I have cried reading books, but this is the first one I can remember shedding tears just three pages in. The story of life is about loss and regrets, and “Norwegian Wood” in its opening paragraph breaks through our defenses with its splendid writing that simply envelops us and shuts us out of the present world. Of course, the original book is written in Japanese and I wonder how accurately the translation by Jay Rubin was of the emotions that Murakami conveyed in the original work.

But let me not misrepresent the entirety of the book by talking about the beginning. “Norwegian Wood” is not a tearjerker throughout. It is at times funny, sometimes mysterious, other times serious, but always engrossing. The plot is based in the 1960’s, an interesting time in Japan’s history, a little ways away from the defeat of World War II with a younger generation having no first-hand knowledge of the war and about to be part of a worldwide cohort that would be part of many tumultuous changes. The strange thing though in the book is that the protagonist and narrator (Toru) in “Norwegian Wood” actually has a very boring student life, even though much happens around him. The novel is rather conservative in that sense, with the narrator calling student radicals hypocrites, and being thoughtful about the changes happening in Japanese society.

But these only supply a backdrop to the story which is about the relationships that Toru has. One is with the enigmatic Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend who had committed suicide while in high school. Naoko also seems disturbed and unable to understand and build upon her feelings for Toru. She admits herself into a sanitarium to recover and lead a normal life. In the meantime, Midori, full of life, but also broken in some respects, enters Toru’s life. They establish a strong connection, but Toru still cannot reconcile that with his affection for Naoko. The book ends a bit like “Inception” in the sense that almost all the threads have been successfully resolved, but the creator wanted to add a little ambiguity at the end, even though the straightforward explanation is all there is.

Again though, the story is important, but what holds your attention is the depiction of the characters and what matters to them. Toru cannot let go of Naoko, even though he knows that she does not and perhaps could never have the same feeling for him as he does for her. Some of the characters (like the “Storm Trooper” and Hatsumi) appear only for a few pages, but have an outsized effect on Toru and his relationships. This is a book brimming with feelings and emotions.

P.S. I should probably re-read “The Great Gatsby” which is repeatedly mentioned in this book. I did not like the skin-deep characterization of the principals in the novel, but perhaps I might have been waylaid by the plot which did not end to my satisfaction.

This is a short history of maths. By short, I mean really short. Which is unfortunate, because there can be no justice done to any topic within the few pages that the author has allocated for each. In some cases, just as the topic gets interesting, the author is forced to make a rapid conclusion. In other situations, he is forced to become very high-level and ignores the details necessary to help the reader understand what the topic is all about.

Having said that, it is still a fun book in many respects. The focus is on mathematicians and scientists who have made important discoveries, talking about their lives and how they arrived at their deductions and proofs. There is also mention of when mathematicians discovered that something cannot be done, i.e., they discovered a proof that something is not possible in a particular domain. Also how some fields of mathematics did not find much practical use until computers came along.

As one would expect, as the book progressed, I found the reading very difficult. This is the nature of the increasing complexity of the mathematics involved and even though I was familiar with most of the math discussed, the rapid transition from one point to another required careful reading. Unfortunately, the author seems to have devoted more time on the early chapters instead of elaborating and simplifying the later ones.

On Hulu, I saw this Telugu movie (Santhosham) that was dubbed into Hindi. It was a good movie, but they had to keep up the pretense that it was a movie with characters who are from North India (where Hindi is the language of common use) as opposed to Andhra Pradesh (where Telugu is spoken primarily and Hindi only as a last resort for outside people) and give the characters all different names. This sets up an inadvertently hilarious scene where the hero, who had been giving a fake name to the heroine, finally reveals his real name and is forced to show his identity card to prove it. Because the identity card is in English, we can see that it shows a different name than both the real and fake names of the hero. Nothing major, but a couple of seconds of hilarity.

In general, though, I prefer sub-titled movies over dubbed movies. It has some disadvantages for sure. One is that you have to take your eyes off the characters and read what is written. On a larger screen, this can be a problem! Some movies don’t display sub-titles with the adequate background and foreground colors for good contrast, so reading can be difficult. It can also sometimes interfere with the action on the screen, though that is less common unless you are using sub-titles on an older TV that puts the sub-titles all over the screen instead of at the bottom.

However, the advantages are significant. The audio of the movie is the original. If you are watching a language that you understand, generally the voices will be those of the actors. This makes for a more authentic movie watching experience. It feels natural when the words spoken synchronize with the mouthing of the words. And it feels particularly weird when something is dubbed and the characters speak English, even though everything else in the movie is not in English. It can make for odd scenes, where something written on a letter is never explained because the original movie assumed that the viewer can read it. With sub-titles, you can provide the translation on-screen.

Finally, subtitles are good when you are not in a theatre and there are many viewers, some of who are not silent. With dubbed movies, you might miss some of the dialogue when someone makes a noise. This doesn’t happen with sub-titled movies. I turn on subtitles even with English movies because of that. Also even if there is no noise, you can follow the speeches accurately, even if the speakers are using some dialect or have an accent.

Reading a book, especially a classic, after a long time is always a different experience than the first time. One is that obviously you know the story and there are no surprises as to what happens at the end. So you hurry less and spend more time enjoying the writing and all the details that the author has put in the book. When you read it after a long time, you don’t remember every part of the story, only the highlights. So many parts of the book can seem new even if the outline remains the same. Also, because of the time gap, you are older and more experienced and informed. This may work in favor of the book as you are able to understand the author’s point of view or why characters behave the way they do. Sometimes it doesn’t, as I found out with “A Farewell to Arms”, which I remembered as a wonderful story until I tried it again. Fortunately, my experience with “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was much better.

Before reading the book, my memory of the plot was something like this: Huckleberry Finn runs away from home, he comes across Jim, a slave who has also run away and they both sail the Mississippi River. They come across two frauds and they go away. Tom Sawyer comes into the picture and all is finally well, including freeing Jim from slavery. As you can see, it was more ignorance than knowledge of the plot. In my memory, I thought that the frauds dominated the story and that Tom Sawyer was only there for a couple of pages. In reality, a lot more happens even before Huck and Jim get on the river and they have a few adventures before meeting the King and the Duke and finally Tom Sawyer does have an extended cameo at the end of the story.

The main characters in the story make a novel strong or weak, and in “Huckleberry Finn”, you have two of the most likable fictional characters (Huck and Jim) that we can identify with. Mark Twain does a remarkable job of taking us into the mind of a thirteen-year old child whose attitude towards every event is to make the best of it and do the right thing. Jim is forever loyal, even to the point of silliness when acquiescing to Tom’s crazy schemes. The most touching portions of the story are the speeches made by Jim that express his good-heartedness and faithfulness. One particular speech stands out — the one when Jim explains how he was hurt when Huck played a prank on him by pretending to have been lost in the river.

The book becomes very dark as the King and the Duke enter the book and we see the extent of their villainousness. Huck manages to find a way out, only to have his good luck reversed at the last minute and we wonder what is going to happen. At this point, Mark Twain flips a switch of sorts and starts cruising to an ending. There is a quick exit of the villains and unexpected pleasant surprise when Tom enters the scene. However, the rest of the novel (final few chapters) is ludicrous as Tom’s antics defy any logic and particularly cruel, especially when we hear how Jim is finally given freedom. This is a marked disappointment when compared to the rest of the book.

One thing that a reader might find difficult is the use of various dialects in the speeches by the different characters. The narration is mostly in proper English, but some of the speeches can be tough to follow. I remember finding it difficult when I read the book long ago, but this time, it didn’t trouble me that much.

Lastly, remember that this novel was published only two decades after the Civil War that ended slavery in the United States and its events occur two or three decades before it. It provides a view into the beliefs and attitudes of the times. Much time would pass before blacks would be given full equality before the law, but even today, we suffer from the consequences of those actions and beliefs.

This 2002 Japanese movie is an engrossing demonstration of how superior suspense is to action. The use of the word “Samurai” in the title may tempt you to think of an action-heavy movie with lots of stunts, but perhaps the second word in the title might alert you that this is not the case. There are probably two fights in the whole movie, neither lasts a long time and the second in particular is shot in poor light. What makes them work is the build-up and, to some extent, unexpected ending. And that is the story of the movie: it is a period piece about a time (just before the The Meiji Restoration) when the Samurai were being transitioned out of their traditional roles, so fighting is necessarily given a back seat.

The plot is narrated by the daughter of the hero, a low-ranking Samurai named Seibei Iguchi, who has just lost his wife to TB and now has to care for his two young daughters and his mother, who is suffering from dementia. He is particularly unambitious and is content to eke out a peaceful living. There is a romantic story where his childhood friend returns divorced and seems interested in marrying him, but he is afraid to take a chance that she might find the life with him burdensome because of his low status, just like his deceased wife did. He gets drawn into a fight with her ex-husband and the story of that fight forces him into a task from his clan to get rid of another Samurai who refused to follow orders.

The movie is low-key, but captivating throughout. Beyond the plot that I just explained, a student of Japanese history might find much to love about how this movie portrays the society, culture and tensions of those times. Hiroyuki Sanada plays Iguchi well, the subtle sad smiles expressing so much than words could ever do. Just before the second fight, there is a small conversation that explains a critical element of the first fight. It was both unexpected and touching.

The only thing I wish the movie had left out was the flash-forward ending that takes place after we expect the movie to end. From what I read, the movie, while an accurate portrayal of the period, is a fictional account. And if that is the case, the added-on ending doesn’t serve much purpose. Even the last point made by the movie could be made through other means. We go to the movies, we see characters we love, and we want them to have a happy ending. Movies that deny them that need to have a strong reason to do so. Movies like “Titanic” and “Atonement” fit that bill. “The Twilight Samurai”, while excellent in other respects, does not provide a good enough rationale to end the way it does.

I watched this on the weekend. Not sure why, but I seemed to click on a few boring movies on Netflix and decided to watch a thriller, never mind if it was black and white. As it happens, it was not the typical film noir detective movie and was rather engrossing, until the last few minutes or so.

The story is about a woman named Cheryl Draper (played by Barbara Stanwyck) who sees a murder happening in the apartment building opposite to her and calls the police. I am not sure why he would do the crime leaving the blinds open, but it is later established in the movie that he is a crazy Nazi and perhaps he was too brutish to care. Anyway, he manages to hide the body and other evidence before the police search his apartment. The police assume that Ms. Draper had a vivid dream and tell her that without any evidence, they cannot take her seriously.

However, our heroine feels scared that the murderer knowing that a witness exists would decide to eliminate her, and so she tries to do some sleuthing. Unfortunately, our villain is a little ahead of her and manages to discredit her on multiple occasions, even to the extent of having her confined to a psychological ward for a few days. A police officer feels sympathy for her, but his hands are tied without any solid clues to go on. Everyone thinks that Ms. Draper had hallucinations and at one point, she thinks that too and decides to quit further investigation.

Till this point, the movie plays pretty well. But since you cannot end a crime movie hanging like that, you need the villain to do something stupid or some new development implicating the villain. Both are duly produced by the plot and the final denouement ends in a farce. This is perhaps one of those movies where the joke about threatened people running up stairs instead of staying on the ground in the open started.

But apart from that, it is a good how-they-catch-em. Few characters, but strongly developed. Good cutting dialogue. Interesting and unexpected plot twists. A little humor too.

1. “Anjali Anjali” from “Duet” (1994)
2. “Ovvoru Pookalume” from “Autograph” (2004): I did watch this. A good unconventional movie about a hero about to get married and thinking about the women who had been in his life so far. A little self-indulgent at times by the director (who also wrote and produced it, as well as acted in it), but overall a well-made film that is quite different from typical Indian movies.
3. “Unn Sirippinil” from “Pachaikili Muthucharam” (2007): No see, but the movie was a remake of the English movie “Derailed” (2005). It seems to have been a failure at the box office.
4. “Anbil Avan” from “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa” (2010): The original of the “Ekk Deewana Tha” movie from my last review
5. “Unnarugil Varugaiyil” from “Kalloori” (2007)
6. “Oru Kadhal Devadhai” from “Idhaya Thamarai” (1990)
7. “Mannil Intha Kaathal” from “Keladi Kanmani” (1990)
8. “Partha Mudhal” from “Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu” (2006)
9. “Naan Pogiren” from “Naanayam” (2010)
10. “Butterfly” from “Meera” (1992)
11. “Nila Kayum” from “Chembaruthi” (1992)
12. “Maalai Neram” from Aayirathil Oruvan (2010)

Aftershock (2010): [Chinese — 5 stars out of 5] The Tangshan earthquake in 1976 was the most deadly earthquake of the 20th century. How do you portray the depth of something so catastrophic? “Aftershock” is an almost heroic attempt. It takes the route of selecting one family torn apart by the earthquake instead of the Hollywood hour-long disaster extravaganza of special effects that ignores the human calamities involved. As the earthquake ends, we see a mother with her son and daughter buried under rubble. She is forced to make the decision to save one of them. Unknown to her, the child she condemns to death lives. All the family members live tortured lives that revolve around that fateful decision. This is simply one of the best movies I have ever watched. “Aftershock” evokes strong emotions and towards the end, the tears were flowing freely from my eyes.

Bodyguard (2011): [Hindi — 4 stars out of 5] After watching “Dabangg”, I had lost all hope in ever seeing a good Salman Khan movie. But this was a pleasant surprise. There is some of the usual Bollywood masala (songs, action, etc.), but it is matched with a plot that is shocking and well acted. Salman plays a bodyguard to protect Kareena Kapoor, who out of irritation at his strict rules, decides to play a prank by making phone calls to him as an anonymous lover. Things get serious and then they get seriously twisted. The movie works because of Salman’s acting, Kareena remaining a sympathetic character despite some outrageous behavior, and the abrupt time shift at the end of the movie. Sometimes, the way a movie loves its characters makes you forgive its bad parts, even those silly action sequences that really should have been taken out.

Ekk Deewana Tha (2012): [Hindi — 3 stars out of 5] I wanted to watch “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa”, the original Tamil movie on which this was based. But this was good enough. A romantic movie with a twist in that the heroine doesn’t seem at all interested in our hero, and he has to make serious efforts to get her attention. Efforts which would qualify as sexual harassment if this was real life. As it is a movie, we finally get to learn that the heroine was interested too, but was holding back because of her strict parents and family who would never agree to the marriage. The movie apparently has an alternate ending (which was the climax in the original Tamil version) which I feel elevates it to, say, “Atonement Lite” level. The version I saw has a conventional end, but which combined with the plot shifts and well-made scenes, makes it a decent movie worth watching. On a side note, I was extremely irritated by the scene where the movie identifies the caste of the hero, something that has zero implications for a movie that is about a couple from two different religions. I am not sure why this is, but I have seen this playing out in too many movies to think it is a coincidence. Apparently, caste bigotry still holds a big place in Indian movies, something that we will all be ashamed of a few generations from now. Scenes like the one from “Lagaan” where the protagonist actively calls out caste-mongers are an exception rather than the rule.

Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na (2008): [Hindi — 2 stars out of 5] I can forgive movies that start bad, but end well (example: “Mann”), but absolutely detest those that start well, but end badly (example: “1942 — A Love Story”). Unfortunately, this is one of the latter. There is much to like in the first half, where we see two friends who are inseparable, but apparently seem to have no romantic feelings towards each other. They, in fact, refuse to agree to a marriage when asked by their parents. An intriguing plot development after which the movie rapidly goes downhill. I am not sure who chickened out — the producers, the director or the story writer, but the story becomes a farce. The hero and heroine are allocated one new love interest, one of whom turns out to be literally cuckoo and the other a violent jerk. Then they suddenly discover love for each other. Yuck! The supporting cast is also miserable. I may also be amiss in saying that the initial few minutes of the movie was not that great either, with a “Forget Paris” style setup where the story is being told by friends of the main couple to an absolutely shrill and unlikable character. Thankfully, it only lasts a few minutes during the movie, but even without it, the movie sucks big time.

Rango (2011): [4 stars out of 5] I used to love Westerns when I was younger. Then even though some of my favorite movies such as “Unforgiven” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” are Westerns, I started developing this aversion to watching them. I suppose it is the feeling that they are going to be very slow. So I approached Rango with the same feeling. But it turns out that this animated feature is one superbly made action movie. It is full of surprises and evokes great feeling at times. The creators seem to have had a lot of fun with the animation and screenplay. I was unhappy that Clint Eastwood was not part of this movie in a real way, even though his spirit seemed to be.

The Gold Rush (1925): [3 stars out of 5] Charlie Chaplin got a few laughs out of me. Unfortunately, the background of the movie (gold prospectors in Alaska) makes some of the scenes less funny than pathetic. It is difficult to laugh when you realize that real people suffered similar or worse circumstances. The love story felt incidental to the main plot (though you may disagree with me). I think Chaplin must have learned something here because “City Lights” made a few years later had a significantly deeper and better romantic touch.

Cooking with Stella (2009): [2 stars out of 5] Not sure why Deepa Mehta wanted to make this story into a feature film. At best, it is a short story that takes a casual look at a few sections of society such as the civil servants working at the High Commission, their social circles and the servant class. The problem is that the movie has no focus. Every character seems to have some moral flaw, but the movie limits itself to taking a few potshots and then moves along. At the same time, it also leaves the impression that Indian society is irredeemably corrupt and petty with everyone trying to cheat the unsuspecting. The abrupt personality changes (twice!) of the Shriya Saran character seemed rather unbelievable. The production values are good and some of the individual scenes are nice, but the overall movie ends up being meaningless.

Hum Tum (2004): [4 stars out of 5] If I was drinking orange juice and you told me that they could make a good Hindi remake of “When Harry Met Sally”, I would have snorted it out through my nose. But the creators of “Hum Tum” managed to do it and disguise it to the extent that I only recognized the original plot only 75% into the movie. This is what they call masala, where they took the Hollywood movie and added enough Indian ingredients (in culture, personalities, storyline, etc.) that it is mostly unrecognizable. But it is well made, with some tremendous acting by Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee as well as a lovable cameo by Rishi Kapoor. The only thing I didn’t like about the movie was the Abhishek Bachchan role, which seemed totally frivolous. I wanted to throw something at the TV when he opened his mouth.

1. “Tune Jo Na Kaha” from “New York” (2009): There seems to be an epidemic of movies such as “New York” with stories of extremists from the Indian sub-continent, all shot in cities in the United States. I remember seeing “Kurbaan”, another 2009 movie with a similar theme. Some of these are well-made, but none seem to have a very strong story.
2. “Tum Se Milna” from “Tere Naam” (2003): The original of “Tere Naam” is a Tamil movie, “Sethu”. I saw it way back in 2000 and hated it. A mindless tragedy, but surprisingly it was a big hit then, perhaps because it was quite different from other movies. And then the Hindi remake was also a huge success. No idea why.
3. “Tera Mera Saath Rahe” from “Saudagar” (1973): A simple, but wonderful movie. Amitabh Bachchan plays the main male part, but it is a negative role with little to redeem the character and his despicable actions.
4. “Chitti aaye hai” from “Naam” (1986): One of Sanjay Dutt’s best roles. The movie has grown on me over the years, even though there are parts that are best fast-forwarded. This song is very appealing to NRIs, though I suppose technology has put some dent in the homesickness.
5. “Tum Aaye To Aaya Mujhe Yaad” from “Zakhm” (1998): A movie that had the potential to be much better given the story.
6. “Piya” from “Abhimaan” (1973): Almost all the songs in this movie are excellent. And what a great movie. At the same time he was earning his fame as the angry young man in action movies, Amitabh was also playing the angry young man in these quiet, meaningful movies.
7. “Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe” from “Kanyadaan” (1968): Nice song, haven’t seen the movie. As a side note, it always amuses me that Asha Parekh ended up becoming the chairperson of the Censor Board of India. The last person imaginable.
8. “Mohabbat Bade Kaam Ki” from “Trishul” (1978): The movie has aged, but by God, what immensely quotable dialogues.
9. “Aasmaan Ke Neeche” from “Jewel Thief” (1967): The song is one of a couple of things I remember about this totally lame movie.
10. “Tu Bin Bataye” from “Rang De Basanti” (2006): I will probably detail this in a later post. But the movie, although a huge success and influence, did not work for me as I fundamentally disagreed with the approach of the protagonists. Revolution never brings lasting change. People can be motivated to tear down something, but building a great society and culture requires long-term effort and commitment. As for the song, truly inspired!

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