Missing Varrun by Amar Agarwala

Format:  Paperback
Publisher: Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd
No. of Pages: 326

Genre: Fiction

On reading this book, i realized it was all about the beautiful connection between a husband and his wife, a father and his daughter; a father and his son; and a grandfather and his grandson.... it was all about Bridging the distance... Reconnecting with people who mean a lot and about a family that is living in different parts of the world and their stories.... !! 

The book opens with  the protagonist waiting to meet his wife Amaya on her last day at the school. The story then goes towards the home she has created in Ceuta and her circle of friends and family and ofcourse him... 

He hails from Bengal, lives with his mother but through a mysterious act of fate meets this charming Spanish girl, falls in love with her and makes her his wife.. Their love goes beyond religion, nationality, lifestyle and so much more, which is what brings them together and keeps them apart...As their marrried life progresses, they pick up a small flat where they move to, stretching the little money he makes, while she goes on to look for opportunities. And one such lands on her lap, albeit it is in Spain... He agrees, she goes back to her hometown with their 2 children and he visits once a year to spend time with them. Yes, they live apart pretty much through the year...

Living alone, he gives up their apartment, moves back in with his mom and continues to pass each day....    The story weaves beautifully between the dusty lanes of Kolkata and the scenic sites of Spain... The big farewell get together they have at home the day Amaya retires, the way the entire family comes together, their love, connections... As days progress, Amaya tells her husband she wants to return to India with him, and she is sure of her decision... He hesitates, but relents... No sooner does the couple get back together that destiny plays a evil game and Amaya passes away, leaving him alone once again... 

He returns to Kolkata, gets on with his life, all the while missing his wife and his kids and grandson Varrun... The skype calls, the emails and chats continue and so does their life... he reminisces of the children growing up in Kolkata, his son's best friend who is a reason for him to visit once again[for her treatment] and their chauffeur, who has been around forever, who was at Amaya's beck and call..

Amar has woven a beautiful tale via this book, he has managed to capture the emotions and turmoil that people go through when relationships are broken, the difficulties in a long distance relationship and that of a yearning man who wants to reach out to his family but is dealing with life.... Its a good read, and am sure looking forward to Amar's next book...

Mayakkam Enna

So, it was weekend and we were looking at the movies that had been released to see what we could catch... Since my Saturday was packed, we decided to hunt for tickets for Mayakkam enna for sunday.... The only theater that had tickets was AGS, Navalur OMR.. "What the heck, lets go check it out" we said in unison and i went on to book the tickets!!

The ride from Nungambakkam to Navalur took about 40mins, the theater complex is beyond Sathyabama College and Asiana Hotel... It sits majestic but only on entering did we realise it was barren [ empty...] but for the 5th floor with movie screens and the floor below- meant for Food court with 3 outlets..! The theater was huge, but the crowd was a very local crowd.. Infact two guys who came and plonked in seats behind us were DRUNK and belting out all the choicest colourful Tamil swear words!!

We sat back, sipped on our drinks and hoped the movie was worth the drive.....

Starring: Dhanush, Richa, Sundar Ramu and a whole host of others i have never seen before!!
Director: Selvaraghavan

Selvaraghavan and Dhanush have come together to release a movie that is all about a young boy finding his dreams and the hurdles he has to overcome and the people who stand by him through the ardeous journey.... Just that i get the feel Selvaraghavan has this streak in him to mess with people's head along the story....

The Story-Karthik Swaminathan (Dhanush) is a young boy who is passionate about photography, living his life on his own terms.. His friends call him "genius" and pretty much all they did through the movie was sit around drinking and bad mouthing others.... The same happens when Sundar brings his new girlfriend Yamini [Richa] who is met with sneers and flurry of not so pleasing words!

Anyways, back to the plot, Karthik works hard, takes photographs of just about everything that catches his eye, but it fails to give him a break.. He works hard and wants to leave a mark as a photographer.  Though he does portfolio and weddings assignments, his passion is wildlife photography.

Even though their 1st meeting was bitter, for some reason Yamini is drawn to Karthik and tries getting close to him, going on to tell him she loves him and not Sunder..  After quite a bite of drama between the friends, Karthik & Yamini get married. Karthik one day goes to meet a renowned photographer Mathesh Krishnamoorthy [Ravi Prakash], who gives him a project to prove his worth.. Alas, Mathesh kicks Karthik out saying his photographs were crap, but then one day Yamini asks Karthik to pick up the National Geographic magazine in which his very photograph is published but with credit to Mathesh.. This drives Karthik over the edge, he falls down, and becomes mentally unstable- an angry violent drunk young man!!

Yamini sticks with him no matter what, sends out his photographs to every magazine and publication in hope of getting him a break.... Which eventually happens via the Kumudam magazine at an ad agency... 

In between, there is a lot of drama between the couple, the scenes that had me wondering what is up with Selvaraghavan, why does he want to mess with our heads like this? show some gruesome scenes[ a miscarriage, blood stains on the floor] and sights..... But i guess that is the turning point in the movie where even though there is a rift between the young couple, there is a breakthrough in Karthik's life and he goes on to reach great heights....

The movie is painfully slow, very dark [literally- no lighting] in many scenes and sometimes you wonder where the fastforward button is... But one thing for sure, the movie is packed with emotions and drama... 

I loved the locations and cinematography wherever there were scenes with Danush heading off for a photo shoot... The lighting, settings were lovely in those locations!!

But there were some scenes, little things that had me wondering "Why oh why... what do the directors think when they are making the movie...." Do all movie makers assume Audiences are stupid, or that they dont notice these small nuances?

• The maple leaves falling in the forest.... 
• A Cormorant posing for Danush in the middle of a forest 
• The mystery behind what happens to the cars? [in the scene where Danush goes to pick up Yamini who is stranded with a car breakdown in a bus stop and then he runs away the minute they kiss which is interruped by a call from Sundar]

Newcomer Richa has done a good job of being this "stiff upper lip, i have an attitude" kinda girl.... Danush has acted well, essayed the role to perfection i would say.... but this is not a movie for all...


If you enjoy movie about Friends
If you like Danush...
If you have been humming the songs from the movie..
If you enjoy watching people sit around drinking for hours
And if you are prepared for selvaraghavan's style... Go watch Mayakkam Enna!! else, give it a miss!!

Ides of March

Starring- George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei
Directed by - George Clooney

Trivia on ides of March :-

The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martiae) is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon

In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed (23 times) to death in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.

The Movie

The Ides of March takes place during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, when an up-and-coming campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate's shot at the presidency.

The movie is a thriller that is centered around the political campaign of Mike Morris [George Clooney], the Pennsylvania governor who is also  a Democrat eyeing the President post. Before he can go on to acquiring the President's seat, he needs to win the Ohio elections, where it is evident he needs the support of the influential Senator Thompson (Wright).

The campaign is managed by veteran Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and the younger smart Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling). Thompson, the senator seems to be leaning towards Morris' rival Senator Ted Pullman, whose campaign is managed by Tom Duffy (Giamatti).

. Though Paul agrees that Duffy has the “brains”, Paul continues to  maintain that he has the “balls" along with the brains, which is Stephen.  Stephen does what he believes in, unlike Paul who will do anything to WIN... As the campaign progresses, one fine day Duffy invites Stephen for a meeting and offers him a job, which is where the twist in the movie takes place. And before Stephen could share news of this meet with Paul, the story hungry reporter Ida Horowicz (Marisa Tomei) threatens to publish news of the meet about Stephen consorting with Duffy, which he rebukes in return getting blackmailed by Ida to squeal something from the inside...  
 
Stephen gets close to Molly, an intern with their campaign office, eventually discovering a deep dark dirty secret related to Morris... This however does not end well, Molly dies and Stephen then takes this opportunity to corner Morris... 


The Ides of March  is a movie that is slow, but yet paced well.. Every scene has been thought through, every dialogue delivered after much planning.... Each of the cast has done a commendable job, keeping their emotions in check, delivering crisp dialogues and emotions...

George Clooney has held the role of Governor Mike Morris, a politician with a drive to win beautifully.. The interview on TV where he talks about banning death penalty and yet when asked about how he would react if someone attacked/misbehaved with his wife, without batting an eyelid he replies he would avenge her dead and go to jail...  

Ryan Gosling has proved he can take on versatile roles and deliver them with finesse. I recently saw 2 other movies of his- Drive and CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE....  

The movie is based on a stage play, Farragut North by Beau Willimon,  George Clooney and his co-writers Grant Heslov & Willimon (who  had infact spent quite a bit of time working for Hillary Clinton) have beautifully crafted the movie, where the main role has been essayed with ease by Clooney...  

Ides of March Trailer... 

Velayutham

Oh here is Superman, well not really
Oh wait, is he Robin hood, nope, not really
Oh then he is a man in disguise, doing good, nope, not really
he is simply Vijay... the actor!!
and then there are a zillion others who come and go in the scenes!! 

The Story is of how a imaginary character created by Bharathi [Genelia] comes to life via Velayutham[Vijay] and fights against all the evil [the muslim terrorist, fake note printing, corrupt consciousless Home Minister...]

The movie opens with Bharathi and her two friends [journalist] working towards bringing to light the evil going on underground, but the villains kill her friends, and hurt her pretty bad, tossing her into the river, assuming she is dead.. She manages to write a note saying there is a person who is born to kill all the evil and signs off saying "velayutham" seeing the Vel in a nearby temple.. Much to her surprise, there is a man named Velayutham who seems to be doing exactly what she had in mind....

Velayutham is a milk man from a small town, creating havoc in the name of love for his sister [ Saranya Mohan] much to the chagrin of the villagers, who are just waiting to kick him out. The antics he does for his sister are howlarious and heart warming to see the amount of love. He has taken care of his sister since their parents left them, bringing her up, and getting her married to a suitable boy. Oh, and there is Vaidehi [Hansika Motwani], the pretty village girl who has a thing for Velayutham but he does not bite the bullet and keeps dodging her...

The movie then moves to Chennai where Vijay lands to encash the chit he had been collected over the years for his sister's wedding where he meets another investor, and ofcourse Santhanam, the small time theif who is terrible at stealing... Under the pretext of taking care of Velu and his family, Santhanam gets them to stay with him in hope of doing away with the 15lakhs once Velu encashes the chit fund....

The twists and turns that occur from the time Velu lands in Chennai to his sister's wedding is a mix of uneblieveable acts, gimmicks and acrobatics...  Director Raja seems to have been inspired by Vikram's Anniyan to a point where he gets Velu into a costume complete with a sword and has him flying in air, riding a horse out of nowhere and discovering evil men everywhere he lands.... Starting with Velu getting off the train and riding off a bike parked in the station waiting for someone to pick it up, which had a bomb that explodes just as Velu abandons it in the chase after Santhanam, to returinng a suitcase that his sister spots in the crowded Ranganathan street, leading him to follow the bad man and return the suitcase, wherein the bomb explodes at their abode where they are busy stashing away Fake notes.... 

The grand finale that takes place in the Stadium where the Home Minister promises to reveal the identity by making the Muslim terrorist dress up in Velayutham's outfit and conning the audience, which fails miserably leading to the truth coming out in the open...

There are so many scenes in the movie that made me wonder - what was Raja thinking when he took on this script....

No Doubt this is a good come back for Vijay... but there are so many parts in the movie that are just wierd, unbelieveable and funny[not in the haha funny, but what the hell kinda funny]...

A meeting called by the Home Minister with NOT a single COP in sight
An auditorium full of people and not a single guard
A knife plunged into Genelia, but she comes out like nothing happened
A fair and city bred looking Hansika who is the daughter of Bhaskar in a village 

Good to see Pandiarajan back in the big screen... 

and there is only so much that Santhanam can also do to keep the audience awake!! :D

Too much ....I just dont buy it!!!

Tower Heist

There is Eddie Murphy... Wait, there is Adam Sandler... Oh, hold it there, there is Alan Alda too.. Now, a movie with such fine actors has to be fun filled right? Well, that is what i thought before sitting down to watch Tower Heist...  What i ended up thinking towards the end.. well, read on...

The movie opens with Arthur Shaw [Alan Alda] who plays chess daily with Josh [Ben Stiller] and who promises to help triple the pension money of all the staff at the Tower apartments faking a kidnapping, which is when his true colours are unveiled.

Apparently, he was faking a kidnapping to flee the country to escape from all the frauds and federal charges. Josh and others feel it is a mistake, but soon realise it is indeed True and that Shaw has made all their money vanish into thin air...

Since all the Tower employees are good hard working souls and they trusted Josh with their pension, it is now Josh's turn under the spotlight where he is made to feel guilty for trusting Shaw with the money... When Shaw is put under house arrest, Josh along with  the new elevator operator Enrique Dev’Reaux  and Charlie, the concierge with a very pregnant wife march into Shaw's apartment under the pretext of making breakfast enquiries and bash up the Ferrari he has parked in his apartment that he claims belonged to Steve McQueen... The trio are fired and banned... 

That night while getting drunk with FBI agent Claire [Tea Leoni] that he gets an idea on how to set up a Heist and get back the money Shaw stole from them... he puts together his Oceans Team, oops heist team - Enrique, Charlie, Mr. Fitzhugh [Mathew Brodrick who seems to have aged and looks 200],ex-wall street guy who has just been evicted from his Tower apartment,Slide [Eddie murphy], his next door neighbour who is forever getting into trouble and decide to break into Shaw's apartment and hunt down the Safe where he feels the money is tucked away....

As the movie rolls, we get such strong traces of Oceans 11 that it is hard to focus on Tower heist.... The plan, the tricks, the little twists and turns are all good, and well chalked out which keeps us in the edge of our seats, sometimes rolling with laughter and other times wondering will they pull it off... Pretty soon we discover the other characters who are part of this plan... Lester, the adorable doorman and the spunky lock picking "i want to get married to retain my visa" Odessafrom Jamaica.... 

The scene where Eddie Murphy orders them each to shoplift an item worth $50 is howlarious....

For some strange reason, i was also reminded of Ben Stiller in Night at the museum while watching this... probably his style of acting or delivering dialogues....

This is a movie you will enjoy while you are watching it,  you just might not remember it too long, or go around recommending your friends watch it... but what the heck.. value for money :)

Go enjoy.... just dont have expectations.. any!!

I Am

I had been listening to I Am's OST for a few months and finally i found the movie, it was one movie i was looking forward to watching...!! The movie is about 4 individuals, it is 4 stories, it is 4 lives, ... it is all about PEOPLE!! Though the people involved in the plot are from different corners of the country- Kolkata, Bangalore, Srinagar and Mumbai, with the stories ranging from artificial insemination, child abuse and gay prostitution, they're connected by a common thread of disenchantment.

Onir's I AM opens with a Rabindranath Tagore's quote from Gitanjali, 'Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high...'
 

Meet the ‘I’s:


I am Afia

The 1st story opens with Afia [Nandita Das] looking for a sperm donor to fulfill her wish of getting artificial insemination done. She meets her doctor, and insists on meeting the man before taking a call, which is how she meets Purab Kohli. They spend time getting to know each other, breaking barriers before going ahead with the procedure. Their relationship goes through a transformation at the fertility clinic while waiting for the doctor to come in.

I Am Megha

Megha [Juhi Chawla] is a Kashmiri Pundit battling with life and emotions after having been chased out of Jammu & Kashmir when the military took over the land. She goes back, meets their Muslim family friends Manisha Koirala but interacts with them quite curt and to the point. There is a lot of anger and resentment in her voice during the one day she spends in town. 

I Am Abhimanyu

This is a story on Child abuse..the victim is Abhimanyu [Sanjay Suri] who grew up abused by his step-father on a day to day basis... He grows up bitter, severing all ties with his family, quite unsure of his sexual preferences..  The entire movie flows through the stories, while showing the different phases in Abhimanyu’s life, as the abused child going on to a manipulative adolescent and thence to whining adulthood, in a very short share of the total running time. It is only when his mom calls to announce his step father's death that he finally confronts his demons and lets it all out to her...

I am Omar

This is probably the most devastating story in the movie, the one that will shake you up. It is about Gay relationships and this plot is about  Jai (Rahul Bose) and Omar (Arjun Mathur)... Jai, who is obviously doing well in life meets Omar at a coffee shop one lazy evening. He is drawn to Omar, takes him out and giving into his strong feelings, wants to go all the way. Omar convinces him to just get naughty in his car, only to get accosted by a vulgar homophobic cop, who scares Jai beyond repair. It is later than Jai comes to know Omar is a con and was playing him all along... Abhimanyu Singh as the cop was so ruthless and brutal with his foul language and crude behaviour, quite revealing how people react when they come across a Gay guy...

I AM is more than a movie, it is not exactly a documentary either. It tells the tales of people we meet on a daily basis, but whose lives are so deep, and go beyond what we see on the surface.  Each and every story has its own unique rhythm. The emotions and feelings, the experiences that each of the actors portray is quite surreal, making us think while the credits roll on the screen at the end of the movie... 

Cast : Sanjay Suri, Radhika Apte, Shernaz Patel, Anurag Kashyap, Rahul Bose, Arjun Mathur, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, Nandita Das, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Purab Kohli & Anurag Basu
Music : Amit Trivedi, Vivek Philip & Rajiv Bhalla
Director : Onir
Producer : Onir & Sanjay Suri

Siya Seth Decides to Die by Sneha Mehta

Siya Seth has committed suicide. After her death, she decides to bare it all, telling the world her story. Siya, a school girl [17 years of age] was a victim of parental abuse since she was 8. Though she tries doing everything possible to gain her some peace and comfort, her hidden secrets keep haunting her, not letting her rest, driving her over the edge at the end. 

Review of Siya Seth Decides to Die...Pages 255. Rs 100

Publisher- Diamond Books, Delhi

When i 1st read the title, i was taken aback. Made me wonder if the author had been inspired by Paulo Coelho's Veronica Decides to Die, but as i read through, i realised this is fairly different.  

The opening lines -

“Life sucked me dry. I felt like a diagonally parked car in a parallel universe. People rolled up, collided, had accidents, and recovered; while I lay bruised. externally and internally. Seen and unseen. I committed suicide. For my own good.”

had me engrossed.. Though i kind of knew where the story was headed, i was curious to see how Sneha's novel would be... 

Siya seems to be a a regular teenage rebel, one who is very bold, and yet on other hand she is coming to terms with adulthood, trying to deal with changes in her physical appearance and inside of her. She goes on with life, with only a best friend- Reva.  

Although she has it all, Siya does not seem to live in peace. There is something that is haunting her, giving her sleepless nights and endless nightmares. She even dates the good looking Randeep, which does not sit well with her best friend Reva. She bunks school, bribes a policeman in Marine Lines, bluffs her way through the day, visits a man who is proficient in Past life related issues, who claims to heal her soul for just Rs999. But, none of this seems to help... And we, the readers wonder why?!

Siya is a depressed teenager who has a dark secret buried deep inside her heart. She is depressed, lonely and sad. She is also stinking rich, an only child and has servants attending to her day in and day out, so nobody can understand why a filthy rich and good looking teenager could be miserable. As readers we do know it has to do something with her dark secret.

No prizes for guessing what Siya’s dark secret is..you will know it if you have read the blurb on the back cover of the book, or if you read through the 1st 50 odd pages.  The book starts off strong, but after a while makes us wonder where it is headed. Siya takes her own sweet time in revealing the truth, and what was really going on in her life, and why she committed suicide. 

The abuse, the victim and the culprit, the emotions running high and the society's role in all of this could have been highlighted better. I felt the plot kind of fizzled out after a point, and the extent of Siya's trauma dint come through the pages.  Also, there were quite a bit of grammatical errors and typos here and there, which the author and editor should spend time in polishing! 

But hats off to Sneha for taking such a sensitive and prevailing issue and attempting to bring it out to the world!

About the Author

Sneha Mehta is a student of organizational psychology and a freelance writer.