Civil War: A curtain-raiser

Bananas are coming home to roost from all the banana republics the United Fruit Company States had planted. FBI has been disbanded, Canadian $ is the $ of choice, trading at several times the value of the American one and Texas and California have joined hands against the sitting President who is on his third term - the civil war is on.

From the director of other such disturbing classics with uplifting BGM like Annihilation and Ex Machina and the writer of 28 Days Later, Alex Garland, this dystopian peep into what is still a possibility, is a bold move for this time in U.S history.  

A bunch of journalists are the lead characters in this film which helps the director justify the detached and neutral observer track the film tries to stay on. Kirsten Dunst, as the de-sensitized photo journalist Lee is amazing and Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, the other lead just about keeps up with Dunst. I am not really sold on the waif like-wannabe-photo-journalist Jesse. Maybe Jesse's character was the only way some thematic depth and chaos could be added to the story. Otherwise it would be a war-road trip movie about some hardened (photo)journalists chasing a civil war without making many foolish decisions that might put their and their compatriots' lives at risk. Less drama overall, which is not something that sells a movie.

The film hits you hard with the imagery and symbolism of United State of America as a war torn country. The effect is amplified by mind blowing sound and music tracks. Modern warfare and the devastation that it brings along have never crossed into this nation of interstate highways, perfect lawns with even more perfect sprinkler systems and a god assigned in perpetuity to shower blessings on it. Here is hoping this empire does not fall this way. God (really need to) Bless the USA (this time.)

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Varshangalkku Sesham - A Vineeth Sreenivasan nod to Malayalam cinema

A nod that placed Kannur on the map of Kerala movie-dom. For me, that is the redeeming factor of Malayalam movies directed by Vineeth Sreenivasan. The slang, the accent/dialect, the people and the stories of Kannur (the director's birth-city and mine) were never given much prominence in Malayalam films or literature before Vineeth Sreenivasan appeared on the horizon with his youthful, sentimental films set in the region.

Vineeth's Hallmark-card-designed-for-Kerala type of movies is not exactly my cuppa, nor is this latest one from him, Varshangalkku Sesham. But the opening scene set in the director's familiar north Malabari environs with the perfect casting of his own brother Dhyan Sreenivasan, Malayalam's favorite slacker-hero, delivering his brother's lines with an innate comedic flair is a performance so pitch-perfect that it almost absolves the film's overindulgence in nostalgia.

Interestingly, the director's father, the iconic Sreenivasan , has long been a cinematic ambassador for the Kannur dialect, employing it in most of his roles regardless of his character's origin. However, his own directorial works—the cult classics  Vadakkunokki Yantram and Chinthavishtaya Shyamala,—while both commercial and critical hits, could have been set anywhere in Kerala.

The signature dialect in Malayalam movies of the eighties and nineties, when I was growing up, was the mid-Kerala Valluvandandan dialect which was supposedly the proper Malayalam for literature and films and therefore considered classy at the time. Kudos, Vineeth Sreenivasan for making Kannur and Kannur accent and dialect mainstream. Chennai (formerly Madras) and its people are next in line to thank Vineeth S. for making their city and culture the other geographical cornerstone of his directorial ventures.

Varshangalkku Sesham is meta movie, a nested node of nods.

A nod to the night breeze of north Kerala, a meteorological discovery made by the director in early 2010s. A nod to north Malabar. A nod to Madras/ Chennai . A nod to Kodambakkam. A nod to Tamil, Tamilnadu and sambhar sadam. 

A nod to yesteryear's directors. A nod to Priyadarshan and his production design style. The village scenes in the beginning almost feels like ghost-directed or designed by Priyadarshan's production designer. A nod to Mohanlal, a very weak nod at that, aided just by genes. A nod and a new life-line for Nivin Pauly. A nod to the nameless side-kicks. A nod to music, musicians especially violinists. A nod to polka dots, reaffirming their eternal status as retro, no matter which decade. 

A nod to old style Indian melodrama,  the millennial version.  A nod to Mohanlal style mund-flick. A nod to the new-generation version of the iconic Malayalam duo Dasan & Vijayan, immortalized by the actor dads of this movie's lead actors.  A nod to friends and family, who have contributed to Vineeth's success through the years.  A meta nod to characters, dialog and music from Malayalam movies of the past.   

Varshangalkku Sesham (transl. Years Later) is a nod to all things Malayalam cinema in an ensemble entertainer package, neatly packed and tied with a bow of gooey-Vineeth Sreenivasan-goodness.  It might also be a personal reciprocation effort from Vineeth Sreenivasan, paying respect to the stalwarts of Malayalam cinema like Mohanlal and Priyadarshan by creating central characters in this film to fit the progeny of these stalwarts. Although Pranav Mohanlal and Kalyani Priyadarshan are the weakest links in this movie. Dhyan Sreenivasan, shows he can act and has the range to play complex characters. 

Nivin Pauly's career is thrown a life-line and an opportunity to hit back at his critics with dialog penned by his bestie - Vineeth S. Director turned actor - Basil Joseph, Aju Varghese, Neeraj Madhav, music-director turned actor Shaan Rahman, Neeta Pillai, Deepak Parambol and Sreeram Ramachandran bring up the rear supporting the talented bro-team in this syrupy nod to Malayalam film world.

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Manjummel Boys - where boys will be/remain boys : A review

Manjummel Boys is a survival cave-rescue movie based on a real life rescue event that happened at Guna Caves (previously called Devil's Kitchen) near Kodaikanal in the Western Ghats region of south India in 2006. 

This is another one of those pan south-Indian movies (other recent ones I have reviewed in this category are Premalu and Aavesham) responding to the possibilities of profit-making through streaming  and OTT platforms where a movie needs to transcend, meta-relate, hyperlink across language and regional barriers. Bilingual characters, diverse locations across the country,  a supporting cast of regional actors from the area where the story takes place and other regional influences baked into the narrative are strategies to grab more eyeballs and box-office bucks. Setting this movie in Kodaikanal will also help boost the Tamilnadu tourism industry. Nothing wrong with making products people want.

To attract Tamil moviegoers and strike box office gold, Manjummel Boys frequently references the 1991 Tamil film Gunaa and its music, specifically the song sequence filmed at the Devil's Kitchen cave system featuring the legendary Kamal Haasan. After Gunaa's release, the cave acquired a unique identity, being renamed as the Guna Caves, setting it apart from the countless rock caverns across the globe  all going by the name of devil's kitchen. This devil dude might be quite a chef, had a kitchen at every port of call. 

Manjummel Boys also belong to my 'favorite' emerging genre in Malayalam, which I call the MCMs or Man Child Movies in this blog. In the real life incident which served as the inspiration for Manjummel Boys, it is actually a group of young boys from Manjummel between the ages of 17 and 21 who go on a tourist expedition to Guna caves and one of them slips and falls down a deep crevasse. They have the excuse of their under-developed pre-frontal cortex for the risky decisions they might have made.

the real Manjummel boys

But what is the excuse for the men in this movie where all the actors who play the 'boys' look like 30+ year old men who have not really grown up and are still displaying the antics of teenage boys. This is one place the director should have curbed his creative liberty and recruited some real youngsters, instead of Soubin Shahir, a decent actor, but looks forty.  To me Manjummel Boys is a literal man-child movie filled with men-children.

A targeted social media blitzkrieg in the days immediately after the  film's release must have paid off. The S.Indian social media frenzy over this movie could have very well been generated in bot farms in the wilds of Asiatic continent. That is the only reason I can think of why Manjummel Boys became a hit beyond compare. It is an okay movie, but there are survival movies that have been told better  including Thirteen Lives, Castaway, Society of the Snow, The 33 etc. Considering that language and geography are no barriers in this streaming global media landscape, where movie-makers has easy access to inspiration without much perspiration, this movie could have been  made better. 

The script is practically non-existent, and character development is sorely lacking. The characters' dynamics and relationships are left largely to guesswork. The current theater-going audience in Kerala seems to be mostly Gen Z and younger millennials. This realization makes me feel like a fossil in a world where anyone over 40 is considered a 'boomer.' Therefore please take note that this review comes from someone a couple of generations removed. Manjummel Boys appears to be a movie tailored for the TikTok/Instagram reels generation, whose attention spans are challenged by coherent scripts. In fact, the director Chidambaram S. Poduval's previous film, Jan.e.man, was more relatable.

But let me not rain on Manjummel Boys' parade entirely. The movie deserves praise for its strong technical execution, particularly the cinematography, production design, and sound work. Recreating the cavernous underworld of Guna caves, complete with vertigo-inducing visual effects of a bone-rattling plummet into the craggy depths is expertly crafted. 

If there's one scene that elevates the film, it's the portrayal of that pivotal fall - the turning point of the story. The way it casually unfolds onscreen with creativity and nuance is quite impressive. It catches the viewer a bit off-guard, highlighting the creative brilliance of the director.If only he had recruited some young teen Youtube stars or Insta-influencers, instead of thirty plus year old men to play boys....... 

 

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Aavesham, an agender review

The first half of 2020s is the period of man-child movies in Malayalam. There is a profusion of young male directors in Malayalam these days, many of them are very talented. This is indeed a better situation than in the aughts (late 90s up to 2010), a period I consider the driest season for good movies in Malayalam cinema. The only problem we've now is while many of the creations directed by these young stallions are technically brilliant, my almost half a century old lenses notice the myopic and know-it-all worldview of the young first before I grudgingly appreciate the movie's technical finesse. I hope this stage will not last long for these talented filmmakers as they mature taking cue from the lessons they learn down their own life-paths.

The latest in the series of man child movies is Aavesham starring the versatile experimentalist Fahadh Faasil as the fun-loving man-child of a mafia don. Aavesham is one of the better man-child movies in the recent past, a trend I started noticing from Lijo Jose Pellissery's 2017 porcine classic overdosed on testosterone, Angamaly Diaries. Another more recent one of this 'genre', also from Lijo Jose Pellissery that I had the good fortune to watch was Churuli, my review here.

Aavesham starts at one of those numerous engineering college hostels that line the outskirts of Bangalore where three freshman are hazed by their seniors and want to take revenge.Their novel idea of revenge entails recruiting or finding a local don who could be their local support and protection. Enter the crowd-surfing, quirky and fabulous Mr. Ranga, a much emaciated Fafa (Fahadh Faasil), in an offbeat action role.

The three new kids were probably recruited from Instagram or through auditions and do well with the roles they are entrusted with. The transformations of their characters as the film progresses are captured well. The modern and endearing thug sidekick, Amban is also fleshed out well. Fafa brilliantly portrays Ranga, perfect to the last bit of Bangalore-Malayali accent.  Vinayak Sasikumar's lyrics and Sushin Shyam's music  is reminiscent of Tamil movie songs. Maybe that is the trend we've to live with in these days of pan-(S.)Indian movies. Directed by Jithu Madhavan, Aavesham is a decent entertainer worth a watch for its quirky performances and the interesting treatment of its 21st century cinematic don theme.

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Premalu, a review

Naslen, Mamitha, Sangeeth & Akhila

Girish A. D. is a god of small things. Third in his series of coming of age movies flavored with dashes of rom-com spice, Premalu is a light entertainer/chick-flick with an immensely like-able young cast. The director Girish A.D threads together a narrative from nothing but stringing together tiny pearls from everyday life, just like he he had done in his two previous directorial outings - Thanneermathan Dinangal(transl - Watermelon Days, 2019) and Super Sharanya(2022.) Both of which were also utterly delightful.

Shyam Mohan & Mamitha Baiju

The script, the framing of the scenes and even seemingly inconsequential dialog between the characters bring out the depth of observation of the movie's creator. While it is a run of the mill trope of boy-meets-girl from a slightly different social milieu, it is the attention to detail and impeccable casting that makes Premalu a winner. 

Naslen K. Gafoor, Mamitha Baiju, Sangeeth Prathap, Shyam Mohan playing the four main characters steal the show. The only badly developed character (the director or writer's fault, not the actor's) is Mathew portrayed by Mathew Thomas, which was a comic exaggeration of someone on the spectrum. 

It is an urban film relatable to majority of the  newer generation film-goers in India - maybe you have lived in a different city with room mates for your first job, maybe you went to an engineering college outside your hometown and fell in love with a girl and it didn't work out as you had planned, maybe you worked in a software company for your first job, maybe even after four years of college you still remained an aimless kite, maybe you will find something of yourself in this movie, maybe you won't. Just sit back and enjoy the show.

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Pakeezah (1972), Meena Kumari and Trains

Meena Kumari's character Sahibjaan in Pakeezah has an obsession with trains, just like me. Although the root cause of our obsessions are vastly different. She almost met (she was sleeping, so she didn't get a chance to meet in the conventional sense) a handsome stranger on an overnight train journey, who left a note of appreciation about her soft feet in Urdu. Even expletives sound like poems in Urdu, so can't blame the lady if she fell head over heels reading a poetic note about her heels. 

Ethereal Meena Kumari, staring out of the window of the train, right after she has read the mysterious note

My fascination with trains could've started in my childhood filled with multi-day, overnight train journeys that took our family to places known & cherished or unknown & magical. If you lived in India in the 20th century and loved/had to travel, there was no escaping the trains. That was probably why  connecting the story-dots in director Kamal Amrohi's story is the omnipresent Indian Railways.

Pakeezah, Meena Kumari's magnum opus created for her by her husband (later ex) Kamal Amrohi is a grand visual poem which took almost fifteen years in the making. The majority of the work happening during the years 1964 to 1971 and the movie was released a couple of months before Meena Kumari's death at 38 in March 1972.

Meena Kumari designed all her wonderfully pirouette-able and elegantly colorful dance costumes for the movie. The music and the songs which can single-handedly make or break a Bollywood musical was composed by Ghulam Muhammad and the lyrics were penned by some of the best Urdu poets of the era like Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kamal Amrohi and Kaifi Bhopali. The cinematography and the production design must have cost a pretty penny.

It is a Muslim-social about a tawaif (a Muslim courtesan or dancing girl) who falls in love with a gentleman in a history-repeats type of situation where the same kind of doomed love affair happens to a mother and her daughter, with two different gentlemen, of course. Both the mother and the daughter are played by Meena Kumari, but there in no need for these characters to share screen time as mother dies after childbirth and the daughter is only shown after she is in her late teens as she takes on the role of the dancer-courtesan. Ashok Kumar plays the love interest in the first affair and Raj Kumar's impeccable Hindustani diction won him the role of the younger Meena Kumari's lover.

The tumultuous life of Meena Kumari, the actor, is evident on her face that ages a decade during the making and completion of the movie. Meena Kumari, while she does not look like she is 17, is convincingly young as the younger (daughter) courtesan when the film starts out. But the film which seems to have been shot chronologically shows a beaten, puffy actor ravaged by depression and ill-health, as it progresses past the half way mark.

The lovers - Raj Kumar and Meena Kumari, accidentally meet again, during a train journey towards the end of the movie

Pakeezah is a window into a bygone era and world where tawaifs and nawabs used to exist along with teak-paneled Indian railway coaches and horse-drawn tangas. Much of the actions of the characters cannot be explained or justified in the current context nor is the century old societal framework comprehensible while I am typing and gazing at the neighbor's Tesla parked on their driveway. It is a splendid period piece, elegantly crafted, a fitting final tribute to one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema - Meena Kumari, and totally woman-'owned'. 

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Bhoothakalam

Shane Nigam knows his strengths and chose the right story, location and director for his production house - Shane Nigam Film's maiden(?) venture. - Bhoothakalam. The angst ridden, depressed, down on his luck, angry and scared young man from Kochi is a role tailor-made for Shane. He is not going to lose his Kochi accent anytime, why even take a risk when he has a stake in production?

Bhoothakalam (transl. The Past,) Rahul Sadasivan's second directorial outing after Red Rain (2013) is a slow burn psychological horror/ghost story.  Shane and veteran actor Revathy play the leads as a depressed mother and an equally depressed son who got handed a load of generational trauma on top of his helplessness. They both have outdid themselves in the acting department, although when it comes to Shane I felt that he just had to act as himself on a bad hair day. For her role in Bhoothakalam Revathy won the Kerala state award for the best actor (female) in a lead role for the first time in her career, which has spanned almost four decades. 

Bhoothakalam (2022) is one of the serious ghost stories I have watched in Malayalam after long, along the lines of Sixth Sense or The Others, but on a much lighter budget. There are no cheap tricks like jump scares or odd camera angles as it moves steadfastly towards a satisfying climax.

Just like Rahul Sadasivan's next film, BramaYugam (2024), Bhoothakalam too is plenty open to interpretation. Armchair psychoanalysts and hidden meaning seekers have the opportunity for the metaphorical peeling of a few psychological onions. This is considering both the lead characters have issues which need intervention by mental health professionals. Under those circumstances it is easy to explain away the supernatural as tricks of the mind, shared psychotic disorder, drug induced hallucinations and the like. 

But I would rather watch Bhoothakalam as a ghost story it is. We have not had a good one for long and Bhoothakalam builds up slowly but surely towards a flash-freeze spine-chilling end.

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Bramayugam

The age of black and white is here in director Rahul Sadasivan's The Age of Madness or BramaYugam. It was a brilliant idea to post-process the entire movie to monochrome black-n-white which not only elevates the story but also makes it easy for the production design team. If the mana (translation: mansion) in the movie was in color it would have looked like a stage prop strongly giving off western false-facade vibes. 

The cinematography by Shehnad Jalal is enchanting making the mansion a strong contender for the supporting lead. Here below is one of the powerful introductory shots from the movie where Arjun Ashokan's character, Thevan wandering lost in the jungle finally chances upon what looks like an abandoned mansion.

BramaYugam, while it may not be considered as a horror movie in the traditional sense, is a quality period-horror or psychological thriller. The tight setting of the eerie abandoned mana and its jungle environs, the three main characters who are pretty much the only characters in the story and a yakshi to add an extra dollop of Malayali authenticity, all hold the well directed movie together. 

The casting is on point. Mammotty essays the role of Kudomon Potty, the lord of the dark mansion with Sidharth Bharathan as the caretaker and cook of the mansion. Thevan is a paanan or a traveling folk singer who had escaped the Portuguese slave traders in this 17th century Malabar tale, who seeks refuge in the mana. 

Arjun Ashokan's portrayal of Thevan is raw and intense, capturing the essence of a man trapped in a world of shadows and secrets. With his half a century of acting experience Mammotty leads the charge of the trio of characters, while  Siddharth Bharathan's portrayal as the servant of the house is not far behind the other two either. Amalda Liz's Yakshi who has no dialog and a few minutes screen time in the entire movie is the only miscasting (in my eye.) She has a very modern face for 17th century female vampire. 

BramaYugam is a roller-coaster ride through a world where nothing is as it seems, and danger and dark secrets lurk behind every shadow. An atmospheric horror (or thriller?) movie that cleverly uses monochrome to take us back to a bygone era of yakshis and chathans, it is a successful cinematic experiment and a must-watch.

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Love and Loss: Amy Bloom's In Love & Netflix's One Day

Reading Amy Bloom's In Love helped me understand Robin William's final act. While there are nine states (Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Maine and Vermont) and the District of Columbia which have right to die laws, you cannot have a physician assisted suicide without satisfying certain conditions. First, you have to be a resident of one of these states to have the right to die, more importantly you need to get medically assessed as having only six months to live. Which means you have to be almost at death's door to use this right-to-die card to have a physician-assisted suicide in the US of A.  Incurable degenerative diseases like Lewy body dementia (that Robin Williams had) or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's that will slowly hollow out a person over years are not excuses good enough to have the right to die in any of the nine states or DC. This is where Switzerland steps in.  Remember the name Dignitas and Pegasos, just in case.

Just in case was the reason why I decided to read Amy Bloom's In Love after I chanced upon a blurb about the book somewhere. Memoirs focusing on a single event in a writer's life and its aftermath is not my favorite form of non-fiction, but the information provided by the author and her style of writing kept In Love engaging for me.

During the same period I was going through Ms. Bloom's love-n-loss heavy memoir I also accidently started watching a chick-lit(?) series One Day on Netflix. Like Amy Bloom, Ambika Mod's Emma Morley is a bookish ethnic girl who becomes a writer and finds a soulmate in handsome, British upper class Dexter Mayhew.

Emma and Dex in One Day

One Day is based on the book of the same name written by David Nicholls, and tells the story of Emma and Dexter who meet and spend a night together on their last day at the university in 1988 and decide to meet each other every year afterwards, on the same day. There was also a 2011 movie based on the novel, starring Anne Hathaway as Emma. 

I loved the way Emma's character is written. Her one-liners are profoundly deep and funny. Leo Woodall's Dex is hurtlingly handsome and posh. They are from the opposite ends of the spectrum, both socially and intellectually and we, the viewers, desperately want them to be together, to see how it will all turn out. The writing and the script makes sure the audience are invested in Emma and Dex although the plot line of boy and girl from different sides of the track is an over-used one.

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Reading Ramayana in the Roaring (Twenty) Twenties

Ramayana and Mahabharata are two great epics from the Indian subcontinent. Many of the thirty three million Hindu gods and goddesses make guest appearances in these two epics. Some like Vishnu gets to play the main characters in his two popular avatars, Rama and Krishna, in these two mega mythological texts in Sanskrit. Bhagvad Gita, the best known Indian scripture, is a part of a section of Mahabharata called the Bhishma Parva.

In my mind Hinduism is the contemporary of Greek religion (Hellenism) and Indians worshipping the million gods is how West would have been, had it not been won over by the trinity of Jesus, Allah and Yhwh. Both Hinduism and Hellenism are polytheistic featuring their main players in two opposing teams - Devas and Asuras for Hinduism corresponding to Olympians and Titans for the Greeks. 

Like Hades, Zeus and Poseidon, Hinduism has Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer), a slightly different yet similar take as the Greeks' dividing the Big 3 by assigning them the three realms of the heavens, the oceans and the underworld. If the monotheistic Abrahamic religions had not overrun and relegated Greek and Roman gods to the mythical pavilion in the western world, I am sure we would have wished Zeusspeed instead of Godspeed.

Why are we talking about these epics now? Recently in my search for coffee-table books, (that is what I mainly use the local library for these days,) I chanced upon an illustrated Ramayana. The last time I heard Ramayana (def. Sanskrit: Rama's Journey) in full was when my mother narrated me the whole story every evening over several months during my grade school days. Two score years seemed to be the right interval for a refresher.

The Illustrated Ramayana published by DK is a well written, well put together, well illustrated book, suited for both the advanced Ramayana scholar, who can find plenty of things to nitpick or for a beginner like me.  The illustrations which range from Raja Ravi Varma to Pahadi to Mughal paintings to glorious temple art from South India or Angkor Wat to Indonesia to performances and native art forms by artists from Thailand or Rajasthan(India) or  Nepal, makes every page a visual treat leading the narration forward.

Like every great epic, there are thousands retellings of the epic in every region and every language South-East and East Asia. The book also draws from these alternate story paths and present them in conjunction with the original narrative, supposedly written in Sanskrit by sage Valmiki. Valmiki, known as the first poet (adi kavi), because Ramayana is the first poem, like Alfred Hitchcock, has a weakness for cameos. In Ramayana he is a an important character in the seventh and last canto (or kanda in Sanskrit) called Uttara Kanda and he is also present in Bala Kanda as the narrator and the live-in tutor for Rama's twin boys - Lava and Kusha.

The oldest retrieved manuscript of Ramayana only contains 5 kandas and are missing the first kanda - Bala Kanda and the last one, Uttara Kanda. Because of the stylistic differences and narrative contradictions many scholars believe that these two were later additions to the epic and therefore Valmiki didn't write himself into the story. The five kandas, excluding Bala Kanda (1st canto) and Uttara Kanda (7th and final canto) are Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya Kanda, Kishkinda Kanda, Sundara Kanda and Yudha Kanda. 

Almost every religion that started in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism have their versions of Ramayana. So does almost every country in South-East and East Asia, except perhaps Vietnam. Every one of them highlights the same ultimate and supreme ideal Rama stands for - "Dharma"  which is what every human being should try to achieve - the right way of living through moral and virtuous conduct. Practicing dharma is the only way to get rid of our karmic baggage and attain salvation. A heavy message, nevertheless, a beautiful book.

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Leonard Cohen: Songs and Films

Twenty years ago in 2004 was my first summer with Leonard Cohen. I discovered him for the first time during those days of midnight sun in Alaska. He played while I was on the road in my red Chevy S10, and his baritone ‘golden’ voice sang about sixties girls like Marianne and Suzanne while I was at home.

a young Leonard Cohen, writing poems in his bathtub

While romance was/is not exactly my cuppa, there was some kind of philosophical gravitas and mysticism to this poet/writer turned-poet-singer, who climbed a whole mountain side, to wash his eyelids in the rain (ref. So long, Marianne), while he was singing about his lady loves.

Over the years in addition to dipping into the deep well of Cohen’s soulful lyrics delivered in his slow drag voice, I have had the opportunity to watch some Leonard Cohen documentaries too. The first one “Ladies and Gentlemen… Mr. Leonard Cohen: An Intimate Look into a Poet's Life (1965)” showcasing Cohen as a young poet is (IMHO) better than Netflix’s 1922 documentary “Hallelujah:Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” taking its title from Cohen’s famous song of the same name. To me, Cohen is more that Hallelujah which has been done to dust, with so many covers.

Fata Morgana(1971), Werner Hertzog’s art-house psychedelic film features Cohen songs like Suzanne, Avalanche against the stark sands of Sahara desert.

I leave you with one of his best lyrics, from his poem/song Anthem - “Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in”

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Circe by Madeline Miller

I met many Greek Gods for the first time last week. Thank you, Circe and Madeline Miller. I did not reach this far in life without hearing about Achilles' heel or Midas's touch or Herculean effort or Pandora's box, but they were just that - phrases, bearing the stamp of western civilization's greatest mythology, which was a gift from the Greeks. We all know what they say about Greeks bearing gifts.

This is the first book of fiction I have read in a long while and relished, even though it is very close to the genre of fantasy fiction I absolutely abhor. I am humbled once again by the realization that there are no absolutes, everything is relative. 

There are authors who are masters of retelling the classics. Madeline Miller is one of them. In Circe, she recasts the most infamous female character from Homer's The Odyssey and makes her a free woman, thinker, the maker of her own destiny and the world's first witch. Circe, opens with the sentence, "When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist." Which was a witch.

Through Circe's magical life journey clueless readers like me get  a crash course in who is who of Greek mythology. If I still don't get it, my son has recommended Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, although I don't think I will need it. Madeline Miller is an extraordinary story-teller, her prose is lush and breathtaking. Circe is a beautifully written novel, where you as the reader gets a front row seat to watch the parade of gods and most of them are as human - fallible, vain and unique as we are.

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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

 It was like opening a time capsule from the seventies. The movie is earthy, with shag carpet, a Gen X latchkey kid and long haired dudes. Unlike period movies of the sixties and seventies made now, there is a raw, unpolished look to this interesting movie from 1974 starring Ellen Burstyn and Kris Kristofferson. I didn't even realize till I finished the movie that it was directed by Martin Scorsese.

We follow Alice, a single mother with a penchant for co-dependency and her precocious 12 year old son Tommy, in search of a place in the sun and a living wage, with their ultimate destination set as Monterey, CA.  This movie's female-centric story and its mature treatment of the theme was something I had not have expected from Scorsese with his later movies like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Gangs of New York which are all very masculine. In fact when you think about it Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is an odd-one in Scorsese's filmography stretching to his most recent one - Killers of the Flower Moon. 

The performances by the leads like Burnstyn (Alice), Kristofferson (David), Harvey Keitel and Alfred Lutter as Tommy are convincing and realistic. Alfred Lutter who reminded me of a young Bill Gates' went onto become a CTO many famous tech companies including Lynda.com

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My 2023 list of interesting TV shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime

----------------------------------- NETFLIX SHOWS ---------------------------------------

Bodies turns detective work into a time-traveling comedy, where four sleuths from different time periods in London team up to solve the ultimate whodunit. It satisfies my time traveling craving for the season.

The Fall of the House of Usher : The series is a wild, haunted romp that turns Poe's classic tale into a dysfunctional sitcom-meets-horror mashup.  It's Netflix's way of turning horror into a comedy of errors, making Usher's fall a laugh-out-loud tumble into the absurdly supernatural.

Guns and Gulabs Season 1 is like a crazy curry of '90s nostalgia and gangster drama. The cast is doing their thing, living on their own terms, and you can't help but be part of the ride. Raj and DK deserve a shout-out for the killer screenplay.

Kohrra is not your typical murder mystery. With knock-out performances and a screenplay that packs a punch, it's like peeling back layers of a mystery onion. Punjab's not-so-pretty realities like drugs, forced NRI marriages, and a sprinkle of patriarchy drama form the background of the story. The characters are a hot mess in the best way, fighting personal battles while solving the big mystery.

Beef: Starting from a road rage incident which then leads off to a cascading series of escalating incidents, 'Beef' explores the human condition with a raw, relatable touch. It is a gripping drama about two people living parallel lives in different circumstances. Money, status, and mental health are key topics covered in this series with a unique Asian American cultural twist

MH370 The Plane That Disappeared: The series navigates the complexities surrounding the disappearance of Flight MH370, shedding light on the emotional toll on families, the relentless search efforts, and the lingering questions that resonate globally. It's a poignant blend of investigative journalism and human narratives and expertly steers clear of sensationalism to present a respectful examination of an enduring mystery.

Cunk on Earth:  A mockumentary gem that simultaneously pokes fun at and revels in the absurdities of our historical narrative. The comedic timing is impeccable, and Cunk's deadpan delivery (Diane Morgan at her comedic best) makes even the most mundane historical tidbits downright hilarious.

-------------------------- AMAZON PRIME SHOWS -----------------------------------

Dahaad Season 1: Dahaad is a stellar crime thriller set in the heart of rural Rajasthan, India, exposing the deep-seated biases and injustices ingrained in the region's culture. Sonakshi Sinha shines as Anjali, a determined police officer challenging societal norms. It is based on a true story, the series keeps viewers on the edge, skillfully unveiling the twisted mind of a serial killer.

The Power Season 1 is  a thought-provoking exploration of societal upheaval in a world where women command electric abilities. The writing strikes a balance between drama and the weighty implications of a world transformed. Strap in for a journey where the real shocks aren't just in the superpowers but in the societal currents they unleash. The show adeptly navigates the complexities of power dynamics, instigating a paradigm shift that is both electrifying and deeply reflective.

Wilderness Season 1: Liv and Will, the seemingly golden couple, take their British charm to the Big Apple. The couple's cross-country trip to iron out wrinkles in their relationship turns into a wild rollercoaster of emotions, and suddenly, that dream holiday takes a detour into a living nightmare. 'Wilderness' isn't just a twisted love story; it's a journey into the chaos of relationships, proving that even the best-laid plans can go off the rails. Jenna Coleman is captivating and capitalizes on a well written female lead character, but most of other characters didn't the same kind of attention from the screenwriters.

Vadhandhi : The Fable of Veloni:  Eight captivating episodes centering around the mysterious death of a young woman, setting off a web of deception. SJ Suryah, in the role of Sub Inspector Vivek, skillfully navigates the intricate investigation, revealing layers of lies and deceit. Sanjana, portraying the beautifully haunting Velonie, adds a magnetic charm to the narrative, owning her role effortlessly. Vadandhi may have its flaws, but it's a compelling watch, showcasing the creators' mastery in crafting suspenseful narratives.

Hush Hush Season 1, with its women-centric vibe, shines a spotlight on the talents of Juhi Chawla, Karishma Tanna, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra, Soha Ali Khan and Ayesha Jhulka. The ensemble cast plays a crucial role in weaving a narrative that delves into friendship, secrets, and the highs and lows of contemporary women's experiences. 

When I look at my Amazon Prime picks I realize that these are all series which are either women-centric or has strong lead characters who are women.  Prime also has more quality international content which is not just Korean.

BTW this is how a blog post would look if it was written by generative AI, like this post was :-) Will be switching back to the human mode in the new year. Happy 2024!

Writing Credits for this post : ChatGPT 3.5, the free version.

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Best Books: My 2023 list

This is one of those customary end of the year lists.  My 'book' reading habit is on life support so I thought it would be a short list I could easily convert into a quick post. I could put the blame of the slow demise of my book reading skills on aging, doom-scrolling internet forums where wisdom (debatable) is delivered through strangers' comments in 8.25 seconds or lesser, or my ADD. Or it could be because the same content delivered by books is now being delivered to the same dopamine centers of the brain the by streaming services?

All the books I read, I consider my best reading of the year. Otherwise I would not have made it to the end as there are more books I gave up in the first chapter or two than the total number of books I read this year.

Here are the four books I read this year and all of them are remarkable because they were able to keep my attention till the very last page. There is also a bonus book - a book you should not read, even if you maybe interested in trains like I am.

Deepti Naval's  A Country Called Childhood : A memoir

Deepti Naval is one of my favorite actors and intellectuals of Indian cinema. A Country Called Childhood is my kind of memoir - it is not about trauma or addiction or tragedy or conquering adversity. It is about the actor's childhood in northern India,  simple, and minimal yet resonant with images of the fifties and sixties India. This is how you should write about your childhood and this is how Indians writing in English should write in English.

Tony Joseph's  Early Indians : The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From

I have written a review of Early Indians here  >> The journalist author Tony Joseph focuses on the group(s) that migrated out of Africa, in three different waves, at three different time periods and became the ancestors of all the people currently inhabiting the Indian sub-continent. It is an extremely interesting and easy to read book based on anthropological, archaeological findings till now and the explosion of DNA evidence and research papers published since 2015 based on these DNA findings. 

Balachandran Chullikkad's  Chidambara Smarana (Malayalam, memoir)

Balachandran Chullikkad's memoir Chidambara Smarana (pub. 01/2001) reads like a struggling young man's journal entries from 1980-90's India. The rest of my review here.

Andy Weir's  Project Hail Mary 

This is my first Andy Weir. Probably the last too.  I was impressed by The Martian, the movie and thought I should give Project Hail Mary a try before it became a movie. Project Hail Mary is based on a good (not novel) concept with a Marvel-esque hero who is a modest middle school science teacher, written to succeed. This unassuming superhero who wears his cape and underwear inside his spacesuit would have failed in real world without access to Youtube, Google Translate, Google Search, chatGPT and Wikipedia, but for the purposes of this book, all of these sites reside in his head.

The bonus book you should stay away from if you have a liking for Indian non fiction and a sweet spot for trains is The Great Indian Railways: A Cultural Biography by Arup K. Chatterjee.  The author seems to have been too wrapped up in his own 'brilliant' command of English, which was too pedantic, stiff and graceless that I had to give it up after a few pages. Here is Chatterjee starting a paragraph talking about something. It has to be about trains as the book is about them. I think this paragraph may even have something to do with train dining cars.                                                                        

"Second, it perpetuates the reification of labour. Accordingly labour forces of railroad history are meant to be usurped into a memory of personal aristocratic adventures. The motif of culinary details has a very subtle role in accentuating architecture, and those of architecture in establishing an enduring imperial monumentality."

What the heck was that?

This is the problem I have with many Indian writers who write in English. Their tone is pedantic and disconnected. Their prose is full of long winded sentences that lose their meaning on the way while the writers are busy showing off their mastery of Queen's English. They should all read Shashi Tharoor or Suketu Mehta or Deepti Naval. It could be their new year resolution.

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