Books and Movies

 Hey guys! So... I haven't done one of these in a while huh. Well, I just saw Wonder Woman 84 and it's the only superhero blockbuster comic book movie I have seen all year... quite literally. So given that, it's probably the best movie in that genre I saw all year. So, this is my spoiler-free review of Wonder Woman 84.  PLOT: After a mysterious stone that grants wishes appears at the Smithsonian Museum, gemologist and superhero Diana Prince must stop it from falling into the wrong hands, all the while battling demons both new and of her past. CAST: Diana Prince/Wonder Woman - Gal Gadot Steve Trevor - Chris Pine Barbara/Cheetah - Kristen Wiig Maxwell Lord - Pedro Pascal REVIEW WW84 is a pretty fun film. It's 2 and a half hours long, and almost the entire runtime is filled with fun jokes and pretty decent action scenes. It works like a standard comic book film affair. You have your pinnacle-of-good superhero, absurd action that's PG-13; it's the kind o

 Hey guys! So Tenet finally released in India this weekend, and I had a chance to catch it at the theatre. Not in Imax though (that luxury hasn't been made available here yet, unfortunately). Now, before watching Tenet, I went on a Christopher Nolan binge for a week. That is, I watched some of his most popular movies in order to ready myself for Tenet. I had heard it was Nolan's most ambitious picture yet, so I wanted to be ready for it. The films I watched were (in order): Inception, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Dunkirk, Interstellar, and The Prestige. Out of these, Inception and The Dark Knight were on Blu-Ray, Interstellar was in a theatre during a re-run, and all the others were through streaming. So how was Tenet? Did it live up to expectations? Should I make my way to the theatre to watch this picture?  Consider this a conventional review for Christopher Nolan's Tenet.  The plot of the film is as follows: John David Washington's The Prota

Hey guys! So, I've been a fan of spy media for almost my entire life. The penultimate fantasy being, of course, James Bond. Apart from that too, I would love the Mission Impossible franchise, Jason Bourne movies, and in general any other spy movie. It is an interest I still harbour, having graduated to more mature spy content as well, Bridge of Spies, Body of Lies, Zero Dark Thirty, and the like. However, as a child, obviously, there was a lot of content not aimed at children.  So when I wanted to read about my fantasy of being a spy and going on international adventures, I would find my solace in two book series: CHERUB. and the focus of today's blog post, Alex Rider. Alex Rider is written by author Anthony Horowitz. It is a worldwide bestselling novel series with 12 books and counting. The first book, Stormbreaker, was published in 2000, a bare two months after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was. This was perhaps one of the only novel series that wasn't c

 Hey guys. This post is gonna be a little somber and toned down and I'm probably not even going to promote it but I feel that I need an outlet for my emotions right now. Sean Connery just passed away, and I need to talk about why it's so important for me. I was maybe seven or eight years old, and my parents weren't home. All I was doing was flipping through channels on my couch, especially the English movie channels, I loved those. I came across some random film on a channel, "The Spy Who Loved Me" and it was just beginning. "So does England, my dear", says a man in a ski suit and then walks out of a shack. The opening unfolds and young me was hooked. I watched it through in one sitting, and that was rare for me; I was rarely able to that for films, especially for old films. That one afternoon probably shaped most of my life right now because, after that, most of my days were spent surfing English movie channels in the hopes that a James Bond movie would

In September 1900, a certain prolific Bengali author, by the name of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay pens down a great work of literature, Devdas (published 1917), the story of a heartbroken man who turns to a life of alcohol and self-destruction after not being allowed to marry his childhood sweetheart, Parvati "Paro". In 2002, Sanjay Leela Bhansali made a film off this novel, with the same name and the same title, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and Madhuri Dixit, which was wildly popular, cementing itself forever in Hindi pop-culture, with Devdas becoming the term people call each other by. And then Abhay Deol read it.   This was perhaps one of the most important developments in the course of this story. Because over the next year, Abhay Deol spent his time trying to get people to help him make this movie; or, more accurately, the version of it he had come up with. Most filmmakers rejected his idea, saying it's too artsy and would never work. And then he met Anurag

Hey Guys! Charlie Kaufman is perhaps one of the most interesting screenwriter-directors working in the industry today. His first film, Being John Malkovich is perhaps one of the most compelling films ever made, and it received generally great reviews all across. Another one of his hallmark films was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is again, an incredible film. Apart from this, he has two (now three) director credits to his name as well (Synecdoche, New York, and Anomalasia). Needless to say, he has had an illustrious career in the film business. And recently, I watched his new film, "I'm Thinking of Ending Things", and I can easily say it's one of my favourite films of the 21st century.                                                CAST: Jessie Buckley: Young Woman Jesse Plemons: Jake David Thewlis: Father  Toni Collette: Mother REVIEW: When I first saw the trailer for I'm Thinking of Ending Things, I thought it would be an interesting new high conce

Hey guys! So, as many of you already know, I'm a huge Bond fan. I love watching Bond films, reading Bond novels, some of my most played songs on Spotify are James Bond songs, and overall, I just really love everything related to James Bond. The good thing about Bond is that everyone has their favorites, you could put 100 Bond fans in a room and it is an almost certainty that no two Bond fans will have the same ranking of the 007 films. Needless to say, everyone has their own favourite Bond actors, mine is either Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan depending on my mood that day. Given that, I want to say that I love all of Daniel Craig's films. Yes, that includes Spectre and Quantum of Solace, the latter of which often finds itself at the bottom of many a Bond fans' ranking lists. So today, I wish to make my case and defend this much maligned second outing of Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond. Without any further ado, let's jump right into it. Under the Shadow of Casino

Hey guys! So, last night I watched Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece, The Seventh Seal. The film  is largely in the Swedish language. and is perhaps one of the most deeply profound, complex, and brilliant films I have seen.  The film follows a knight, Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow), and his squire, J (Gunnar Bjornstrand), as they return home from the Crusades. He comes home to find his country ravaged by the plague. When he arrives, he is greeted by Death, who has been following him for quite a while. Antonius challenges Death to a game of chess to prolong his life so that he can look for answers regarding his questions about God.  All the while, the Knight and his squire journey throughout the land gathering a troupe of different people and witnessing the horrors and the cruelty that the plagu e has brought about in people.  So today, I will try to explain two of the most prominent themes of the film: God and Humanity. 

Hey guys! So, I've decided to go on a Kubrick binge and watch all the Kubrick films. Some films I've seen before, some I haven't. Last night, I watch Kubrick's last film: Eyes Wide Shut. The film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and is 2 and a half hours long. However, those 159 minutes feel more like 20 seconds with the visionary filmmaking style of one Stanley Kubrick. Now I'm gonna give my thoughts and observations about the film. PLOT: The film follows Dr. Bill Harford and his wife Alice through three days in New York City at Christmas time. Beginning with a prolonged opening sequence of ballroom dance in the high society of New York. There Bill meets an old friend of his and a textbook smooth guy tries to hit on Bill's wife. The next night, while high on some pot, Bill's wife details a sexual fantasy she had for another man. Soon, we find Bill roaming the streets of New York and so begins a night full of chance sexual encounters.  THE FOLLOWING CONTAI

Hey Guys! I'm sorry for the delay in posing, there's really no excuse, just my laziness. Fear not though, for I have returned and now promise to regularly update the blog! Today, I want to talk to you about a new Hindi web-series, Amazon Prime's Paatal Lok. PLOT: A high profile case regarding an assassination attempt on a journalist is handed over to cynical police officer, Hathi Ram Chaudhary. As he delves deeper into the case, nothing is as it seemed at first. CAST: Hathi Ram Chaudhary : Jaideep Ahlawat Sanjeev Mehra : Neeraj Kabi Vishal "Hathoda" Tyagi : Abhishek Banerjee REVIEW: Paatal Lok is the latest in the Hindi television "Renaissance", that started with streaming services producing Hindi shows that are not regulated by stringent television laws. These shows are different from your average Hindi soap operas, which tend to focus on in-house dramas and romance stories dealt with in a PG-13 manner. These new wave of shows, like Mir

Hey guys! Graduating from high school is one of the most significant events in a person's life. It an event that I, myself, am currently going through. You spend the first 18 or so years with loads of people, some of them stay, some of them leave. What is common is that all of them play a role in shaping a person, That person is, you. And, for most of us, the most significant role in this process of "person-making" is played by our parents. We get really attached to them. We have our differences and our disagreements with them, but at the end of the day, we still go back to them when we are faced with a challenge or a tough situation. Around this time, most of you who are my age will be looking forward to beginning our terms in college and finally find freedom. But what is freedom? Is it really that desirable?  I watched 2 films recently that made me ask myself this question; Greta Gerwig's directorial debut, Lady Bird, and Francois Truffaut's French New