Boredom

I have found many critics pointing to the title of this book and calling it 'trite'. Perhaps it's a tad long, perhaps it's befitting but let me tell you that this 'title' must now dissuade you from giving it a try. Pravin R. Rathod is an MBA graduate and this book is the fruit of his maiden effort at writing something. Chetan Bhagat is an IIM-taught management professional too and there is a simplicity to his books with subtle sense of humor and enviable dramatic flair. And if I have ever come closest to finding a book as simple and funny as his while keeping its dramatic content poised, it must be this debut title from Mr. Rathod. I can say it with full confidence that it contains the only believable love story that an Indian with average background could hope for and even it's sad ending has got an honest moment. The verbs 'confuse' and 'interest' appear twice in their adverb, gerund and participle guises in this book title and they pretty ...

If you had opted for PK instead of Anurag Kashyap's Ugly (who?) for your viewing on 25th December 2014 or following few days, I wouldn't accuse you of anything. Amir doesn't make 3-4 films a year, he does exactly it's opposite and for that matter only, his films must be seen. And that's what we did with his PK and unwillingly snubbed 'Ugly'. PK was a good film too but 'Ugly', I had my eyes set out on it for last two years and yesterday I watched it. With 'Ugly', nothing can get uglier. It's superlative in its positive degree standing. Not only its plot was twisted but its characters too and I feared watching them. One of the only few films coming out from Hindi Cinema in last two years who was so full of tension from starting to finish. If I get to remove Gangs of Wasseypur from Anurag's filmography, UGLY will be my favorite film directed by him. It received a standing ovation in Cannes and I understand why for it's realism could ...

Mr. M.C. Raj is a prolific author with various book-titles to his credit and with these labels come an aura and craftsmanship to his writing. His latest offering, The Crossbow Code is a novel that's set in the geographical locations of Vatican City (the home of Pope) and Mumbai and as exotic a location they could be, it's the narrative of the book that make them look mysteriously creepy. How many times can you possibly find The Pope talking to a commoner, that too from a Third World country like India which doesn't boast of a huge christian population either? Let me tell you from my experience that odds for that would be infinitely negative. But here we get to see one and one that's hugely engaging. It's an open secret that churches all over the world hide secrets and although many would find Dan Brown's works as heresy, they do tend to point towards an inconvenient truth. The concepts of Christianity that I have come to known thanks to the works of Kathleen McG...

While reading Sandeep Sharma and Leepi Agarwal's debut work, Hey Dad! Meet My Mom, two films crossed my mind. 'Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind' by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet and 'The Unborn'. The first was a very unusual love story and second, a spooky and not-very-good horror film. HDM3 claims to mix the elements of both and till two-thirds of it, it shows spectacular results but when it tries to disclose its much vaunted secret, it slips spectacularly as well. Too many plot inconsistencies creep in and our unborn/undead child-actor Rishi too starts showing signs of fatigue. Puneet as the horror-stricken SBI manager works but as a photographer-turned-sponsor-within-hours, he disappoints and so do the authors. They just couldn't find the logic to let him settle in the subplot of BIBA fashion week. The subplot carrying Myra, Maya, Puneet's mother and Puneet himself is way too impressive for writers show their potential, unheard and unseen of their age, in...

Today I'm going to post my first book review based on my new 10-point scale. I am going to clarify the scoring system here: a) 3 Marks- For the achievement of coming up with a book. b) 2 Marks- Language Skills c) 2 Marks- Plot/Premise and Character Development d) 2 Marks- Editing and Proofreading e) 1 Mark- Book Cover, Page Quality and Blurb

At the start of last week, an icon of female wrestling and former WWE employee, Chyna died. She started her pro-wrestling career with WWE and finished it too with them. During her time with the company, she was billed as 'ninth wonder of the world' (Andre the Giant was 8th wonder according to WWE) and wrestled not only her female counterparts but male superstars too and even defeated them convincingly. An epitome of power-wrestling, she went on to hold the prestigious WWF Intercontinental championship on two occasions and women's championship once. She was a heartthrob to younger generation of pro-wrestling fans. She was the bodyguard-on-screen for Triple H and his rumored girlfriend too. So popular was she that WWE made her one integral part of their most successful and iconic tag team of all time, DX (called D-Generation X). Then she left the company in 2000 to pursue other media interests. Reality shows and various TV outings followed and then in one shocking decision (l...

I have been reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, for last four months as per one of my new roles as 'Book Critic' and have encountered both good works and bad ones to no one's surprise as our job pretty much entails that. It's not the good things that have left me dazzled and exalted but the bad ones who have rocked me and left me jittery. Doing a book review is a lonely job if you do it right and there have been incidents when I have found myself very lonely but as they say, it's part and parcel of one reviewer's life and you get to learn either way. So let's come to the point now. Recently, I read two books and in the first one, the main character of the book who goes by the name of Arpan was spelled Apran not once but thrice in space of two pages. Narration was first class and I was enjoying it but 'APRAN' put me off. I could only do away with 65 pages of the book out of a good 267 pages. Then there was another book. It's back cover ha...