The Devotion of Suspect X: Book Review

I am not a fan of crime thrillers and since I've read Dan Brown's novels I've become wary of picking one randomly. So when Blogadda announced their this week's book for review, it took me a while before signing up for it. 

The Devotion of Suspect X is a crime mystery written by the award winning author Keigo Higashino who is also the President of Mystery Writers of Japan. 

The crisp whodunit plot is like a game of Chess where two masterminds; a mathematician extraordinaire and a physicist cum unofficial detective play their moves and constantly keep outdoing each other. The writer gives clues throughout the story but its only in the end that the reader is able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Yasuko lives a modest life with her daughter Misato in a Tokyo suburb and works in a lunch shop. She has completely let go off her past life as a nightclub hostess in order to escape her blackmailing ex husband Togashi. But her comfortable life is shattered when Togashi turns up in her apartment and ends up dead. Yasuko's neighbour Ishigami who is a mathematical genius comes to her rescue and out of his admiration for her helps her in covering up the crime. He uses is logical brain to mislead the police and asks the mother daughter to keep following his instructions.

He creates a perfect trap to deceive detective Kusanagi who is investigating the case. The hiccup in Ishigami's plan comes in the form of an old classmate and brilliant physicist Yukawa who also is a friend of the detective. Yukawa starts his personal investigation trying to solve the problem that Ishigami's mathematician mind has created.

Why does Ishigami who is devoid of all the emotions has such a devotion towards Yasuko that he goes to the extent of risking his own life? Why does he create a scenario where all the paths lead to Yasuko suspecting her of the murder? And above all, what is more difficult; to create an unsolvable problem or to solve it? The story got me asking many such questions and the answers to all of them lie in the last few pages.

The Devotion of Suspect X is a great one sitting read and did keep me interested till I flipped the last page.

Book : The Devotion Of Suspect X
Author: Keigo Higashino 
Publisher: Hachette India
Price: 350/-

Pages: 374

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Kahaani - A mother of loopholes

Now that almost everyone has seen Kahaani and sung praises for the film I can take the liberty of pointing out the loopholes in the movie. No, I am not acting like a Hollywood loving snob here whom no Hindi movie can please. I liked Kahaani because it maintains the suspense till the end, has filmed Kolkata beautifully and above all has given us Bob Biswas. But despite the good things I couldn't ignore those mistakes that stood there, in my face, asking to be noticed.

Caution: There are spoilers so please don't read if you haven't seen the film, yet.

My first issue with the movie; why is there a need to show Vidya Bagchi's history? I am sure a lot of people would agree with that. Why doesn't the movie ends with a mysterious air around her character? Sujoy Ghosh could've given clues in the movie and let the audience find out her true identity. The flashback in the end is a complete killjoy.

The ex IB chief who has trained Milan Damjee, trains Vidya just in a year or two. The Ninja like moves that she makes in the end does not look like a work of two years' training. My logic is, why did Sujoy Ghosh show Vidya as the wife of the slain IB agent. She could've been an agent who was secretly being trained by Darshan Zariwala's character. No one learns to be a spy in a year.

In the scenes where Vidya is alone in her room, why is she still sporting that fake belly? I am sure that it wasn't convenient to carry it around and the super spy wouldn't mind putting it away for a while. Sujoy should have just shot her neck up.

Rana who is with Vidya like a shadow all the time doesn't even for a moment doubts her, accepted. But suddenly at the end he has a happy realization that she was using them to get to Milan Damjee. Rana's cute face made me ignore his folly for a while but then again, a folly is a folly.

When Khan sees Arnab Bagchi's resemblance to Milan Damjee why isn't he alarmed? Why doesn't he do a background check on Vidya? After all, she would've been married to Milan. Why aren't even Milan and his people interested to know why is she carrying his photo? Probably every one is too sure that he is just a look alike.

Spies don't randomly go on a killing spree. They won't kill a person until he is completely useless. Here a mastermind like Milan and the IB chief are not interested in getting the information out. They just killed Agnes for no reason at all. Was she that big a threat?

When the current IB chief is himself involved with the terrorists why does he himself go to Zariwala's house to pursuit him to join back? I am sure he didn't want him to. It could've just been a brief conversation over the phone.

I am sure that the counter to all these points would be 'don't think too much, just watch the movie.' But if I have to leave the logic at home why should I go and watch Kahaani instead of a Housefull 2? Think about it.

Urban Shots: Book Review

They say that don't judge a book by its cover but you might hesitate to pick Urban Shots going by the cover. A pretty girl in red with sleepy eyes posing for the cover definitely repels me. The book landed in my hands courtesy blogadda.com when I registered for their book review program (well, who doesn't like free books?). I am generally a slow reader but the challenge was to finish the book and review it within 7 days. So my journeys from home to work and vice versa were dedicated to Urban Shots: a collection of 31 love stories by 27 authors.

Written by amateur writers and bloggers the book gives a feeling of reading a blog. All the stories talk about love and its meaning in the urban life. The stories thankfully are not tear soaked tales (except few) of boy meets girl. They are more mature here and don't always have a happy ending.

The first two stories 'Written In the Stars' by R. Chandrasekhar and 'Rishta' by Ahmed Faiyaz didn't give me any hint of love in the urban life. Rather, they focused more on the small town sensibilities.

I am not a fan of regular love stories per say so Kailash Srinivasan's a little off beat 'High Time' humored me especially because of its South Indian stereotypes. It is about a Tamil mother looking for a suitable match for her son, her bickerings, excitement of seeing the girl and inhibitions after finding out that the girl is no miss goody two shoes. '32 B' by Varsha Suman had an undertone of lust and was an entertaining read.

'Pause,Rewind,Play' by Shoma Narayanan and 'Twisted' by Lipi Mehta focus on Gay love, both in a way question the acceptance of homosexuality in India.

'Beyond reasonable Doubts' written by Sneh Thakur (who is also the editor of this book) is a mature take on extra marital affair and a couple drifting apart. Most urban couple who lead a busy life can relate to the story. The last one from the collection 'Sleepless By Night' is about a man dealing with his girlfriend's death. written by Mona Ramavat, this story is a good pick to sum up the book.

Rest of the stories didn't excite me much. The flimsy editing in few of them does disrupt your flow. If not  a great read it is a decent coffee table book and you can pick it up if you are sucker for love and wouldn't mind an occasional light reading.

Book : Urban Shots – The Love Collection
Editor : Sneh Thakur
Publisher: Grey Oak/ Westland
Price: 199/-
Pages: 226

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Bombay Duck is a Fish: Book Review

My recent liking for Indian authors took me to the 'Indian Fiction' section in Crossword. I picked up the book 'Bombay Duck is a Fish' by Kanika Dhillon hoping to read some crazy stories about the city I've lived in and experienced since past 7 years.

To wrap up the plot in few words, its the story of an aspiring filmmaker Neki Brar who comes to Mumbai; "the city of dreams" and lands a job as an assistant to a famous choreographer turned director (no prizes for guessing who she is). Despite of finding the right kick to start her career she keeps running into troubles. The book is about all that Bollywood is infamous for; bloated egos, sleaze, wicked co-workers etc. And a not-so-subtle mention of Shahrukh Khan whom she (the thin line between the author and the character is smudged here) obviously idolizes.

When we first meet our heroine Neki she is sitting on her terrace, wine bottle in hand. While contemplating suicide she flicks the pages of her diary where she has documented all the accidents of her life. As we continue we find out that our aspirant director left a lucrative job to follow her dreams but the problem here is that I didn't understand her motivation. She looks star struck from the very first day and is already kissing (or rather being kissed by) the hot supporting actor Ranbeer Khanna within the first week of her job.

As per her diary she is hated by her co-workers because of the yellow shoes that she wore on the day of her interview. Now, I know that film industry is full of shallow people but I have yet to meet people who'll judge you from your shoes, that too good shoes.

She has moved to Mumbai for the love of it but makes a fuss when a colleague (who also has a crush on her) takes her on a tour. Her life in Mumbai revolves between the studio, Ranbeer Khanna's van and Ranbeer Khanna's house, resulting in pregnancy and attempted suicide. In short, Neki looks shallow to me and never for a single moment gains my sympathy.

The film industry that Kanika has created in the book is a tale that parents tell their children to scare them off from the unimaginable path. If you are an aspirant filmmaker, film writer or actor don't let your folks lay hand on this one. However, in this hell hole where everyone is ready to bite the only people with a heart of gold are either the extras or Shahrukh Khan and the super successful director.

'Bombay Duck is a Fish' indeed but a sukkha bombil with not enough meat.

Book: Bombay Duck Is A Fish
Author: Kanika Dhillon
Publisher: Westland
Price: 195/-
Pages: 317

Paan Singh Tomar: Movie Review

this article was first published on burrp!
http://bit.ly/zi5cTC
 
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Mahie Gill, Zakir Hussain, Nawazuddin

Rating: ***

There was a time when actors like Sunil Dutt made dacoits glamorous. Their larger than life characters had a heart of gold underneath the tough bodies. The time changed and ferocious Gabbar Singh took over. The almost animal like daaku terrorized Ramgarh for the longest time. Years later Jageera in China Gate attempted a Gabbar Singh but ended up being nothing more than a mockery. Shekhar Kapoor helped shed the glam quotient with his true-to-life depiction of The Bandit Queen.

With the latest release in the same genre director Tigmanshu Dhulia (Haasil fame ) has taken Kapoor’s legacy further and told us an unheard story.

Paan Singh Tomar joined the army in the 1950s. He hailed from Chambal and according to him the dacoits are actually good people who turned rebels. In his own words, “beehad mein baagi hote hain, dacait toh Parliament mein hote hain”. Afraid of his rebellious instinct and seeing his exceptional running abilities his seniors shift him to the sports department. He runs for the country till he plans to take a voluntary retirement to take care of his kheti.

Rest of the film is a transition of an Army Subedar to a national level athlete and finally a dreaded name in the valleys of Chambal. What triggers this transition is the cunning cousin who wants to take over his land, destroys his crop and tries to kill his family. The police and the system offer no help leaving him with no choice than to take the matters in his own hands. The man who was denied the opportunity to fight in the war (because he was a sportsperson) picks up the gun for revenge.  The rebel in him who is suppressed comes out in the second half of the film. Paan Singh is no Robinhood, he kills for revenge and kidnaps for money.

The film also throws a light on the poor conditions of our national level athletes, the unsung heroes who died an unknown death.

Irrfan Khan is Tigmanshu Dhulia’s lucky charm. He was a thunderbolt in Haasil and is nothing less than that in this one. All those who have seen him grow from Banegi Apni Baat should be extremely proud. His Paan Singh Tomar commands respect and makes you sympathize with him just through his expressive eyes. Nawazuddin appears in a small role but after his critically acclaimed role in Peepli Live this one doesn’t do justice to his acting abilities.

What makes this film special is Tigmanshu Dhulia’s love for the raw appeal. He inspires you to look beneath the polished layer. His characters, locations and language are crude. He does not try to refine them for your viewing pleasure.

Paan Singh Tomar with all its shortcomings (read stretched second half, off sync dubbing, occasional dramatic dialogues) is a film that should be watched mostly for Irrfan Khan and also for its story.