Reading Habit and Authors

 Nishka Rathi introduced me to a new author a couple of years ago. In a bookstore I have explored new authors too, for instance a couple of Japanese authors unknown to me, such as Kazuo Ishigara. Liked some of the new stuff too.

But I generally prefer a few known authors of fiction, such as Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, AA Fair aka Erle Stanley Gardner (he wrote under two names, for two sets of characters he created). And the Japanese Haruki Murakami, whose writing is surreal.

For humour of different kinds, my preferences are Dave Barry, PG Wodehouse, and in Marathi, the incomparable Pu. La. Deshpande. Also intergalactic humour from Douglas Adams.

In non-fiction, I like biographies, and thoughtful people like Osho and J. Krishnamurti who write about philosophy, and life's meaning.

My book collection has not stopped growing, and I am scared I may be buried under a pile of books some day.

Film Review- A Haunting in Venice

 This is an Agatha Christie story starring Hercule Poirot. If you like mystery stories with twists and turns, this one is for you. It stars a new actor in the lead role, and the supporting star cast is pretty decent.

The story of the film is set in Venice, and has a back story of a girl who apparently has died by suicide. Poirot's author friend invites him - he is in Venice leading a retired life- to a party and a seance by an invited lady medium.

A couple of murders happen in the palazzio which needs a lot of repairs, and has an unreliable telephone line, and is supposedly haunted. The owner, the dead girl's mother, apparently wants to talk to the dead girl's spirit at the seance, but the 'medium' is exposed as a hoax by Poirot. But things get complicated, forcing Poirot to get cracking again, to the delight of his friend and the audience. It ends well.

Gripping, well-crafted.

Youtube and TV 5 Monde

 I have found something I can watch finally, both on Youtube and TV. I had never thought I would ever be hooked to either. But TV 5 Monde, a French channel that I discovered last year during the first lockdown impressed me with its content. Movies, or crime investigation type serials, with subtitles. I have continued watching this many evenings, and the standard of the channel is good, and there are no ads- a great bonus.

Also, on Youtube, found a superb series made by A and E America, called Nero Wolfe. The series is based on a favourite character written by Rex Stout, an American. Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe are like Watson and Holmes, but very different from those two. Wolfe never steps out of his house, and asks Archie to do the running around. There is usually a dramatic end to each story, with all the dramatis personae assembled in Wolfe's house-cum-office for the murderer to be unmasked, to the accompaniment of the police in the form of Inspector Cramer, a character by himself.

These come in handy when no outside entertainment is possible. Plus points of the pandemic? Not exactly, but they help. How long can you keep watching the same stats about death, infections and shortages, after all?

Film Review- The Sense of an Ending

Absorbing, almost lyrical, though not as satisfying as the book.

Having read the book a while ago, I had forgotten the twist. A good thing when you are watching a human interest story with a very big twist. But I remember I was impressed with the book, and had even recommended it to many. By the way, Julian Barnes wrote another one that was about dying, which is worth dying for.

The movie is worth a watch if you either liked Lunchbox (same direcor here) or like Julian Barnes's writing. The director does a good job, keeping the atmosphere of an English Public School, and the countryside (where much of the action happens) authentic. The sequences involving the protagonist and his schoolmates ended too quickly, I thought, and the ones with his daughter were a bit prolonged (because they don't take his story forward). But these minor cribs apart, it's beautifully acted.

Please don't go in expecting a Guardians of the Galaxy, and you won't be disappointed. The book, as it usually happens, is even better due to the detailing.

TV Artists That I Remember

I have mostly stopped watching TV these days, as it generally has asinine programs. But once upon a time, I actually watched it, and recount with fondness some shows and artists.

The entire cast of Hum Paanch led by Ashok Saraf. It had a girl 'dada' among his kids.

Satish Shah, Ratna Pathak, Sumeet Raghavan ...of Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai

Rajit Kapoor of Byomkesh Bakshi

Rajni, starring Priya Tendulkar

Surbhi, with Siddarth Kak and Renuka Shahane

Karamchand with Pankaj Kapur

Tehkikaat starring Vijay Anand

Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi with Rakesh Bedi, Satish Shah Swaroop Sampat and Shafi Inamdar

Favourite Films- Hollywood

Though I have seen a few Iranian and French (and Japanese) films that are very good, I will list out some favourite Hollywood films here.

1. My Fair Lady based on Shaw's Pygmalion, about making a lady out of a flower-girl. Classic.
2. The Sound of Music. One of the best in all departments-conceptualisation and execution. Immortal.
3. Psycho. A classic in its genre from the master, Alfred Hitchcock.
4. Zorba the Greek. To me, a major philosophical book and film. Top ten for the book too.
5. The Omen. I generally dislike horror, but Gregory Peck warrants an exception.
6. Mackenna's Gold. Brilliant outdoor film. Omar Sharif in a great role.
7. Where Eagles Dare. Spectacular war-time film of a daring rescue. Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, and the scenery were amazing.
8. Silent Movie. Mel Brooks' spoof on Hollywood studios.
9. The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. I liked it for the way the mystery was handled. Unlike Karz, which was inspired by it.
10. Come September. Rock Hudson in a romantic comedy with Gina Lollobrigida. A fun film, that probably was the inspiration for Jungle Mein Mangal.
11. Dances With Wolves. A convincing film about America's native (Red) Indians. I think it starred Kevin Costner.

Comedies
As a genre, I like comedies best. I will include most movies made by Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, To Be Or Not To Be, History of the World Part 1, Spaceballs) for their goofy humour, Woody Allen (for the sardonic humour), and a few other independent films like The Loves and Times of Scaramouche in which there is a funny Napoleon,  A Fish Called Wanda, and The Naked Gun.

Book Review- Mr. Majestic by Zac O'Yeah

Yes, the author's name may sound stranger than that of the book. He is a Swede settled in Bangalore. This is his second book I have read, thanks to a friend who gifted it to me. The first was something about Scandinavistan.

A good read, and an original style of writing. This guy, Mr. Majestic, is a small-time crook and a tout in a seedy area of Bangalore (named CD Road, quite appropriately). In fact, like Asterix comics, the names here are quite revealing of the character. So you have Gundajee alias Rhino, a bigger crook, Mensinkai (chilli in Kannada), a medium-level crook with more experience than Majestic, and assorted other crooks with colourful names.

The humour is pervasive, dark at times, sardonic at others. The author abviously likes to explore the underbelly of Bangalore, where forgers, touts and louts have a field day. Some of them, like our hero, indulge in cybercrime too, in collaboration with the Nigerians.

There is also Jagatprasiddha, the demi-god actor who can cause riots just by falling sick, and cows on the road who can stop even him. In fact, the nuances of Indian reality lend authenticity and punch to a narrative that in itself is not a great mystery. There are a few twists to the storyline, nevertheless, and Majestic, named after an old cinema hall, resolves them with panache, just like the Sandalwood (Kannada film industry) heroes.

You will get more out of it if you are familiar with Bangalore, and a bit of Kannada, but even without that, it's an enjoyable autorickshaw ride, pot-holes and all.

Agatha Christie, Mystery Books and Films

Agatha Christie was a part of growing up. I read a lot of her books. My favourite creation of hers is the Belgian with the egg-shaped head, Hercule Poirot. I also watched a few of the English films that were made based on her books. The three films I liked best were Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, and Murder on the Orient Express. Naturally, they are all Hercule Poirot mysteries, with Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney playing him. I also saw a couple of films based on the Miss Marple character, but to me, she was an "inferior" detective.

The Hindi film Gumnaam was also based on And Then There Were None, written by her. It was a really good film in the suspense genre, where winners of a contest are flown to an island resort, and bumped off one by one..excellent plot. Mehmood acted really well, and the song Hum kaale hain to kya hua dilwaale hain that he sang on-screen became a rage. Other popular songs were Jaane chaman, shola badan, filmed on the lead pair of Nanda and Manoj Kumar, and Jaan pehchan ho, jeena aasaan ho, sung at the party where the contest winners are announced at the beginning.

I doubt if anyone wrote as well as her in the world of detective fiction, though I also like Rex Stout and his detective Nero Wolfe (with Archie Goodwin as the sidekick), and Perry Mason, the lawyer who solved mysteries while getting his clients off the hook (literally, as they faced murder charges). A black and white TV series starring Raymond Burr as Perry Mason was my favourite while in the U.S. in the late eighties.

The other singular author in this genre was of course, Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is incomparable, as is Watson. Elementary, you say? Also filmed well in an old TV series I remember watching on DD.

O Maaria Redux

Ok, I will admit I don't know what exactly redux means but it sounds good here. I think (hope) most people in India exposed to the media will get this. The promotion mystery rather than the murder mystery is at the heart of this poem- all situations are imaginary, and have no relation to reality. Read and sing in Hindi, to the tune from film Sagar.

O Maaria o maria, o Maaria ho ho
O Maaria o maria, o Maaria ho ho
Arre Peter jab bola tha tujhse
Shaadi karega Indrani se
Kaise kaha tha yeh bata aa aa aa
 
O Maaria o maria, o Maaria ho ho ho
Arre Jo bhi bola tha tujhse
Tu Home Guards mein baith ja re
Kaise kaha tha yeh bata aa aa aa

O Maaria o maria, o Maaria ho ho ho
Shola sa tan man mein ek bhadka to hoga
Devendra ki baaton se dil bhadka to hoga
Sun ke woh baatein kya tu chup ho liya tha
Mummy se poochhunga kya aisa bola tha
O Maaria ha, o maria ha
O Maaria ho ho ho ho ho

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken- Book Review

This is a Vish Puri mystery- yes, the Dilliwala jasoos created by Tarquin Hall that I had referred to in an earlier post. This is his second book I  read, and I am quite impressed. The Delhi language and mannerisms of all the aunties (particularly the aunties), the guys, the ordinary people 'and all' , is spot on. The mystery is no less.

A dinner guest, father of a Pakistani cricketer, is poisoned in full public view, at a gala dinner after an IPL (name disguised) cricket match. Vish Puri has eaten the same butter chicken that killed him. A lot of big businessmen  and their families are present, and are suspects.

How Vish Puri, aided by his mother (mummy-ji) solves this international crime, involving the betting ring-leader, a paan laced with aconite, a moustache thief who steals the facial hair of the record-holder for the longest 'mouche',  Pak ex-general with a softer side, and the diamond-smuggling syndicate of Gujarat, is the rest of this absorbing story. Tarquin Hall also takes a few cracks at Agatha Christie  (solving a crime in a village of a dozen geriatrics is different from doing so in India, Vish Puri says) and the British people along the way.

A fun read, and I am looking forward to 'The Man Who Died Laughing' next, which I bought with great foresight before I left Delhi a few months ago.

An Indian Poirot- Vish Puri

That tag is given by one of the blurbs on this book- and that is what made me pick it up. Well, not quite Poirot, but very readable and interesting is this detective called Vish Puri, a denizen of Delhi. He likes chilli pakodas, and seekh kababs, like a true Punajbi, and employs staff with engaging nicknames, such as Facecream and Handbrake, and Tubelight. These people help him, more like Paul Drake and co. in Perry Mason stories, to dig up evidence that will exonerate his clients, or get them disentangled from unwanted matrimonial alliances.

The Case of the Missing Servant starts with a rich lawyer being accused of murdering his tribal maid-servant. After a lot of twists and turns, and another murder along the way, it gets resolved satisfactorily- the denouement happening as in a Poirot mystery, with an assembly of all the major characters in the house, with an inspector (like Japp) keeping an eye out for the surprise that Puri will spring.

The Delhi descriptions of people, places and character quirks is quite accurate, and seems first-hand authenticated. That adds to the narrative.

An engaging read, this author called Tarquin Hall. I will read some more of him for sure.

Castle and Suspense Serials

Over the years, I have watched some suspense serials on TV, starting with the classic Sherlock Holmes which Indian TV Doordarshan used to telecast on Sundays many decades ago.

After that, I watched several episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Tehkikaat starring Vijay Anand, Bomkesh Bakshi ( a very good one), a few episodes of CID, Remington Steele which I like a lot, and now some episodes of Castle last year. Castle has been now revived on Star World, both old and new season episodes.

X- files is of the same type, with Gillian Anderson and Mark Duchovny (hope the names are right) playing the investigators. That reminds me, I saw Gillian Anderson recently in a movie starring Mr. 'Bean" Atkinson (a hilarious Bond spoof called Johny English Reborn).

All these in their own way are good, engaging serials if you like the genre of murder or other mysteries. Some better than others. I also loved the black and white Perry Mason series (starring Raymond Burr) that I watched on American TV many years ago in their re-runs. It takes a lot of imagination to churn out engaging characters like Perry Mason, Della Street and in hundred plus intricate stories, all with a courtroom angle.

Among Indian film producers, B.R. Chopra made a few good courtroom dramas, like Kanoon, Dhund, Hamraaz, Gumraah and so on. A part of Nikaah was shot at Osmania University Arts College, and we saw a few minutes of the shoot- boring, I must add.

On a different note, read somewhere that The Great Gatsby is being made with Leonardo Di Caprio. It is a nice book I read last year, after missing out on it for many years. Like The Old Man and the Sea, and Zorba The Greek. All great finds.