Indian Readers discussion
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Mod
TTPBM: genre you prefer in books?
Keeps changing with time and mood.I like to experiment.TTPBM:same
I alternate between Spiritual, fiction (romance/drama/classics etc), Human behaviour books depending on my phase...TTPBM: Favourite season?
Winters! (irrespective of the clothing inconvenience)TTPBM:same
Monsoon is my favourite time of the year... As it rains, the physical comforts of sitting inside my room and watching thru the window...ah, I fail to find an alternate that can tickle my senses!!!TTPBM: Same
Mod
TTPBM: favorite time of the day?
Early mornings (and also late nights)TTPBM: Will you be watchin Vidya Balan aka SILK's new movie Dirty Picture?
nope TTPBM : best movie adaptation of book.
Namesake and Gone with the windTTPBM:same
As a writer-filmmaker, I’ll be damned if I can’t name my ten favorites here:) -1. The French Lieutenant's Woman (Pinter)- It perhaps required the genius of Harold Pinter to do what he did to solve the problem of the two famous endings in Fowler’s book.
2. Ordinary People (Sargent)- When people complain why ‘Raging Bull’ didn’t win the Best Picture Oscar for 1980, then they probably haven’t seen ‘Ordinary People’. One of the most deserving best films this side of ‘Annie Hall’, ‘Ordinary People’ is an extraordinary screenplay from a quaintly brutal original work.
3. Adaptation (Kaufman)- Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of the work (Susan Orlean’s ‘The Orchid Thief’) is basically a work on the adaptation of a work itself. While the core idea or the ‘hook’ dates as far back as to Fellini and Kafka, the screenplay is among the most whimsical, cynical, postmodern, funny and devastatingly tragic, all at once, and then a million things.
4. Trainspotting (Hodge)- Boyle recently said about this film that it could so easily have been seven other films, simply because Welsh’s novel is so rich in imagery with its wild, hallucinogenic-charged, slipstream narration, its multitude of internal stories and characters, that it could denote a million things to a person at the same time. So, for Hodge to be able to condense the sprawling, often sketchy and arbitrary material and still retain the essence of the novel, and then for Boyle to depict that through sublimely skewed visual images on screen was altogether remarkable achievement.
5. The Remains of the Day (Jhabvala)- My favorite Merchant-Ivory film, this is an astonishingly complex, almost introverted Ishiguro work, vividly, lushly brought to screen, helmed by Ruth’s pitch-perfect screenplay.
6. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Lehman)- A textbook on heightened realism, a significant achievement in adaptation of a play into film. Yes, there will always be doubters of the casting, but the screenplay’s success is undeniable, resounding.
7. The Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan)- This adaptation of the Russell Banks novel is a long-time personal favorite
8. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)- Kubrick’s best adaptation and one of his three best films, is also a lesson in how a great adaptation can arise from a work even after disagreeing so strongly with its core.
9. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (Hedges)- The quiet, unassuming, shy novel that came out of seemingly nowhere and almost as bashfully became an engrossing film, a tapestry of interrelations and a mosaic of grief and coming of age.
10. Sonar Kella (Ray)- The revelation of the criminal at the beginning and the usage the audience as an accomplice was a masterful stroke since it immediately reduces it from a whodunit to an adventure story. Also notable because the screenplay was adapted from not a novel but a Satyajit Ray novella of the same name (Sonar Kella a.k.a. The Golden Fortress)- Ray would remain an aficionado of the long short story format and favored them for many of his adaptations in his post Calcutta Trilogy days.
10. Rajnigandha (Chatterjee)- Hard to keep this one out of the list- the Basu Chatterjee film based on Manu Bhandhari’s seminal short story, ‘Yehi Sach Hai’. The story, written at the peak of the ‘nayi kahaani’ movement with its Naveen, Deepa and Sanjay, is so deeply moving in its deceptive simplicity, so staggering. Take its last lines for example: ‘Aur mujhe lagta hai, yeh sparsh, yeh such, yeh shan, yehi sach hai, woh sab jhoot tha, mithya tha, bhram tha. Yehi sach hai.’ Could there be a more haunting epiphany than that?
TTPBM: Favorite sportsperson? (And short answers are still allowed btw)
Rahul DravidTTPBM:test/one day or 20-20 cricket?
One day (although not really a cricket fan)TTPBM:Theist or atheist?
SpiritualTTPBM: Spiritual/ Religious/ Neither
Between spiritual and religiousTTPBM: Same
Mod
TTPBM: do you have a best friend?
Yes, friends to be precise!TTPBM: Same
Friends for me too :)TTPBM: How often do you get to meet up your close friends?
School & college friends once in a year at a get-together, business friends, every Friday for Breakfast and friendly neighbourhood Childhood friends, every other day ;)TTPBM: Can you count on your friends at times of difficulties?
Mod
TTPBM: same
fortunately yes, despite all that I've made them go through :) and i guess I'm blessed to have them, my own guardian angels, even if i won't ever let them know that.TTPBM: Leaving aside literary merit for a moment, who do you think is the most good looking writer around today?
Thanks to 'Satanic Verses', Salman Rushdie is still the most controversial writer around. Just have a look at the hate comments he seems to attract on any youtube video of his.In recent times, I remember Rina Golan's book, 'Dear Mister Bollywood', causing some controversy in the Mumbai film circles as the book itself was a thinly veiled account of the casting couch phenomenon and its proprietors, propagators and participants.
TTPM: same
Hmm yeah, recently I remember Naipaul's comment about women writers led to a huge controversy.To me, the most disappointing critically acclaimed book probably has been Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'. Didn't care for it.
TTPBM: Favorite song from a film starring Dev Anand?
raat akeli hai.. Ttpbm- Last book you read?
The help. TTPBM : A book that wont let you sleep ??
Horn ok please!TTpbm-is goodreads really good ?
Goodreads is good and is validated by your participation here ;)TTPBM: Which book made you think that you could have been a better writer than the author?
Mod
TTPBM: an impressive book you read in recent past?
Wings of Fire by Abdul Kalam! TTPBM:The msot worst book yu read?
yes. I really find it.. they provide me some good perspectives,good tips.. Dey rally prove as a self help :) TTPBM: Do u like chetan bhagat?
Mod
TTPBM: are you a literary snob?
i hate being called like that but slowly am getting used to it..TTPBM: which book do you think has a weak climax or abrupt ending?
Honestly I found 'The Hungry Tide' abruptly ending. The build up was profound and had raised my bar of expectations.TTPBM: Same
Mod
TTPBM: do you like sequels?
YES... I love tham but the gap between them kinda kills me.. but i still loveee them :D Eg. Hp TTPBM: Same
Mod
TTPBM: a fictional person whom you would like to enact?
the lead in every Dan Brown's novels.. TTPBM : Same.
wow...that got me thinking!The only character that inspired me as a child was Darrell Rivers from Malory Towers series written by Enid Blyton.
TTPBM : What book and movie do you never tire reading and watching?
'The Fountain head' by Ayn rand is simply magical ...impossible to put it down...
@hajraththats one of my all-time favorites too.
You did not post a question for TTPBM(to the person below me)
anyways i will repost mine :p
TTPBM : What book and movie do you never tire reading and watching?
Book it's hard for there are many. 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' has to be one; 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Pride and Prejudice' come close.Movie, definitely 'Blood Diamond' and 'Music and Lyrics' (chick flick :P)
TTPBM: Same.
Indian Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Victory City (other topics)Tell Me Your Dreams (other topics)
The Flounder (other topics)
Delhi (other topics)
Sesher Kobita, the Last Poem (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Eoin Colfer (other topics)Satyajit Ray (other topics)
Salman Rushdie (other topics)
Sidney Sheldon (other topics)
Wilbur Smith (other topics)
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TTPBM: Favorite film as a child?