Da Vinci's Demons

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Da Vinci's Demons

A historical fantasy... quite an interesting watch. I like to read about and see historical characters in fictional settings which may or may not have been plausible. 

Leonardo da Vinci is an historical figure who holds captive the imagination of millions of people and I am no less enthralled by the possibilities that may have been him.

I like the title sequence... the artwork... and the CGI isn't bad.

  Da Vinci's Demons title sequence from HUGE on Vimeo.

The lead character, Leonardo da Vinci is played by Tom Riley.

But the male character that intrigues me the most... and I love that subtle menace in him is Count Girolamo Riario played by an awesome Blake Ritson.

Laura Haddock as Lucrezia Donati is easy on the eye... and the character was interesting in the beginning but as the mysteries surrounding her dulled so did my interest in her.

Done with Season 1... looking forward to the next seasons.

The Cuckoo’s Calling - Review

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I got my hands on The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith. To be honest, I wouldn't have bothered to pick it up if I hadn't known it was actually J. K. Rowling.

Did I like the book?  Hmmm… er… ok. It isn't bad… no, it is a decent read. But with all the hype around it I was expecting a detective novel that smashed conventional gumshoe accounts. Well, this is just mediocre fare. In my younger days I have read the Harry Potter Series and I know that Rowling can weave quite a tale. So, yes… I am a wee bit disappointed.

I won’t disclose much of the story as it is…you know… a mystery / detective novel, except that it is set in modern London and revolves around the death of a supermodel of mixed race. Her brother hires a private detective with an unusual name – Cormoran Strike, to look in to her death.

The characters in the novel, including our limping protagonist, are quite clichéd… some of their back-stories are unusual but that’s all there is for novelty. There isn't a feel of the city in it which helps you visualize the scenes… something is lacking despite London being a city with loads of charm and character. In fact, throughout the book what bothered me most was the odd feeling of unfinished characters, lacking a proper fleshing-out.

The book, in spite of its shortfalls is an interesting read and you’d want to read it at one go… cover to cover.

I hear Cormoran Strike is going to feature in more of her novels under the pen-name Robert Galbraith.

In the end, I would have to quote Shania Twain… That don’t impress me much!

Device 6 – Game Review

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A few days back, I downloaded this game on the iPad – Device 6, by Simogo.

I am quite impressed by it. It is a game perfect for a tablet (or a phablet... wanting it to come out on Android for my Note 3.) The game is, in a nutshell, interactive fiction in a mostly literal form.

There are no gun fights or action on screen which requires you to be smushing your onscreen buttons. The flow of the game is like reading an engrossing thriller… except you actually reach the conclusion along with the character by working on the clues strewn around in the text of the novel, hidden in at times confusing, at times aiding sound bytes, and black and white images both still and moving which seem to be from the 30s or 40s.

The intro + credits montage at the beginning of the game is very British, very James Bond… and it is sad that it only played at the first opening of the game. I wouldn't mind it being available to be launched from the game by some discreet onscreen button. The game has to experienced with earphones or a headset... it increases the spookiness quotient a lot.

I don’t know if the game has any precedents, but to me it is a unique experience. The game is as fast as you allow it to be, with the text snaking around the screen, literally. You would end up rotating the screen at all sorts of angles to read it, sometimes holding it to a mirror, tapping at text or images which are actually buttons in disguise, solving cryptic clues written and many a time spoken or broadcast. There is an old world charm to it with a very pipe smoking detective vibe.

Screenshot 01

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The central character from what I have played is Anna, a lady who loves her smokes, who has woken up in weird surroundings with no memory of how she got there and she has to work her way around what seems like a castle or a mansion or a very large house… perhaps Victorian.

The important part is that the player has to be observant as they read what is essentially a novel… words, numbers and dates or phrases may all be possible clues which you might need elsewhere in the game as you travel room to room exploring along with Anna.

I found the game exciting but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (or coffee.)

I have finished 3 chapters of the story and I don’t really know how many remain… but I am eager for more.

Mixed Reviews

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Okay, I have been reading. I read three Gillian Flynn novels back to back and already put up the review of one. I also managed to sneak in The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison.

The connect between all these novels was that they are/were all by female authors and they all have female protagonists (or antagonists.) I decided to review them together… it is easier because of their being from a similar genre… psychological thrillers.

The two remaining books of Gillian Flynn are Sharp Objects and Dark Places (other than which I already reviewed here.)

Sharp Objects revolves around a young woman who has to come to terms with her mother who has alienated her after the death of her younger sister. The psychological stresses that tear the family apart are reflected in the step sister who is years younger than the protagonist. The story is disturbing to say the least. It highlights how unpredictable the human mind is and how much the circumstances we are brought up in may influence us, and our mental outlook. Gillian Flynn writes well, you are kept turning the pages till you are done. I wouldn't rate this one as good as Gone Girl… but it is nevertheless a good read.

Dark Places on the other hand focuses on situations that sometimes get out of hand, the helplessness we have to face sometimes and the different ways people deal with life (or fail to deal with it). Again, the character that binds the story line is a young woman who has found herself in a situation where she has to deal with the harsh realities of life at a young age. It has made her bitter and even at a later stage when she should be able to shrug off the past and take responsibility for her actions, she refuses to let go… clinging to a sense of being wronged, a sense of being entitled because she was wronged. She comes across as a shallow, selfish person… which she is… but in her is a deeper need of closure, a detachment from the horrors of her past.
This book too is a very enjoyable read. It does not follow a linear timeline… jumping from now to the events in the past… in spite of which it does not lose the flow of the plot.

All three books require a level of understanding of the workings of the human psyche which I believe the author has… and a certain amount of craziness which would let you come up with the ideas for these plots… which may or may not be an alarming thing. :D

All said… I look forward to more of Flynn’s works.

The Silent Wife is a book which starts of similar to Gone Girl… an unhappy couple in a relationship that’s a sham… but is not as interesting as the latter. I dislike the character Jodi for her being spineless and clingy and indecisive till things get out of hand. Here is a review I agree with... not much else to say on it because it would just be a repeat opinion.

Unfortunately, the men in all 3 books are assholes… except in Dark Places, where he is less of an asshole and more of an escapist.


Now, I am gonna catch up with a Gothic classic... The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

The Conjuring

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A few days back I finally caught up with the movie The Conjuring, which I have been meaning to watch since its release. Now, I wish I had watched it in the theater.

As I speak of the movie there might be inadvertent spoilers ahead, though I would try not to disclose much about the movie. It isn't exactly a suspenseful thriller which would lose its charm if anything is revealed but I’ll let the reader watch it and decide for themselves.

The movie is advertised as a true story based on the life of the Warrens (Ed & Lorraine) who were a couple of paranormal investigators. The story centers around the Perrons who have moved into a farmhouse which appears to be haunted and for which they seek the aid of the Warrens.

What I found interesting about the movie is that the scares used are subtle and woven well into the plot that nothing feels superfluous, they don’t seem like tactics… the scenes seem integral to the movie and I was engrossed. The movie was also paced well, no jittery or parallel timelines which sometimes hinder the flow of a plot if not executed with caution. Horror movies at times have an issue where either too much is happening or too little is happening in them… takes away from the viewing pleasure. This one has just enough going on.

Something weird happened while I was watching the movie. I was watching the movie at night (I can’t remember a time when I haven’t watched a horror film at night). There is this scene in the movie where the clocks all stop at 3:07 AM. It is a moment of importance to the storyline and to the events that influence it. As the scene played on screen and the camera focused on the grandfather clock onscreen with the time stuck at that precise moment and slowly panned out to take in the room, my brother who was until then silently watching the movie suddenly said this...

Bro: Look at that… oh my god… just look at that.

Me: (Not looking away from the screen and presuming he has seen something on it which I have missed) What do you see… where? I can’t see anything.

Bro: Look up you doofus!

Me: (looking at the top of the screen) Errr… huh?

Bro: Not the screen, the clock… our clock.

I looked at the wall clock in our living room, above the doorway to the side of the TV. The time on its yellow face was exactly 3:07 AM. I blinked and looked again, yep… 3:07 AM it was. There was no mistaking it, the clock has Arabic numerals! I checked my cell-phones, two of them… so did my bro… they all showed 2:56 AM. A weird moment for us, we never realized that the wall clock was so out of sync with the rest of the time-pieces in the house… and it was faster than the actual time. For what seemed like a long time, I kept staring at the clock face willing its hands to move… the seconds needle seemed to drag itself around and finally it completed its rotation and the minute hand moved to the 8th minute… 3:08 AM. I realised I could breathe again. Quite the longest spooky minute I have had.

I had to rewind and play the scene back as I had concentrated my senses on our wall clock.
Ah well… the spooky coincidence added to the likeability of the movie. I guess I would have missed that if I had watched it in the theater.

Recent Read – Gone Girl

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Just finished the book ‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn. I hadn't actually set out to read this book… the Nawaab was reading ‘The Silent Wife’ and when he suggested I might want to read it too I searched Flipkart for the book and found I couldn't get a paperback edition of The Silent Wife. Gone Girl showed up in the similar items category and I was immediately drawn to the somewhat mysterious title… also it was available in paperback. I ordered it when I was in Kuwait and received it the day after I landed in Bombay.

Unfortunately, my arm hurt too bad for me to actually read from the book and I had to resort to reading the eBook version on my phone. Before starting off I had sent the eBook to the Nawaab and he got a head-start on the book… and I realized that the book was affecting him somewhat. I needed to know how and why and between long lazy periods of bored sleep and long hours of me being upset about being in Bombay I finished the book. This was a few hours back.

It is a very well written book. The characters invoke strong reactions and stronger feelings in you… of hatred, disgust, fear… appreciation and even admiration. I get excited about books when the characters have some traits in common with me and this one has more than a few that are similar… disturbingly so.

I wont give away anything about the story… the twists and turns are worth discovering on your own. I began the book expecting a thriller with the stereotypical douche-bag hubby and suffering wife or vice versa but was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that typical at all. It is a book that holds you captive between its covers and when you are done with it you want to seek out others who have read it just so you can discuss it with them.

It made me sit up and examine some of the thoughts that run in my head and also made me look into my relationships in a new light, especially since there are things I have in common with the Gone Girl!

First Impressions of BlackBerry OS10

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I finally gave in and bought myself a Q10. In two minds I was for a long while wondering if I should upgrade my trusty Curve 9360 (which was a gift from someone special) to a Bold 9900 or a Q10. Finally, at Alghanim’s Xcite showroom, I made the impulsive decision to go for the handset with OS 10 on it, in spite of the added dinars. Er… just saw a Star Wars clip!

I had my apprehensions, compounded by the earlier online reviews and the general impression of it having a steep learning curve, even for existing BlackBerry users. Now, I cannot be slotted as an exclusive BB user as I lug around a Note 2 and an iPad most of the time, along with the workhorse BB. All my devices have a specific use in my style of operations so I do not mind the extra number of devices.

Coming back to the Q10… this baby looks good. It feels just about right in the hands, though I would have still loved a smaller handset more. The material and finish is really great… the back cover is almost velvety to touch. Frankly, my first impression of the glass weave back cover when I saw the images and videos was quite bleh… but in actual, it is pretty. Anyway,my friend bought me a functional BB flipcover for it so the phone’s all covered up in work clothes… expensive work clothes, I might add.

Here’s the Q10 posing for my Note2… all dressed up and in the nude! ;)

The screen is gorgeous, even though it is tiny compared to the behemoth of a phone the Note 2 is. It is an AMOLED and that shows up in the saturated colours and deep, inky blacks that makes the display pop. I instantly fell in love. The keyboard… aah… if there is one thing that BlackBerry perfected, it is the physical QWERTY keyboard… it is a delight to use. Satisfaction guaranteed when you feel the chiselled keys under your thumbs and delicate click feedback they provide. Love that the keys are a bit larger than they were on the Curve and so me with my long, self-manicured nails can go clickety-click on them without mistyping too much. About that… mistyping is quite a tough task on the BB, the dictionary and autocorrect on it is amazingly accurate and unlike the iOS, it does not try to autocorrect every damn word you try to enter… so slang and Hinglish stay the way you want them.

Operating the interface on the Q10 is like… er… for want of a better word… like foreplay. Gestures is what they call it, but they are more like caresses… sensual strokes on the screen. Ahem… Hmmm… moving on…

The BlackBerry Hub is just about the best thing I like about the phone. I so miss it in on my Note2 and the iPad… I remember Samsung (TouchWiz) having some sort of a social hub earlier on which they did away with because it was quite clumsy. The iOS is just beginning to realize that social networking is here to stay so there isn’t much you can expect from them until future OS releases. The Hub on the BB integrates all your email accounts and IMs and social networking sites… everything in a neat array, messages and notifications can be individual or clubbed as conversations… and the best part… they can be accessed from any screen of the phone, doesn’t matter if you are in the middle of some silly game (No, Nawaab saheb, I haven’t installed games on the phone… so you can stop sharpening that machete now). The gesture that let’s you peek in to the hub is called… what else but Peek. It is a perfect way to get a glance of what’s new in the hub and if it is important enough for you to let Red Bird spare Moustache Pig.

And BBM is as good as ever… and now there is voice call and video call available on it. But, I have had a few glitches with BBM and the Wi-Fi network at work… seems to be some sort of router issue. I need to switch off Wi-Fi and use only data (which is a bummer for me) when I have to use BBM at work. But it works like a charm at home over both Wi-Fi and data.

BlackBerry has always provided native support for almost everything I need on a work phone and so I haven’t really needed to wade deep in to the App World or what is now BlackBerry World. The lack of apps doesn’t bother me so much.

I am yet to try out BlackBerry Balance which would separate my work profile from my personal profile… I need to look that up because the Q10 is an extremely personal phone for me and also the only phone with which I might actually do office work too.

So far so good… both the upgrade to OS 10 and the purchase of the Q10 seem to be good decisions in spite of them being spur of the moment. Also, I’d like to thank the Nawaab for the reverse psychology he seems to have inadvertently used on me. :P

Satyagraha - A Review

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Satyagraha 

** Spoilers ahead (if it is possible that this can be spoiled any further)** 

I happened to watch the movie in a theater here in Kuwait; I don’t usually watch movies in the theater. I wait long enough for them to be out as DVDs and then watch it from the comfort of an armchair at home.

It so happened that considering I haven’t had much reason to complain against the movies Prakash Jha makes and that the star cast seemed decent (barring Kareena who can’t act and Amrita Rao, who I haven’t really had a chance to see in a role where she needs to act) I gladly went along for the movie.

My badI :(

As soon as the movie started and I saw that there was a special thanks to Rupa Undergarments, I got the feeling that things are on the brink of a downhill tumble. I wasn’t disappointed at all. Not one bit.

Apart from the shameless plug for everything from undergarments, tea and atta to ‘superior quality’ cement to ABP news channel (which I did not know even existed), the movie is a study in superficiality.

It had the ubiquitous item number… a babe in ethnic clothes, low on the waist line and lower on the neck line, gyrating to a folksy tune set to a contemporary dance beat. Some earthy sounding lyrics and lots of latkas and matkas and dead-pan expressions were passed off as seduction. That very important requirement of a Hindi movie being catered to the viewer is thrown into the ‘plot’.  There is this old masterji (Amitabh Bachchan), respected by the townspeople and a strong upholder of the truth, of what is right and what is just and his son who diligently tries to follow in his footsteps… then there is his wayward friend (Ajay Devgn) for whom the end justifies the means and who is fine with succeeding by unscrupulous means. There is the ‘sensible’ reporter (Kareena Kapoor Khan, making faces again) and this peppy girl-next-door (Amrita Rao, desperately trying to make any face that might register as an expression) is the upright son’s love interest. Add Manoj Bajpai in yet another variety role of corrupt politician and the stage is ready for some socio-political action. Oh, I forgot to mention Arjun Rampal in his very ‘different’ portrayal of a hot headed youth who hopes to make it big in politics… a la Rajneeti, maybe Chakravyuh or I dunno… they are all different after all!

Dadu Bachchanji pays homage to AnnaHazare with his aamaran annshan (fast unto death) and is bumped off anyway for his efforts! The Aam Aadmi Party is similarly represented by ‘Jan Satyagraha Party’. The characters are all farcical caricatures of some thread or the other of the current political fabric of India. None of the characters command any empathy from the audience and nothing onscreen can be related to with any sort of depth. It is like badly written fan-fiction about the Anna Hazare movement.

The otherwise good actors struggle to make sense of the half-baked roles they have been given and the bad actors (the girls and the dude with long hair) are in no position to redeem themselves in anyway. Amrita Rao, in most scenes, appears to wonder what set of which movie she has walked into! Kareena tries to be strong and pull off something way beyond her acting skills. Gorgeous she is, emote she cannot. Period.

Ajay Devgn has never been so weak with his performance in any movie of his I have ever seen. Manoj Bajpai has his moments but there is far too little in the movie for someone his caliber. He gets repetitive. Arjun Rampal rocks the screen with his good looks and I didn’t notice much of his ‘acting’… and I know I couldn’t have missed anything there.  :)

I would say, Prakash Jha needs to wake up and smell the coffee… dig through the stories he has to say, make that sequel to Rajneeti he plans to do and erase this Atyagrah from his own and the public’s collective memory as soon as possible.

Fifty Shades Trilogy

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I finally dragged myself through all three books of the Fifty Shades series, after an intriguing start.

Here is my review of the much sold and much read trilogy of kinky romance.

Book 1: Fifty Shades of Grey

This book started with some promise. I thought it would be a breezy read in spite of expecting all the cheesiness most romantic novels abound in between their covers. I started off finding myself reflecting some of the feelings of Anastasia Steele, the female lead of the book and was further intrigued by the character of Christian Grey, the male lead who had a striking character resemblance to someone I happen to know quite well… of course, sans the “kinky-fuckery” of which I am not so sure and the billionaire CEO tag (He is more a millionaire investment banker).

The whole attraction to the book in my eyes was the dynamics of the relation between the lead characters, the intellectual exchange which was interesting in the beginning because it closely followed a path parallel to my life but then the book took a dive into the world of kinky and seemingly twisted sexual practices which frankly was fine if limited to a few scenes. The book soon got in to this really repetitive routine of Ana (Anastasia Steele) swooning every time Grey as much as looked at her, followed by lots of sex.

Ana’s personified subconscious with her school-marm(ish) get-up and attitude to match and her Inner Goddess, the sex diva were silly and seriously irritating additions to the flow of the story. Actually, there is no story… the flow of events would be a more apt description.

The kinship I felt with Ana in the first few pages quickly evaporated as her character dissolved into a naive, easily subdued, almost spineless young girl who got to be annoying pretty soon with her repeated “Oh my…”s… like the taped laugh-track of a sitcom!

Christian Grey… young, accomplished CEO, arrogant, with a control mania- that was interesting.

Christian Grey… Greek god, Adonis, exquisitely beautiful, “pants hanging like they did”-Just did not do it for me.

It did not help that Ana’s mantra throughout the book was his “burning eyes” “looking at me in that way” is “making my insides tighten/coil/melt” etc. Seriously… get a grip, girl!

By the end of Book 1, my opinion about Ana wasn't too favorable making me feel that her last decision was unbelievable and did not go with her character.

Because of the somewhat parallel paths the initial story takes with my life… I did ask my version of Grey to read the book… and he came up with a scathing review of it… and of course, flatly denied any resemblance… but then who wants to be compared to a control-freak, let alone be called one. :D

Though, I agree with most of his review… I do not accept that Grey could not have been smitten with Anastasia. That didn't really seem so forced considering, sometimes, shit happens… and he should know!

Book 2: Fifty Shades Darker

Even though by the end of book 1, I had realized there were no fifty shades to it, just this one shade of sex… not even that kinky if I might add… I still decided to give the next book in the series a go. After all, I paid for the whole set.

I was hoping the there would be a semblance of a story shaping up with one more book to go. Let’s just say the author might have made a less than half-hearted attempt in the few moments when she was bored with describing all the sex scenes to make up something of a plot on the fly.

Ana keeps getting worse in this book. Her reactions and her lines of dialogue, her response to Grey… everything is the same page after page after page.

After reading “my fifty”, “the way those jeans hang on his hips”, “the way he cocks his head”, “how can he make me *melt/drool/lose control/long/yearn-synonyms* with just a *word/look/touch*” and more of the like… and her super annoying “oh my” in the most obvious situations… it really got to the point that I wanted to call up the editor of the book and give him/her a piece of my mind for not throwing a book of English phrases at the author’s head! Every now and then, say in every 50 or so pages, the author would insert a long and sometimes unusual word as if she had picked it up from a handy thesaurus and it would be extremely conspicuous as the characters themselves seem surprised at the use of the word!

Grey’s character also starts to unravel in this book… from a strong and capable man to a man  unsure of himself and someone who simply uses sex to cope with anything that possesses half a challenge. But then this character change (or development if you will) is intentional and so I don’t have too many complaints about him.

Anastasia on the other hand completes her transformation from being 'almost' spineless to someone utterly lacking self-respect in this book. There are times I wished she were real so I could slap her face and tell her to stand up and face him without her knees knocking with fear and desire. Sheesh!

Book 3: Fifty Shades Freed

Wanting to be freed, I set about completing the trilogy so that I could pack the books away in some hidden corner of my shelf and stop berating myself for spending on them.

Book 2 had a couple of moments that were different from the ‘Eat-sleep-fuck-will you fucking eat?-roll eyes-kinky sex’ routine which continues in to Book 3. We do see more of the family getting involved in the story line. And at times Anastasia showed some sparks and I kept hoping she would redeem herself. She almost does in some rare moments and when I got all my hopes high… it just went downhill when she is again enticed into Grey’s bed making her forget all else. Again, I had this urge to punch her nose in and tell her go fuck Grey… so that she could get over that too.

When finally, Ana actually does something remotely successful in improving her lot as a believable character the book is almost at its end. And here I kept hoping it would end sooner… but it nevertheless dragged a further 50-70 pages or so more with nothing to offer except… naah… seriously nothing at all!

And... there are some other weird plot-holes... but then like I said, the whole plot seemed to be a filler for all the sex!

All in all… am so done with 50 shades of madness!

Scary Or Die

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Clowns are scary. Long before I got acquainted with Pennywise in It by King, as a young kid in the circus audience, I have found clowns creepy. The heavy make-up and the slapstick… they just make me wanna hide for cover. Though, I wouldn’t say I am coulrophobic, I am assuredly not a fan of clowns. So, quite naturally I was intrigued by the poster above and decided to check the movie out. That’s one scary clown and what better than a horror movie that plays upon a hidden fear of yours.

Sometime in to the movie, I realized that it was an anthology of horror stories and not a single start to end fright flick.

** Here be spoilers **

The movie, Scary Or Die starts with desktop screen open to a website ‘scaryordie.com’ which I now understand to be the movie’s website. Duh! The website looks like a collection of videos, presumably of a scary variety going by the site name. There is a female hand (the rest of the body is off screen) on a computer mouse surfing the site… and she clicks on a video titled ‘The Crossing’. The view shifts to the story unfolding in real-time…

The Crossing: It is a story about a guy, Buck (Bill Oberst Jr.), his sidekick Keith and Buck’s girlfriend Connie. They are out in what seems like a road trip to Arizona in a battered pick-up truck. Buck is a brooding sort of guy and Keith is disgusting. It turns out that Buck (and Keith) hate Latinos and have taken it upon themselves to cleanse America of Mexican immigrants. Connie ends up being an unwitting accomplice to the murder of a Mexican father and son duo (legal immigrants) who were tied, gagged and bundled up in the pick-up and driven down to the Arizona-Mexico border where many an illegal crossing takes place… and where they are summarily executed by Buck and Keith. Connie is horrified of the act and understandably shaken. The crossing is covered by litter strewn by the immigrants and there are graves marked by crude wooden crosses. The graves seem to be the previous work of Buck and Keith. While Keith in his inebriated condition pisses on a grave, the jar of moonshine he had been drinking from topples over and seeps in to the grave. This seems to trigger a caustic reaction and quite unexpectedly we have a Mexican zombie uprising on the screen. The two guys and Connie are attacked and the zombies have their revenge on the men while Connie escapes only to be shot down by two border patrol men who assume her to be a stray zombie.

Cut back to the desktop screen and hand on the mouse. This time the hand seems a bit pale and the skin a tad flaky. The cursor on the screen moves to click on another video titled Taejung's Lament.

Taejung's Lament: Taejung (Charles Rahi Chun) is a Korean guy with some kind of mental torment as seen from the listless, lost way he goes about his evening. We learn that his wife has passed away and he seems to still be stuck at a point where he hasn’t been able to move on and forget his wife (he has made a shrine to her in his bedroom) and his attraction to other beautiful women in whom he sees reflected his wife. His wife appears as a guardian spirit of sorts, unseen by him, watching him and hoping he would move on. One evening, he witnesses a pretty Korean girl (Alexandra Choi) being abducted by a man in a trench-coat (Azion Iemekeve). Determined to save the girl, Taejung manages to hitch his iPhone to the abductor’s car and tracks it with his MacBook. He arrives at where the car appears to have stalled and finds the kidnapper, by the waterfront, about to stab the unconscious girl through her heart with what appears to be a screwdriver. Using a nearby brick Taejung knocks the kidnapper out and rescues the girl and drops her off at her residence. There he learns that she is an illegal immigrant and therefore cannot report the incident to the police… though she says that she feels that she’s been in LA for an eternity. She hands him a note asking to meet her next Friday for a private party and has signed the note as Min-ah. Taejung returns to his forlorn routine but his wife’s spirit seems to want him to get on with life and she sees to it that Min-ah’s note catches his attention. He decides to take up the invitation and goes over to meet her with a bunch of roses. Unlike the first story clip, where I wasn't expecting the zombie twist and was surprised by it, this story is pretty predictable. While the girl was being rescued I had the feeling she isn't exactly going to turn out an innocent victim… especially with the kidnapper trying to kill her almost ritualistically. As it turns out, while Taejung is with Min-ah in her apartment, surrounded by other pretty Asian women… someone seems to be picking out the apartment security guards one by one… stabbed through the heart with the screwdriver. Then we see that this man in a trench coat, our previous kidnapper, has returned and seems to be the one killing the guards. He places his quite ancient looking leather bag down and opens it to pick another one of his weapon of choice…and quite obviously now it is apparent that he is a vampire hunter and that Min-ah is a vampire. To clear all doubts, there is a string of garlic pods in his bag. The unexpected twist in the story happens when he closes the buckle flap of the bag and we see that the bag belongs to Van Helsing! :) 

See the Min-ah connection… I think she is based on Mina Harker!

Note: There is a scene in which Taejung is walking through a tunnel with his MacBook while tracing his phone and on the opposite side of the road there’s a woman walking in a very zombie-like manner. It caught my eye (as I am sure it was intended to) because she drags her feet as she walks. The appearance is fleeting but I was reminded of the Mexican zombies and so took note thinking there might be some connection.

Back to the hand on the mouse which seems to progressively rot… skin is flakier and the flesh has taken on a somewhat blue tinge… and the next video is clicked. This one’s called Re-membered.

Re-Membered: The next story is not at all impressive. The walking woman makes a fleeting appearance again at the beginning of the story, blending into the background. The story is about a guy who seems to be a hitman. He appears to have hacked up some fellow, stuffed his remains in to a duffel bag and stashed the bag in the boot of his car and is out to dispose it off. He appears nervous and keeps glancing into the rear-view mirror as if expecting to see someone pop up in the back-seat. At this time we do not know that he has killed someone; that comes later. His nervousness and what appears to be some sort of knocking from the car’s boot makes him swerve while driving and is promptly pulled up by a passing cop car. The cop comes out to check on him and he almost escapes the cop by blaming his swerving on being preoccupied by his job issues… the cop’s about to leave when he too hears the knocking sound from the boot. The cop asks him to unlock the boot which he very nervously does. Here the movie flashes back to let us know about the murder, and how he packs the body in a duffel bag and puts it in his car… there is also a keychain shown which has a Necromancy symbol, that seems to belong to the victim. The hitman leaves a note next to the keychain for whoever ordered the kill asking him to leave the money there as his job is done. Back to the now… while the cop goes to the back of the car to check, the hitman opens his glove compartment and pockets a revolver. The cop returns signalling all ok and lets him leave. Intrigued and ever more nervous, the hitman stops his car further ahead and checks the trunk… the duffel bag is empty and the necromancer key chain and his note is all that remains. The note has an additional bloody scribble that reads “you cannot kill me”. Nervously, the hitman gets back in to the car and is horrified to see his victim (all sewed up, re-membered and undead) sitting next to him… he scrambles out and looks again to find that he is alone. As he searches around for his victim, the necromancer gets him from behind.

This one like Taejung’s Lament was downright predictable…and unlike the Van Helsing twist, had no little surprise.

The hand on the mouse is clearly undead now… and we move to the next story ‘Clowned’.

Clowned: So, finally… here is where I would see the scary clown from the movie’s poster. This story is also the longest of the anthology. It has a first person voice over… which somewhat takes away from the scary part. I mean… if you want someone to be scared there is no point in explaining to the person what to expect. Once again the walking woman puts in an appearance but this time she is not dragging her feet all zombie-like… and turns out to be Shannon Bobo… though she has no relevance to the current story. There is this guy Emmett (Corbin Bleu) and his wife Kelly (Elizabeth Di Prinzio) who are out on the beach with Emmett’s kid brother Andy who Emmett in the voice over tells us he loves above everything else and would do anything for. Emmett and Andy are playing with a red beach-ball which rolls out under the pier and Andy runs over to get it; under the pier, he encounters a shadow and a child’s crying voice and immediately runs out scared. Emmett does not seem to pay any attention to Andy’s account of the crying child. Returning from the beach, we see a connecting element with 'The Crossing' clip… the guy outside Emmett’s house doing the landscaping is the Mexican immigrant shot dead by Buck in the first movie. Sort of sets the chronology of the clips. Andy’s birthday party has a clown invited to provide entertainment and he seems reluctant to leave after the party. Emmett finds him foraging in their refrigerator and bodily pushes the clown out of the house, in the struggle, the clown bites Emmett on his leg… with filed teeth. Kelly rushes to help him up and binds up the wound with antiseptic. The bite seems to cause Emmett a lot of trouble…and seems to slowly change him. He informs the cops about the clown and two cops are assigned to look for the clown. One of the cops is our hitman from 'Re-membered' and that seems to put the story of 'Clowned' as the first in the series of events. Emmett finds himself having weird dreams about Andy in trouble and also finds that his body is changing. His face takes on a painted appearance and he realizes he is turning in to a clown. He also seems to crave for Andy… in a hungry, cannibalistic way… and this scares him more than anything else. He decides to run away from home to protect Andy from himself. Kelly finds out she is pregnant with Emmett’s baby (which was conceived after Emmett was bit) and she is desperate to find Emmett and tell him. Emmett, now completely turned in to the scary clown in the poster, is leading a hobo's life… and is struggling to keep himself away from Andy. He finally makes the policemen shoot him to save Andy. Kelly gives birt to Emmett's baby and as expected, the baby apparently looks like a clown... and has huge clown feet. The viewers don't see the baby... only the huge feet.

Trivia: Emmett and Kelly… the names have a significance… Emmett Kelly was a well known circus performer who created the clown ‘Wearie Willie’. The appearance of Wearie Willie is quite similar to Emmett’s scary clown in the movie’s except for the scary face.

This brings us to the wraparound story that is supposed to connect the other stories of the anthology. And by far, I find it the weakest story of the lot.

Lover Come Back: The wraparound story is about this unnamed woman Shannon Bobo who is madly in love with a guy… and they seem to be happy and content with their married life. This story too has a voice over by the woman. The love story falls apart when her husband starts cheating on her and abusing her physically and mentally. As a child, the woman’s grandfather gave her a talisman of undying love which she always wears around her neck… Her 'grandpere' believed that she deserved to always have love. When her husband attacks and kills her and then dumps her body in a trunk in the woods… the talisman proves to be a sort of curse. She returns from the dead and is ever on the search for her husband who she still loves and hopes to be with. And that is how we see her dragging along in some of the frames in all the previous stories. She finally finds her husband making out with another women in his car… and attacks him… presumably killing him and so uniting with him in her undying love for him. Also, it is revealed that it is her hand on the mouse that we see surfing the website and playing the videos one after the other. The movie ends with her finally shutting the door on the viewers’ face.

The story could have been so much better. it felt like a patchy effort at the best.

The movie on the whole was fun to watch with my bro and me trying to link the stories… but in the end it fell short of what we expected. There was no solid connection… no real satisfaction after watching it. But, it wasn't totally bad… it had is good moments in ‘The Crossing’ and ‘Clowned’… the little twist of Van Helsing in an urban world in an otherwise predictable ‘Taejung’s Lament’ and then it had the less than perfect, almost bad stories of ‘Re-membered’ and the wraparound story ‘Lover Come Back’.

Bottom line: It is not unwatchable. The performances are not bad.

Subterranean

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Subterranean is James Paul Czajkowski’s first action-adventure novel… or his first novel under the pen-name James Rollins.

And so I forgive him for the truckload of clichés and dumb characterization in the novel. I like James Rollins’ work a lot… I find his novels are perfect adrenalin pumpers with the right amount of true science, sci-fi, action and adventure. Subterranean has all that too… but it still falls short of what I have come to expect from Rollins. Since it is his first book, it is obvious that he improved a lot later on.

*** Spoilers Ahead ***  *** Spoilers Ahead ***  *** Spoilers Ahead ***

The book is set in Antarctica… McMurdo Station and the area around (and mostly underneath it). The story does not see light of day, so to speak, as it unfolds in caves, caverns and labyrinthine passages beneath the tonnes of ice that make up the lonely white continent. A team of researchers hand-picked for being the best in their fields are sent down to the the base on the discovery of the remains of what could possibly be a humanoid community. Unknown to the current team, a previous exploration team that went down the research path has been missing for 3 months. The bosses who put together the new team believe to be better prepared to face whatever awaits them in the dark depths of the unexplored passages.

The team consists of an anthropologist – Prof. Ashley Carter, a caver/spelunker - Benjamin Brust, a biologist – Prof. Linda Furstenburg, a geologist - Khalid Najmon, US Navy SEALs - Major Dennis Michaelson, Major Villeneuve, Major Halloway. They are hired by the head researcher of the project, Doctor Andrew Blakely. An additional character important to the story is Ashley Carter’s son, Jason Carter who is all of 11 years.

The team is lead by Ashley Carter and she is the most annoying female character I have come across in a book for a really long time. For some reason, the author thought that an empowered woman is someone who is cagey, shrill and for the lack of a better word, bitchy! She is bloody irritating for someone who is supposed to be a leading a team, the author himself must have realized that it lacks credibility so he makes her doubt her capability to lead. She is clearly a stupid mess if she decides to take her 11 year old son with her to a cold, dangerous and quite unknown research base. She even has this half-baked notion of motherhood which is everything but endearing… and for a potential leader she has serious trust issues.

Jason Carter is a smart kid. It is nice that he is not characterized as a stupid brat though the other characters do try to mollycoddle him and would want the reader to think he is a ticking bomb. But, he is a resourceful kid and obedient when required, mature enough for his age and has enough of a sense of wonder to not be considered a know-it-all nuisance.

The caver, Benjamin Brust is an Aussie with an open sense of humor, the kind who tend to make a joke out of everything. He is characterized as this fun guy who initially gives you the impression of being a joker who you would want to get rid of after the first five minutes of meeting him at a bar… but, as the book progresses he does turn out to be a likeable character and his ability to make light of the situation actually becomes a plus point. Though, I just don't understand how he could find anything worth loving in Ashley!!

The biologist Linda Frustenburg is the dainty, pretty female (apparently, a must in all ensemble teams). She is supposed to be the ‘rose’ to Ashley’s ‘granite’! Again, the author makes the mistake of equating whimpering self-doubt to feminine softness of heart. On top of that, Linda has a ‘condition’… she is claustrophobic and has hidden it from the team… and as soon as you (the reader) know it, long before the journey to the centre of the earth starts, you know she is gonna end up in a situation where her claustrophobia is going to fuel some tense moments… and might I say some truly artificial tense moments. Linda does redeem herself later in the book when she acts more like a normal woman and less like a clingy, scared kid.

Khalid Najmon is an Egyptian geologist. He is the only Muslim character in the book and as far as clichés go, his case must be the most used one since jihaad was known to the western world. So, easy as pie… he is the terrorist, the wolf in sheep’s clothing… out to jeopardize the research and mission and possibly the whole continent of Antarctica on the behest of diamond cartels and the Middle East’s oil industry. By the way… did I say he is conveniently Egyptian… and not a Saud / Kuwaiti / Emirati, even though it is all for the oil industry!

Major Dennis Michaelson – an upright Navy SEAL, is in the mission to protect the team of scientists but with a secret personal agenda of finding his younger brother who was lost with the earlier exploration team. He is every bit the soldier who does what soldiers do best. He heads the team of military support for the explorers and the rest of his team consists of Major Villeneuve and Major Halloway. Again… with all the clichés in the book, you know that at least one of the brawny military SEALS have to die. The SEALs are all good soldiers and follow orders without letting their personal interests come in between.

The head researcher, Andrew Blakely is an old guy who does everything because he believes it is in the best interests. He does not accompany the team into the depths but is not just a meek scientist, despite his age… and he too gets to be heroic in the book.

The thing is, everyone in the book gets to be heroic at one point or the other. The story is something of a mixture of Jules Verne and Michael Crichton… and it has the James Rollins characteristic plot thread of an untouched, unexplored, delicate ecosystem perfectly balanced, that underlines what is wrong with our own lives.

In spite of being heavily clichéd and at times reminiscent of Bollywood style melodrama, the book is still paced at a breakneck speed and keeps the pages turning. I did not put it down for a moment even though I pulled faces when I read parts of the story, rubbed my temples when Ashley annoyed me, and banged the book on my forehead at some downright stupid moments. In the end, far from the best of James Rollins, not even close to his good ones… but it still is a cracking, adrenalin pumping read.

The Seventh Scroll

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There is something about Wilbur Smith… and the subjects he chooses to write about. Add to that the magic of Africa and you have a perfect work of fiction… one that makes you hang on to every word until the last.

The Seventh Scroll was the first WS novel I ever read and that was some 16 years back. Then, I had no idea it was part of a series… but realized it only when I got to the end of the book. I was in a mood to revive some of those memories… of archaeological excavations, of guerrilla warfare and strong characters that either make you love or hate them. So, I dug through my little library and unearthed the book… and curled up with it.

It is rare that a book would hold my attention a second time. Of course, I had forgotten the character sketches but I did remember the story and while reading my mind once again conjured up the same scenes I had imagined over a decade and a half ago… and there were events in it I anticipated and looked forward to. The rerun in my head did nothing to dampen the excitement of reading the book again.

The Africa I have experienced in the words of Wilbur Smith has always been a delight; war-torn, teeming with wildlife, culturally diverse… Wilbur Smith’s Africa is a showcase of the tussle between the rich and extremely poor factions of society, of regimes and dictatorships, of adventures and thrills, of battles and hunts, the violence of both man and nature, of ages old and new and those stuck in a time-warp and a romance that is strong, earthy and satisfying.

The Seventh Scroll is part of the Egypt Series. It is the second book of the series but is the only one which is not set in Ancient Egypt. Set in the 90s, it is an adventure that digs up the story of Taita, the ancient Egyptian scribe and genius. The story is set in Ethiopia, in the rugged wilderness of the valleys and gorges of the sister rivers of the Blue Nile.

I have always loved the male characters in WS’s books… they are probably every woman’s dream… at least, they are quite close to what I would appreciate in a man. His male protagonists are rugged, arrogant, imposing, adventurous, quite unscrupulous, strong… yet with a touch of tenderness. I love the rogues the most.

His women are strong characters too… but at times they show this innate need to be accepted or validated by a man… something I tend to blame on the male ego of the writer, which makes him give even the toughest of his women a ‘damsel in distress’ moment or two. But, his heroines are never naive which is wonderful considering the period settings of some of his books.

Royan Al Simma, the lead female character of this book too comes across as an intelligent woman, principled… yet at times wavering to strike the right balance between what is right and what is practical. She does come across as pedantic at times and sometimes has a childlike innocence about her… a playfulness that can be endearing (to the indulgent male characters) and at times annoying to the reader. She is perceptive and sharp and also compassionate. Descending from two very diverse cultures (Egyptian - Coptic Christian and English), she tries to balance the open Englishness in her with the subdued Arab in her. Her love for her motherland Egypt influences her thoughts and deeds a lot… for better or for worse.

Sir Nicholas Quenton-Harper. He is like someone I know quite closely… in real life! The same things that attracted me to the Nawaab Saheb hold true for Sir Nicky… a suave arrogance laced with wry humour and a taste for the good life. He is good at what he does… but, unlike in real life, men in books are too considerate and too much in love!

The character of Mek-Nimmur is what I’d have imagined Che Guevara to be if he were a freedom fighting, guerrilla-bandit with a romantic streak.

Tessay (Lady Sun) is a sturdy ethnic woman, silently strong and beautiful with a hint of mystery, a noblewoman by birth and a character I would have exchanged Royan for. I liked Royan, but I liked Tessay better… her stoicism appealed more than Royan’s bubbly enthusiasm. Though, the silent sufferer in her made me uncomfortable and some incidents in the novel made me want her to be a lot more assertive than she was.

The villain of the book, Gotthold von Schiller is far less than impressive. I found him weak 16 years back and the re-read did not improve my opinion of him. He seems to be a caricature of Hitler, down to the short-stature and German ancestry but with none of Hitler’s fire. A brittle villain and one of those rare slips in characterization by WS.

Some of the ‘viciousness’ and violence in the book comes across as quite staid in today’s age when we consider what we see, read and hear about us daily.

Overall, the book still managed to make me yearn to pack a backpack and set across on an adventure safari to Africa… but, then all WS novels do that to me.

Talaash - Review

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Talaash - Movie Poster

Writing a review about a movie that is a suspense thriller is like treading a mine-field… one has to be extra careful to not let out anything that might ruin the suspense for others.

In any case, here is my opinion about the latest Aamir Khan production – Talaash.

Talaash is a suspense thriller that sets the tone right from the opening sequence and slowly builds the suspense up frame by frame. Slowly… really slowly we move forward in the story of a police officer who works day and night to solve the case of a suspicious death all the while battling a few demons of his own.

I am not gonna dwell much in to the story or plot-line because it would be a giveaway.

The movie is not bad… nor is the story. Did I mention the movie was slow? Yeah… that is where the threads start to unravel. A suspense thriller should take up a faster pace or risk having half the audience deduce the climax and the other half of the audience guess it long before the movie actually reveals it. With the length, we in the audience had enough time to analyse and evaluate all the main characters of the movie and dissect situations in it which led to us arriving at the outcome before the movie intended a revelation. Also, the almost 20 minutes’ interval in the movie (which might be the movie-hall’s fault) did not help.

Aamir is his usual good performing self… no issues with his police inspector fighting personal issues act. Rani Mukherjee as Aamir’s wife is good. Kareena Kapoor is onscreen torture… considering it is the second time she is playing a hooker in a movie, one would expect a decent performance. Her Chameli wasn’t bad… but her Rosie is extremely artificial and grates on your nerves. The supporting actresses playing other hookers do a much more believable job.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is excellent. He seems to get better with every movie he does and that sure is a great sign.

The casting of the movie seems to include big Bollywood names just to keep the public from figuring out the story by just eliminating the less famous actors… since some of them are wasted in the movie.

The music of the movie is something I enjoyed… there are no unnecessary item numbers and songs that disrupt the already slow pace.

Overall the movie is worth a watch. And considering the alternatives are stuff like Son of Sardar and Jab Tak Hain Jaan… Talaash is anytime a better option… and definitely one of the better movies of the year.

I would rate it a 3.5 / 5. Do sit back in your chair and relax… nothing edge of the seat here.