Languorous, nostalgic, sepia… the way best memories are. In Aftersun, a father and his 11-yo daughter take a vacation to Turkey which, in an odd twist of fate, turns out to be the latter’s last with her dad. Twenty years hence, as she looks back upon that trip, she unflinchingly finds all the details lodged … More Recollection of a faded life
I might have missed young Latif if I had met him at a hotel or a lodge; bellboys are, after all, a part of that moving crowd which gathers (almost) no mass. But in Salim’s story, he is the hero. A hero who has a hairstyle like none other, a hero who takes care of … More Listen to his knock
DRIVE MY CAR | Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim It has been sometime since I saw Drive My Car and I have been trying to get over it as much as I have longed to sink into its white snows and blank eyes. I wish to … More Of relinquishing and accepting, in Hiroshima and everywhere
Call Me By Your Name | Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Starring Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars I tried thrice – writing down my thoughts about this movie – and failed all three times. Every time I would begin scribbling, my fingers would come to a gradual stop, … More Movie Review: Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino (2017)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars [Originally appeared here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/li…%5D How does a lament sound? Like a distorted sonorous wave? Hitting the crest with a shrill cry and falling to quietude with mangled whimpers? Or like a prolonged stream of soiled garble, comprehensible only to its beholder? … More Book Review: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (2017)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway My Rating: 4 of 5 stars “He was full of resolution but he had little hope.” And often, like a seductive oasis, this little hope beguiles the heart to endure battles of gargantuan magnitude, letting seep every second the realization of the effort turning as much … More Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952)
Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano My Rating: 2 of 5 stars I felt a vague twinge of remorse: has a reader the right to criticize certain details under the pretext that she considers them superfluous? Beginning my review by borrowing a line from the novel and infusing it with my words means two things: one, the … More Book Review: Honeymoon by Patrick Modiano (1990)
Life and Times of Michael K by J M Coetzee My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars “War is the father of all and king of all. Some he shows as gods, others as men. Some he makes slaves and others, free.” But how does one differentiate between The Slave and The Free? Is that Man … More Book Review: Life and Times of Michael K by J M Coetzee (1983)
The Loser by Thomas Bernhard My Rating: 3 of 5 stars Grey – The color that most of the characters created during large part of twentieth century and whole of twenty-first century till date, are painted in. Cruelly banishing the evergreen Black and all-star White to secondary positions,Grey has risen in ranks to be the … More Book Review: The Loser by Thomas Bernhard (1983)
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann My Rating: 5 of 5 stars As long as we breathe, we live. We do not possess the power to embrace death at will. So, we live. And for living, we cling to a purpose. The purpose may be clear or clouded, animate or inanimate, expressed or hidden, stable … More Book Review: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (1912)
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