Film Review: Annayum Rasoolum (2013) Malayalam | Rajiv Ravi | Fahad Fazil, Andrea,

I loved the film. Rajiv Ravi Thank you :)

The initial review said that some more editing and the film would have been perfect. What I feel, well that editing was not required at all. The pace is slow because the film requires that pace to narrate the kind of story it narrates. And such an innocent love story intertwined with religious, minority, religious minority, language, locality politics. Beautifully narrated. As a viewer we travel along with the character and many times feel we inhabit them, a feeling more than empathy.

It is an innocent love story between a muslim man and a christian woman, both working class striving to make a living in the big city of Cochin. The girl is sales girl at the city's boutique while the boy drives a cab and does odd jobs. Their are in their own worlds, the worlds of their colleagues and that becomes an escape from their own personal worlds they enter when they reach their home.


As every love story begins, the boy catches a glimpse of the girl and her glimpse sticks to his heart forever. Then he meets her again elsewhere and again and finally finds himself in a house next door to hers. He follows her everyday, takes the boat she takes to her work place, hangs around near the roads she passes, runs along the footpaths of her bus route to catch of glimpse of her and be with her through her day journey from the time she starts from home for work to the time she returns home tired to rest.

It is natural that when a man is following you everyday you notice, so she does, and so do her friends. And then a friend of his intervenes and they are set. Their love is pure and innocent. I repeat innocent because that's the feeling that comes through out the film. Natural and innocent when two people fall deeply in love with each other with the conviction that they are meant to be.

The rest of the story is complicated because of the religious, minority and local politics, but go through it to see how Rajiv Ravi has brought to an end.

Fahad Fazil evolves as an actor with every film. It was just last year that we labelled him a metrosexual with the kind of repeated roles he was taking up. Annayum Rasoolum brings in a variety, brings in a rustic out of him and he has done well. As for Andrea, almost no makeup, she seizes to be the character she played out in  Kamal Hassan's Vishwaroopam (2013). I guess the audience got to see her almost at the same time doing two roles in its extremes

Two directors have played two characters in this film - Ashiq Abu and Ranjit, and yes played their parts to the T. All in all, it is a silent film, it can be interpreted as a race - because of the metaphor of the running of the main character, it could be interpreted as a maze because of the metaphor of the inner roads that lead to the houses, it could be interpreted as travel because of the different modes of transport presented here, it could be interpreted as flow, because the metaphor of the water is very prominent. It is about returning home because of the marine sailor's trip home after years, it is about friendship among boys, because of the boy gang...

The marine sailor who is also the narrator, loved his voice.

Rajiv Ravi has shot Cochin from its borders, its harbours, its jetties and its backwaters. The main Cochin city   shots of Panampilly Nagar and the Menaka/Marine Drive area are limited to a couple of shots.

Annayum Raoolum, do watch it, highly recommended. Not when you are in a hurry, when you have leisure time

The Mumbai Book Fair| Hiranandani Gardens,Powai April 13-21, 2013

According to the organizers, it is the first of its kind in Mumbai, organized by Spandan Foundation and they plan to make it an annual affair.

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I got to know about the Mumbai Book Fair through a Facebook group I am part of called RAPO - Read and Pass On (a Book), and then it was a chain reaction of sorts, liking their FB Page, making plans and finally being there. The best part of all this activity was that the book fair is a stone's throw from where I live therefore, at a walking distance, a place I could head to even without company. But it so happened that we as a group serendipitously came together over tea and snacks yesterday and decided to go.

What I liked about the fair most was the entrance of it, it was made of the blowout of the spines of some well known and popular books and writers, some with the writer's pictures, prominent among them being Rabindranath Tagore. For a start, it was a good welcome sign. Then there were the stalls ethnic wall hangings and terracotta show pieces, interesting because the group of us who went love these kind of little things. However, we were taken aback by the prices!

The book exhibition per se was not that exciting may be we our expectations were too high. For an the first of its kind, this was a good show, with plenty of organizers and activities. It was clearly a Bengali initiative and therefore, there were three-four stores dedicated to Bengali books which was good. However, had they had translations and other language books as well, the fair would have been a more exciting evening outing.

I liked the arrangement, it was mere stalls alone,. In the middle of it all stood the walk in Crossword store, it was an experience of walking into one of their stores itself, with their kind of book shelves and categories in their own colours. The rest were stalls the normal kind, interspersed with gaming areas of many kinds.  I loved the Amar Chitra Katha store the second best after crossword and got a few books from their to relive memories.

It was a little disappointing to see that there was no other language books available, so the absence of Marathi books was a huge gap especially when it was the Mumbai Book Fair. But in general the group of us book and book fair lovers went on a round, looked into the 10-12 stores and came out, we enjoyed our time in it, but expected some more stalls and some more books. The human scrabble game akin to the wizard chess in Harry Potter's Socerer's Stone was interesting, Did not play, but Scrabble is always a favourite game be it the board or the life size version. Otherwise, I expected more out of the book fair, so a teeny-weeny disappointed about it. Hope the organizers take into consideration a wider range of books the next time they organize here in Mumbai.

On another note, I met a fellow colleague and blogger who introduced me to yet another book club exchange programme closer to home, that meet regularly.

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Venue:  New Hiranandani Foundation School Ground,Hiranandani, Powai| Dates: 13 – 21 April, 2013
"The Mumbai Book Fair is expected to have representations from 45 national and regional publishers like Penguin, McMillan, Rupa,  and Navneet, displaying more than 3,00,000 books encompassing a gamut of literary tastes. The myriad cultural events  every evening have been designed to engage the visitors and include a performance by one of the most celebrated musical bands in the country – Indian Ocean ...... Theatre personalities, lyricists, writers, folk dance artists and celebrities will also grace the event on various days. The daytime events include inter-college, inter-school and corporate quiz contests, art and craft, dance, puppetry and robotics workshops, among others. In short, each of the nine days will be unique with its own events."  (Powai Info Website)

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Film Review: Immanuel (2013) | Malayalam | Lal Jose| Mammooty, Fahad Fazil

In a sentence, you will not feel guilty if you haven't caught it yet!

The best line from the film: Fahad Fazil to Mammooty: "You are my Hero :) Mammooty replies with a smile and pat on Fahad's cheeks. This could be the real entering the film. A real life admiration for his hero, Fahad Fazil would have uttered the truth. On the other hand,  Mammooty's gesture was one of those natural moments, a moment of  paternal affection towards a director's son, somebody he would have seen in his nappies, running around the sets and now a grown up, brilliant actor.

The film, well it seemed as if the director Lal Jose had a series of shots in mind which were brilliant and artistic in themselves but unconnected in many ways. However when they were set in motion to make the picture they remained the shots and never matured to gel together and run as a whole with the added disadvantage of being soooper slow. It was so slow that I asked my friend, let's go but that's when some action popped up on screen promising some refreshed view. But nothing refreshing occured, and the loose ends in the first half were big clues to how the resolution in the film would come about.

One thing I need to say here is the film shows you how handsome the actor, Mammooty is, even to this day. His character has a makeover in the film from a bearded errand boy/man to a sales executive in an insurance company, and man,the change over after he shaves off his beard and wears new clothes is worth a watch. In addition all the animations on his face when he meets kids in the film are cute. Even the choreographed photo shoot kind of song in all white, pearls falling is a treat to watch.

Otherwise, the film tells you the story of a middle class family headed by Immanuel, who loses his job in a publishing company as it closed down. He then joins an a leading insurance company as a sales executive. The character of the manager is played by Fahad Fazil, a shrewd man who runs the show with an iron fist and demands above average productivity from his team. The corruption and the competition of the corporate world symbolised as new generation and the older variety portrayed by characters like Mammooty who has some human compassion left. Oh yes, Mamootty's son in the film is cute, but I found his talking too much for his age, that can be left out as exaggeration for the role.

The film also stars Nedumuddi Venu (seeing him after a long time in character), Devi Ajit (the woman has slimmed down after Trivandrum Lodge), Ramesh Pisharody and Salim Kumar

Verdict: Watchable! If you don't want to watch that's fine as well.

Observation: There was no need for an actor such as Mammooty to do this role. Also, in most of the films released with super stars these days there is a lot of eulogisation and flattery for the stars themselves in the film. It was there in Run Baby Run for Mohanlal, where I remember a couple of us started counting the number of times Reuters's Venu was quoted. Same here, with Immanuel.

Film Review: Special 26 (2013)| Hindi | Neeraj Pandey | Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpai, Jimmy Shergill, Divya Dutta, Kajal Agarwal

It will bring a smile on your face... If I say anything more than then the title of the post should read spoiler alert!! :P

What was unnecessary was the Romance. 

Neeraj Pandey

When you go to the theatre with the film A Wednesday in the background and therefore Neeraj Pandey, the expectations are a notch higher, because A Wednesday was a very well made film. Personally, I don't mind watching it any number of times to go through its many scenes. Even its actors said that all the characters were well sketched out that they would have acted in any of the roles given a choice just to work in the film.

With so many viewings of A Wednesday, Special 26 comes across as a little less interesting. We feel Pandey may have lost his touch therefore added a romance and songs into it.. I know, I totally disagree with the songs and the romance in such a thriller!

From the start the film grips you... it does, then you wait for Manoj Bajpai and his entry, and his hamsafar, the scooter... then we go on a journey and we travel with the characters.. with  a nervous Anupam Kher with 10 or so children, an over confindant Akshay Kumar. Some scenes evoke scenes from Rang De Basanti, especially an old mother, praying in her courtyard... Even Kajal Agarwal for all she is worth is well done. With her, we do expect an item number the wait never ends, thankfully, we don't see one.. such a song would have disturbed the film totally.

What I found lacking, the 1989 Bombay is pitched well, but there are places were the scenes don't blend, with that in the background, and a forgettable romance, I don't mind watching the film again.. it brings a smile in the end, especially towards the end and the last scene at the Stadium...

One team verses another team, the question is about who wins it all and how each one of the teams try to over power the other..

Recommended, one or twice :)

PS: This was a Valentine's Day Treat :) followed by lunch.. with friends

Blogadda Book Review: Men on My Mind (2012) | Radha Thomas | Chick Lit | Rupa Publications

 

Radha Thomas

Men On My Mind by Radha Thomas

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As the title reads the plot is about the different men on the mind of an Indian Girl at different places in the world at different times in her life. Her roller coaster ride from age 7 into adulthood with a variety of information, first-, second-hand and some times borrowed, eavesdropped learning from adult talk, imaginary settings of M&Bs, inexperienced school mates, their fantasies and their never to be realized dreams.... from real experience, expectations, desires, biased opinions from adults.... the information just follows from all corners as the little girl grows up with an aim to find her Mr. Right... through her childhood in Mumbai, her boarding school days in Panchagani, teenage in Delhi, and a lot of places outside the borders of India after that... I lost count of seriously.

What makes the novel interesting is the quotidian coordinates Radha Thomas connects to create a background to the pressing whys of this roller coaster ride - a girl from India, India - the land of Kamasutra, India - the land of Draupadi, a wife to 5 men... therefore, the expectations and burdens on a 21st century Indian girl or any Indian girl born until now to be just perfect in the act of love, lust, pleasure and choice of Mr. Right... Thomas has also drawn upon our reading experiences of boarding school stories of Blyton, the romances of M&Bs, the images that immediately come to mind when we think of a certain city, or person, or institution, or a certain profession ... there is an immediate connect with those parts if the reader has read and remembers...

The Girl Friends Files: Men & Music on My Mind could have been an apt title to the book as well... because as much as this book is about finding that elusive Mr. Right, it is also about Music, our girl has a lovely voice, she sings; a handful of men in her life are all musicians of some kind as well, saxophone, violin, DJ .... all strung together through the bonds of friendship among women - between mothers, aunts, BFFs those special bonds of fun & gossip and agony aunt tales :P :P :P

Setting: Contemporary, to be specific Urban Upper Middle Class India - a daughter of divorced parents who shuttles between the homes of her mother and father and their new partners n friends. Very similar to the film, Life in a Metro, where all that people think of is sexual activity...

Reading Expectations :-

• For some odd reason I thought the book was non-fiction as the chapter titles were quite arbitrary so I picked, chose and read ... soon enough to realize there is a plot involved, so had to read from page one -cover-to-cover
• It could have been a travelogue of sorts because of the sheer number of places the girl visits... some interesting tid bits... but there are just there as a name... 
• One time read ...

Men on my Mind was my reading experiment ... I rarely read from the genre of Chick Lit... the typical contemporary woman walking through this world with dreamy eyes and looking for the man almost sounds as a Mills and Boons plot... ! No wonder I was so not interested in M&Bs, 10 pages of my very first M&B and it was out of the window, never to visit my library
View all my reviews and more bestsellers 

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program by BlogAdda.com.

Recommendation for Easy reads...

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RHI Book Review: Knife Edge (2004) | Noughts & Crosses Trilogy | Malorie Blackman

Knife Edge (2004) is the second part of Malorie Blackman's  trilogy, Noughts and Crosses. It is preceded by Noughts & Crosses (2001) and followed by Checkmate ( 2005). The series is published by Random House.

Malorie Blackman

The first thing that come into our minds when we read the title, Noughts and Crosses, is the game we play during a boring lecture when in a meeting, as part of an audience, while waiting for our turn backstage during a competition, or just for the sake of playing the game in our free time with a partner.

Simple things needed to play the game -  it needs a background, it could be a sheet of paper, the last pages of a notebook, or a corner of a newspaper page, some tissue papers if             there is nothing else available, on the sand if we are at the beach :P|

It requires two players to play out each side.

The most important part, the two sides are distinct - a knot and a cross look very different physically & visually, nobody can get confused between them, they are as distinct from each other as it gets.

It is a game, therefore, there is always a loser and a winner. We tackle each other and never let the other finish many a times, most of the times the games go into a draw,

most often the game is about not letting the other win and not winning either, isn't not.

The story of the trilogy is based on almost verbatim on these lines. It is a game in action peopled with characters. The trilogy is dystopic in alignment. The overarching subject matter is racism. Except in here, there is an inversion in the racism practiced. It is a world where the lighter skinned are oppressed, they are the Noughts and the darker ones are the  oppresses, the Crosses.

Book 2 in the series, Knife Edge, the only book I've read in this trilogy begins with Jude and Sephy, alternate chapters dedicated to each character. Jude is a Nought who is in hiding, he is one of those revolutionaries, who has strict nought rules to follow against Crosses, in the book he is out to kill his greatest enemy, Sephy, a Cross, who was his late brother Callum girl and the mother of his new-born baby, Callie. Until now there were only the Noughts & the Crosses, with the birth of Callie, there is a mixed race also. In hiding, Jude befriends Cara a Cross, purely for his monetary purposes but slowly finds himself falling in love with her. He is confused, and he beats her up in retaliation to his feelings, killing her in the process.

Reading experience : Interesting, and the pace of the book keeps the reader hooked to the story. I never realized I was nearing the end. However, it is a dystopia, there is very little happy moments in the process of reading the book from cover to cover. At one go it is about perceptions, how one becomes alienated from the society as a whole, because one does follow the societal norms - Sephy, a Cross, falls in love with Callum a Nought |This single incident makes her an outcaste among the rich crosses. At the same time, she is not accepted into the Nought community as well, she is seen as an outsider, a threat who took one of their comrades away, and got him killed! She is blamed for everything she does... what a dilemma! Stupid divisions in society, we want to break the rules and bring in reform, but nothing seems to happen, the story is about the struggle.

Recommended :) :) I'm looking forward to read the two other books in the series. At stores, online and offline, it is categories under Children Literature > Young Adult Fiction.

Wonder why most of the YAF are dystopic in subject matter! It is because the world reality we live in also tending towards and we are giving a slice of its experience to the children, in a miniature book form!

Trivia: Malorie Blackman's Blog URL :Malorie Blackman 

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