Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 300
January 20, 2020
A BL RomCom
I’ll be honest, I was very sceptical about watching the trailer. Most Indian films tend to just make stereotypical jokes about the LGBT community and reduce them to mere caricatures for comic relief.
But the trailer of Shubh Mangal Zyada Sawdhan, is a breath of fresh air and largely steers free from making any stereotypical jokes.
It starts off with lead actor Ayushman Khurrana sitting in an auto with an uncle who asks him “kab decide kiya ki yeh banogey?” (when did you decide to be become this?)
Ayushman asks “what?”
The uncle stammers and says “yeh… yeh.. yeh” (this…. this… ) pointing out to his slightly loud clothes, asking him to take the hint.
“Yeh nahi kehtey hai, gay kehtey hai” (It’s not ‘this’, it’s called gay).
And then Ayushman asks uncle a good question – “when did you decide that you weren’t gay?”.
It’s a counter question every intelligent gay person throws at a hetero who thinks that they just wake up one day and decide “hey, I am going to be gay from today!”.
Anyway, back to the trailer.
Having no comeback, uncle hits where it hurts, asks “do your mom & dad know?”. Burn.
Cue music and the rest of the interesting cast in introduced.
Jitendra Kumar plays what seems like a nerdy simple boyfriend to Ayushman Khurrana’s sassy, fashion savvy stud boy.
Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao nail their roles again, this time as Indian parents who just want their son to be married, to a girl.
Got to admit that you get more of a friends’ vibe from the two, but they pass off as an interesting enough couple. I guess it’s a good thing that the lead actors weren’t made to put on some pretentious fake & exaggerated body language to scream “we are gay”.
The trailer was pretty breezy and promises to be a good entertainment film like Badhaai Ho had turned out to be. I like how the writers slipped in a Roadies joke when Ayushman warns his boyfriend against marrying a girl just to make his parents happy. (Roadies is an Indian reality show where the contestants are made to do tough tasks and Ayushman was the winner of some season of the show).
He says “What do you think? Your story is going to freeze at a happy ending when you get married? Roadies is going to begin in your life from your wedding night. Will you be able to do the task?” *cough cough*
Also, it’s pretty cool to see him play a guy who does not shy away from putting up a fight with his boyfriend’s parents and even calls them out for their homophobia.
Neena Gupta plays the cooler role, the Indian mom, who at first tries to convince her son not to go the gay way. But then, in the end, decides that her son must live his life the way he wants to. Will the father finally accept his son? That perhaps is the only mystery that the trailer spares. Or not.
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Because there is a “Dilwaale Dulha le jayenge” kind of an ending to the trailer. (The big-hearted will take away the groom) Basically, we are made to understand that the two boys get their happy ending.
So yeah, maybe the trailer gives a little too much away. But I am looking forward to watching this one.
January 18, 2020
Good Talk – A Review
Finished reading ‘Good Talk’ a graphic novel by Mira Jacob, who lays bare what it’s like to be a brown American in an ever changing country.
The author gives us a front row seat to her life story and her struggle to explain racial prejudices & paradoxes to her 6 year old inquisitive son. The book chronicles conversations & personal anecdotes, some humorous, some harrowing, but all reflecting the challenges of being a person of colour.
Born in the U.S to Indian parents, Jacob reveals in flashbacks how her colour posed different challenges through various stages of her life. Her interaction with her son Z is the most heart-warming part of the book. Through innocent queries, little Z sheds light on just how problematic racial differences can still be in his country.
The book also very subtly and succinctly explains what’s wrong with Trump’s presidency and his supporters.
What a good read! An essential book for anybody living under the impression that America is an inclusive utopian destination
January 14, 2020
Aya – A Review
I picked “Aya”, a graphic novel, at a pretty good discount two years ago at the Delhi book fair in Pragati Maidan. Set in the 1970s, it’s a fun book on the lives of young African women. The content slightly betrays the title because it’s not centred around Aya, a 19 year old who aspires to be a doctor. There is no clear hero and that works for the story.
The author Marguerite Abouet who grew up in Ivory Coast, in Western Africa, seeks to give us a glimpse into the ordinary lives of teens in her part of the world. She achieves this through a breezy, humorous narrative.
What I liked about the book was that it was relatable in many parts, despite the story unfolding in another far corner of the world. It could have well been set in India. You have overprotective fathers, vexed mothers, distracted teens who would rather party than study for their next exam.
Almost all characters are vibrant and have a distinct personality of their own, even if they appear only in a few panels. Friendship is a stronger theme in this book than love and that’s something I really like.
The illustrations are so good that it feels like you are watching a film. And it gets a decent amount of laughs out of the reader. Don’t know why it took me two years to start reading it.
January 11, 2020
Speak – A review
So I’ve read my first Graphic Novel of the year. ‘Speak’ by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a teen who loses her voice and becomes a recluse after being sexually abused at a party.
The panels illustrated by Emily Carroll speak all the emotions the protagonist struggles to express in words. While a lot of the book treads on familiar territory – how high school sucks, parents not getting along fine, popular kids being jerks – it still manages to keep you hooked on to every page. Some of the pages are poetic and beautiful. Anderson put a lot of heart in this one.
It’s hard to imagine that the book faced censorship challenges. But on second thoughts, it’s understandable, most people get uncomfortable about themes like teen rape. People want to push these stories in a corner and pretend like it doesn’t happen.
Which is why, “Speak” is an important work, it needs to be heard of – it’s about finding your voice and standing up to sexual predators.
++++++++++++++++++
P.S – I published a poetry collection called “Death & Darker Realms” which is available on Amazon, following are the links to the e-book-
Please check your country’s amazon if I haven’t listed it or just on your Amazon kindle app.
January 10, 2020
Author Page
I am pretty sure there are several self-published writers out there who are doing a shit job when it comes to promoting their books. But I feel like I am doing the shittiest job.
How do you promote a book about dark stuff anyway?
“Hey there, you having a bad Monday? Here’s something to make you feel worse, a poetry collection called “Death & Darker Realms“.
Good thing for me that the book did decent the first week and made it to Amazon top 100, top 10 for a bit in fact, so that was something I could use and say “hey, the book is Amazon top 100, you should check it out”.
Later, I figured I should promote it via Instagram, but Insta in turn told me I needed to have a Facebook page. Grrrrrrr. I barely use Facebook.
So I read up on why should I set up an author page and turned out it’s absolutely essential. It sounded so cringeworthy to me – to set up your own page to promote your book. Narcissistic. Sigh.
Did I set up an author page on Facebook then?
Obviously.
It’s called Writer Sneha Jaiswal.
Follow me will you? On Facebook.
January 5, 2020
MakaliDurga Trek
MakaliDurga is a hill fort that is about 60 kilometres from the city of Bangalore in India. Just the paltry distance from where we stay was reason enough to get us interested in the trek for the weekend.
So this Sunday, we started off on bikes from 4.30 am in the city and reached MakaliDurga’s parking lot by 6 am. What caught us off-guard was that we were asked to pay Rs 250 (3.5 USD) per person on an online site called Eco Trails before embarking on the trek. We wasted about 15 minutes trying to connect to the site because the network wasn’t that great. None of the sites or blogs that we had looked up mentioned anything about it. So basically it’s better that you make your payment before you come to the place. Since we weren’t able to get any network, we paid them by cash after finishing the trek.
Another important thing about the MakaliDurga trail is that it used to be a famous night trek but now night treks are banned. Also, they only allow a limited number of people to do the trek in one day, so it’s better to do your booking on the site beforehand.
As far as the trek is concerned, the initial 10 percent is very easy, more like a walk, after that, as you go uphill it gets a little tricky but despite that, it’s a very easy trail. It took us just about an hour to reach the peak and the ruins of the fort. The view is pretty good. Luckily, since it’s just January, the weather was amazing, so that made the uphill climb a breeze. However, while we were descending, people who had barely began going uphill seemed very exhausted, probably because it was getting sunnier by the minute. So starting the trek by 6 am should be perfect. We had started by 6.25 am, since we wasted some time trying to buy the tickets online. Also, they don’t allow you to start after 9.30 am.
I will be honest, the fort ruins are nothing worth looking at. MakaliDurga trail was fun for us because it was a perfect one day weekend activity close to the city for us. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who is coming from another state or country and is hard-pressed for time.
January 2, 2020
Ghost Stories – A review
I love the horror genre and have always thought that they can be largely classified into 3 categories – good, bad, okay. And I like seeing all three kinds. But Ghost Stories needs a new category – painstakingly irritating.
The Netflix description of the film says “The directors of emmy-nominated ‘Lust Stories’ reunite for this quartet of Thrillers”. The Emmy bit was news to me. But after watching the entire film, I thought the quartet could probably get nominated for Razzie awards next.
The first short directed by Zoya Akhtar is visually very good the first few seconds. Even otherwise, the cinematography is well done. But story-wise, there’s not a lot happening. You have a nurse stuck in a huge house with a bedridden old patient. With an unnecessary asshole of a boyfriend on the sides. While Zoya manages to create a sense of dread initially, after the point as a viewer, you just get dragged down by the pace. Nothing happens. It’s only at the end that the maker manages to give you an interesting end. But all the waiting to get to the climax was quiet boring.
As far as acting is concerned, Jhanvi Kapoor was okay. Surekha Sikri as the old crazy lady was ace as always. It’s the drearily slow storytelling that lets them down.
The second short was by Anurag Kashyap and was the worst of the lot. One would think that Karan Johar would suck the most at the horror genre, but no my friends, Kashyap outdid Johar at sucking.
The second story is slower than a tortoise. One would probably bear to see a tortoise moving slowly if it’s cute enough, but not this film. Kashyap’s film has one little kid, who is creepy looking, and not even the scary kind, but the kind that you want to slap the shit out of.
This short film would have worked in the dark ages, but for 2020, it’s arrived decades late. I wad glad it was on Netflix because we could fast-forward most of it and yet miss nothing. It’s about a pregnant woman who is probably schizophrenic and her nephew who is jealous of the potential newcomer. Again, nothing really happens in the first half of this film. Also, the woman lives in a house that has a loft with a dropdown ladder. Copy from Hollywood horror movies much?
Anyway, the pace irritates the fuck out of you. When things do start happening, you are just horrified at the crap that’s unfolding. It’s just some gory stuff that grosses you out and then there are other scenes that make you smirk and think “really, is this what passes as horror these days?”.
Okay, let’s just move on to the third one. Dibakar Banerjee’s short was finally a breath of relief because you didn’t feel the urge to fast forward every 10 seconds. “Something is finally happening in this movie!”, I screamed facing husband, who had walked off to sleep in the middle of the second short film.
I think Dibakar’s film had the most potential. He did a pretty decent job, but only if he was aiming for his short to be a horror comedy. And I am not being sarcastic. The Banerjee short had me giggling a lot with amusement. It could have been a great horror comedy, a genre I really like.
But the pace was a problem again. Although it was a lot faster than the first two. Set in a fictional village, this one has a zombie theme with two kids and a guy who did a fantastic job with the acting. Banerjee creates enough dread and the justifies it with some action. Finally, you get to see some ghosts in Ghost Stories. Also, there are no useless jump scares and idiotic foreboding music.
The big problem with this one was that the writers just got ahead of themselves with an ending that was just out of place. They had a good ending in hand, but they stretched their imagination and fucked it up. I empathize as a writer because horror endings are always a big challenge.
And now, let us talk about the final short – the Karan Johar one, because by this time, my hopes were buried below the ground. Johar’s story was about a family that refused to bury the matriarch of their family, despite here death 20 years ago. Figuratively.
Set in the current times, it starts off with two really rich kids (how can Johar leads not be rich?) meeting for an arranged marriage.
In the very first meet, the parents of the boy say ‘we have to take granny’s permission’ about the match. The girl asks ‘where is granny?’.
“Bitch be dead 20 years back” says someone. (Okay, they didn’t say bitch, but why should only Johar have the rights to exaggerate things?).
Girl blinks in confusion, wondering how can dead granny give them permission? At which the boy says “I will talk to granny, I will talk to granny”. Not once, but twice. That’s supposed to be cue for the girl to run away from this crazy family and find one that doesn’t talk to a dead granny.
But nope, 4 months later, she is marrying the dude, even though she knows the whole granny situation is weird. In fact, while they are getting married in a lavish ceremony, there is the big portrait of granny sitting on a chair right beside them. And on their wedding night, while things get steamy, their door opens and the boy has a ‘goodnight’ talk with his granny. While is bride is still pretty much under him, lost and confused. What the fish? By this time I already want to kill myself. But the fighter that I am, I watch till the end. And the idiot that the girl is, she stays on in the marriage and decides to investigate the whole granny business.
Again, if Johar had tried to push this into the horror comedy genre with some intelligent writing, it could have been a fun watch. Instead he tries hard to make it spooky and at the same time you have sex jokes slipped in. The stale script suffers from an existential crisis. By this time, the viewer also begins to suffer from an existential crisis and starts to question his/her life choices. The End.
Wasted
Hush, comes the new year
Feet ring a new fear
Take all you want now
Don’t ask me just how
I see a new date
Same, from an old page
Dent in my house gate
Oh why it’s got age
All of you are late
None can be now sate
Close all the windows
Shut out all rainbows
Here comes a party
That won’t be hearty
Weep must you dears
Drown in your tears
Let the world sneer
Waste away the year
+++++++
With all the new year posts still flooding all my feeds, I felt inspired to write a quick light & slightly dark poem on the theme.
Also, I can’t help but urge you to check out my book “Death & Darker Realms” which is available on Amazon. It’s free for kindle unlimited subscribers and less than a dollar for non-subscribers.
Following are some links to it –
