Spirit Bound-Book Review

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Title: Spirit Bound

Author: Rachel Mead

Genre: Young Adult Dark Fantasy

"Salvation has its price. The words stunned Adrian for a moment, but he kept going. "You're lying. What you're describing is impossible. There's no way to save a Strigoi. When they're gone, they're gone. They're dead. Undead. Forever."

WeReflect: After tedious and disturbing journey to Siberia, Rose Hathway is now back in St. Vladimir's Academy and given a chance to finish her graduation. However, Dimitri gave Rose the ultimate choice. But she chose wrong. Though a little wary about the plot being slow, I started this one immediately nonetheless. My curiosity is on peak to know whether Strigoi can be really turned back to their original form.

Rose Hathway takes pre-graduation trial and passes with flying colors. Now Lissa plans to go to regular college near Royal court. Rose toys with the idea of being a guardian to her royal friend. Before she could do that, she has another duty to fulfill. She steals important prison files and sneaks out of court with Lissa and Eddie. Here they hatch a plan to break the maximum security prison in Alaska to free their enemy Vicort Dashkov and succeeds. In return Victor leads them to his brother, Robert, the only spirit user who knows how to restore Strigoi. In Las Vegas, Lissa gains theoretical knowledge of how to restore a Strigo with spirit infused stake; however, Rose is completely against this idea for the fear of Lissa's safety.  Adrian joins them and is pretty miffed on Rose's attempt to stay connected to Dimitri. Here, they are attacked by Dimitri and a bunch of Strigois. Losing Victor and Robert in the chaos, they return to the royal court. Rose is punished for endangering the Moroi and put on rigorous physical labor as a disciplinary measure. Dimitri then kidnaps Lissa and Christian as a bait for Rose. Rose leads other guardians to their hide out with an intent to kill. A battle ensues between guardians and Strigois. Will she succeeds killing Dimitri this time? Will Lissa be able to turn him in to a Dhampir? What is the changing political dimensions in Moroi society? 

The most irking thing in this book is the love triangle between Dimitri-Rose-Adrian. Rose is heartbroken and devastated by Dimitri's presumed/assumed death, which turns out to be false, thanks to his threatening love letters. At the beginning of the book, she is Adrian's new girlfriend. Yet, she leaves on a mission to find a way to save her ex-boyfriend. All is good. But she uses Adrian's credit card everywhere to further her goals. I am starting to lose respect for the well-established character here. I understand writer's intent to keep the romance, passion, eternal love alive for young adults. And why Adrian lets himself to be treated as a doormat? However, I loved Rose's gutsy argument with Queen when she decides to stand up for all Dhampirs on underage decree. As usual, the book ended in massive cliff-hanger. Fortunately I have the next book on hand and I'm already on it.

Maasan-Film Review

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Film: Maasan

Director: Neeraj Ghaywan

Star Cast: Sanjay Mishra, Richa Chadda, Vicky Kaushal, Shweta Tripathi

Year: 2015

If we get to choose two best movies of 2015, Maasan is one among two, the other one is Kaaka Muttai. This review was long due because we got ourselves busy in accomplishing other to-do things of the year.

WeReflect: Set in the holy town of Varanasi, two stories run paralally.  First, Devi's (Richa Chadda) sexual encounter is busted by cops that leads to her lover committing suicide in the bathroom of the dingy hotel room. This mishap drags her father, Vidhyadhar Pathak (Sanjay Mishra) into vicious web of blackmailing done by a corrupt, menacing police officer.

Second, Deepak(Vicky Kaushal), a young, lower-caste boy whose family works in ghat cremating dead bodies. He is pursuing civil engineering and dreams of a better life. He falls in love with an upper-caste girl, Shaalu(Shwetha Tripathi). Not willing to succumb to social hierarchy, Shaalu reassures her commitment towards the relationship. Here the fate mocks at them pretty cruelly.

Chadda plays a headstrong woman, who is neither afraid nor regretful, takes on the societal snide remarks and smirks single-handedly. She wants to move out of this small town, quoting "small place, small mentality". She is educated, wants to pursue higher studies, financially independent who refuse to take all blames on herself for an act committed by two.

Sanjay mishra is phenomenal playing Devi's father, a retired teacher/shopkeeper from conservative background, scared of being scandalized.  He compromises on his values by sending young kid working for him into a dangerous game of coin-collecting from the Ganges. He and his daughter have their own issues even though that is a matter of past now regarding the circumstance in which wife/mother died respectively. 

The amateur love blooming between young couple melts your heart. Friend request in Facebook, the long bike ride, late night phone conversation, coyness are sure to make you to walk down the memory lane. The sweetness between Deepak and Shwetha is top-notch. And the immense pain of losing the loved one will have you in tears.

It is unbelievable it is director's debut movie. The performance is extraordinary by each and everyone. Kudos to the casting team for this. An electrifying performance by Sanjay Mishra as an hapless father. He is not an actor, he is natural. Varanasi is picturized beautifully especially the ghat part. It is not an easy movie to watch. It compels you to think about love, loss, greed, fear, guilt, and most importantly death. It touches serious issues of sexual oppression, casteism, gender discrimination, and death on many levels.

Do yourself a favour. Watch this awe-inspiring movie for its sheer brilliance and heart-touching story.

PS: When we heard Sooraj Pancholi won Filmfare best debutant award, we were befuddled whether to cry or laugh. Vicky Kaushal of Maasan truly deserves the award, nonetheless he has won million hearts with intense performance.

Shadow Kiss-Book Review

 

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Title: Shadow Kiss

Author: Rachel Mead

Genre: Young Adult Dark Fantasy

'I set off, off to kill the man I love"

Blurb: Rose knows it is forbidden to love another guardian. Her best friend, Lissa - the last Dragomir princess - must always come first. Unfortunately, when it comes to gorgeous Dimitri Belikov, some rules are meant to be broken...

WeReflect: "Shadow Kiss" is the third novel written by Rachel Mead in the Vampire Academy Series. These books are my second series in Young-Adult paranormal fantasy after 'Twilight', which I loved despite many negative reviews. The first two books in the series (Vampire Academy and Frost Bite) I completed last year. The mistake I made was watching the film adaptation and boy, it was no where near to the book. The main thing missing in the film was chemistry between Rose and Dimitri that is so volatile and palpable throughout the books. I decided to give it a break and moved on to other books.  And, I almost forgot about them until last week when I was organizing the shelf. Here I picked this up and once again pulled in to the vampire world.

Three important things to understand here are; Moroi, Strigoi, and Dhampirs. Moroi, vampires that are born, mortal, and alive. Strigoi are undead, immortal, and made. Humans, Dhampirs, and Moroi can be turned Strigoi forcibly. Dhampirs are half-human and half-vampire. They are trained to be guardians of the Moroi to fight against Strigoi.

Rose Hathway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend, Vasilissa, a Moroi vampire princess. They have been on the run, but are brought back to St. Vladimir's academy. A lot has happened since then. Now Rose is about to complete her graduation and be a permanent guardian to Lisa along with Dimitri. She had earned two Molnija tattoos for killing two Strigois in the "Forstbite". In contrast to her reckless and impulsive self, Rose tries to be more grounded and responsible. Her misery starts after seeing ghosts of Mason (her rumored boyfriend); Lisa's experimentation with magic using fifth element, spirit with Adrian; dealing with Adrian's advancement; possibility of their enemy, Victor Dashkov being free; and her feelings for Dimitri, her trainer that is frowned up and forbidden.

The reading is breezy, simple, and holds your attention. I'm just halfway through it and already knew it is going to be wonderful. Why it won't be when it has romance, action, magic, and suspense.