Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 294

Bow Wow Yeah!

So I read a book called “Apocalypse Bow Wow” by James Proimos today. It arrived in the mail today and I was done with it in 15 minutes. But they were the most fun minutes of my day.

This little book is primarily meant for kids but it’s an interesting read for adults who like dogs. It about two cute canines who are left alone and hungry in their owner’s house. Can they survive? That’s what the book is about. It’s silly, funny and has no humans. What could be nicer?

I got it for Rs 100, which is like less 1.5 U.S dollars. So it was worth it. On that note – my e-book “Death & Darker Realms” is available on Amazon Kindle for less than a dollar, so check it out. Cheers.

Millenium Actress – Review

It’s hard to understand why I didn’t come across the 2001 film ‘Millenium Actress’ before. Directed by Satoshi Kon and produced by some guys called ‘Madhouse’, this 19 year old film is a gem that’s not meant for everybody.

The story is about a documentary filmmakers interviewing a legendary veteran actress who abruptly retired while she was still at the peak of her career. Chiyoki Fujiwara, is our main protagonist, an elegant old lady, who was once a ‘Madonna’ on the big screen, beautiful and enchanting.

The central theme of the movie is Fujiwara’s obsessive, almost unrequited love for a much older stranger, an anti-govt rebel she had given shelter when she was merely a school girl during an ongoing war. The mysterious rebel is a painter and immediately becomes an object of affection for the little girl. But they are parted in less than 24 hours. All he leaves behind is a key, a souvenir Chiyoki keeps close to her heart, almost all her life.

She becomes an actress in the hope that it will help her track down the man she had fallen in love with. We see her life in flashbacks, the lines blurring between her films and reality as she constantly chases a man while climbing the ladder of success. She seamlessly shifts roles between a princes, a warrior, a geisha, a nurse an astronaut. And even as her onscreen persona keeps shape-shifting, her love for a man she barely knew remains, keeping her on his tracks.

The makers of Millenium Actress combine the magic of Studio Ghibli with the nostalgia of Japanese talkies, to give us a moving, iconic tale of a film star. It makes several references to actual Japanese films, like the Godzilla (the only one I could identify honestly).

Some viewers may find the pace slow, but for me, it was just perfect and the documentary filmmaker in the story symbolizes all movie fanatics who place stars on a pedestal. He is a big fan of Chiyoki and has no shame in admitting he has seen her films 50 times over and cried 50 times over too.

Millenium Actress is like a slice of cinema history, shown through the eyes of an innocent fictional heroine, who you cannot but help fall in love with. Some googling reveals that it’s also one of the last major animation films that was made using hand-inked celluloid and it shows. Most of the scenes are like paintings, there were so many moments where I just wanted to pause and sketch. Almost each little moment seems to have been made with a lot of affection and that makes this movie even more special.

Also I did end up making a fan sketch from a scene. Will colour it later.

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Trump Years -Yikes!

As an Indian, who does not know too much about how the Russians influenced the U.S elections to ensure Trump would emerge victorious, the book ‘Trump Years – From Russia To Ukraine’ is a fascinating read.

While, as a graphic novel, the illustrations are not that great, they do an average job of keeping your interest alive. What really makes this book interesting is that they have used official documents and leaked mails to give us a glimpse of just how elaborately the Russians worked to sway the 2016 campaign.

The book also has crucial key players, each one a cog in the wheel of a massive system that worked relentlessly to discredit Hillary Clinton and portray Trump as something he wasn’t. Just the sheer scale of the whole thing is quite staggering.

Penned by Romeo Brooks, the book also helps one understand the whole ‘fake news’ phenomenon and how it’s so easy to manipulate voters in favour of a particular candidate. This book will really change the way you look at elections.

The e-book is available for free on Amazon for Kindle Unlimited subscribers if you are interested. Know what’s also free? My debut e-book called Death & Darker Realms

Restless Wind – A Review

I picked ‘A Restless Wind’ by Shahrukh Husain at the Delhi International Book Fair in 2018. My flatmate was the first person to read it and had a one like review – ‘it’s okay’. It’s probably her enthusiasm that pushed me into not reading it sooner.

So what is the book about? It’s about a British Barrister, born in Pakistan, raised in India, who returns to Gujarat after 20 years because her aunt is dying. She comes from a family that has historic connections with the royals, now dabbling in politics. The reader is made to understand that the story is taking place some time after the Gujarat riots, perhaps 2003/2004.

Zara, the heroine of our story, is married to a white dude, who is a psychotherapist and always over-analyses her moods and sentences. She is more than happy to take a break from her husband, fly thousands of miles away, go back in the lanes of her past and possibly she if she can rekindle an unfinished romance with a royal.

Shahrukh Husain has written the book very well, her sentences are fluid, she describes everything vividly, use all the apt phrases to transport you to the scenes. The problem with the novel is that it’s predictable and boring. Even her biggest twist, that eventually turns out to be a red-herring in the end, was something that the reader can sense. Or at least I did.

I found myself skipping some pages and paragraphs. There was hardly any bit that makes you laugh. None of her characters have a strong arc. Nobody in the book is very likable. However, Husain does a good job of conveying how hatred, blind beliefs and bigotry can lead to communal tensions and divide in the most secular of regions. All you need is a small spark, to start a fire.

Perhaps, the biggest problem with the book is that a lot of it is not relatable and the narration is slow. It took me days to finish reading it. Not your ‘un-putdownable’ kind of book. But probably worth a read.

 

Gully Boy – oh Boy!

It’s Feb 2020 and I finally watched Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy a year too late – it released Feb 2019. It’s been creating a lot of buzz in India’s film award circles and one can’t help but be curious. It was also India’s offical pick for the Oscars. So it’s safe to admit that before I streamed it on Amazon Prime, I already had heard a little too much about it. So I went in with the mindset ‘oh, let’s see what the fuss is all about’. Which is not a positive mindset.

Gully Boy stars Ranveer Singh, who plays Muraad AKA ‘Gully Boy’, a boy from the rotting streets of Mumbai’s slum Dharavi, who has an uncanny love for rap. He also has a psycho/aspiring doctor girlfriend, played by Alia Bhatt, who is ready to beat the shit out of any woman who as much as sends a flirty text to her man.

The film starts off at a posh locality in Mumbai, where Muraad’s friend is casually walking at first and then steals a car. Interesting. Muraad is from a poor family, his father is a driver, who barely earns enough to put his kid through college, but enough to get a second wife home, in a match-box tin hole house. Rap helps Muraad escape his grim reality and his life takes a turn when he discovers a local rapper called ‘MC Sher’. A dude who gains an instant fan in Muraad while performing at a college fest.

Rest of the plot is about Muraad’s transformation and journey into becoming ‘Gully Boy’, the rapper. The script is pretty good, but falters in the middle, where it becomes slow and sluggish. I don’t understand why Bollywood directors have a ‘romance quota’ that they must squeeze into a film, even if it’s not needed. Kalki Koechlin looked out of place as a music student who produces a rap video for Muraad. Their brief encounter, which does not even qualify as a fling, just slows down the film. Thankfully it picks pace again. Just like Kalki plays a momentory distraction in Muraad’s life, her scenes are also also just a distraction that the makers could have done without.

All the rap songs and rap battles in the film blend perfectly into the storyline and are a delight to both watch and hear. The lyricists have written anthem worthy songs that describe class struggles and aspirations of the less fortunate. I liked the song ‘Doori’ best, which is about how despite being in close proximity, people are so divided and disconnected with each other due to class barriers. The cinematography is real yet artsy and manages to capture Mumbai and its slums in a manner that does not hit you too hard. We are shown the dust, the dirt, the filth, but in long fleeting shots. Don’t know if it was a conscience attempt?

Zoya tugs the heartstrings of the viewer with a quintessential rag to riches story. The make-up and wardrobe guys did a neat job with making Ranveer Singh look like a boy from the streets. Singh himself manages to shed his real life persona of a loud, boisterous, over-confident fashion icon and gets into the skin on Muraad, who is just another boy from the streets, with identity issues and a rare passion for words and rap songs.

Siddhant Chaturvedi who made his debut with this film, is a revelation as ‘MC Sher’, he even manages to upstage Ranveer Singh when he comes on screen. The dude gets the whole ‘rapper’ attitude so right, that it made me wonder if he was a real life rapper.

Zoya Akhtar made a good entertaining film, with a near perfect climax, a photo-finish for Muraad, the Gully Boy. But was India right in sending it as the Oscar pick? Nah.

 

Parasite – Worth all the hype?

Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho has probably gotten millions of reviews already, but that won’t stop me from sharing my two cents, even if nobody else ever reads it. Especially since I doubt anybody is going to agree with my opinion.

First off – I love Korean films. Those guys know how to tug your emotional strings all right. However, Parasite is not an emotional roller-coaster, but one of those rides, I don’t know if you’ve ever been on one, but the kind that first goes 180 degree up, then 180 degree down and then takes a 360 turn. So it has a lot of highs, some lows and then things just get out of hand.

The plot it simple – a poor broke family of four cons its way into a rich household of four through pretty dubious means, but are not ready for the unseen consequences. Bong Joon-Ho doesn’t even do any foreshadowing to prepare us for some of the plot twists, so you might gasp in surprise at some points. But there are also some scenes which are so irritatingly slow that you wish Joon had chopped some seconds.

All the actors deliver flawless performances, each fitting into the narrative perfectly. However, for me, it was Cho Yeo-jeong, the actress who plays the rich mistress of the house, who steals the show. She is so delicately gullible in the film that one cannot help but like her.

Kang-Ho Sang, who plays the patriarch of the poor family, gives a nuanced performance, making palpable his greed, envy and loathing for his rich overlords. I won’t get into the whole social/economic divide displayed in the film; too much has been written about it already. But you have to give it to the writers for the brilliant juxtaposition they use to subtly point out the differences between the rich and the poor. It’s all too witty and captivating.

The climax of the film was pretty damn good but things escalate too quickly. The pace of this film is all over the place. The ending was tragically comic but somehow not very satisfactory.

Although I do think this film was definitely Oscar worthy, but did it deserve the Oscar? I don’t know. Jo Jo Rabbit was a more fun and fulfilling movie experience for me. And I still have to watch 4 of the other Oscar nominees for the best films, which I do intend to do over the next few days.

SMZS – A Fun RomCom

So India’s first mainstream Bollywood Gay Romantic Comedy hit the big screens this Friday and what a joie de vivre it was.

The makers of Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savdhan deserve a standing ovation for picking up a taboo topic like Homosexuality and giving the Indian audience a wholesome entertainer. It’s a movie I could have happily watched with Mom and Dad but unfortunately we don’t stay in the same city.

Back to the film. This Bollywood offering is fun, farcical in parts but absolutely entertaining. The plot goes horse speed – galloping, with no boring bits.

And all the actors were so fantastic – Ayushman as the out & open boyfriend and Jitendra Kumar as the closeted & nerdy Allahabad gay boy. Gajraj Rao steals the show as the “scientist” dad who wants to “cure” his son’s gay away but in the end tries to remedy his own homophobia. Neena Gupta is brilliant as the paradoxical mom – both practical and emotional, the mom who is ready to adapt to the situations at hand. Manu Rishi as the underrated “chacha” who is bullied by his older brother. Oh well, basically, everybody was damn good.

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What’s really laudable is that the writers didn’t fall into the trap of trying to justify their theme too much and so they steer clear from the danger of becoming too preachy. It’s not just a gay romantic comedy, but also serves as a satire on how Indian parents force their kids into unhappy marriages, gay or straight.

I won’t go on and on. The reactions of the audience in the theatre spoke for the film. People were loudly laughing at regular intervals at the witty writing and jokes. There were two or three moments were most of the audience was even clapping! It felt so good to be watching a LGBT film where the audience was applauding what it saw. Well, that’s Bengaluru folks for you.

5/5 to the makers, 4 for the film and 1 for their heart It really needs a lot of heart to make a film like this.

A Horse Walks Into A Bar

So, I just finished reading the 2017 Man Booker International Prize winner ‘A Horse Walks Into A Bar’ by David Grossman. I can’t remember why I picked this book, but I’ve never read anything like it. At least no novel comes to my mind for now.

‘A Horse Walks Into A Bar’ is a tragicomedy that unfolds in just one evening. But it’s not the kind of book that one can finish in the same day. Grossman’s book needs to be patiently read over a few days or it would take a mental toll on the reader. It’s borderline depressing, not necessarily in a bad way.

It’s about an old stand-up comedian called Dovaleh doing his last gig in a small Israeli town. Through his last act, Dovaleh’s antics reveal to us just how hard the business of stand-up comedy is. His audience is torn between the urge to walk out or sit through it all and see if something spectacular will come out of it. But instead of getting a light night filled with fun and banter, they find themselves unwillingly pulled into his tragic past.

Grossman’s writing style is impeccably smooth. Although I had a difficult time understanding some pop-culture references that perhaps only an Israeli would get. However, despite being a tale set in a far off land, Dovaleh’s story is universal to any man or woman who is still fighting the ghosts of their past. Like Dovaleh’s audience, even the reader may find their attention flickering. There will be times when you just want to abandon the book, but if you manage to be stoic about it, you will find a satisfactory ending, even if it is not the kind of climax you were hoping for.

The most stunning feat that Grossman manages to achieve through this novel is write an ending that is applause worthy.

 

P.S – I am a GoodReads author and go by Sneha Jaiswal. 

American Vampire – A+

American Vampire is not just by Scott Snyder, but is also co-written by Horror king Stephen King, so that’s enough to draw a comic book enthusiast who loves the horror genre.

There is a panel in American Vampire that shows a pamphlet about a book that is said to “combine the western thrill of Zane Grey and the Horror Thrills of Bram Stoker!”, it’s pretty much the summation of American Vampire Volume 1.

This book pushes the envelope for the Vampire genre and thankfully reclaims the theme that has been ‘misused’ in soft romantic books written for teen girls in love. American Vampire brings out the fangs and blood and doesn’t romanticize its heroes. It is gritty, gory and gripping.

The characters in the book are fantastically drawn and when some of our vampire friends get ready to bite, they do not look the least bit friendly. They look like they should – unpleasant aberrations. Scott Snyder and King even throw some Hollywood in the mix to make the story more interesting, adding a dash of drama, damsels and broken dreams.

American Vampire is the perfect series to those looking to binge-read some good old Bram Stoker style story – only faster, flashier and fiendishly faultless.

1917 – Breathtakingly bland?

So I finally saw the much talked about Sam Mendes film and am slightly conflicted about what my opinion of 1917 is. As soon as the film was over, there was a sense of “I am so glad I saw this in the theatre” in my head. But despite being a war movie, 1917 didn’t make me cry, not even tear up.

I tore up while watching Jo Jo Rabbit and I think it was perhaps the better movie, even if just by a point. Not only did it draw laughs from the audience, but also brought out the waterworks. 1917 doesn’t bring out either. No catharsis.

But what 1917 did manage to do was, at least for me, was keep me at the edge of my seat. For most of the film, I was in awe of the camera work, even though it’s pretty easy to see all the cuts. I mention this because the movie has a got a lot of praise for looking like it was shot in one take.

“See, they paused it here and continued shooting from here,” my husband kept telling me in the theatre each time he saw an obvious cut. As the film progressed, I started doing it too (pointing out cuts).

The plot is pretty simple, two men sent on a suicide mission to cross over patches that may be occupied by the enemies and warn British troops against making an attack.

Mendes and his team capture all the brutal morbidities of war in a raw and visually stunning manner. But there is not one dialogue that is recall worthy. Also, none of the characters have a solid arc.

The film was a cinematic marvel due to the good camera-work and set designs. However, plot and script-wise, the makers did a pretty lousy job. For me that doesn’t change the fact that I was mighty satisfied with the film and would give it an eight on ten.

But husband disagrees. “I have seen better Tamil films. The second half was so bad” he declared at the end of it. Other south-Indian film fans might agree. Oh wait. That was Parasite! 

Final verdict – I think it’s definitely worth watching, but only if you can catch it on the big screen. You will either love it or be disappointed.