Sundari Venkatraman's Blog, page 59

Film Review: EK VILLAIN

This one is not for the weak-hearted

Cast: Shraddha Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh, Aamna Sharif, Shaad Randhawa 
Director: Mohit Suri

This film has been out for a couple of weeks and I have been considering it with a kind of morbid fascination. I was keen to watch the cast - Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor - while I was aware that the movie might be too violent for my taste. When Vinny and I were going around town on Sunday, we decided to catch the evening show of Ek Villain at Sterling on impulse.

THE STORY

Aisha (Shraddha Kapoor) goes to deliver an idol of Ganesha that her father’s made and returns home. She’s on the phone with Guru (Sidharth Malhotra) when a stranger enters her home and murders her. 

Guru used to be a paid assassin in Caesar’s (Remo Fernandes) employ. He changes after meeting Aisha. CBI Officer Aditya (Shaad Randhawa of Aashiqui 2 fame) is worried that Guru will burn the town and go on a rampage to find the killer. He guides him towards Caesar who has nothing to do with the murder. 

A serial killer is on the loose and he’s killing random women with a screwdriver. Why would he do that? Watch the film to find out. And will Guru find his wife’s murderer? At what cost?

MY PERCEPTION

The film was extremely violent and not my cup of tea. That said, I have to mention that it was very well made. 

Sidharth was nothing short of brilliant in his role as an assassin turned good guy and back to a vengeful streak. He looks great and acts better. Kudos!

I was shocked to see Shraddha Kapoor as Aisha after watching her as the heroine of Aashiqui 2. She was horrible in the first half, overdoing her role and quite irritating with a stupid grin on her face. She tones down in the latter half and is more acceptable. You need to watch yourself on the big screen more often Shraddha Kapoor and check out what works for you and what does not. There’s a whole lot of room to improve.

Riteish Deshmukh was superb playing the title role. His expressions say it all – the hurt, anger, frustration and love for his wife. Keep up the great work!

The film has a good script, well directed and edited while the cast play their roles to perfection. 

VERDICT: It’s a must see if you are up to seeing some violent action.


* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Tornado Giveaway: BOOTIE AND THE BEAST by Falguni Kothari

<---Visit The Indian Tycoon's Marriage Deal by Adite Banerjie
10th July, 2014

Falguni Kothari is the 10th Author in the Tornado Giveaway.She has decided to give 10 copies of her book to 10 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here



WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?
Click HereFairytales don't end with True Love's Kiss, they begin with one...

Diya Mathur (aka Beauty), celebrated supermodel and Party Princess of India, is adored by everyone. She works hard, plays hard, and has the biggest shoe fetish on the planet. But after she purchases one baby bootie, Diya's reputation is in ruins. There's only one place to escape the rumours - Texas, under the protection of her lifelong friend, and secret love, Krish Menon (aka the Beast).

Financial whizz-kid, CFO and entrepreneur, Krish is a brooding workaholic with a charisma that still brings Beauty Mathur to her knees. He has no idea, of course! They've shared a bond since childhood - a special friendship that thrives on sparring, teasing and goading - but with Diya back in his life and under his roof, Krish's latent desire for her explodes. And when he finally admits to the secret that has never allowed him to commit to any woman - especially Diya - everything changes. Krish might finally realise how much he wants his Beauty. But he won't get her until Diya has tamed her Beast.


GET TO KNOW HER 

A Mumbaikar at heart, Falguni Kothari lives in New York with her family and a sweet as chocolate Maltese named Truffles. She loathes cooking and flying and holds a fervent hope that teleportation become a viable travel option within her lifetime. When she is not playing Domestic Goddess, Soccer Mom or Canine Companion, she is found embroiled in some or other scandal—sorry, creating stories—on her ever-faithful laptop. She loves tales of all kinds and is partial to sassy ones with happy-ever-after endings.


To know more about her :  Blog | Facebook | Goodreads| Twitter



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Next Giveaway on 11th of July, 2014: Full Circle by Yamini Vijendran

Click Here to buy your copy of DOUBLE JEOPARDY by Sundari Venkatraman
Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman

Travel: STAY @ HOTEL ANURAAG VILLA, JAIPUR

The Entrance. Pic courtesy: Om Sharma (I had forgotten to click a shot)
Trip Advisor had the largest volume of 4-star ratings for Hotel Anuraag Villa when I checked the website for booking a room. I didn’t think twice before contacting them for an AC Double Room for our stay during our visit to Jaipur. Mr. Om Sharma responded immediately and gave us a good rate. They also offered to pick us up from the airport at a cost.

The hall beside the reception which also doubles as dining roomA tourist taxi - Toyota Innova - was waiting for us at the airport and the driver contacted us even before we collected our luggage. We reached Hotel Anuraag Villa in half an hour as it’s situated about 16 km from Jaipur airport. The hotel itself is in the heart of Jaipur is what the driver told us. We realised that it was true as there were a couple of session’s courts and the Mayor’s office nearby. We could reach anywhere in the city within half an hour to 45 minutes.

Our room - very comfyWe entered a quaint compound in the residential area and were greeted by Om Sharma and Pawan at the reception. We were allotted Room 203 on the first floor. Yeah, the numbering is done American-style with the ground floor treated as the first floor. The hotel has 20 rooms and just about four of them were occupied as it was off season.

The bathroomWe went up to the room to refresh and came down to order lunch. The menu is quite simple - vegetarian dishes with a couple of egg dishes thrown in. It leaned more towards Rajasthani food with some Chinese dishes and sandwiches added.

Painted ceiling in the room - just loved itThe rotis, mixed sabzi and pulao that we ordered were delicious while being non-spicy. They have a Bengali cook who’s been working with them since six years. Venkat made it a point to call him to our table and congratulate him. The reason for making non-spicy food was because they get more foreign guests than Indians.

The gardenThe coffee they served in the room in the mornings and the aloo parathas for breakfast were both yummy. The cost of food was also very reasonable. We usually go hunting for restaurants in a new place. But we had most of our meals in the hotel itself as it was so good.


They don’t have a restaurant per se - just three tables laid out against one wall of a large hall that has comfy sofas. There’s a small but lovely garden that was so green and cool. There’s a lawn with a few trees on it. There was an idol of Lord Buddha in meditation, adding to the serene atmosphere. They serve candle-light dinners in the garden.

The kitchen off the gardenPeacocks and Peahens come and go as they please in the hotel’s garden. I believe there are at least 20 of them and they roam around the area. The hotel keeps a large pottery bowl with grains and another with water for these birds. They turn up around 6 pm in the evening and hang around till they are comfortable. They are a sight to behold - peacocks in the open. Simply gorgeous!

Lord Buddha deep in meditationThe room was quite big and comfortable with an equally big bathroom. The AC was in excellent condition with a huge four-poster bed taking up a major chunk of the room. There was a glass-topped side table with two comfortable chairs; a dressing table and a side table. Of course, there was a TV while the channels matched ours at home as they had a hathway cable connection too.

Peacock walking through the gardenWhat I liked best was their Wi-Fi connection. It was powerful whether we were in our room or the garden and was on 24/7.

At the entranceThere were two young men who served in the rooms - one during the day and the other at night. They were both well-mannered and courteous and always ready to please.

Pawan & Om Sharma at the receptionThe staff were very helpful when we needed transport for the various trips out - be it car or rickshaw. The rates were also quite reasonable.

Isn't that lovely!I must say that we had an extremely enjoyable stay at Hotel Anuraag Villa during our trip to Jaipur. Comfortable room, excellent service, yummy food and 24-hour internet - what more can a guest want?

Tornado Giveaway: THE INDIAN TYCOON'S MARRIAGE DEAL by Adite Banerjie

<---Visit Butterfly Season by Natasha Ahmed 
9th July, 2014

Adite Banerjie is the 9th Author in the Tornado Giveaway.She has decided to give 10 copies of her book to 10 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here



WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?
Click here 
Dancing with the enemy

Krish Dev needs to find a bride—and quick! With a marriage arranged by his father looming, Krish finds the key to his freedom in Maya Shome, but is this dazzling beauty really all she seems...?

Maya has only one thing in mind: revenge. But when the host of the most exclusive high society party asks her to dance what is meant to be an innocent tango leads to an engagement to Krish—her enemy’s son!

Arranging their own marriage could work to their advantage…if they can resist mixing business with pleasure!





GET TO KNOW HER 

Adite Banerjie discovered Mills & Boon romances and their amazing assortment of drool-worthy TDH heroes in her teens. Around the same time she fell in love with song-and-dance Bollywood romances. Growing up in a home with a filmmaker dad who worked in the world’s largest film industry (yes, Bollywood!) and a voracious reader for a mom, it was inevitable that she would come to love both films and books.

During her exciting and fulfilling career as a business journalist, she found the time to indulge her passion for both Bollywood romances and M&Bs. But after years of reporting and writing about the real world, she chose to return to her love for fiction and turned screenwriter. She turned Harlequin author after winning the 2012 Passions Aspiring Authors Contest.

Her debut novel was released in September 2013. Her second Harlequin release "Trouble Has a New Name" comes out in July 2014.

To know more about her :  Blog | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Next Giveaway on 10th of July, 2014: Bootie and the Beast by Falguni Kothari

Click Here  to buy your copy of DOUBLE JEOPARDY by Sundari Venkatraman
Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman

Film Review: BOBBY JASOOS

Vidya Balan was born for acting and her eyes speak a million words


Cast: Vidya Balan, Ali Fazal, Kiran Kumar, Arjan Bajwa, Supriya Pathak, Tanvi Azmi
Director: Samar Shaikh

I had seen a few promos of Bobby Jasoos and was keen to watch the film. Vidya Balan had done a couple of flops recently, but even that didn’t deter me. So Venkat, Vinny and I landed up at Cinemax Sion for the late night show on the first day of the film’s release last Friday. Am I glad we saw the film!

THE STORYVidya Balan as an astrologer

Bilkis aka Bobby (Vidya Balan) is almost thirty and lives with her large family in the Charminar area of Hyderabad. Her father refuses to talk to her as she does not take any family responsibility like a well brought up woman but insists on becoming a detective. Unable to land a job with a private detective agency, Bobby decides to start her own firm. To begin with she gets small cases such as one with TV anchor Tasawur (Ali Fazal). Tasavur is not keen to get married but is unable to tell his father directly. He hires Bobby to break the many alliances that come for him.

When she refuses to help him the next time, he gets his parents to ask for her hand in marriage, hoping that she will refuse it. But things don’t turn out the way he plans. In the meanwhile, Bobby lands up with a big job that brings her huge incomes, all through Anees Khan (Kiran Kumar). But soon, she realises that she might be on the wrong side of law. Watch the film to find out how Bobby handles this situation while trying to get out of the unwanted wedding that’s been fixed for her with Tasawur.

MY PERCEPTION

Vidya Balan was born for acting and her eyes speak a million words. She’s simply amazing as Bobby Jasoos and the different guises she wears suit her perfectly. It’s a pleasure to watch her character’s determination to become a private detective despite her father’s disapproval. It’s definitely not easy growing up in a lower middle class community that is so old fashioned; being a woman and wanting to have a career. But her mother (Surpriya Pathak) is a great support.

Vidya looks especially lovely in the first half of the film as she looks fit. The second half has been shot after she's put on quite a bit of weight. The contrast is rather obvious.

Ali Fazal has a smaller role compared to Vidya Balan. But he has done his part to perfection and can definitely act. The scene where Bobby tries to fix an electronic device on him has been excellently portrayed. With barely half a dozen films to his name ( 3 Idiots is one of them), he appears equal to veteran Vidya Balan. Impressed!

The rest of the cast fitted quite well in their roles and added to the movie’s flavour. All in all, the film is a few minutes over 2 hours and completely entertaining.

VERDICT: Definitely worth a watch



* Silly
** Shaky
*** Smart
**** Snazzy
***** Super

Tornado Giveaway: BUTTERFLY SEASON by Natasha Ahmed

<---Visit The Malhotra Bride by Sundari Venkatraman
8th July, 2014

Natasha Ahmed is the 8th Author in the Tornado Giveaway.She has decided to give 10 copies of her book to 10 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here



WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?

Click Here
On her first holiday in six years, Rumi is expecting to relax and unwind. But when she is set up by her long-time friend, she doesn’t shy away from the possibilities. Ahad, a charming, independent, self-made man, captures her imagination, drawing her away from her disapproving sister, Juveria.
Faced with sizzling chemistry and a meeting of the minds, Ahad and Rumi find themselves deep in a relationship that moves forward with growing intensity. But as her desire for the self-assured Ahad grows, Rumi struggles with a decision that will impact the rest of her life.
Confronted by her scandalized sister, a forbidding uncle and a society that frowns on pre-marital intimacy, Rumi has to decide whether to shed her middle-class sensibilities, turning her back on her family, or return to her secluded existence as an unmarried woman in Pakistan.
We follow Rumi from rainy London to a sweltering Karachi, as she tries to take control of her own destiny.



GET TO KNOW HER 

Natasha Ahmed is a pen name. In real life, Natasha is a graphic designer, a businesswoman and occasionally writes art and book reviews for publications within Pakistan. 


She works in a small office at home, not far from Sea View, Karachi. From a tiny window, she can see the Arabian Sea sparkling in the distance, and small fishing boats trawl up and down the water throughout the day. When she’s not writing books, she’s dreaming of setting sail towards the horizon and never looking back. Great adventure, she believes, starts with great daring.

Butterfly Season is her first novella, though not, she hopes, her last.With the advent of self-publishing, Sundari is the proud author of three books as on today. 
To know more about her :  Blog | Facebook | Goodreads| Twitter



a Rafflecopter giveaway


Next Giveaway on 9th of July, 2014: The Indian Tycoon's Marriage Deal by Adite Banerjie

Click Here  to buy your copy of DOUBLE JEOPARDY by Sundari Venkatraman
Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman

Tornado Giveaway: THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman

<---Visit When I see your Face by Devika Fernando 
7th July, 2014

Sundari Venkatraman is the 7th Author in the Tornado Giveaway.She has decided to give 10 copies of her book to 10 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here



WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?

Click Here
Sunita Rishi’s just turned twenty, having completed her graduation. She wants to fly free as a bird, explore career options and travel the world. Does she have a choice when Mamma & Pappa insist on arranging her marriage? Born in a rich business family steeped in tradition, Sunita has a tough job on her hands. Can she stop the tide?

Tall, dark and handsome, Akshay Malhotra is the catch of the decade. The only son of Billionaire Raj Malhotra, he’s in a strange fix. His father’s keen that Akshay meets Sunita with marriage in mind. He’s too close to his parents to say ‘no’ for the preliminary meeting. And then he comes face-to-face with Sunita….

Will Sunita be falling from the frying pan into the fire when she agrees to become The Malhotra Bride?


GET TO KNOW HER 

Even as a kid, she absolutely loved the 'lived happily ever after' syndrome as Sundari grew up reading all the fairy tales she could lay her hands on, Phantom comics, Mandrake comics and the like. It was always about good triumphing over evil and a happy end. Soon, into her teens, she switched her attention from fairy tales to Mills & Boon. While she loved reading both of these, she kept visualising what would have happened if there were similar situations happening in India; to a local hero and heroine. 

Her imagination took flight and she always lived in a rosy cocoon of romance over the years. Then came the writing - a true bolt out of the blue! She could never string two sentences together. While her spoken English had always been excellent - thanks to her Grandpa - she could not write to save her life. She was bad at writing essays in both school and college. Later, when it was time to teach her kids, she could manage everything from Science to Mathematics and History & Geography. 

When it came to writing compositions, her kids found her of no help at all. All this changed suddenly one fine day in the year 2000. She had just quit her job at a school's office and did not know what to do with her life. She was saturated with simply reading books. That's when she got home one evening after her walk and took some sheets of paper and began writing. It was like watching a movie that was running in her head - all those years of visualising Indian heroes and heroines needed an outlet and had to be put into words. That's how her first novel, The Malhotra Bride, took shape. 

With the advent of self-publishing, Sundari is the proud author of three books as on today. 

To know more about her :  Blog | Facebook | Goodreads| Twitter


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Next Giveaway on 8th of July, 2014: Butterfly Season by Natasha Ahmed

Click Here  to buy your copy of DOUBLE JEOPARDY by Sundari Venkatraman
Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman

Tornado Giveaway: WHEN I SEE YOUR FACE by Devika Fernando

<---Visit Scorched by His Fire by Reet Singh
6th July, 2014

Devika Fernando is the 6th Author in the Tornado Giveaway.She has decided to give 10 copies of her book to 10 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here



WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?
Click here

Cathy has had enough. Having run away from her abusive husband, she tries to pick up the broken pieces of her life in a remote village, focusing on her dream to start her own cake business. Finding true love is the last thing on her mind. When she comes face to face with a man who looks exactly like the one she is struggling to forget, life throws the biggest challenge yet at her: Should she give in to his charm and care or is history going to repeat itself?






GET TO KNOW HER 
Almost as soon as Devika Fernando could write, she imagined stories and poems. After finishing her education in Germany and returning to her roots in Sri Lanka, she got a chance to turn her passion into her profession. Having lived in Germany and in Sri Lanka with her husband has made her experience the best (and the worst) of two totally different worlds – something that influences her writing. Besides being a romance novel author, she works as a German web content writer and as a translator. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or thinking about writing.


To know more about her: Blog | Facebook | Goodreads



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next Giveaway on 7th of July, 2014: The Malhotra Bride by Sundari Venkatraman

Click Here  to buy your copy of DOUBLE JEOPARDY by Sundari Venkatraman
Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman

Tornado Giveaway: SCORCHED BY HIS FIRE by Reet Singh

<---Visit Wilde Riders by Savannah Young
5th July, 2014

Reet Singh is the 5th Author in the Tornado Giveaway.She has decided to give 10 copies of her book to 10 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here

WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?
Click here
Convenient boyfriend, inconvenient attraction!
Mita Ramphul can't face another family set-up with a 'nice young man'. What she needs is to divert her family's attention so introducing the devastatingly handsome Tanay Devkumar as her new boyfriend is a stroke of brilliance. Until Tanay's scorching hot kisses threaten to shatter her plans for the perfect pretend date. 
He might drive her crazy, yet spending time with Tanay sparks a passion Mita never knew she had. It's only meant to be temporary, but when Tanay looks at her with that smoldering fire in his ebony eyes Mita can't help but surrender to the temptation of her fake boyfriend.




GET TO KNOW HER 



Reet has a romantic soul, partly genetic, but certainly attributable to the romantic fiction she devours by the kilo. When she's not watching romcoms, or doing creative things with wool and a crochet hook, or playing Scrabble, she can be found in the kitchen putting together her 'world-famous' one-pot meals.

Married for three decades, her prototypical tall, handsome, and sensitive hero-husband still makes her heart skip a beat. Writing about love and happy endings feeds her romantic soul; hearing from her readers thrills her.

Having a mother that read to her, she paid it forward, telling bedtime stories to her sons and nieces until they grew too old too fast. As a reaction to them growing up before she knew what was happening, she began writing for older children, and has published children's books on Amazon, for Kindle.

To know more about her:  Blog | Facebook | Goodreads




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next Giveaway on 6th of July, 2014: When I see your Face by Devika Fernando

Click Here  to buy your copy of DOUBLE JEOPARDY by Sundari Venkatraman
Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman

Tornado Giveaway: WILDE RIDERS by Savannah Young

<---Visit The Perfect Groom by Sumeetha Manikandan
4th July, 2014

Savannah Young is our 4th Author in the Tornado Giveaway. She has decided to give 5 copies of her book to 5 lucky winners. To enter the Giveaway, see the bottom of this post. To see all the books that are part of the Tornado Giveaway - Click Here

WHAT IS THIS STORY ALL ABOUT ?
Click here
FOUR WILDE BROTHERS…ONE WILDE COUNTRY BAND

WILDE RIDERS is the first novel in a spicy new contemporary romance series about four sexy brothers, their small-town bar and their local country band. WILDE RIDERS can be read as a STAND ALONE NOVEL or as part of the SERIES.
Cooper Wilde spent his entire adolescence counting the days until he could escape rural northwest New Jersey. Now at 26, he can’t believe he’s coming back. But his late father’s bar, Haymakers, is in financial trouble and his older brother, Jake, has asked for Cooper’s help.
Riley Smith, 25, is fresh out of her Ivy League MBA program and wants to make an impression on her employer, H & C Bank. Her first solo assignment is a fraud investigation on a business loan they made to Haymakers.
Even though Old Town is less than 90 minutes from New York City, Riley feels like she’s stepped into another world in this remote, one-bar town. Riley can’t wait to do her business and get back to the city as quickly as her sports car will take her…until she meets Cooper Wilde. He’s not like the other guys in this rural town and Riley feels inexplicably attracted to him.



GET TO KNOW HER 


Romance novelist Savannah Young grew up in rural northwest New Jersey in a place very similar to the fictional Old Town, which is featured in her books. When she's not at her computer creating spicy stories, Savannah is traveling to exotic locales or spending time with her husband and their bloodhounds.

To know more about her: Blog | Facebook | Goodreads






a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next Giveaway on 5th of July, 2014: Scorched by His Fire by Reet Singh

Click Here  to buy your copy of THE MALHOTRA BRIDE by Sundari Venkatraman Click Here  to buy your copy of MEGHNA by Sundari Venkatraman