Turning on the Girls - Cheryl Benard

A wickedly amusing novel with a feminist dystopian premise 

I will make a confession: I didn't really want to read this dystopian battle of the sexes satire where women rule the world sometime in the future after a great revolution. A future where patriarchy and testosterone male hood has been banished, stiletto heels, romantic novels and rape fantasies banned and vegetarianism is mandatory. 

Behind its innocent looking, flowery cover, the pitch sounded so blatantly feminist, it screamed “feminazi". A bit though provoking indeed but too "pro-women, anti-men" for my tastes. Yet, the preview still piqued my interest, and I thought I'd just buy it and read a bit to confirm my curiosities. Secondhand books can surprise you a lot. 

I barely got through the very first page, it was as if Cheryl Benard knew what was going through my head because it was as if she had started to talk to me. No, I'm not exaggerating or crazy, the author literally breaks into the story to do a little explaining for us. About four pages later, I actually liked her unconventional prose and silly sense of wicked humor and continued to read. Much to my delight, I must add. 

You can read the preview or an excerpt online to find out about the outlandish Orwellian plot with a feminist spin so I won't repeat it all here. I just have to say that it’s been a while since I read a radically inventive novel quite like this in the recent years. Weird sci-fi movies yes but a totalitarian gender-centric novel laced with erotica and dark humour? no. 

It wasn't just the plot that had a remarkable twist, it was also the way the story was told. It’s almost as if Cheryl Benard forgot to read the rules of storytelling and skipped her writing classes in college watching Terry Gilliam's terrific 1985 gem "Brazil" for inspiration instead. And much to the reader's joy, it works most of the time. The way she pokes fun at the differences between men and women without taking sides or condemnation is a comic relief throughout. 

As long as you don’t take this very seriously and ignore the many silly clichés and unnecessary gender arguments, the subtle humor placed throughout (like Justin sipping on a "Bloody Henry") is crafty and witty, alone makes a fun breezy read. If you thought women would make the world the better place, this bizarre novel turns this idea inside out, over its head, and still surprisingly succeeds.

Donnie Brasco (1997)

A First-rate Undercover Gangster Gem with a Heart! 

Two of my least favorite cinema genres are the romance weepies and the Mafiosi gangster types. Agreed there have been numerous classics in these genres but dig deeper and you’ll find both far too formulaic and devoid of authentic human interests to excite me. Besides, their blueprints are quite alike, especially the mobster types - A very unsurprising (and mostly) boring plot that serves only to set up episodic scenes of betrayal, lust, brutal violence and usually gory deaths in the finale. One generally rates these films by the originality of the script, the suave protagonist, the scheming villain or the acute shock and abhorrence of the killings. I think Horror films do a much better job here! 

There are some brilliant exceptions though!! A very few indeed and the Oscar nominated Donnie Brasco (1997) tops my personal list. Based on the true story of a FBI agent - Joseph D. Pistone, who infiltrated the organized crime Bonanno family in New York in the late 1970s, it stars Johnny Depp playing the title character Donnie Brasco, aka, 'The Jewel Man' and a terrific Al Pacino as Lefty, a small-time hood, the guy with the right connections who takes on Donnie as his protégé and opens doors into his crime union.

Well-told cinematic stories of undercover cops and FBI agents have been surefire suspense rides over the years, from the film noir days of T-Men and White Heat to later examples like Miami Vice, Rush, Hard Boiled – actually there are too many to mention. Although the ever present likelihood of Donnie's cover being broken sustains an underlying tension through the film, the great script (adapted from Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, Pistone’s Book with Richard Woodley) astutely, is far more concerned with the human drama of Donnie's convoluted relationship with his gangster mentor. 

Pacino tones down some of the overacting he can be sometimes prone to and gives a stirring performance who Donnie comes to see as just a working stiff really, with his own unhappy life and his many problems and his disgruntled dreams. For Al Pacino’s Lefty, Donnie Brasco becomes a solid friend and surrogate son. Only when he's in too deep, does Donnie realize how he has endangered Lefty's life by exploiting him for a risky undercover sting, and this leaves him struggling with divided loyalties. 

In addition to this absorbing drama of Donnie’s dilemma, the movie also gives us a thoroughly believable peep into the secret environment of the underworld, emphasizing the daily realities over the violence. Surprisingly, there is only one scene of graphic violence in the film. 

Spinning a different note, Donnie Brasco is not set in the likes of the Godfather films, which showed life among the big bosses. This is about the lower rung – the street-level hoods and hsutlers who stoop to the pettiest of crimes (stealing from parking meters for instance ) to deliver the mandatory "take" each month to a higher boss, for fear of far deadly consequences. 

The diverse cast of Donnie Brasco including Michael Madsen, Anne Heche, James Russo and Bruno Kirby is uniformly first-rate, and other praiseworthy contributions are the realistic 1970s production design and the melancholic mood-setting theme and vintage soundtrack by composer Patrick Doyle. 

Director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and screenwriter Paul Attanasio (Quiz Show) create a bleak dirty mobworld of nastiness and perennial suspicion, and I think its a far more evocative depiction than the false romanticism of Coppola's The Godfather triology or the high-spirited blood-riddled tone of Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas. Perhaps Donnie Brasco is one of the few gangster movies that bravely flout the mobster formula and opt for emotional human drama over needless bloodshed. Strongly recommended!

Extended Cut - Free Streaming/Movie Download - Video Link

Paris to the Moon - Adam Gopnik

Reading Adam Gopnik's Enjoyable Love and Hate Parisian Memoirs 

I've been reading, really I have! However, much of 2012 so far found me starting new books, putting them down, starting other books. I just couldn't commit! I needed real hard literary counseling! But July is here, and I feel I am on the road to recovery. Here's one of the 3 books I started and finished recently, much to my delight considering all the three are NOT my usual type! 

The book in question here is American writer Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon. If we are to believe everything he says, Adam seems to have suffered the great calamity of living in Paris for five long years while writing "The Paris Journals" for the New Yorker magazine. My heart goes out to him, the poor man. 

Paris to the Moon is a compilation of wry essays that describe his misfortunes, along with previously unpublished journal entries which are equally sarcastic in style and tone. Gopnik seems to love Paris but he discusses and dissects French life and culture like no other - with plenty of self-deprecating wit, and he is perhaps at his best when describing the many differences between his Parisian existence and the good life he left behind in New York City. 

Everyday life in the French capital seems to have been troublesome. Gopnik faces minor inconveniences, like trying to purchase a Thanksgiving turkey during a general strike and figuring out the inexplicable construction of French Christmas tree lights, as well as more knotty troubles, like how to get a taxi when his wife is in labor (French taxi drivers it seems are reluctant to offer rides to very pregnant women but I disagree). Along with his wife, Gopnik's young son Luke came along for the adventure, and his impressions and preferences, including a taste for imported Barney tapes and his special soft spot for a female Parisian classmate, add an engaging allure to this thoroughly pleasant book. Though dated by over 12 years, read this bestseller if you want to see a distinctly different perspective of Paris that you may perhaps never read in any travel book.

Donnie Darko 2001 (+ Directors Cut)

Richard Kelly’s Inventive Exercise in Surreal Teen Angst

I just finished reading Richard Kelly’s “The Donnie Darko Book”, a fascinating addition to the inventive 2001 time travel cult hit - Donnie Darko. The magnetism of Donnie Darko which originally saw a very limited theatrical release but a subsequent fantastic run on DVD and Cable, lies not really in its focal stars – Jake Glyllenhaal, real life sister Maggie Glyllenhaal or Jena Malone (who plays Rocket in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch) nor in its hypnotic subtle special effects, serviceably effectual as they may be. Although, we have to admit Patrick Swayze's turn as a slimy motivational speaker is wickedly genius, easily his best performance since Point Break, the Kathryn Bigelow directed Keanu Reeves smash hit)

No, Donnie Darko simply works because it's completely original even with its sci-fi undertones. Its portrayal of late-1980s suburban American disquiet and crippling teenage perplexity is so authentic that a talking six-foot tall metal-faced rabbit named Frank is rendered only slightly less than completely plausible.

Donnie Darko succeeds because of first-time writer/director Richard Kelly’s (who went to make the equally surreal Southland Tales) complex script, which - at once candidly determined, mournfully delicate and strikingly intelligent - is also wise enough to make Donnie's parents caring and insightful, knowing that need not preclude the troubled kid from hating them. It works because Jake Gyllenhaal (in one of his best performance since October Sky and Bubble Boy) brings a restrained, tormented charm to the primary character of Donnie. And not to mention and this is the aspect that will haunt you afterwards - the stellar music of Michael Andrews and the befitting 80’s new wave soundtrack including "Mad World", the haunting No.1 Gary Jules piano-driven cover hit of the Tears for Fears single.

By portraying so honestly the time in which it’s set, Donnie Darko captures a dreamlike world of feeling and detail that transcends time, which is what the movie is all about in the first place. Or is it?

Present below are Video links to the original version and the extended Director's Cut which was released in 2004.

Free Streaming/Download Avi Links :

Donnie Darko (2001) Original Version : VeeHD or StageVu

Donnie Darko (2004) Directors Cut : VeeHD or StageVu

Gary Jules : Mad World (Tears For Fears Cover) : Youtube Video

The Bell Jar - Victoria Lucas (Sylvia Plath)

An Intimate Peep into a Deeply Troubled but Intelligent Mind

The Bell Jar, popular American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel which she wrote under the pen name “Victoria Lucas” is an astonishingly dramatic account of her life through the mendacity of the fashion industry, the hollowness of living in a little insipid town, the bewilderment and paranoia of a young girl attempting suicide and finally a perennial struggle to fight her depression and reform her madness. Plath decided that her "warped view of the world around... seems the one right way of looking at things."

Surprisingly, Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) had the fortunate ability to do almost anything she wanted with her life. She achieved excellence in her schoolwork, earned many awards and numerous scholarships for her writing and was publishing poems at the young age of just eight.

During her sophomore year at Smith College, Plath won a short story contest for Mademoiselle Magazine. And in August of 1951, she spent a month in New York guest editing the famous magazine. There she was enveloped in a fashionably ideal lifestyle and was consumed with the fashion industry and its trendy folks. Upon return to a small lifeless suburb of Boston, she became more and more withdrawn and her views became more and more warped. Even though she got married to fellow poet Ted Hughes, her personal life continued to disintegrate and Plath began to become trapped, in what many say was her own personal bell jar.

Maybe, Plath just didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She saw her life as a tree full of ripe fruit, each fruit representing an intense and rewarding future. In her own words, she saw herself "sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs to choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." This dismay and consternation eventually caused her complete descent into insanity, a few suicide attempts, shock therapy and even stays at mental hospitals. When this reached a peak, Plath committed suicide which her friend and critic Al Alvarez claimed was an unanswered cry for help.

A sad feeling thats evident in her novel. Plath writes in almost child-like language, with colorful imagery and deeply thought-provoking symbolism. The Bell Jar is vivid poetry more than prose - from the colors in her neighbor’s hand-woven rug that are trampled to gray by her husband and children to the spiteful fury of bedridden hospital patients whose flower arrangements Plath combines to fit her own tastes, it’s an intimate peep into a deeply troubled but intelligent mind. Midway through, Plath's childish, obsessed thoughts, strange words and bizarre actions are easily understood and the disturbed mind of one of "society’s outcasts" becomes all too familiar...perhaps, one realizes why psychologists did coin the word “ Sylvia Plath” effect.

February's Essential Reading - Blast from the Past

9 Awesome Books to Read from the 90s I guess!

Strip Tease - CARL HIAASEN

This may have been a really awful movie to remember, except for Demi Moore's title act for which she was apparently paid $12.5 million but the book by Carl Hiaasen on which it was based, is one helluva fun. With a snappy story line of corrupt politicians, vain TV reporters, grumble cops and a heroine to good to be true, Striptease is a virtual teaser, especially its hard-edged satire on American politicians. Incidentally, Striptease the movie was a colossal box office and critical failure and also won the Golden Raspberry Award for the 1996's Worst Picture of the Year.

Fullalove - GORDON BURN

A tender sentimental title, an innocent photograph of a cuddly toy puppy and you would think it to be a rosy children's novel. But just after a few pages of reading and it's clear Burn's no hold's barred tale of a blacked-out tabloid hero who covers serial killings and child snatchings is the last thing you would want your kids to snuggle up next to their beds. Burn, who was also an award-winning columnist for Esquire and Rolling Stone, conjures up a veritable blood bath with Norman Miller, the hero criss-crossing crash sites, visiting hospitals and mass murderers. By the time, you reach the end, you are a drained-out, sensitized zombie yourself, Read "Happy like Murderers" too, also by Burn if you like this one.

Vurt - JEFF NOON

Too beautiful for bikers, too harsh for hippies wrote the New Statesman when Noon's debut hit the Sci-Fi markets in 1994. And it sure hit hard. Vurt was not only voted the science fiction novel of the year but also won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke award. No achievement this, when you compare the fact that Noon was competing against the usual Sci-Fi biggies like Gibson and Asimov. Vurt is a Sci-Fi surprise, no gang-bang Star war adventure but a move down to earth setting in near future Manchester and a plot that creeps up to a superb climax. If you haven't read it until now, go grab it even if you don't like menacing Aliens and organic galaxies.

Bombay Talkie - AMEENA MEER

When we think of life in India, two clichés come to mind. The first of chicken tikka, snake charmers, bullock carts and women in colorful saris, the second is the bleeding image of a growing densely populated country trying to come in terms with BPOs, atom bombs, Aids and corruption. Ameena Meer's bold debut blows the lid of these stereotypes with a insiders look of wannabe twenty some thing Indians struggling to make it big in a brave new world where east meets west with interesting consequences. Meer's debut packs enough ethnic zing, sexual tension and local flavors to make “Bombay Talkie" a fabulous read.

Fishboy - MARK RICHARD

For a start, Mark Richard's best selling Fishboy sounds a tad boring especially its tedious long beginning that stretches the limits. Your patience is soon rewarded as it slowly turns into a dazzling roller coaster with enough imaginative twists and turns that keeps you spellbound to the finish. With bizarre characters like the lead fish boy, fish wives, seafarers, nuclear submarines and beautiful mermaids for company, Richard builds a intoxicating fantasy that is surreal, dark and good fun to read. P.S: Here's a small nugget you may love to know - Mark Richard was screenwriter for 2008's American war drama film "Stop Loss" directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) which starred Ryan Phillippe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Sleepeasy - TM WRIGHT

The premise is simple. Hero Harry Briggs is searching for his pregnant wife who is suddenly missing but is rumored to be happy and living in Silver lake. The surprise however, is that Harry Briggs is a dead man and Silver lake is a state of mind. With such a noirish ghostliness attached to it, Wright has enough fun as Harry frantically searches for his wife with just a revolver trench coat in a world that obeys no laws except the supernatural and nothing is perfect. A waking dream of a novel, Sleepeasy may not be your ideal horror read, but it sure is a delight. From the award winning author of the internationally best selling " A Manhattan Ghost Story" which is soon to be made into a movie.

Kolynsky Heights - LIONEL DAVIDSON

With shades of Clive Cussler's "Vixen 03 ", critically acclaimed Davidson's Kolynsky Heights is one of those old fashioned, spy themed, fine action adventures that you don't read these days. With an serpentine plot that stretches from a secret lab in ice cold Siberia to Oxford and a hero as suave as James Bond, the no-nonsense narrative motors along nicely at overdrive speed and regular bursts of neat action. Keeps you pre-occupied till its shattering and satisfying climax. If you like this, I would recommend the award winning and equally popular "A Long Way to Shiloh" and "The Chelsea Murders"

Slowness - MILAN KUNDERA

The author of the best selling "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", Milan Kundera has been one of the most fascinating writers of our century and with Slowness, he proved he was indeed one of the very best. His critics may not really agree but Slowness, is actually a fast paced philosophical tale of loss and human tragedy. Heavy stuff about two centuries linked together by the theme of seduction, about nobles and sex put across with a delightful lightness and grace, which only Kundera can muster. It's an altogether different question about the title, which of course, is ironic.

Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow - PETER HOEG

A delightful and superb novel that made Hoeg, a house hold name in literary circles. And why not indeed. A moody murder thriller, steeped in an cold Nordic interior, Hoeg builds the tempo sublimely and pulls it off efficiently with his elegant prose and wonderfull characterizations. For some, it may be a bit modish, privy to contemporary crime fiction and a predictable plot may too obviously haunt its pages, but this is a splendid novel that sets the mind dreaming and these days, too few books do that. In 1997, this book was also made into a pleasant little movie - "Smilla's Sense of Snow" starring Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Robert Loggia, Jim Broadbent, Richard Harris and Tom Wilkinson.

Thinking about Lateral Thinking

We're all capable of Lateral Thinking – of thinking sideways, yet still having the natural ability to understand, or to make the mental leap between what is being said and what is being implied.

Yesterday, I watched an old episode of “Only Fools and Horses”, a popular British TV sitcom that ran between 1981 to 1991 and even upto the early 2000’s. What I'm getting at is the genius of scriptwriters like John Sullivan, who anticipates an audience's response before conjuring up something brilliant. With “Only Fools and Horses”, he decided that forever and a day the character 'Trigger' would get his best mate's name wrong, without exception. What an indisputably splendid bit of audience understanding to include such a detail.

So why do we love this kind of lateral thinking? Probably because we welcome humor more if we've got a bit of work to do to 'get the gag'. It's more rewarding.

The point is, Creatives (blokes like me who in the creative industry) bang on about being lateral thinkers... but ask them to explain what lateral thinking is.

For me the best analogy is a joke – 'a man walks into a bar... BANG, it was a lead bar' – Okay, so it's a crap joke, but let's face it, in a split second you probably envisaged that man, saw his face, his clothes, where he was, and you had in mind a particular guy with an open door. Yet you were thrown sideways by the punch line, and the bar in question conjured up a completely different picture in your mind – a solid piece of lead piping, with the same guy's face now wedged up against it.

The fact that, to a greater or lesser degree, we can all consciously make this sort of leap sideways allows us to take what can only be described as the 'scenic route' to a concept. Getting there is 75% of the reward. And the ability to take an even more oblique route is perhaps the difference between a great idea and a bloody extraordinary idea.

To be too obtuse in one's communications is, of course, counter-productive. The more oblique the route, the more likely it is you're going to get lost. Equally, to generate a formula (or road map) for this kind of thinking is clearly impossible. So to make sure we come up with bloody fantastic ideas more often than not, the answer is simply to have an alternative approach, to think in a way that explores all the routes around and between concepts.

And anyway, this kind of lateral approach is much more fun than always going in a fixed direction. So, are you thinking now?

P.S: If Lateral Thinking interests you, read Edward de Bono's "New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking", "Parallel Thinking: From Socratic thinking to de Bono Thinking" and "Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management". All the 3 books are a great read and proof why de Bono is perhaps considered one of the greatest thinkers of all time!

Review of 'The Dilbert Future - Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century'

Scott Adams created a cartoon phenomenon with Dilbert, the workplace warrior. Now he takes on the next century with his usual bad attitude.

I borrowed this book from a friend in January but until I had to take a boring cross country car trip, I never had the time to complete it. Perhaps life is too serious for some, but I have to confess I found this book released some 13 years ago in 1997 and billed as "hilarious" – is actually rather silly, witty and weird. It is, obviously, entertaining to a degree, but the author Scott Adams, creator of the hit comic strip - Dilbert takes a rather narcissistic, sardonic approach to the droll side of life which some may not find agreeable.

However, the book's "prequel", The Dilbert Principle, was rated a best-seller so it must be understood that there are ample readers out there who did get a chuckle or two out of the follow-up including me. In this book, Scott Adams tackles predictions for the future, turning Nostradamus upside-down in the process – with an outlandish tone that deals with a multitude of subjects like technology, gender relations, the workplace, society and so on.

Altogether 64 predictions are dotted throughout the book in little "boxes", interspersed with Dilbert cartoons, amusing anecdotes and plenty of "bumph"! Examples of some of these gems include "Most scientific and technical breakthroughs in the next century will be created by men and directed at finding replacements for women" and "In the future poverty will be eliminated, along with the people hoarding all the money".

Personally I prefer reading a book which enhances either my knowledge or insight, or at least entertains – Adams' work mostly seems to have no purpose other than "a bit of irrelevant nonsense" and a laugh. If that's what you enjoy, it is highly recommended but for some perhaps it might be only useful as a funny time-waster on the toilet-seat!

What I Saw This Week - 8 Movies Worth Watching

Badlands (Terence Malick/1974) – Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are brilliant as young lovers who embark on a killing spree across the Midwest in this seventies shocker. Loosely based on the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1950's, in which a teenage girl and her twenty-something boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others, Badlands is a gripping, provocative depiction of unfeeling, psychotic behavior from one of Hollywood’s most famous and under-rated icons. One of the most influential films of its decade, it remains as fundamentally shocking as when it premiered.

Danny Boy (Neil Jordan/1984) – Outside a country dance club in Ireland, a young saxophone player (Stephen Rea) experiences psychological and emotional anguish after witnessing the brutal murder of his band manager and a mute girl (Veronica Quilligan) on a night of violence. He then proceeds on a vengeful trial after the culprits. Also known as the Angel, this was the directorial debut of Oscar winner Neil Jordan (Crying Game, Mona Lisa, Company of Wolves) and was executive produced by the John Boorman (Deliverance).

Frantic (Roman Polanski/1987) – Harrison Ford is a prominent doctor whose wife is kidnapped in Paris during a convention visit and he spends the majority of the movie trying to find her in a land of nonchalantly snotty French people and babes in leather miniskirts (specifically Emmanuelle Seigner, director Polanskis’ then luscious squeeze). A critical success, the action boasts some vintage Polanski-style tension and you will also enjoy Ennio Morricone's atmospheric score.

Gallipoli (Peter Weir/1981) – Directed by the Oscar nominated Aussie new wave specialist – Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show), this is a story of how the irresistible lure of adventure and the unknown combined with national pride brings 2 men together in the Australian army during the First World War in 1915 Turkey. This film was well received by cine critics and was also a box office hit but still missed by many across the Atlantic. With spectacular war scenes, this was also incidentally then the most expensive movie to be made down under. Aussie superstar Mel Gibson was also first noticed here.

Gorky Park (Michael Apted/1983) – An ice cold thriller set in the former Soviet Union about a murder of 3 people whose faces and fingers are removed to prevent identification. William Hurt stars as Moscow’s chief homicide investigator who must solve the bizarre puzzle despite its internal and international ramifications besides threat to his career and life. Prolific British Director Apted (The World Is Not Enough, Gorillas in the Mist) succeeds in capturing the paranoia of life behind the iron curtain yet fails in depicting everyday life in Moscow, a major strength of the Martin Cruz Smith best seller on which it is based. However, it’s a solid thriller, worth a watch. Lee Marvin, Brian Dennehy and a sultry Joanna Pacula provide company.

Hitcher (Robert Harmon/1986) – Pretty boy C. Thomas Howell turns mean after making the mistake of picking up psychotic hitchhiker Rutger Hauer. What follows is an intense cat and mouse chase through the desert that reminiscent of Spielberg’s equally satisfying Duel. Rutger Hauer is menacing and truly makes his presence felt, something that was sorely missing in Sean Bean in the 2007 remake. A very young Jennifer Jason Leigh also co-stars in this cult classic.

Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985) – Dr. Herbert West (a superb Jeffrey Combs) has a special serum in his little doctor bag that brings the dead things back to life. H.P. Lovecraft's story of power, greed and insatiable horror is captured with a stark humor visually unmatched and direly needed in most horror movies today. A genuine pulpy Horror classic, it certainly deserves its cult status.

Siesta (Mary Lambert/1987) – MTV Director Mary Lambert made her debut feature in this surreal often pretentious fantasy set in Spain based on the Patrice Chaplin’s sex and death novel. Ellen Barkin wears a red dress (when she’s not running around naked) as she searches for a mysterious lover (Gabriel Bryne) amid endless plot contortions. Often visually splendid enhanced by a nice Miles Davis jazzy score, Siesta is stolen by Jodie foster who plays a Brit-inflected yup. Martin Sheen, Julian Sands, Grace Jones and Isabella Rossellini also co-star.

Some FREE Movie Download Links that I could gather from the web

Badlands - Link 1, Link 2

Gallipoli - Link1, Link 2

Re-animator - Link1, Link 2, Link 3

Wisdom Sanctums for Lazy Bookworms and Others..

Finding Inspiration at your Local Library

A count of the books I had read for 2009 revealed a disappointing eighteen. A few minutes spent thinking about this and I had convinced myself bitterly that yes, only the privileged few can regularly afford the prices charged by hip and trendy bookstores-cum-coffee shops, with their shelves crammed with volumes of hard- and softbacks wrapped in funky designer covers flaunting the (sometimes-xeroxed) mugs of writers; the aroma of cappuccino hanging heavy overhead.

So, while not on my list of New Year’s resolutions, I made a concerted effort to pay my favorite local library, the British Council Library, a visit at the soonest opportunity in the new year. The proverbial door to a whole new world has subsequently been opened.

Also prompting my visit was my search for Marianna, the lead character in a good old novel I had read when I was a teenager, shrouded in a dark veil of teen angst and with a strong sense of anachronism that gave me a perpetual look of being lost.

Marianna was a girl going through the motions in the Sixties, who found herself overwhelmed by the camaraderie among the young and stoned at Woodstock, who became the inevitable university-dropout hippie who opted to travel through Europe and India instead, who did yoga and who never looked clean to her parents (no matter how often she showered). I had read the book non-stop in a few days during one of my winter school holiday breaks.

It didn’t help that I had met Marianna at a very impressionable stage of my life. Her experiences intensified my sense of anachronism; she fuelled my search for any remnants, even sneak peeks at the Wonder Years (remember Kevin’s sister, played by Olivia D’Abo, was a hippie), of that age.

My need to reconnect with Marianna was sparked by my own kind of 90’s Woodstockish Grunge experience (on a much smaller scale of course) over New Year – on a farm far away from the city with hundreds of other revellers, dancing barefoot in the rain in the mud for three days…

So it was in search of this Evan Hunter novel titled “Love, Dad” (after the way Marianna’s father ended correspondence to her) that I entered the British Council Library on a recent sweltering summer’s day. This library is a gem in the near morass of urban decay. Mosaic floors, colorful panelling along the walls, high ceilings with ornate cornices, slick computers, sunlight streaming in through sash windows, wooden-floored staircases, a pervasive atmosphere of old and wise, of being in the midst of a higher order… a sanctum of unexpressed exhilaration for knowledge.

I found Marianna easily in the maze of bookshelves zigzagging through the large fiction section. I zoomed in on the hardcover section and found “Love, Dad” sitting snugly between several other Evan Hunter novels. A quick scan of the rest of the shelf, something caught my eye… Aldous Huxley’s “A Brave New World”. There was a time when that book was on my "To read" list. I didn’t have such a list anymore, I realised. Now’s a good time to start again I thought to myself, getting all the more excited at the prospect of finding treasure upon treasure of books that I’ve been intending to read, but didn’t.

But these observations lost their haloed glow when the librarian informed me that I had to pay $200 worth of unpaid fines that had accumulated. I had to go back the next day. I discovered my card had also expired since my last visit over two years ago. This was effortlessly fixed. The experience left me warm. Libraries have only benefits to offer.

To summarise, I’d say:

• You can save money by not having to pay for books (unless you’re a lazy bum and don’t return them on time). Latest releases can also be obtained.
• By borrowing books you don’t clog up your own already-dense collection any more only to sell them to a second-hand bookshop a few years down the line.
• It’s a peaceful and relaxing place to escape to for an hour or two given the spacious reading rooms. And the Art and Music section can be a sanctuary especially on a crazy Saturday morning.
• It’s a great way to meet new people.
• The British Council Library (and others) has an Internet facility and a Small Business corner for the business orientated.
• Libraries usually have a community-based information database offering details on recreational clubs, support groups, book clubs etc.
• Most Libraries facilitate literacy classes by offering reading space and books for new and early learners.
• Libraries take special care to cultivate a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for children. It’s the ideal way to introduce children to books and encourage a love for reading.
• It gives you a place to start to complete your "To read" list.

Having revisited Marianna in her ageless Sixties time capsule, I concluded that the read wasn’t as intense second-time around, though I understood why it had left the imprint on my soul when I had read it.

And even though I’m spreading the gospel of getting up and getting in touch with your local library, I know, there are just some books you have to have in your own collection, sitting on your own shelf. No doubt I’ll aim to double last year’s amount, hopefully at no extra cost.

Essential Reading - Manil Suri's Death of Vishnu

Slumdog Bombay, Coma, Bollywood and More

I had read 'Death of Vishnu' many years back, having purchased it a railway station to kill time on a boring journey across interior Maharashtra. I really loved it so much that I not only reviewed it for a book portal but also bought additional copies for many of my American clients who had a peculiar penchant for anything desi. Years later, I found it again yesterday at a small second-hand book joint and I couldn’t stop buying it again.

An outstanding debut novel that I am told has been translated into more than 20 foreign languages, ‘Death of Vishnu’ beautifully depicts the last few hours of a dying alcoholic mixing Indian mythology with archetypal cultural flavours that can only be experienced in India. Speed read a few pages and the title of Manil Suri's first novel gets right to the point. The central character – Vishnu, having procured the right to sleep on the ground floor landing of an emblematic Bombay apartment, lies dying slowly slipping from a coma into the inevitable death. As our blacked out hero departs from his earthly abode, the apartment dwellers surround him, arguing over who gave him a few dried chapattis, who called the doctor and who will pay for the ambulance to lug him away.

Manil Suri, the author who was named a “Person to Watch” in 2000 by Time magazine brings Mumbai to life in its frenzied dissonance of sounds and smells, mapping the path of the human spirit from birth until death in a very inimitable method blending subtle comedy and tragedy. Suri skillfully paints daily life in a crowded apartment building, complete with joys and sorrows, neighbourly petty disputes and small wars over water and the shared kitchen, adolescent lovers and anguished widowers. His wonderfully drawn characters cover a wide range of human emotions and possibilities but never seem two-dimensional.

Suri also infuses his story with the sights, sounds, smells and tastes, so distinct of India. Whether it is the Cigarettewalla with his radio playing desi music, eating ripe mangoes, gulab jamuns or the cacophonic soundtrack to an Indian film, Suri creates sensory snapshots that stay and linger in the mind throughout the story and beyond. If you like this, also read the “Age of Shiva” from the same author.