Friday, September 27, 2019
The precious token
Sunday, September 22, 2019
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.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
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.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
The Lion King
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.
Look beyond what you see. - Rafiki
Love will find a way, anywhere we go. We’re home if we are there together. - 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
Saturday, July 27, 2019
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.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Inspiration
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"
Saturday, May 25, 2019
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.
Friday, April 5, 2019
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.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
THOR - 1
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.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Imaikka nodigal 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.
Friday, March 1, 2019
Inheritance of loss - Kiran Desai
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.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Aleph By Paulo Coelho
Thursday, February 7, 2019
URI
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.
Monday, January 14, 2019
A hundred little flames
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.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Far from the madding crowd - Thomas Hardy Book
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.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
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.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Lucia - movie
Sunday, March 11, 2018
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.
Friday, February 23, 2018
The Origin - Dan Brown
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Malegalali Madhumagalu(book) - Kuvempu
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
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.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
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.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Pravaaha - a beautiful movie
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.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Ajeya - Biography of Chandrashekar Azad
A piece of information on why I chose to read this book. When my mother was preganant with me, she read this book. When I became pregnant, I was in search of some good books to read. I came across THE MAN by Irving Wallace and Ajeya by Babu KrishnaMurthy.
Ajeya is the biography of Chandra Shekar Azad famously known as Azad in the Indian freedom movement. He was classified as a revolutionary with ideology following that of Hindustan Republican Association(HRA). He was born in a small village in Madya Pradesh. At a very young age, he was held by police for supporting Gandhi's non co operation movement. He managed to escape from them quite soon. He named himself as Azad from then on symbolically saying nobody can captivate him.
He ran away from home and came to know Ram Prasad Bismil - founder of Hindustan Republican Association. Azad accumulated funds to the association through robberies of rich Indian supporters of British. During this time he took part in Kakori train robbery that attempted to destroy viceroy's train. He was mostly moving around in disguise due to this.
During a peaceful protest against Simon commission, Lala Lajpat Rai - punkab kesari was hit brutally by James A Scott - a police. Rai subsequently died which led to the revolutionaries like Bhagat and Raj Guru avenge Scott. On a eventful day, they including Azad planned to kill Scott but mistakenly shot John P Saunders.
After this, Azad, Bhaghat and RajGuru were most wanted by the police and they made a wide spread look out for the trio. Azad based himself in Jhansi for a long time in the disguise of a sage and tought the local children. He became the favorite of the locals. He also managed HRA activities from the same place.
He now had alliances with a bigger group of people and he also extended the HRA membership. Though funding was a big challenge he could carry revolutionary activities against the British. He managed to make bombs and test them. Once during the test in a far off forest, he lost his best associate Bhagawati Charan Vohra.
He planned to escape Bhagat Singh and RajGuru from jail when they were arrested in explosion in assembly case. But it was a failed attempt.
He died by shooting himself in Alfred park when the police were to captivate him owing to the promise that he will not let anyone to capture him.
Azad was the heart and soul of HRA aka HSRA. He inspired the Indian youth to take part in revolutionary freedom fight. Now he is looked upon as a great leader amassing thousands of young Indians towards freedom struggle.
About the book - You feel like Azad is a friend of yours and you cry when he dies. You cry when his friends die too. The narration is a perfect tale that takes you through the journey of a onlooker at the freedom movement. You start living in those days and find people and everything else relating to freedom and revolution. The book inspired me to visit the places Azad has stepped on. It inspired me to read more of these heroes. It definitely enriched my life.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
The MAN - Irving Wallace
The MAN - is a book written by best selling author Irving Wallace. I was suggested to read this book by many of my acquaintances including my father and brother and a well wisher.
About a month ago, I started with the painstakingly long book(again on Kindle) and could finish only now. Its about a Negro man who gets to become the president of America accidentally.
It so happens that the old president and the vice president would be dead in a building collapse in Germany. Back in America, there is a senator negro man selected as the new president as he is the pro tempore of the president.
The book is the journey of this new guy as the president in the White House. There are aspects as to how he deals with the racism against him and the racism that he is inflicting the people of America, how unbiased he is, how wise he is when he tackles issues related to his children etc.
He is challenged by the white racists and the black men seeking freedom from racism. He is impeached with false charges of dismissing one of his board members, harassment and others. His fights the impeachment trail with the help of his friend lawyer and wins over. At the same time, the Russians who are trying to capture a small piece of land backed by America - called Amboko also suspend their operations by which the Negro man wins popularity back and there is no re-election held due to these reasons.
As said by all else, I was expecting the book to give me some lines of definition of THE MAN, probably all MEN on earth. But it failed to keep up my expectation as I knew better MEN than this Negro Douglass Dilman - Men who are wiser, more intelligent and courageous.
Piece of advice: Do not set expectations before picking it up. A big book indeed with a lot of pages of repetitive text(like the charges of impeachment, I almost knew those lines by heart when it was over). Douglass Dilman was the MAN of 1960s and does not hold good for current society. He may prove to be inspirational in terms of beings unbiased. But everything else, I expect him to be updated.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Nikola Tesla - Biography
Edison hired Tesla to fix problems he was having in DC generators and motors and promised Tesla a very huge amount. But when the job was done, Edison laughed away on the promise he made to Tesla on the monetary part.
Tesla was met with numerous failures in his journey of innovation. He was rejected in various stages by the sponsors, fund providers and general public. He kept his attitude to invent no matter what came his way. One of his important inventions - Radio was stolen and a year later Marconi was awarded the Nobel prize for the same invention. It does not end here. Some other examples are - X-Rays, Radar, Hydro Electric Plant, Transistors.
He died in his room on 7th Jan 1943. He was found by his maid. Tesla obtained around 300 patents worldwide for his inventions through out. Any gratitude to this man I harbor is simply not enough.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Julius Caesar - play by William Shakespeare
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.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Street Lawyer - John Grisham
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.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Gold Mine - 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
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.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Linga - A Rajanikant Movie
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.