Idle musings

'Duma' is one film I always love to watch.Directed by Carroll Ballard,it beautifully portarys the relationship between man and animal.On the outset,we see a young boy,Xan, growing up with an orphaned cheetah for a pet in Africa and how his father's death leads to a chain of events - we see Xan facing life head-on and how the tame cheetah and the African wild help him embrace the truth.The delightful feature of the movie is that there are so few characters,and more of the animal kingdom than man.'Duma' upholds the fact of nature being the only unchanging,all pervading element in life, a home for anyone "who doth ambition shun" and is "pleased with what he gets" ,to quote the Bard of Avon.Recently,a video of a lion being reunited with his adoptive parents (albeit,human)brought back fond memories and initiated this long due post.Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZIQUb-d4GQ

Suriya's latest flick,'24' is obviously about  time travel,with humour and romance thrown in to amp up the audience.If H.G.Wells toyed with the idea of a machine that would take man through the ages,then Vikram Kumar has taken a more direct approach of a watch being the medium for experiencing a different lifetime.And the sets,the exotic locations,the impressive makeup(Suriya dons four roles)plus the visual effects all work in favour of the theme and make the film worth watching. Nithya Menen delivers a  noteworthy performance,but Samantha ends up being the atypical clueless heroine who serves only masala entertainment.Among the songs,'Aararo' is a lullaby worth lending a ear to.Expect a lot of punch dialogues,colourful songs and the many facets of an actor fighting the good old fight against,well,evil.

Arvind Swamy's acting skills were not enough to turn 'Dear Dad',directed by Tanuj Bhramar,into a successful coming-of-age movie.They cut to the chase too quickly,which works against the tide,especially for such a sensitive subject as a teenager('Shivam',essayed by Himanshu Sharma) coming to terms with the fact that his father is gay.Clearly,the movie could have been scripted better,exploring how the young son grows to accept his dad for himself again.Despite its faults,the film is watchable for the good performances and the cinematography.

If I had a say,I would state that 'James and Alice',directed by Sujith Vasudev,is a very underrated movie.Reviewers had lauded the film for introducing a new concept into Malayalam cinema,but I never expected the second half to give pleasant flashbacks of the likes of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', 'Bruce Almighty' and 'Inception'.Apart from stellar performances by the lead pair and the supporting actors,the film highlights family - "Is there a more beautiful scene to behold?"(than a happy family),in the words of Peter the godsend,who ushers James's soul into a retrospective of his past;an auditing of his mistakes in life,if you will.Though the trailer and songs deceptively point towards a love story,'James and Alice' is much more,with innovations in storyline,cinematography and other aspects of cinema I am sadly unaware of.As a viewer,I can definitely say that Sujith Vasudev's debut film is an unprecedented yet proud ...

Justice for Jisha.This has been the hashtag trending on popular social media for the past few days,while the public followed the impending investigation of the heinous murder and rape of a young girl in South India.For those of you who are uninformed,let me draw your attention to this small part of the world called India.Not too long after the Nirbhaya case(Delhi) rocked the whole nation into uniting for a just cause,an even more inhuman act was reported further south,proving that the ripple effects could spread closer home,Contrary to our beliefs that we,our homes,friends,relatives will always be safe (here I'm talking about any possible threat to human life),the incident has brought to light the frightening struggle that marks the survival of women in India.The victim was severely wounded,lashed at as if caught in an animal attack,in several parts of her body,resulting in 38 slashes and the surfacing of  internal organs .I do not need to describe any more the savageness of the e...

I call myself a book addict,and yet I haven't written a single post on my favourites(because that list keeps growing).For now,I'm just going to list out a few recent reads,which I would gladly recommend. WILD   by Cheryl Strayed HALF OF A YELLOW SUN     by Chimamanda Ngozhi Adichie TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD    by Harper Lee THE KITE RUNNER    by Khaled Hosseini ME BEFORE YOU    by Jojo Moyes