Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 241

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.

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Listen to Episode 59 for 9 great animated film recommendations.

Minnal Murali Review – Like A Desi Comic In Motion

A tailor in a small village in India gets struck by lightning and gains superpowers. What does he do with it? Not much. At least not in the beginning. And while that might seem disappointing to some viewers who expect DC/Marvel level stuff, what makes the 2021 Malayalam movie ‘Minnal Murali’ click for a lot of us is its inherent Indian-ness. Think about it – you are an ambitious adult, with a steady partner, supportive family and big dreams, would you drop your plans just because you woke up with super-speed and super-strength one day? Or just discreetly use your powers for personal gains? Not everyone wants the great responsibility that comes with great power. So the first time Minnal Murali takes on ‘bad guys’, it’s personal – they abused his father. And he isn’t clad in hero gear, instead he borrows a school student’s bird-costume to cover his upper-half, over his regular mundu (lungi).

Director Basil Joseph along with writers Arun Anirudhan, Justin Mathew have spun a relatable origin story of a small-town superhero, who takes his time to come of age. Set in 1990s, in a village in Kerala called Kurukkanmoola, Minnal Murali’s (Tovino Thomas) story begins on the night of a rare celestial event when tailor Jaison gets hit by lightning. Why does Jaison go by the pseudonym ‘Minnal Murali’? We get a moving back-story to that too.

From the lightning accident, to Jaison exploring his new super-powers with his adorable nephew Josemon, to finally embracing his new identity, it’s all amusing. The writers pepper the script with a lot of humor and clever little juxtapositions. For example, there’s a scene where a kid dressed as Mahatma Gandhi encourages the hero to beat up cops. In-fact the first face-off between MM and men in khakhi was brilliantly done, it feels like the scenes jumped out of the panels of a desi comic-book, with a peppy soundtrack “thee minnal” playing at the back. Spread over a ambitious 2 hours 39 minutes runtime, the film has a solid entertaining first two hours. It’s only in the last-half hour that I finally found my interest wavering.

From a self-centered selfish brat to a selfless savior, Jaison’s character sees an interesting growth. Tovino Thomas pulls off all shades of Jaison’s moods with ease. We see him as a flirty college oaf; a fashion-conscious tailor who thinks Adidas is a fake rip-off of a brand called ‘Abibas’; a vengeful ex; an emotional son; a selfish ambitious lout and finally as someone who thinks about the greater good of his hometown. But Jaison’s rise to glory is almost scuttled by the antagonist Shibu, played by actor Guru Somasundaram, who overshadows Tovin Thomas with his multi-faceted role. He reminds one of ‘Two-Face’, the villain from the Batman comics, with contrasting emotions simmering within, like Jekyll and Hyde.

Actor Femina George is the unsung hero in the movie, she plays Karate teacher Biji, who is heartbroken after her boyfriend marries somebody else, because she wasn’t willing to give up her self-defense classes. She is strong, independent, doesn’t mop around and is feisty enough to attend her ex’s wedding to feast on free biryani. My favorite however is child actor Vasisht Umesh who plays Josemon, Jaison’s nerdy bespectacled nephew, who explains his clueless uncle how superheroes roll.

While the overall tone of the film is refreshingly Indian, Basil Joseph and team have taken notes from some comic-book greats. Jason’s exploration of his powers with his tiny nephew was a lot like how Billy Batson tries to figure out his strengths in the 2019 DC film ‘Shazam’. Then there’s a bus scene that seems inspired from both Spiderman 2 and Shazam. There’s a very Magneto Vs Professor Xavier kind of fight in the end, which could’ve been better, but the action has some clean executed moves that look very cool and superman-like. All of this is accomplished with minimal VFX and a budget that doesn’t run into pages.

From the hero’s motivations, to the villain’s angst, ‘Minnal Murali’ covers it all, perhaps even stretches more than necessary into the antagonist’s life. And Guru Somasundaram is so good in his part, that you almost hope he has an happy ending, despite all his evil deeds. The climax has a story-book like ending, and leaves ample scope for sequels. It seems like India has finally found a desi super-hero whose antics have high re-watch value.

It’s a 8/10 from me. Available to stream on Netflix.

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Listen to Episode 56 for three fun Netflix Show Recommendations

Utsukushii Kare Review – An Intriguing Tale of Love & Insecurities

Utsukushii Kare (My Beautiful Man) the 2021 Japanese series is about a 17-year-old loner who falls in love at first sight with a classmate. Directed by Sakai Mai, the show stars Hagiwara Riku as protagonist Hira Kazunari, while Yagi Yusei plays his love interest – the beautiful Kiyoi Sou.

For someone who started watching the series without even seeing the trailer, it was hard to say which way this show was heading. Hagiwara Riku as Hira is one heck of a weird chap. He is a loner, but not the “cool” types, he stammers, has very little interest in anything around him and occasionally takes photos of random things. His world spins around when he sees Kiyoi for the first time. His love/adoration/obsession with the classmate borders on stalking. Kiyoi however exploits Hira’s feelings, by bossing him around all the time. And Hira is fine by it, viewing their relationship as a sort of king-slave equation, where he is happy to serve. This outlook stems from the belief that someone as popular and beautiful as Kiyoi is way of out his league.

Hagiwara Riku is exceptional in his role. In episode one, there is a scene where he looks at a photo and says “I like you… Kiyoi” as if he is parched, exuding a desperate need of longing, tinged with a tone of defeat. It makes the viewer wonder if it’s all going to get out of hand eventually. But as the show progresses, there’s an almost brilliant reversal of plot-line. While for the first half of the series we see life through Hira’s eyes, towards the second half, we finally get Kiyoi’s perspective.

Yagi Yusei has an almost typical stock character, that of the good-looking, vain person everyone covets. But his character sees a lot of growth, and thankfully the makers don’t make everything too easy for him. Even the king has insecurities.

How the lives of these polar opposites (Hira and Kiyoi) characters converge is the heart of the series. Will they be friends, lovers or strangers in the end? The conflict comes in the form of Koyama Kazumi (Takano Akira) who adores Hira and complicates things. One wishes that Kazumi’s sub-plot could’ve been a little stronger, but there isn’t enough time for his arc.

Director Sakai Mai has made an entertaining tale that blends the madness of teenage love with the more practical realities of modern adult relationships. It’s not your typical fluffy teen romance kind of series everybody else is making, but neither does it get too dark or twisted. Everything is smoothed into an emotional climactic episode, where the leads finally confront each other and talk things out. If only they had talked before!

It’s a 8/10 from me. Watch it for the lead actors.

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Listen to Episode 56 for three fun Netflix Show Recommendations

Antlers Review – Cold, Creepy But Crams Too Much

Child abuse, crony capitalism, environmental catastrophes, evil spirits, bullying, drug addiction, alcoholism, mental health, single-parenthood, societal apathy…. the makers of the 2021 horror film ‘Antlers’ try to cram in so much into the movie, that a great story feels a little unsatisfactory by the end of it all. That said, Scott Cooper has directed a film steeped in folklore and fables that’s worthy of attention by all horror fans.

Plot overview – Something sinister happens to single-father Frank Weaver in an isolated mine, turning him into some sort of sick monster and it affects his 7-year-old son Aiden Weaver too. It’s up to 12-year-old Lucas Weaver to take care of his ‘sick’ father and brother. His teacher notices something is off with the little boy and tries to help, without realizing how dangerous the consequences are going to be.

Scott Cooper, Henry Chaisson and Nick Antosca have worked on the screenplay and have done a fantastic job with how the film looks. Set in a small town in Oregon, the setting is gorgeous, with its blue streams, forests, mountains and yet there is something dark, desolate about the place. The terrain helps build the mood for a dark horror mystery surrounding the 12-year-old Lucas and his family.

Child actor Jeremy T. Thomas as the pale, thin Lucas keeps you worried about the boy’s character. Thomas looks like a lost helpless child, burdened with a terrible secret and scarred with terrible visual memories. He copes by drawing ominous pictures of what’s happening to him in a notebook. That’s how his teacher Julia Meadows (Keri Russell) begins to sense maybe the boy is having trouble at home. While Russell does her brief quiet well, her character is given a traumatic past, which gets a lot more space than necessary. The story tries to connect the adult Julia Meadows with the troubled Lucas, two characters with an unhappy childhood. It’s an awkwardly forged relationship.

The climax is quite typical and leaves more unanswered questions than viewers would like. If only we could have gotten a little more on the creature “Wendigo”, that monster in the film, it could’ve been more satisfactory. The makers do give us a brief explanation of how the creature has its roots in Native American beliefs. But some later developments leave you wanting more insight.

Antlers does work quite well as a spooky horror movie. It could’ve been better. It’s a 6/10 from me.

10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #11thEdition

We are back with another edition of ’10 Book Reviews under 10 Minutes’ for our podcast. So if you aren’t into reading long book reviews, listen to episode 62, where we quickly look at some diverse titles, including some comics/graphic novels.

The titles in this edition are as follows
1. ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ by Brian Selznick
2. Lucky Penny’ by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota
3. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
4. Jerusalem by Guy Delisle
5. Love by Pablo Neruda
6. Lola – A Ghost Story by J Torres and ELbert Or
7. Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L Holm
8. Still life by Anoushka Khan
9. The Dark Room by RK Narayan
10. A Thing Called Truth by Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli

Listen in and subscribe to the channel on YouTube

Anonymously Yours Review – Surprisingly Fun!

The teen Spanish film ‘Anonymously Yours’ (Anomima) by Netflix is probably more fun than the ‘To All The Boys…’ trilogy. That needed to be said first off, lest you lose interest and not read the whole thing. Just so you know that this is a good chick flick to watch on the weekend. The story is simple, the teens a little more relatable and their life doesn’t have big screen drama and cliches.

Directed by Maria Torres, written by Alexandro Aldrete and Daniela Gomez, the script steers away from the classic ‘opposites attract’ and gives viewers a pair where both the girl and boy are nerds and unpopular. It starts off a little slow, but then the pace picks up and stays at an entertaining level, without dipping much.

Plot overview – When Valeria receives a text from an unknown guy, the two begin to chat without revealing who they are, deciding to remain anonymous. The two start crushing on each other, without realizing that they are classmates and meet on a regular basis at school. Anybody who has ever been on chat sites or even dating sites for that matter, would understand the skepticism of two smart kids not wanting to divulge any personal details about each other. Annie Cabello and Ralf Poderoso as the lead pair are adorable, their chemistry lights up the screen and captures the essence of young love well. The strength of the script lies in the fact that both characters aren’t lovelorn teens. Instead, they are goal-oriented youngsters who have priorities in life apart from mooning over their crush.

Since the setting is in a private school, it is implied that most kids are rich, which gives the makers the excuse to pepper the film with absurdly lavish teen parties. Alex however is from a humble family, raised by a single mother and is at the fancy school on scholarship. But the class/wealth divide between Alex and Valeria is never brought up or made a cause of concern, which was a refreshing change. Both set of parents are more obsessed with what their kid is going to pursue after school, and care very little for who they are dating, as long as their future plans aren’t getting derailed.

The climax is measured, even though you can see what’s going to happen from miles away. But the makers don’t go the cliche route of most teen rom-com and revealing what they do different would make it a big spoiler. So let’s just say, there’s no cheesy drama.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

‘The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor’ Quick Review – Cray Cray!

Okay, maybe nobody says ‘cray cray’ anymore, but it’s still a fun term to define crazy stuff. Like the graphic novel ‘The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor’ by Shaenon K. Garrity and Christopher J. Baldwin.

The cover deceives you into thinking its some sort of gothic-horror story, with vampires and beasts, but hell no. Instead, there’s some inception level stuff going on, in-fact, inception was perhaps easier to understand, but definitely not as light and funny as this graphic novel.

You got to love how the story starts – with the girl saving a boy! The protagonist Haley is a huge fan of gothic romance novels; on a gloomy night, she saves a man from drowning, but wakes up in a stately manor, with a strict housekeeper. At first it seems like she has traveled back in time, but turns out she slipped into a different multiverse – a ‘pocket universe’, which is at danger of getting consumed by evil, and can put Haley’s world in jeopardy too. So it’s up to our protagonist and three brothers who inhabit the manor to fix things.

The illustrations by Christopher J/ Baldwin are splashy, cute, colorful, with Haley being the stand-out character. She has expressive eyes that will charm a lot of readers, with an impish attitude that is more on the adorable side than annoying. Author Shaenon K. Garrity tries to turn the gothic romance novel on its head, by giving us a very traditional gothic setting, but the story spans multiple-universes, aliens and some stuff that sort of go over my head.

‘The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor’ might not be for everybody, but could be the perfect pick for those looking for a quick quirky read with sci-fi elements but old sentiments. It’s a 4/5 from me.

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Listen to Episode 48 – Three Underrated Graphic Memoirs To Read

Bunty aur Babli 2 Review: Only people conned are the viewers

Some 16 years ago, I saw Bunty aur Babli with a dozen family members in a single screen theater in a non-descript town in Bihar. The speakers were blaring, the audience noisy and the screen blurry, but through the madness of it all, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of two small-town con-artists. It was this fond memory I hoped to rekindle when I decided watch the sequel. I was really looking forward to it. But alas!

If there is one thing Indian filmmakers should learn, it is to let good franchises be. Do not make a Sarkar 2, do not make a Love Aaj Kal 2, do not make even a Raaz 2-3-4 for that matter. Bunty aur Babli 2, sadly, is the latest addition to this long list of tanked sequels. It is a great example of how a seemingly perfect cast can’t hold together a film with a flawed script.

We see the OG Bunty aur Babli, having denounced their ways making the most they can out of their small-town life, while a new set of con-couple takes on their monicker and dupes sleazy uncles of their money by promising them a sexcapade. Are you serious? Duping old uncles should be last thing sassy, young and good-looking people should be doing. This is 2021. Such a plot-line would probably have made sense in 2000s, two decades later, this whole idea is dated and stinks of laziness.

The next heist is a rip-off of ‘Taj Mahal for sale’ idea from the first film. And the one after that too borrows heavily from the predecessor. However, it is when all the heists are done, do the Rani-Saif duo enter to con the Siddharth-Sharvari coupling to rob them off their money.

What follows is a long and painful turn of events that are best left unmentioned. From the gaudy clothes to the cheap-ass locations, to the absolutely unnecessary couple fights, nothing in the film makes one sit upright and take note. A few witty dialogues here and there are the only things that keep one awake through the snooze-fest this film is.

Also- what is up with the songs? The first movie boasts of an album that is still relevant over a decade later and then comes this one which feels like it’s stuck in the 70s. No pump, no energy, no romance. I could go on and on but I feel that would be a waste too.

If you liked the first Bunty and Babli, do not, I repeat, do not watch this film. Even the brilliant actors can’t help but betray you.

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/

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

Listen to Episode 59 for 9 great animated film recommendations.