Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 272

Namaste Wahala Review – Very 90s Bollywood

The cross-cultural film ‘Namaste Wahala’ written and made by debutant director Hamisha Daryani Ahuja feels like an out and out Bollywood film from the 1990s. Sample the opening scene – a woman bumps into a man by the beach, they stare into each other’s eyes and it’s ‘love at first sight’. The boy decides she is the girl he wants to marry. Not even kidding, just watch the trailer if you haven’t.

The movie is set in Nigeria and the hero is an Indian investment banker called Raj (Ruslaan Mumtaz) who woos Nigerian lawyer Didi (Ini Dima Okojie). The two date for three months and Raj insists that he meet his girlfriend’s parents. The couple soon faces a mighty challenge – to convince their parents to agree to their marriage, because neither family is thrilled about their kid marrying somebody who is not of their nationality. The parents are blindingly prejudiced and mean for most part of the film.

While it’s a romantic comedy, there is a small sub-plot in the film about Didi fighting a case to get justice for a woman who was brutally assaulted by a rich brat, and that bit was far more interesting than her romantic life. The movie is slightly funny, but has an overtly dramatic background score, which seems straight out an Indian television drama from the early 2000s. Despite being classified under the ‘African Movies’ genre on Netflix, ‘Namaste Wahala’ is as Indian as Indian movies get.

The support cast that played Raj and Didi’s friends were more fun than the lead actors, although Ruslaan Mumtaz and Ini Dima Okojie play their roles quite earnestly. And the actor who plays Raj’s father cannot act to save his life. Despite having a lot of potential to be a super fun family film, it’s very mediocre because of the lazy script-writing. Some of the comedy scenes are too fake and contrived. Also, I usually don’t have anything to say about the costumes in a movie, but some of the stuff that the actors wear in this film was way too flashy/loud.

If director Hamisha Daryani was aiming at making a parody Bollywood film, she has nailed it, but if this was a serious attempt at a romantic comedy, than it’s pretty disappointing. ‘Namaste Wahala’ is the sort of no-brainer comedy that you can only watch with a bunch of friends and have a laugh at. It’s a 5/10 from me.

10 Fiction Books With Little Or Zero Romance

The romance genre is one of the most popular genre in the fiction world for obvious reasons, but every now and then, readers want to read a book that delves into matters that don’t have much to with the heart. So in the lastest podcast episode of Abstract AF, I recommend 10 fiction books that have little or close to no romance.

It’s an interesting mix of classics, graphic novels and contemporary fiction from across the world, so listen in.

To All The Boys: Always and Forever – Cliche Overload But Cute

Do I even have to mention that the 2021 film ‘To All The Boys: Always and Forever’, the third installment of the popular romantic teen trilogy, is overloaded with cliches and cuteness? If you’ve seen the trailer, you probably already knew what to expect. Based on the books by Jenny Han and directed by Michael Fimognari, this film is a little too picture perfect.

The movie starts of with the protagonist Lara Jean (played by the adorable Lana Condor) having a happy holiday with her family in South Korea, to explore their mother’s roots. It’s the final year of school and Lara is hoping to get into the same college (Stanford) as boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). The wait makes her anxious, because she feels like if she doesn’t get into the same college, long-distance might kill their relationship.

Predictably, Lara doesn’t get into Stanford and is faced with the choice of either going to a college that’s just an hour away from the boyfriend, or to New York University, which is perfect for her, but would mean being over 3000 miles away from Peter. Should she choose being close to the boy of her dreams? Or going to the college of her dreams? It’s a legitimate conundrum for a 17-year-old.

One can’t pick holes in the cinematography, because like I said – it’s picture perfect. But that’s the problem, everything in the film is too color co-ordinated, for example – most of Lara’s stuff is in blue – her clothes, house walls, crockery, room posters, apron, every damn thing. You know that these are film sets, meant to look aesthetically pleasing to the eye, so they have this element of ‘fakeness’. And like a lot of Hollywood stories, New York is over-romanticised in the film. “I fell in love with New York”, Lara says twinkle eyed. I haven’t been to the city, but I’ve seen enough films to get tired of the “NEW YORK IS SO AMAZING” trope. The adulation for the city seems a little superficial in Lara’s case. You have the usual teen tropes – promposals (yes, it’s a word), truth or dare games, fancy trips, fun night outs, fancy prom dresses, selfie-sprees, etc, etc. Also, there are a lot of stale pop-culture references thrown in. It’s 2021, but Lara gushes over the 1989 film ‘Say Anything…’, a romantic flick that is often referenced in a lot of other romantic films. One would understand a 80s or even a 90s kid being mad about it, not somebody born in 2003/2004. Guess it’s because the Author Jenny Han is an 80s kid, she needs to update herself a little.

What strongly works in the favor of the film is the charming cast. I did feel like Lara’s sister Kitty (Anna Cathcart) lacked her usual sass versus the previous two movies. Lara’s friends had lesser space in the film, but were supportive positive influences in the story. Also, to the credit of the makers, the third film is not as dramatic as most teen romances tend to be. What I really liked about the film was how maturely Peter Kavinsky reacts to the challenges in his relationship with Lara, it’s hard to find 17-year-old boys who are so level-headed. So the lead stars continue to be ‘couple goals’, as teens today call it.

The climax was predictable but cute. Overall, I did enjoy this film more than I had expected, because the trailer didn’t look particularly impressive. It’s a good pick for a light, sweet, simple romantic pick for the weekend. It’s a 7/10 from me.

Why ‘The Ring’ Remains Scarier Than Most New Horror Films

It’s Friday today and 13th tomorrow, so felt like doing a horror themed podcast.

If you are a horror enthusiast or even if you are not, listen in to the new Abstract AF podcast episode, where I also throw in some horror recommendations. And don’t forget to subscribe!

Infidel – Horror Graphic Novel Review

Finished reading book number 15 for the year – a horror graphic novel called “Infidel” by Pornsak Pichetshote & Aaron Campbell. I don’t know if it’s because I read the e-book and not a physical copy, but I thought it was just okay.

It’s about an American Muslim woman Aisha, who moves into a building that had experienced a terrorist attack in the past. The building is now haunted by demons and Aisha begins to experience their terror. Aisha has the twin challenge of dealing with demons and her partner’s mother, who doesn’t hold a very high opinion of Muslims. Things spiral out of control quite quickly and grotesquely.

The main theme of the book is “intolerance”, but I feel like it’s overdone. While I’ve read plenty of books that show the kind of racism and hate people of color face in America, despite being born & brought up in the country, the racism shown in this novel felt a little ‘forced’. The illustrations are done well, they are very realistic, almost like real photographs turned into comic format. So full points on the art, but the story was lacking punch.

Interestingly, the book had an afterword by Jeff Lemire, whose work I read just last week and loved. Can’t say the same for “Infidel”.

The New Kid Review – Relatable & Fun

Finished reading book no. 14 for the year – The New Kid by Jerry Craft, a breezy graphic novel about surviving middle-school. The comic panels are bright and super fun.

Jordan Banks the protagonist is a kid who loves to draw & finds himself in a fancy new school with loaded students. While his mother is excited about her son going to a great school, the father’s only worry is if there would be enough diversity in his class.

I loved the subtle ways in which Jerry Craft shows how the most well-meaning people can be unwittingly racist. Reminded me slightly of “Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid, which was long-listed for the 2020 Booker Prize. While the two books are vastly different from each other, what they have in common is the witty ways in which the authors take digs at the “white pursuit of wokeness” (in double quotes because I read the phrase somewhere). There’s also class difference brought in, while the rich kids in Jordan’s school jet off to Alaska to go skiing, kids on ‘financial aid’ like him can only go as far as their neighborhood park.

Jerry Craft weaves a fun story, with interesting characters and for a change – there is no romantic sub-plot. New Kid is all about friends, family and finding your own voice. It is fun, relatable and unputdownable!

Please do check out our new Podcast show by the same name.

Listen in, show support & don’t forget to subscribe.

Pachinko Book Review

It’s hard to write down what you feel about some novels. While most readers like to refer to books as ‘friends’, some can feel like a new crush, somebody you are fascinated with, somebody you want to learn all about and don’t want to part with, until you’ve had too much and lose all interest. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee felt a little like that. I could stop turning the pages for the first 75 per cent, I read every word, excited to know how things would turn, and then came a point where I lost interest, when some paragraphs were skipped, when I didn’t mind putting the book down and sleeping away in peace.

I didn’t want to start by giving a negative impression of the book, 75% is a LOT, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first 300 pages of this historical fiction that starts off in Korea in 1910 and then moves on to Japan in the 1930s. Pachinko follows the story of a modest Korean family that lives in a fishing village by the sea. 16-year-old Sunja helps her mother run a boarding house and falls in love with a man she hopes to marry. Her dreams are shattered when she finds out he is married, a little detail he forgets to reveal until she is pregnant with his child. Sunja is given a shot at redemption when a Christian minister offers to marry her and give her a new life in Japan.

Author Min Jin Lee captures the difficult lives of Korean immigrants in a nation where they are treated like scum – forced to take jobs the Japanese don’t want & finding rentals only in ghettos that resemble pigsties. The book follows four generations of Sunja’s family. It starts of with the life of her simple parents in Korea, then moves to a tumultuous World War II era, where things get harder for the family, with food always short and death around the corner. Then it moves to a post-war era, focusing on the growth of her two sons, each very different from the other. While the older one Noa is a scholar, the younger one hates studying and is constantly engaged in school-fights.

The language is simple, engaging and peppered with a lot of Korean and Japanese phrases, which doesn’t disrupt the flow of story-telling at all. The author employs her characters into describing political situations and scenarios, instead of writing mundane-long third person descriptions. It makes the long book easier to read. The title ‘Pachinko’ is a Japanese word for a pinball like game played in the country, it’s like gambling in an arcade. In the book, the readers are informed that there are establishments that only have Pachinko devices for people to gamble away their money and the trade is looked down upon. But it’s a Pachinko business that changes the eventual destiny of Sunja’s impoverished family.

For those not too familiar with Japan-Korea’s history, Pachinko offers an intriguing study of racial discrimination, cultural disparities and the constant identity struggle one faces in a nation that considers them ‘foreign’. Min Jin Lee tries hard to strike a balance and not crucify one race as more evil than the other, and those efforts are constantly seen in charged dialogues between the characters in the book. There is a moving chapter where Sunja’s son Noa desperately wishes that people could just see him as a human being and not constantly put him under a racial category.

Since the novel unfolds over four generations, there are multiple romantic relationships that are woven into the narrative and themes like loyalty, infidelity, homosexuality, prostitution are explored. The author briefly touches upon the subject of ‘comfort women’, but never really dwells upon it, which was a bit of a shame. For the uninitiated, ‘comfort women’ were women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during the War and suffered severe brutalities. In fact, that’s a little problem that I had with ‘Pachinko’, despite being almost 500 pages long, the author doesn’t dwell upon some themes too deeply. A theme is introduced, you hope for more story, but either nothing happens or the sub-plot ends too abruptly.

Some of the characters that you grow to like do not get enough space in the book. Some of them are just forgotten. Sunja herself becomes a fading persona, from being the protagonist in the first half of the novel, she retreats in the background as she gets older; which was quite fine, but the other protagonists who are pushed to the forefront of the story are not memorable enough. Sunja’s sister-in-law is perhaps one of the strongest characters, not only because she endures a lot of strife, but she is supportive and loyal to a fault.

What works best for ‘Pachinko’ is its historical nostalgia, it stirs up images of an era that a lot of readers have only heard of. It offers a cultural hotpot, with ingredients that are similar to most countries – national pride, xenophobia, misogyny, extremism and class warfare. The highlight of the novel is however the tightly knit family at the center of the story, how despite their differences, Sunja and her clan stick together and fight the worst of circumstances.

One just wishes that Jin Min Lee should have either fleshed the story out in more books or avoided dragging it towards the end, because the author is unable to do justice to some of the characters that are introduced later. Overall, it makes for a great read and it’s honestly a little confusing to rate it. I will go with a 4 on 5.

Please do check out our new Podcast show by the same name.

Listen in, show support & don’t forget to subscribe.

What Helped Me Write 3 Books In A Year

So I wrote three books between December 2019 & December 2020 and I discuss some things that made the whole writing process a lot easier in the new episode of Abstract AF – The Podcast.

Listen in and don’t forget to subscribe.

To My Star Review – Soppy & Sweet

It looks like South-Korean creatives are trying to give Thailand, Taiwan & Phillipines a run for their money when it comes to LGBT friendly content. Since Korea is viewed as a traditional, conservative society, it’s pleasantly surprising that we are getting to see actors take up challenging roles. ‘To My Star’ is the latest South-Korean mini-series to join the list & follows the story of a popular actor falling in love with a newbie chef.

Directed by Hwang Da Seul, ‘To My Star’ has a small cast, with limited characters and things unfold at lightning speed. Actor Kang Seo Joon (played by Son Woo Hyun) finds himself in the midst of a controversy and his talent management firm makes him move to another place to keep away from the media. Enter chef named Kang Min (played by Han Ji Woo) who is his new flatmate. The two become close as they live together, but with the media always at his back and a public persona to boot, can things get serious between the two?

With 9 quick episodes, the viewer feels like the characters aren’t able to see too much growth. The change from strangers to lovers between the two lead characters within a week is not convincing enough. Although, since they are two very attractive looking people, maybe it shouldn’t be too hard to digest; but in that case, the story should’ve shown more spark and passion between the leads, instead they are seriously in love, the kinds that usually takes time to build-up. There’s the classic trope of opposites attract – Kang Seo Joon is friendly, open and speaks his mind; while Kang Min is broody, introverted, uptight & overtly serious.

There are a lot of things to like in this series though, first off – the cast is very convincing in their roles. Director Hwang De Seul avoids over the top melodramatic tropes. It’s refreshing to see Kang Seo Joon being straight-forward about his feeling and intentions. There was one scene where he kisses Kang Min for the first time, but he first asks for his consent, then counts to 10 (almost) out loud, before going ahead with it. Can’t remember the last time somebody sought consent before a kiss in a series, although there are some films and series that have done it, just can’t think of one right now. But it’s good to see shows these days inculcating the idea of consent into the plot.

The makers give an interesting glimpse into the life of a Korean star, we see how Kang Seo Joon is hounded by the media, to the extent that he has to leave his own house to lay low. The cinematography was simple, most of the scenes take place in three primary locations and the series has a very homely, relaxing vibe to it.

While I felt like the show was a little soppy and finishes too quickly, but is great for a one-time watch. It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

Please do check out our new Podcast show by the same name.

Listen in, show support & don’t forget to subscribe.

Why The Walking Dead Show Pales Out Versus The Comics

10 + Seasons of ‘The Walking Dead’ series and the show is still not ever, and while it’s a pretty good Zombie show, the live-action adaptation just doesn’t match up to the brilliance of the original comic series.

So in the latest episode of Abstract AF’s brand new podcast on YouTube, we discuss seven reasons why the comics were more kick-ass. Listen in, please subscribe and maybe leave your thoughts in the comments.