Variety is the spice of life

If at all there ever was movie that is a potpourri of southern languages, this would be it. A mallu movie, with a telugu-ish title, with lead character studying in Salem and most of the story happening in Hyderabad, they almost cover the full circle of south India. There are many dialogues in tamil and some in telugu as well!! But this is not the USP of the movie. It is neither a ground breaking or first of its kind ever story line or nor does it has extraordinary scenes and situations where the characters act their skin off or have ultra high octane action scenes. In fact, the movie is the ante thesis of all this and is as simple as it comes when it comes to rom-com's with the treatment similar to hindi movies of the late 90's or early 2000. The title of the movie crops up right when the hero sits dejected after his love proposal rejection during the last day of his college. He is as clueless as any average college pass out, without any ambition but counting on moving abroad t

I should've updated "Trip Wire" as the next in review in the series, but felt that book to be quite tedious and for an almost non-existent story it dragged for close to 300 pages. And the ending rivals "Balayya" movies, with Reacher getting shot right in his chest, only for the doctor's in all their "surprise" claim it to be a "medical miracle" that his pectoral muscles literally stopped a bullet and Reacher survives!!!  But "Running blind" the next in the series, more than made up for it. With Jodie, the lady who gets introduced in previous book, having a continuation in this one as well as designated girl friend of Reacher, also doubling up as his lawyer, the series actually get a second character who has a running storyline other than Reacher. The story begins with a bar fight that is settled by Reacher in his own way. Only for it to balloon into a controversy involving FBI, who somehow profile him as a potential and almost c

 I often used to wonder why our drama series fare relatively less when compared to the ones made by Western production houses. Budget is an obvious reason  which not just gives a much needed punch to the production values of those series, but also helps in getting popular faces to play key roles. And the setup being something that is already established with their audiences, the production houses don't have to oversell any series beyond regular advertisement methods. Even though some of the series, especially those produced by Netflix/Amazon kinds, have similar budget scope, the main area where i feel our series falls short being dialogues and screenplay. Some of the stories that come up on Amazon and Netflix are quite good and as intriguing as any Korean or English series. For example, Kala Paani on Netflix was awesome and felt as Hollywood-ish as any series made. The situations, dialogues, screen play every aspect about those series was spot on to say the least. Amazon tries its

 This is probably the earliest i am posting about a series, having just watched 3 episodes. Mighty impressed with the content and presentation of "3 body problem" drama series on Netflix. The production values rivals that of Marvel and other high budget production houses. With each episode running for nearly an hour and with majority of the running space requiring Special effects, the cost of making a single episode must be as high as a full time movie!!  The interesting part about this series being, the take on aliens and future of human civilization. A bit like Star Trek, but on a more relatable level, the series talks about the SETI program and its impact on human civilization, base assumption being, upon receiving a response from the other side. The series is almost as Chinese as it is in English, for i understand, the base premise has been taken from a book written in Chinese. The concept as it is, is quite novel and the timing of the response when received from the othe

 As mentioned on the first book "Killing floor" review, i was almost halfway into "Die tying", the second one in the Jack reacher series by Lee Child. It had such a curious premise that, even while reading was able to visualise scene by scene how the story was progressing. It was probably the influence of watching movies made at that time this book was written or possibly the book got inspired by the movies, either way, this is one racy thriller that streams across genres and plots like a forest river. The initial setup resembles that of Rambo - first blood, a lot to say the least. A stranger thrown into a situation and is at his wits end to not just save himself but also the mysterious lady who is kidnapped along with him. In fact, she being the target and him being caught in the cross fire makes it all the more cinematic. For almost a good 60% of the book, the captives get transported in a wagon, while the law agencies break their head over the kidnapping with the

When Neflix launched this mini series last month, thought it would be yet another pseudo comedy series based on hindi heartland that i neither funny nor too serious. But how wrong i was got proved in the very first episode.  "Maamla legal hai", as the name suggests, is based on legal system of India and on lawyers from a fictional town Patparganj, of course set in hindi heartland. With Ravi Kishan being the sitting president  of the lawyer association, ably supported by his "chamcha" duo named as "law" and "order", with sane guidance from Munshiji, the only normal character in this otherwise wacko unit, the kind of cases and issues that crop up in their court, all of them being real life situations inspired, the 8 episode series, leaves you wanting for more. Nidhi Bisht as the unscrupulous yet vulnerable lawyer, whose sole ambition is to get a chamber of her own and how she goes about "buttering" her seniors and superiors, is a hoot. I