Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 236

Diary of a Bad Year Review – It Only Gets Worse

‘Diary of a Bad Year’ happens to be my first read for 2022, because it looked like a deceptively small book. The kinds that makes readers think “hey, I can finish that in one day”. Except that it took me five times as long, while ideally I should have just stopped reading it midway and saved myself some self-torture. But then how can one objectively rant about a work, if they haven’t even seen all of it? So I read all 231 pages… okay not ALL, some mind-numbingly boring paragraphs were skipped, but yes, I did read it till the end. So let’s get to why I disliked it so much.

First off, the book is about an old famous writer writing a book that’s supposed to be a collection of opinions on various topics (largely political in nature) by 6 contributing authors. The old man is simply referred to as Mr C/Senor C and if his full name is mentioned somewhere, I don’t even fucking remember it. And I literally finished reading the novel a few minutes ago. Anyway… so the book is first divided in two parts for the first few pages. The first half consists of his opinions being written for his next book. The second-half are his personal thoughts, which are largely about a gorgeous young woman called Anya he sees in his building while doing laundry. Mr C soon approaches Anya and convinces her to become his typist, for a pay of course. That’s when the book splits into three parts –

1. Mr C’s ruminations on political stuff for his book

2. The personal story and thoughts of Mr C

3. The personal story and thoughts of Anya

Now imagine having to constantly follow three narratives in each damn page. Sorry, but it’s just not for people like me who cannot multi-task and have short attention spans. Because reading ‘Diary of a Bad Year’ is like reading three bad books at once!

There is a review at the back of the novel by THE TIMES which says “Coetzee is redrawing the contours of the novel and taking it places it has rarely been before… EXHILARATING” – the critic is obviously referring to this new narrative device of splitting every page into three strands. It’s a novelty sure… but jeez…. I just hated having to deal with it. Initially I’d just be confused every third page, and would have to turn back to understand what was happening. Then for a while I started reading each chapter thrice, but not all of it thrice – first I would read the first half of the chapter, then go back for the second half, then go back again for Anya’s part. You get what I mean?

The novel is not reader-friendly at all.

To sum it up, ‘Diary of a Bad Year’ is about a cynical old man writing a book, while lusting after a young woman, and Anya dealing with the two men in her life – Mr C and her jealous asshole boyfriend Alan. At some points in the book, Mr C and Anya sound so similar, it feels like it’s all just one character pretending to be all the others. The language is okay, nothing that keeps you hooked to sentences.

On day 4, I practically flung the copy in anger, because there were only a few more pages left, and yet nothing motivated me to finish it, not even the eventual relief of not having to read it anymore. Not even the fact that Mr C had moved on from political stuff to things like cricket, love and sex. And even Anya thinks his opinions are a snooze-fest. This mixture of fiction & non-fiction elements, as in the private thoughts of an aging man versus his political opinions meant for public consumption, was an awkward combination.

This still doesn’t discourage me from wanting to read ‘Disgraced’ by the author, the one that won a Booker Prize in 1999 and probably helped him seal the Nobel Prize for Literature. I will buy/borrow and read ‘Disgraced’ some day. ‘Diary of a Bad Year’ on the other hand was a birthday gift from a friend, it’s not like I spent any money on it. So I take no joy in giving it a 1 on 5 stars, but damn, this was an awful book to start off my year with.

So yes, it’s a 1/5 from me.

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Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Lulli Movie Review – Random AF!

A medical student gets electrocuted by a malfunctioning MRI machine at the hospital and gains the power to read people’s thoughts when she touches them. If only life was so easy. But that’s the story of the 2021 Brazilian film ‘Lulli’ on Netflix.

Directed by Cesar Rodrigues, Lulli is like a silly version of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, where the focus is more on the romantic affairs and petty jealousies of medical students. Larissa Maneula, who plays the titular character Lulli, has zero charm and makes you wonder how she landed the lead role. The others in the cast are a lot better than her. While the whole premise of how Lulli gains her mind-reading powers is ridiculous, it still makes for an entertaining plot. Not like we haven’t seen it before, the 2021 Japanese series ‘Cherry Magic’ treads the same territory, where the hero can read minds when he touches people. But the series is way more hilarious and heartwarming than this film.

‘Lulli’ is pretty much very ‘high school romance’ territory, with everybody behaving like they are still teenagers. Writers Renato Fagundes and Thalita Reboucas don’t put in a lot of thought into the plot, even though some of the medical scenes in the hospitals are legit enough. Some of the friendships depicted are relatable and draw some laughs. However, the climax is random AF and gives you a cliche ‘happy ending’.

Basically, it’s is just your average rom-com set in a hospital setting, with the protagonist having an undesirable super-power. It’s a 5/10 from me.

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Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Don’t Look Up Review – Maybe Scroll Down To ‘Death To 2021’

I know, I know, I am reviewing the 2021 ‘Don’t Look Up’ in the wrong year. It’s 2022 already, too many have already spoken. But hey, I wasn’t even planning on watching the movie, even though the trailer did seem fun and interesting. However, someone in the family said we must check it out, so we did. And in the movie’s defense – it does have a mildly hilarious and engaging first half. But slowly and steadily, it keeps getting boring, too long, and too pretentious for a parody. The 2013 film ‘This Is The End’ was probably more entertaining. And even though I don’t remember much, I didn’t feel disappointed by the end. That’s unfortunately not the case with this 2021 film directed by Adam McKay, based on a story by David Sirota.

Plot overview – Two American astronomers discover a comet that’s going to kill everybody on the planet in 5 months, and they try to convince the media to take their story seriously, after the White House doesn’t quite get their point.

Leonardo DiCaprio as the pill-popping Dr Randall Mindy makes for an interesting middle-age protagonist, who gets to have a steamy affair with Cate Blanchett’s news anchor character Brie Evantee. Evantee by the way completely overshadows Mindy, whenever the two are on the screen together, even when he is having a complete nervous breakdown. Or maybe I am just a bigger Blanchett fan. Who knows.

Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky, the junior astronomer who first discovers the comet has a meatier part – the confident, cynical ‘fuck the establishment’ type of young-ling, who is immediately turned into a meme by social media. Meryl Street is phenomenal as President Orlean, just the right actor to play the fictional first woman President of America on the big screen. She is like the male version of Donald Trump, but saucier and slightly less dumber. Jonah Hill as her idiot son Jason Orlean is between hilarious and mediocre.

There are a lot of things that ‘Don’t Look Up’ gets right – the social media culture, the general apathy of the establishment, the ridiculously spineless/toxic American tv news media; and how corporate giants and big tech companies are the real puppet-masters of our world. But one of the weakest links in the film is the primary antagonist – Mark Rylance who plays Billionaire Peter Isherwell. As a non-American, I just couldn’t figure out if he is based on a real American personality. Regardless of whoever the character is inspired from, Rylance as Isherwell is underwhelming, annoying and a pain to watch. There’s a Hindi phrase that goes “maza nahi aaya”, which literally translates to “it wasn’t enjoyable”. That’s all I can say about Rylance’s performance. Even though he barely has any screentime, his character single-handedly manages to ruin the entire movie (at least for me). And Isherwell isn’t the only one to blame. A lot of the characters are stuffed in just so some big and popular faces could make an appearance. Like actor Timothy Chalamet, who has a completely useless cameo as Yule, a skaterboy type of dude, who Kate Dibiasky has a fling with.

I don’t even have a problem with the fact that the script over-simplifies a lot of stuff, like how America is the only one trying to deal with this planet-killer comet – I am fine by that. But there are too many forced cosmetic additions that drag the pace down and make what would could’ve been an hilarious film, into some sort of an ego massage – where the director has these big actors monkeying around on screen. The movie could’ve been over in 90 minutes, but it has a long 2 hr 18 minute runtime, too ambitious for its own good. It makes you want to hit the fast forward button eventually. Netflix TV special ‘Death to 2021’ was way more fun.

It’s a 5.5/10 from me.

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Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Atrangi Re: Whacky, Yes, But Not In A Good Way

‘Isko to France ke museum mein hona chahiye thha, aur woh Dilli ki sadkon par khula ghoom rahi hai’ (She should be in a museum in France, but she is running around on the streets of Delhi)

Imagine a mental health professional saying that about someone who is grappling with a psychological problem. This premise sums up pretty much all of Anand L Rai’s Atrangi Re for me.

The rather interesting first half of the film ends with Dhanush’s friend realising that Sara Ali Khan is hallucinating about her lover Akshay Kumar. The brief sigh of relief that I heaved at the movie not being age-inappropriate quickly turned south by the way the film-maker treats Sara’s illness.

She is surrounded by a bunch of doctors, Dhanush included, who behave like quacks to say the least. The idea that manipulating a patient’s make-believe world will somehow rid them of their issues is non-scientific, bizarre and downright stupid.

The film would have amused an audience in the 90s maybe, but is far too regressive for viewers in today’s time. Atrangi Re could have been phenomenol- the cast is great (even Akshay does justice to his part), the music is outstanding, locations and dialogues well crafted, it is just the story that fails everyone and everything.

Munish Rathore

Munish Rathore is a full-time journalist,
part-time dreamer and an aspiring writer. In
his free time he can be seen curled up in front
of the TV bawling over the latest tear-jerker.

instagram.com/munishrathore/

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Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Sebastian O/Mystery Play – Quick Review

As the title suggests, ‘Sebastian O/Mystery Play’ by Grant Morrison packs in two dark but very different stories. The steampunk themed Sebastian O feels like a wildly re-imagined tribute to Oscar Wilde. In fact, a lot of the language is very Wilde like, with a lot of sarcastic quote worthy lines. And the protagonist too reminds one of the writer a lot.

The plot is about a wealthy, well-dressed debauched ‘dandy’, out to extract revenge on those who threw him to the nuthouse. There’s some entertaining banter and a lot of violence. Sebastian O is the kind of character who’d rather risk his life than appear shabbily dressed somewhere. So after a fight in the sewers (literally), he visits a friend first, to change into better clothes. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy reading, pick this graphic novel up.

Although I wasn’t such a fan of the second story titled “Mystery Play”, largely due to the stark change in the art. The panels look like morphed real pictures with a gloomy AF tone. It was just so hard to keep my interest up in the bizarre tale that I just hurried through it all, skipping most pages. The two stories are so different in tone, literally as far as the colors and art styles is concerned, and figuratively in terms of mood and themes, that maybe reading them back to back just makes for a jarring reading experience.

Overall, it’s a 3/5 from me, and maybe I am being a little to generous with the rating. The book is available to read on the kindle unlimited library if you have a subscription.

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Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Balaji Vittal is an Indian author who won the National Award for the ‘Best Book On Cinema’ for the non-fiction title ‘RD Burman’ he co-authored with Anirudha Bhattacharjee. He talks to Abstract AF about ‘Pure Evil’, his first solo work published by Harper Collins in December 2021. It’s an incredibly well-researched book on Bollywood’s tryst with villains over the decades. They come in all kinds of shades, sizes and surprise packages. Vittal scoured through multiple sources, spoke to several actors, movie-makers, to write this book that is filled to the brim with Bollywood trivia.

From his favorite villains to interesting anecdotes that did not make it to the book, watch the award-winning author discuss his book and movies in an interview to us. Do subscribe to our channel.

Mystere Review – Adorable And Forgettable

Many a hardened adult has broken into a pool of tears watching Hachiko the dog go to the station every day at 5 pm, to wait for his human, in the 2009 English film Hachi (adaptation of an equally moving 1987 Japanese original). Just a year before, it was the lighter but endearing ‘Marley & Me’ about a family and their dog, that had moved viewers. There have been a whole host of dog-centric films since, that have tried to recreate the same kind of magic, some managing to win viewers’ hearts, others not so much. The 2021 French film ‘Mystere’ falls somewhere in between.

Titled ‘Victoria & Her Mystery’ in English, this Netflix movie directed by Denis Imbert, borrows heavily from a whole lot of films, even though it does have an interesting story at the heart of it. It’s about how little Victoria who recently lost her mother, finds happiness in a little puppy an old stranger gifts her. Both Victoria and her puppy are so adorable, anybody with a soft corner for canines will be able to stay on till the end of the movie. And with a lesser than 90 minute runtime, keeping your attention up isn’t hard.

Vincent Elbaz (who looks a lot like Matthew McConaughey) plays Stephane Dutel, Victoria doting dad, who is also a surgeon. Now here’s the weird part, despite being a surgeon, Vincent never once thinks of taking this new little puppy to a vet for vaccination or any kind of basic check-up. For an overprotective doctor dad, that bit was a glaring loophole in the script. Apart from that, most of the story was believable, with a good ‘man vs animal’ conflict theme.

Shot around some beautiful mountains, viewers get gorgeous views of the French countryside. Some of the scenes involving the animals are impressively shot, leaving you in brief awe for the production team. Because they either brilliantly trained the animals, or have an insanely talented CGI team – the scenes all look authentic. Mystere, the titular animal protagonist is definitely the showstopper of them movie, although, he feels a little too docile than even the tamest of dogs. How he grows from a cute little thing to a giant softie was heart-warming.

There’s a small little twist towards the climax, where things get tense, and you expect a dramatic emotional flourish, but it never gets there. The ending is neat and sweet enough, but just doesn’t move you. An adorable but forgettable film. A good enough pick to watch with the family on the weekend.

It’s a 6/10 from me.

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Listen to Episode 59 for 9 great animated film recommendations.

Read 116 Books In 2021, Here’s My ‘Top 15’ List

Here’s a quick list of 15 books I rated 5/5 in 2021. These are among the 116 titles I read in a year. Add them to your ‘to read’ list, if they sound like something that should be on your shelf too.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick – This beautiful fiction book combines the magic of books, art and movies. Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash – A poignant graphic novel memoir about coming to terms with one’s sexuality. I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You by Yumi Sakugawa – Easily the most adorable illustrated book I’ve ever read. It celebrates platonic friendships and would make for a perfect gift for your best-friend. Wonder by R J Palacio – It’s easy to see why this children’s novel is such a big bestseller. It packs in a lovely story about a little boy with a rare medical condition. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon – An impressive, intriguing novel about two Jewish boys trying to make it big in the comic-book industry. Klaus by Grant Morrison – A witty re-imagining of Santa Klaus as an action hero, this comic-book series has amazing art by Dan Mora. Fierce Femmes & Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom – A crazy fictional story of a trans-girl that’s filled with poetry, violence, female friendships, love and despair.‘The Magic Fish’ by Trung Le Nyugen – A beautiful graphic novel about a young boy Tien who loves reading fairy tales with his mom.Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka – A moving memoir of a boy who is raised by his grandparents as his single mother spirals into the dark world of drugs. One of the best books out there. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan – Not meant for everyone, this is a quick sunny tale about a bratty self-centered teen, that serves no purpose except to entertain the reader. The New Kid by Jerry Craft – Such a breezy graphic novel about surviving middle-school! The author wittily captures how even the most well-intentioned people can be mean without realizing it. The Long View’ by Mark Hurst – this is a great horror story about a girl who can talk to those who’ve just died and are yet to pass to the ‘other side’. It’s spooky, gory, grisly, discomforting & gripping.Brazen by Penelope Bagieu – I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! It’s like a graphic novel, with the cutest artwork, but badass stories about ‘rebel ladies who rocked the world’.The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley – Set during World War II, this is an emotionally powerful story about a 11-year-old who escapes from an abusive mother & learns to walk after crawling all her life.Pure Evil by Balaji Vittal – This is an incredibly well-researched non-fiction book about Bollywood villains over different eras and how they’ve evolved over time.

Hope you have great new year! And please subscribe to our podcast on Youtube. Link below.

Death To 2021 Review – Just About Amusing!

“Constitutional order is restored, when in a reverse exorcism ceremony, the ghost of Joe Biden is installed in the White House” – whoever wrote this line for ‘Death To 2021’, three claps for you! It’s one of the most hilarious lines in the one-hour long Netflix mockumentary, that might just become a tradition every year end.

Although, I do feel like ‘Death To 2020’ was slightly more funnier, or maybe its the one year in between that makes one remember it in more positive light. Or it’s just that 2021 was such a shit year, you can’t really make something great out of it.

Directed by Jack Clough and Josh Ruben, the mockumentary retains a lot of the original cast who played fake ‘experts’ in the 2020 production. So you have Hugh Grant as the weird historian Tennyson Foss OBE, Joe Keery as Youtube ‘influencer’ Duke Goolies, Diane Morgan as the cuckoo Brit Gemma Nerrick, Cristin Milioti as the dumb Kathy Flowers and Samson Kayo as the scientist Pyrex Flax. And then there are a bunch of new faces, along with real life news footage that’s interspersed in between to give us a slice of the year that was.

Diane Morgan and Cristin Milioti are the best bit about this look-back. Morgan as the lonely ignorant Brit who wonders why Joe Biden’s ghost is the President of US is just so bloody stupid, but you cannot help but laugh. She totally nails the ‘average idiotic citizen’ role and delivers the most inane lines with such a straight believable face, you’d totally believe she is actually a guest being interviewed for a legit documentary. Lucy Liu as the suave looking Snook Austin was an interesting addition to the cast and she gets some really funny lines to boot. Stockard Channing is as cool as a snarky cat, her impeccable delivery of dialogues with a drink in hand was fun to watch.

Overall, ‘Death To 2021’ is a quick funny recap of the mostly U.S events, so if you haven’t been following the news, maybe just watch this mockumentary for an overview of stuff that happened in America, along with a few key global events thrown. It’s like a sit-down comedy with a large cast.

Hope you have great new year! And please subscribe to our podcast on Youtube. Link below.

Back To The Outback – Quick Review

The world of animals is a curious big world for little kids. Which is why zoos top the list of places children are taken to as part of school picnics. And the 2021 animated film “Back To The Outback” bursts that happy bubble associated with them. Sort of.

Directed by Harry Cripps and Clare Knight, this Australian flavored film primarily targets children. The first few minutes aren’t very entertaining and kind of makes you wonder where the makers are trying to take the plot. The story follows a bunch of ‘dangerous’ reptiles, led by a venomous snake, who break out of the zoo they are held in captive, because they don’t want to be labeled as ‘monsters’ on display for visitors. Where are they headed? To the beautiful burnt sienna hued mountains in the outback, where the other animals dwell freely. But it’s obviously not going to be easy. Except that it kind of is, the lead creatures of this film manage a too good to be true kind of escape.

Kids should love the heart-warming story about animals trying to get back home and the short runtime really helps. The writing isn’t exceedingly clever or funny, but there’s a decent amount of family humor that will keep the younger viewers entertained. There are some interesting moral lessons to be learnt, like an anthem that goes something on the lines “I am ugly, you are ugly, everybody should be this ugly. Ugly is the new beautiful”. I love how the makers try to dismantle the age old fairy tale belief of ‘ugly is evil’ belief. For too long – snakes, scorpions and other reptiles have only been treated as pariahs or villains. Take the case of ‘The Jungle Book’, where Kaa the snake is one of the primary villains. Or the ‘Harry Potter’ series, where Lord Voldemort’s pet is the deadly Nagini. Or there’s the original biblical villain – Satan as the snake that tempts Adam and Eve. Even though they are also revered in many other cultures and countries. In this film, the beautiful blue snake Maddie (voiced by Isla Fisher) is the protagonist. She is kind, caring, puts her friends before her and is even nice to those who are mean to her. Her character is a complete subversion of how snakes are usually depicted in western movies and books, and it’s a refreshing change.

The animation is pretty standard, the animators don’t really push the envelope and stick to stock like characters that seem like slightly modified versions of cartoons we’ve already seen. Like the Koala called ‘Pretty Boy’, who is the star attraction at the zoo, strikingly resembles Buster Moon from the 2016 animation ‘Sing’. The outback terrain doesn’t stand out much, or at least will not awe adult viewers. But it’s a fun family pick for the weekend.

It’s a 6/10 from me. The film is available to stream on Netflix.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 59 for 9 great animated film recommendations.