Naveen Durgaraju's Blog, page 9
September 24, 2017
September 19, 2017
September 18, 2017
September 17, 2017
September 16, 2017
August 20, 2017
Character art for upcoming trilogy.
Another character from my upcoming book — Sinners: Dawn of Kalki. It is a post apocalyptic book set in India fusing apocalyptic survival with Indian mythology.
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July 23, 2017
5 reasons why you should watch/read Preacher.
If you have never heard of Preacher before, I don’t blame you. I blame the world for not popularizing this stuff enough. Preacher is what you get when a great story makes out with great ideas.
Preacher is a comic book series by Vertigo which is now a show on AMC and Amazon Prime. There might be many reasons why preacher is not popular enough. Maybe it’s tool bold. Maybe it’s too controversial. Maybe it doesn’t cater to what the majority of audience are looking for. But there are plenty of reasons why it should be popular and why you should watch/read it. Here are my 5 reasons.
It has great story/artPreacher has a story that is at once both intelligent and fun. It is engaging and gripping without taking itself too seriously. It is suited to the medium in which you are consuming it and the show runners fortunately made sure that they capture the essence of the story while making it their own.It has a brilliant setting
A Preacher and his badass ex-girlfriend fight/trick/befriend a horde of demons, angels and everything in between in their search for God with the the help of an Irish vampire. If that is not a brilliant premise, I don’t know what is. It is a western, horror, action, comedy, mystery and a lesson in myths all rolled into one.It has terrific characters
Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy are such fun characters who are also very very complex and interesting. But its not just the main lead that’s fun. Preacher has a host of colorful, bizarre, shocking and immensely interesting supporting characters and villains. And the show takes its liberties with the characters but somehow makes it work. Cassidy is a riot in both the comics and the show but the show Cassidy is so well cast and so well acted, it’s just perfect.The creative team is awesome
The comic is written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillon and covers by Glenn Fabry.
The show has Seth Rogen and Dominic Cooper
Need I say more?It is crazy fun
This is the most important reason of them all. Preacher is just loads of fun. It is astonishingly blasphemous, insightful, profane, gory, funny, dark, brooding, depressing, uplifting, clever and silly — all at the same time. It is hard to find a cocktail of such explosive fun and good story telling in a single creative product.
To conclude, if you are not reading/watching Preacher — why?
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If you are a fan of Preacher or if you check it out after this, feel free to reach out on my author page or my Instagram . We’ll be best buddies.
July 11, 2017
Democrats and Dissenters: Review
For someone like me who hasn't read Ramachandra Guha before or anything specifically on Indian politics, this book is a revelation.
No matter what your political beliefs are and how you view our country and its current state, this book will make you take a hard look at what you believe and how your perceive India and its neighbors. I found Guha's writing to be more or less balanced, irrespective of his own political leanings of an independent liberal. Though the book can sometimes ignore the view point and psychology of the majority of masses that prefer the hard right, it manages to steer clear of propaganda and ideological myopia.
This is a book that ironically is a must read for people who most likely don't read much. It is a collection of Guha's essays and is divided into two parts. The first section called 'Politics and society' deals with India and its neighbors whereas the second section called 'Ideologies and intellectuals' takes some of India's and world's finest intellectuals and explores their work, life and ideologies.
The first section is an absolute delight as it chronicles India's journey through the global political and intellectual landscape. It raises important questions and offers useful insights on how and why we are the way we are. The second section has introduced me to brilliant individuals whom I have never heard about before and also different schools of thought that they subscribe to . All of this is interspersed with historical tidbits that paint a fuller and far more nuanced picture of India. I can certainly say, I came away from this book a lot less ignorant than the self that went in.
Recommended for any one interested in India and (as the two sections are aptly titled) politics, society, ideologies and intellectuals.
