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. 

Far from the madding crowd - Thomas Hardy Book

To start with, I never thought I would be interested in a olden day English classic which is not fiction.

Far from the madding crowd is a lovely tale of love, betrayal and submission. The story is set up in rural England in the times of 1800. Its about Bathsheba, an intelligent woman exploring world all alone. She inherits her familial property when she is very young.

Gabriel Oak is a shepherd who falls in love with Bathsheba at first sight. He proposes her. She refuses.

Bathsheba gets in contact with her neighbour William Boldwood who admires her charm. William is an old man yet to find his lady love. He finds Bathsheba very lovable. Bathsheba sends him a valentine in a playful way sealed in red velvet box with words "marry me" embosses on it. Boldwood eventually proposes a marriage but she refuses again.

When story picks up pace, Bathsheba is again in love with a handsome looking sergeant Troy. Troy dumps a woman he loves to marry Bathsheba. Troy is a wrong man and Gabriel who is a shepherd at   Bathsheba's farm warns her on many occasions. Gabriel continues to love the same woman without conditions.

Troy is a gambler and has no interest in farming. He and Bathsheba are confronted with Fanny on the streets one day. Fanny is the old lover of Troy and she is pregnant. Troy tries to hide his excitement and desperation to meet her in front of Bathsheba. He later meets Fanny and gives her money. Fanny reaches a charity home and dies during the childbirth in a few hours after meeting Troy.

Mother and the baby are sent to Bathsheba's house in a coffin. Gabriel who knows Troy's involvement with Fanny tries to conceal child's identity. But Bathsheba finds out. Troy reaches home and kisses Fanny's corpse. He says Fanny was more to him than Bathsheba could ever be. He self loathes and leaves. He walks in to the sea in an attempt to end his life.

Troy is presumed to be dead. Boldwood renews his interest in Bathsheba and gifts her expensive things. On Christmas eve, Boldwood holds a party. Troy is not dead and visits Boldwoods house.

Bathsheba is taken by shock. She is snatched by Troy to go along with him. At this point Boldwood shoots Troy and he dies. Boldwood is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Bathsheba buries Troy in the same grave as Fanny and her child.

All through the course, Bathsheba relies on her old and real friend Gabriel. Gabriel is leaving Bathsheba's employment as people of the village start to gossip that he is going to ask Bathsheba for marriage. Bathsheba at this point says its too soon but its not impossible. Gabriel asks her hand and she agrees. They are married.

Review: You will definitely fall in love with gabriel for his simplicity and love he bestows on Bathsheba. Throughout, Bathsheba holds her honour high and never gives away her stature. The book brings the psychological insight about human nature and how we often make wrong choices based on superficiality. The book is good spirited and cheerful and ends in a satisfying way though one could predict the end.

Godi Banna Saadarana Mykattu

This movie hosts Anant Nag as protagonist and Rakshit Shetty. Its about the father and son relationship and how busy lives of youngsters impact the elderly in the metropolitan cities like Bangalore.

Anant Nag loses his wife and looks after his son all by himself. Son played by Rakshit Shetty grows up to be a successful engineer and moves away to a foreign land putting his father in a old age home. There is a doctor in the old age home who the father is deeply attached who also begins to fall in love with Rakshith Shetty.

On a eventful day, Anant Nag is lost due to his dementia. Rakshith Shetty and the doctor set out the mission to search him. The movie goes on with various search hunts by different people in different places.

There is a huge role played by Achuhut Kumar. He offers shelter to Anant Nag and treats him as his own father. Achuth Kumar's house is occupied by a goon finding a hide out.

The goon puts all including Anant Nag in cuffs. The house becomes a jail. After much of negotiations with his bosses, goon decides to end his life freeing the house occupants. Anant Nag is finally found by Rakshith Shetty and the son realizes how much he loves his father.

There are many good thoughts communicated by the movie to the audience like its essential to love our parents, One who sins will always be punished etc. The acting of Anant Nag is commendable. Rakshith Shetty plays good in the serious role as well.

The movie does not seem to have the grip as expected. It loses the audience in the middle with people wondering whats going on. A good climax is what makes it a good movie.

Lucia - movie

It starts with a man lying in coma. He has been under the influence of lucia - a sedative drug which makes people live their dreams for real. The only condition to live the dream is not stop being under its influence. 

Nikhil is a famous film star who finds a girl friend in his industry. He advises her to stay away from film industry as it's a dirty one. He dreams of becoming a simple man like the one who ushers people to their seats in cinema theaters. 

Nikki is a straight forward village boy who dreams to become a famous film actor. He works in a cinema theater ushering people to their seats using the torch light. He gets a girl friend who works at a pizza center. 

Nikki works in a theater owned by his God father Shankaranna. Shankaranna owes few goons a big amount of money. Goons demand that theater be given to them for free. Shankaranna and Nikki both resist this. 

Shankaranna dies in the hands of goons. Nikki continues to work in the theater and releases shankaranna's movie. Nikki a girl friend agrees to marry him.

Nikhil on the other hand is confused. He sends off all his staff and his girlfriend away. He is dreaming and hallucinating. He jumps off from the building in an attempt to kill himself. But he is saved and kept in coma. 

With the help of a detective from Mumbai crime branch, we get to know that it was the story of Nikhil dreaming to be a common man and becoming Nikki and not the other way round.

This movie is directed by Pawan Kumar, one of the best directors in kannada industry. The plot is not linear and one needs to watch it more than once to understand and appreciate the plot. The acting of Ninasam Satish is commendable and Achyuth Kumar in the role of Shankaranna is too hard to miss. 

This movie proves to be the best of the best movies Kannada industry has seen. Lets even call It the Kannada version of inception. 

Arjun Reddy

Its one movie I would go back to watch.. its unlikely of any contemporary movies that it drives cinema goers again and again towards it.

The movie is about Arjun who is a mbbs intern. He is the best out going student impeccable record. He is expelled from college for having tantrum with neighbouring college. At this time he falls in love with a fresher at his college. 

The love story continues and due to a small confusion the lovers get seperated. The girl gets married within her caste when Arjun is deep in his mental mayhem. Hero gets mad, depressed and alcoholic. 

He performs a surgery when he is drunk and passes out. There is legal medical enquiry on him. His family tries to help him but Arjun confesses to have been drunk when performing surgery. His license is cancelled for a year. 

He loses his mind and everything else that he possessed. He falls in to the streets when he hears the news of his granny passing away. 

He goes back to his home to support his family. They accept him and ask him to go on vacation. He gets to see his girl friend on his way who would be full term pregnant. He comes back and meets her. He wins her confidence and brings her home. She reveals that she is pregnant with the baby of Arjun. 

They all live happily ever after.

The story is very simple and common. But the way its depicted is very sweet. Arjun for sure wins the viewers hearts with his amazing acting. 

The Origin - Dan Brown

This is the latest book by Dan Brown. The book is about how the technology is impacting the behaviour of homo sapiens.

The book begins with a business tycoon and a technologist Edmond kirsch intending to declare to the world his latest research on future of human race and the past. He creates an intrigue by asking questions like "Where we came from and where we are going?" in media. He invites the world's renowned people in every industry for this announcement at a museum in Guggenheim, Bilbao.
Each guest is handed over a head set that gives the instructions through robots. Langdon is given with Winston who is also the personal assistant of Edmond. The guests are ushered to an artificially made  meadow like space. Just when the declaration is about to be made, he shot dead. Robert Longdon who is Edmond's mentor and friend is handed to task to find the killer and reveal to everyone what the technologist intended to say.

Langdon is accompanied with the museum curator Ambra Vidal -who is the fiance of the prince of Spain. There are special police forces trying to protect the curator when she is escaping with Langdon on every capture attempt. 

The killer is found to be ex naval officer who mistakes his killing assignment to the revenge of killings of his family members. Langdon finds the laboratory where his Edmond has the server on which Edmond's presentation is stored. With the help of Winston, Langdon succeeds in making the presentation public. The message in it being that we should embrace technology for the good will of our future generation against all the odds created by the religious institutions. Technology is going to occupy us and we eventually become techno sapiens.

Winston self deletes himself, Ambra finds peace with her prince and Langdon is up for the next adventure.

The book is definitely a page turner as usual. The depictions of cities of Bilbao, Gaudi, Barcelona are so fantastic that we feel like visiting them for real. Thanks to Dan Brown for always coming up with promising thrillers. 

Malegalali Madhumagalu(book) - Kuvempu

Finished reading it the third time...!

I got lost the last two times, but this time, I am determined to write something about this book in the blog. 

The book is about the marvels of the nature in the western ghats of Karnataka. The story is set up in the beginning of 19th century where the electricity and analog clocks had not gotten as far as the remote villages of India. There was British rule, freedom struggle, Vivekananda and missionaries converting Indians to Christians. 

As it is said in the prologue, there is no one character or incident the novel talks about. Everyone and everything is important or not important at all. There is no beginning or end, There is no destination, there is no end. 

As such there is no ONE thing that you remember as summary to the story. Its an ocean of emotion, sky of language and the characters are stars. 

It starts with naayi gutti planning a kidnap of his maternal cousin Timmi and marry her. Then there is Timmappa Hegde, Rangamma, Jattama, Subbana Hegde, Bharamai Hegde, Mukunda, Chinnamma, Itha, Peenchlu etc etc. Naayi Kutthi succeeds in kidnapping Timmi and elopes in to the dense forest of Hulikal where the dangerous wild animals and tiger attack each other. Timmi is agreed by her parents to be married to another guy from her own village. The landlords of Timmi do not agree to send of Timmi with Gutti as Timmi and her family owe their lives to the landlord. 

Timmanna Hegde is a ugly looking rich man but no girl wants to marry him. He plans to exchange his sister to another man - Bharamai Heggde and get his sister marry Timmana. There is cold war between Sankranna Hedge and Subbanna Hegde, Kanna Pandita is a malayali ayurvedic doc who give tantra for all types of maladies. Aiytha and Peenchulu are newly wed couples. Mukunda is in love with his childhood sweetheart Chinnamma. His brother in law - Devay Gowda is deeply influenced by the pastor - Jeevarathnayya. Naayi Gutti is held by police, escapes and elopes again with Timmi. This time his beloved dog - gutti naayi dies. Itha and Peenchlu plans to get Chinnama run away with Mukunda on the eve of her wedding. When she runs away in her wedding attire to the nearest hill - one among the thousands in the ghats, she is pictured as "Malegallalli Madhumagalu". Her father dies after realizing Chinnamma has run off the wedding. Mukunda looks after Chinnamma's father left over property and business, Devayya Gowda is stopped from undergoing Christian conversion process at the last moment. 

There are stories to no end and one just needs to keep tab on whos who and enjoy the book. Kuvempu has finely sculpted this book with more than a 100 sub stories in it. Each one has its own beauty and grandeur in it. The characters are too many but one feels like, they are all so familiar. The description of the nature is too real to make it appear in front of the reader's eyes. One will be inspired to visit the forests on the ghats during rains when reading it.

Its one of the best books I have read. I recommend everybody to read it

The Mountain Shadow - David Gregory Roberts

Its the sequel to the legend of a book - Shantaram. Shantaram is a super duper book with a lot of spirituality, philosophy and referable quotes. It dealt with a criminal who ran from a prison in Australia and settled in the slums of Bombay to make a living by selling drugs and waging gang wars.

The sequel too deals with the same man - Lin and his girl friend Karla. Plot is also a continuation of the Shantaram story. There is Abdullah too who reappeared after being thought as dead for long. Lisa is married to a different man - someone famous in media industry. Lin has a bisexual girlfriend who is later murdered by Lin's enemies. Lin and karla are very much in love with each other - to the extent where they are married to different people but still think of each other's safety 24/7.

Tariq - only heir of Khader Khan dies after his house is set on fire. Gang wars become the main scene in the book. Lin leaves the gang this time as against taking significant role in Shantaram. Karla divorces her husband and goes to live in an ashram of Idriss along with Lin. There is a lot of unwanted philosophy here. Adbullah dies again due to an ambush between the police and the terrorists at Khaleed Ansari's Ashram.

Vikram, Didier, Jonny Cigar, Kavita Singh, Lettie all continue with their roles as in Shantaram even in this book. Leopold cafe holds the important stage to the plot from beginning to the end.

There are a lot of other threads like some huge family looking for a treasure in their house, a goonda police, zodiac georges, Lin's friend befriending and safeguarding a daughter of a rich Mumbaikar, a drugged young girl whose boyfriend committed suicide, Madam Zhou, a disguised waiter from Srilanka who joins Lin in Mumbai, a woman in blue hijab etc.. These stories take the intensity away from Karla-Lin main stage.

While reading, at times you feel like lost as the author seems to confuse as to what he wants to convey. There is ambiguity in many areas of philosophies and the lines are not very appealing. Idriss gyaan is not easily understandable. As such the story drifts with no conclusion or you feel there is no point the author wants to make. As a whole I was a bit disappointed as I started the book with Shantaram in mind.

Bharath Stores - Kannada Movie

This is also one of the great movies I happened to watch on the Chandana series at home. It was in my wishlist for a long time.

Its a movie about how India is taking the heat of foreign direct investment against traditional retailers. It has Dattatreya donning the role of Govind shetty, owner of one of the famous retail shops in south Bangalore. One of the bus stops in the route would be named after this and such is the popularity of it.

Govinda Shetty is a typical business man of nineties who by nature is a gentleman, taking interest in the good being of the society and people. He looks after his staff well and respects them. He makes good money also which he returns to the society in various forms.

He is faced with first hand disapproval from his son who is keen on taking up employment at a mall than managing the father's Bharath Stores. Govind Shetty loses all his customers day by day to the goods sold at the near by mall. He would be left with nothing at his old age and is admitted at a old age home.

India is witnessing a big number of stories where many Govind Shettys are quitting their shops due to the mall culture. Govind Shetty at the same time is reluctant to change his ways of doing business. He likes to send home the grocery where the actual customers like to go to mall, shop, eat and have fun time. He is reluctant to provide discounts like the way malls do(or advertise). He is also reluctant to provide credit(in the form of credit card). His shop does not have many options or brands for the grocery item. All these reasons make the consumer to look for a place which provides all of these or some of these. I being an engineer, always mentored upon to learn the technologies of tomorrow, find it bleak too see the future of small retailers like Govind Shetty.

The movie is a good depiction of paradigm of shutting small scale retailers and growth of malls. It also has Sudharani who is the narrator of the story. A good watch if you are looking for documentary kind of material. 

Pravaaha - a beautiful movie

Since I am spending my days working from home these days, I happened to watch a beautiful movie - Pravaaha in kannada.

It stars Achyuth Kumar as Marappa - a potter in a village. He owes a rich fellow in the village a very huge money. His son Siddarama is shamed in his school for this fact. He is shamed for being a potter's son. Siddarama takes a oath never to become a potter which is his family tradition.

The film portrays Marappa making pots hysterically and trying to sell them. But he soon loses demand to a plastic seller. Plastic seller mocks at Marappa every time he hurries to the market with his supplies.

Siddarama is determined to make it big in his life. He runs away from his house to a near by town. He is scared of police. He meets a nice boy at the temple. Temple boy gets him  job at a bluffing center, Siddarama obtains a lot of money in the form of tips. Once the bluffing center is ridden by the police. Siddarama escapes and goes back to his village in a slum dog millionaire style wearing cool goggles on a moped just to find his father dead.

He brings his mother to town and live a life of a migrant in the town. Its a story of a struggle through the competition between tradition and modern plastic era. Its a story of decaying condition of rural education system, migration to cities, pollution in cities due to this and multiplication of slums for the incoming crowd.

The director Naidu has done an awesome job in bringing the realities in the form of a beautiful movie. Achyuth Kumar as usual has done his best to show the character of Marappa. In today's mainstream kannada movie industry, it is a good movie to watch and enjoy your Sunday for a thoughtful week.