All You Need are Books and Coffee

Picture this. It’s a fine Sunday evening, the evening you had been waiting for, the whole week. Your annoying necessity- the mobile phone- is kept in one of the corners of oblivion, and you are, for once, away from its perpetual buzz. And to make things even more blissful, it is raining. It is the month of July, which made you wait for so long. It’s showering and you love it.

The Monsoon- a season that all Delhiites wait for, not only brings a smile on the face of people from all realms of the society, it brings a serenity, a certain calmness and freshness. A freshness that entices you to start your life, afresh, sans your worries, sans any qualms or uncertainties as the rains seem to have washed them all off.

On such an ideal day, what can be a better way to spend the time other than delving into a world of fiction created by your favorite authors.  All you need to do is grab a book and a cup of coffee, bask in the tranquility, lay back in the armchair in the balcony, or your garden and sip away, the incredible drink in that cup of yours, as you like it- hot, cold, creamy, frothy, black, decaf- pick your choice…and enjoy your books. Pick the best ones from the shelf and rejoice.

My picks:

1)      Inferno- Call it obsession, call it the love for a refreshment from the normal thriller books that do not even have the aspect of cryptic codes or deduction (except of course ‘Sherlock Holmes’ by Arthur Conan Doyle) but, Dan Brown makes my heart skip a beat every time one of his creations are out in the market. While most people do argue that all Dan Brown are mostly the same in the essence of it, but I say that they are all different from the mundane and humdrum plots of many other thriller and suspense series. The USP of all of his books remains that it as an exhaustive research of not only real facts but also an amalgamation of a travel account, history and monuments of a certain tourist place, and o course, a mind-baffling thriller, which is written with such dexterity that it makes you want to be at the place the story is set in, and explore it yourself. His latest, in particular, explores the beauty of Italy, it’s monuments and the rich history of its art and literature. So, if you take my advice, go ahead and pick this amazing thriller that you can not get your hands off.

2)      The Girl That Played With Fire: The second installment of the Millennium series by Steig Larrson, it did not receive as much recognition as its prequel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but is equally good, if not better. With an autistic, unethical female hacker as the protagonist, the story unravels with twists and turns into the life of Lizbeth Salander and her accompanist, Michael Blomkvist. The Millennium series is a head on take on crimes against women and brings out the subject with downright outrage, through the protagonist who is all set for vendetta.

3)      Inscrutable Americans: For a lighter read, go pick this amazing satirical humor by Anurag Mathur. The author explores through the eyes of an Indian, the stereotypes that the world has about India. While, you can not help that smile on your face and the laughter that is all bubbling up to leave your stomach, while you read it, you will also realize the ebbing image of India and its people for the many faults and disasters that they have seen. It’s time to move ahead of the poise and leap for excellence.
  

4)      Handle with care: This drama story by Jodi Picoult stirs your emotions as it explains the plight of a young girl who is the victim of a rare and severe form of brittle bone disease, and her mother’s dilemma of whether or not to sue her best friend and obstetrician for not having diagnosed her daughters condition early enough during the pregnancy to be able to abort the child.

5)      Jane Eyre: The best classic of all times, and even if I say that Charlotte Bronte has done a commendable job in articulating a true, maddening, love story with high-end drama and an overflow of emotions, it would be an understatement. This story is more than just that, it is a different world of emotions all-together that you get engrossed in, rather immersed in so easily.

While you indulge in your favorite stories, do not forget to savor the taste of that marvelous frothy cup of coffee that is keeping you company in your journey to another part of the galaxy, and adding to the exquisite weather and to the incredible showers that you had been waiting for, for so long.

Silver linings playbook- the plot V/s the performances

The international cinema recently went on a spree to release several box office hits in a row. And these very pieces of art went on to win several awards too, Silver Linings Playbook being one of them.
However, to me, the movie seems to have fallen short of delivering high end entertainment.
The enactments are undoubtedly commendable. There have been great performances delivered by Jennifer Lawrence, who rightfully deserved the Oscar, Bradly Cooper, Anupam Kher and the rest of the cast and crew. Not to forget that the protagonist played by Bradly Cooper, basically just Bradly Cooper, is visually appealing (by saying this I am doing great injustice to all Bradly cooper fans, as ‘visually appealing’ is an understatement).

In spite of all this, and a concept that could make a huge hit, the plot is rather amateurish and mundane. Or should I say, ‘convenient’?
An emotion-inundated bipolar patient- let’s call him ‘X’- is brought back home from an asylum, and is depressed because his wife had cheated on him.  

Very conveniently, he meets another emotion-inundated mental patient of the opposite sex. Let’s call her ‘Y’.

Very conveniently, she has lost her husband as well.

Very conveniently she asks X to participate in a dance competition with her, and he very conveniently agrees (although after a little tiff, conveniently nevertheless). And then there is a twist in the tale. The competition clashes with an important soccer match the family of X has bet on.

But again, very conveniently, the family indulges into a parley- a dual bet on the dance and the match together and the problem is resolved within the blink of an eye,

What happens next need not be explained, and is quite predictable.
All in all, I can say that the director and the script writer have played it successfully safe with a humdrum script, but strong performances. Even with a loose and lacklustre plot, there are scenes that manage to get you to the edge of your seat, as you watch the interesting way the characters behave, and also scenes that increase your expectations of a thrilling turn in the story. The performances are mostly what engross you completely. There are no moments where you get goose bumps or your heart sinks on seeing the protagonists having an emotional break down or you sympathise with them. Yet, you would like to sit throughout the movie and want to know what happens next.

The silver linings playbook has been rather devoid of a silver tinge of x-factor, yet a unique concept and an unusual portrayal of two bipolar patients, are what took away the victor’s cup. Kudos to David O Russel, for his out of the box thinking as far as the characterisation is concerned. Even when the film was about a serious mental disorder, it did not delve into heavy emotional drama and remained rather quirky, in a fun-to-watch kind of way. Guess ‘excelsior’ was taken rather seriously, eh Mr. Russel?
Yet, brownie points to you for pulling off a humdrm script so well and promoting optimism. (Y)