watched last Saturday. Didn't get time to critic it.

Movie stars Farhan Aktar as Milka Singh. Before I write about the movie, here is the brief on Milka Singh.

Milka Singh was born in Pakistan and migrated to India during the India - Pakistan partition. His family including his father, mother, brothers and sisters were killed on this trip to India. When he came to India, he settled in Delhi and went on to become a soldier in Indian Army. He underwent training and participated in 1956 Olympics. He represented India in Asian games and won medals and broke records in common wealth games. He again took part 1960 Olympics and came 4th. He was then summoned to Pakistan to play against Pakistani counter part Abdul Khaliq. He was given the honor as "Flying Sikh" by Pakistanis. He won and brought India pride. He donated all his medals to national museums.

The movie almost portrays the above story but with a lot of unwanted love affairs of the protagonist. I was expecting to see a movie like Chak de India with the preoccupations of trailers which were shown in cinema halls. But the movie turned out to be neither a love story nor a story of an athlete.

The part that captures you are the scenes of Milka's life in Pakistan. He is asked by his father to run for his life - Bhag Milka Bhag. Milka runs and saves himself but he returns. He finds a pool of blood and a pile of dead bodies - which belonged to his father, mother and other family members. He then run back and catches a train to India. He rebels in the refugee camps and involves in stealing, cheating and becomes a thug. He falls in love - twice. Trains himself in the army camps. He goes to Australia, Rome etc to take part in world class athletics. This is all the movie about. A good watch I must say if you are not prejudiced. Dont have any expectation and you'll enjoy every bit of the movie. Farhan Akthar has done a very good job and Om Prakash Mehra has created yet another magic like that of Rang De Basanti.