Title: Open and Shut
Author: David Rosenfelt
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Legal Mystery
Publication Year: 2002
Open and Shut-a legal mystery by David Rosenfelt and first in the Andy Carpenter series. I'm a sucker for high voltage courtroom drama and legal thrillers. It could be one of the reasons I fell in love with a lawyer among million other reasons.
Blurb-Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys' network, irreverent defense attorney Andy Carpenter always leaves them awed with his biting wit and winning fourth-quarter game plan. But Andy prefers the company of his best friend, Tara, to the people he encounters in the courtroom. Tara, a golden retriever, is clearly smarter than half the lawyers who clog the courts of Passaic County. However, just as it seems Andy has everything figured out, his dad, New Jersey's legendary ex-D.A., drops dead in front of him at a game in Yankee Stadium. The shocks pile on as he discovers his dad left him with two unexpected legacies: a fortune of $22 million that Andy never knew existed and a murder case with enough racial tinder to burn down City Hall. Struggling to serve justice and bring honor to his father, Andy must dig up some explosive political skeletons and an astonishing family secret that can close his case (and his mouth) for good.
WeReflect: Andy's father (former DA) urges him to appeals for a death row inmate, Willie Miller, whom he prosecuted 7 years ago. Willie was convicted for the murder of Denise McGregor, young reporter in a dark alley behind the bar where he works.
Andy's father dies leavening him an astounding fortune of 22 million dollars, which Andy is totally unaware of. He also stumbles upon a picture of his father along with three other men neatly tucked away for almost 35 years old. This almost coincides with crediting of 2 million dollars in his father's account, unused, now has grown into 22 million.
On personal front, he is separated from his wife, Nicole, daughter of senator and childhood friend of his father's, Philip Gant. He is currently dating his private investigator, Laurie Collins. After his father's death, Nicole returns in an attempt to save their marriage. It creates friction between Andy and Laurie, who still continues to be his investigator.
As he builds a defense in Willie's case, he was threatened, being set up as a pimp (the courtroom scene had me in splits), beaten up in his office, and a murder attempt. These events further convince him of Willie's innocence. Who wants desperately to put an end to this case? Is there a real connection between the photo and the killer? Will Andy be successful in proving his client 'Not Guilty'? Will he be able to save his marriage? Need to read the book for that right?
Truth unravels in a rattling way. I was able to guess whodunit, but not the motive. It is racy, edgy, and perfectly fit the bill of legal mystery-thriller. The story runs in first person narration and gives insight into the protagonist's nature. Andy is a dog lover and has a cute golden retriever, Tara whom he calls the best dog in the world. Their chemistry and relationship is very endearing. He is quirky, witty, and sarcastic to the core. He will go to any extent to save his client. He is die-hard baseball fan, so there are a lot of references to them, which was kind of getting on my nerves. Andy is undoubtedly most likable character than any of Grisham's.
The supporting characters like Laurie, Kevin, Edna, Pete Stanton are very well portrayed. It has brusque and caustic humor; suspense; and right dosage of court drama. So what not to like? It is for certain a page-turner, gratifying, and has control over the readers. I have already got my hands on other Carpenter series. Need I say more.
PS: David Rosenfelt was nominated for Edgar award for best first novel by an American author.
Title: Blood Promise
Author: Richelle Mead
Genre: Young adult dark fantasy
"Bound by love, But sworn to kill"
Blurb: The world thought Dimitri was dead. And to a certain extent, he was. But I hadn't been able to forget a conversation he and I had once had. We'd both agreed that we'd rather be dead - truly dead - than walk the world as Strigoi. It was time to honor our words.
After devouring 'Shadow Kiss', I moved on to the next in series 'Blood Promise' pretty quickly. As story sets in different country, I was hopeful for some action-packed drama with a little bit of romance and mystery.
WeReflect: Rose Hathway leaves St. Vladimir at the end of Shadow Kiss in search of Dimitri, the love of her life, now-turned Strigoi. Mason's ghost leads her to Siberia, which is Dimitri's hometown. She manipulated Adrian to sponsor her trip and other expenses on a promise that she will give him a fair chance when she returns. In St. Petersburg she meets a girl named Sydney, an alchemist who was ordered to accompany Rose to a Dhampir village. She meets Dimitri's family and bonds with them easily. A mysterious Moroi mobster pressurizes her to return to US. After falling out with Dimitri's sister, Rose goes off with unpromised Dhampirs to Novosibirsk to get a lead on Dimitri. In between, this group kills a lot of Stirgois and the news reaches Dimitri. He kidnaps her and gives her a choice to be awakened, that being turned into Strigoi.
A parallel story of Lisa, Adrian, Christian, and a new girl Avery in St. Vladimir runs through Rose's vision into Lisa's mind. Will Rose be able to keep her promise to Dimitri? That promise being to kill him if he ever turned into a Strigoi? Or her love for him and the desire to be with him forever wins? What is that twist at Lisa's end?
The book is slow in the beginning and picks its pace in later part. The most annoying thing is Rose and Dimitri's encounters narrated in flashbacks, which were not in the first three books. I know the writer has to maintain Dimitri's presence felt as he makes his appearance only in the second half. I loved how the story of Rose-Dimitri and Lisa-St.Vladimir moves alongside perfectly. There are few new characters added in the series like Sidney, Abe, Dimitri's family, Mark-Oksana (shadow-kissed couple), and others. Mead's writing is simple and elegant. I loved the ending and excited to start off the next one in the series.
Film: TE3N
Director: Ribhu Dasgupta
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan
Year: 2016
Language: Hindi
One of the reasons to pique our attention of this film is the way the title is written. Another surely is the star cast. It is not every day one get to see three good actors sharing screen space. The movie is inspired by the Korean movie "Montage".
WeReflect: John Biswas (Bachchan Sr) lives in Kolkata with his wheelchair-bound wife. He visits police station every day to find out about the kidnapper to whom he lost his granddaughter, Angela 8 years ago. Now he suddenly stumbles upon a clue that may lead him to the culprit. He goes to Father Martin Das (Siddiqui) for assistance who is a police office-turned-priest and the one who handled the Angela's case 8 years back. He is not thrilled about it, however, goes along with John as a mean of pacification.
In the meanwhile, another child is being kidnapped almost in the same manner as John's grand kid. Saritha (Balan) is in-charge of the case ans she seeks Martin's help because of his experience with prior case. Both the investigation runs parallel with flashbacks in between.
Performance by lead actors are solid. Vidya Balan's name is credited as guest appearance, though she has more presence than that. Has she done this film for free? Bacchan's performance is superb. It is nice to watch him in a very ordinary, middle class role. He is a man consumed by guilt of not being able protect his grandchild. His unwillingness to move on is a feat to watch. Siddiqui is natural and splendid as he usually is.
We're presuming the title is for three people, a grandfather (who lost his granddaughter to kidnapping 8 years ago), police- officer-turned priest, and police office coming together to nab the kidnapper.
First 30 minutes of the film is tad bit slow. It gives an insight into how John and priest are interlinked with same tragedy.
Though we can give ourselves the credit of finding out "Whodunit" in the end we dismissed it and that is the beauty of a thriller. You keep speculating and proven wrong until the very end. The excitement, curiosity, and intrigue will keep you glued to the seat. We loved Bachchan's performance; however, could not shrug off comparing his role in Wazir, which is almost same.
Title: Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Year: 2014
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Landline by Rainbow Rowell won Goodreads best fiction in 2014 and that is how I came to know about this book as well as the writer. This is author's fourth book and mine first.
Blurb: Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply—but that almost seems beside the point now. Maybe that was always beside the point. Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts.
WeReflect: Georgie McCool gets an opportunity to have her own TV Show with a major broadcaster, which she has dreamt of and worked relentlessly with her friend, Seth of 20 years. Only glitch is she is all set to fly off to Omaha, Nebraska with her family to celebrate Christmas with her mother-in-law. She cancels the travel much to the chagrin of her husband Neal, who in return takes their two children and goes off to Omaha as planned. She finds herself alone and decides to crash at her mother's place until their return. Neal is not picking her calls, that worries her endlessly. She reminiscences about her 14 year of marriage during this time. Neal takes her call when she calls from her childhood landline and he is not the same Neal. It is the Neal of 1998 a week before his proposal. She wonders about having hallucinations. How she comes to terms with marriage? How she understands her marriage is falling apart?
Georgie is totally a unrelatable character. She is a comedy writer by profession, but could not make me smile even once. And Neal is a guy who hardly smiles and has a wasted dimples. He is selfish, mean, and jealous of her success. I don't understand why anyone wants to stay married to this guy even if he takes care of the house and children. Or may be that is the only reason she puts up with him as 90% mothers do. It is not clearly explained why she fell in love with him in the first place. Even though it is portrayed as Georgie having a successful career, all I can read is her grumbling and brooding. Neal and Georgie's relationship failed a big time here. Georgie's mother and sister's characters are little enjoyable though.
I was bored after reaching 10th page. The story revolves around Georgie making call to her husband, going to work, coming back to her mother's place, and calling again from landline. Next day, again the same drill. I had to force myself to continue reading, and completing it is not a small task. I'm told the author's earlier works are much better, but I'm not in a mood to try them yet.
Film: Pink
Year: 2016
Genre: Social Thriller
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tarian, Piyush Mishra, Dhritiman Chatterjee
Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
We had watched Pink immediately after the release because of the trailer and the sensitive subject. And we loved Shoojit Sircar's all films be it his directions or productions. There will always be content in his films. After re-watching it again we thought of jotting it down.
Plot: Three women, Minal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari), and Andrea Tariang (Andrea) are roommates staying in South Delhi. They meet three men at a rock concert, one among them is Minal's schoolmate. They go out for dinner at a resort in Surajkund. A guy starts molesting Minal and she smashes a bottle on his head. The girls ran off, and injured man is admitted to the hospital by others. The girls refrain from complaining to the authority thinking they will just move on. However, the boys start harassing them and threatening them. They even kidnap Minal for a brief period and molests her in the moving car, which was witnessed by Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan). When the girls are contemplating about the future course of action, an FIR is registered against Minal of attempt to murder and soliciting money for prostitution. And others are co-accused.
Deepak Sehgal, a neighbor and retired criminal lawyer comes to the rescue of the girls. His formidable opponent is Prashant Mehra (Piyush Mishra) whose single point agenda is to prove the girls as prostitutes. Hence starts the gritty courtroom drama. All personal and intimate questions are asked to build and assassinate the character of each girl. We will all know how it ends because our beloved Bachchan cannot lose and we don't want him to. The onward journey is thrilling, bold, and insatiable.
WeReflect: Performance by each and everyone is outstanding. It is nice to see Taapsee in a commendable role which eventually gave her a strong footing in Hindi cinema. After seeing her in many Southern movies playing almost similar roles, we wrote her off as just another pretty face. we were wrong. The girl can act, brilliantly in fact. Kirti Kulhari is amazing in the role of Falak as a docile, simple woman who was in relationship with a much older man. No one could have done justice to the role of opposition lawyer as Piyush Mishra. He is menacing, formidable, and evokes instant dislike effortlessly.
There is absolutely no words to describe Bacchan's performance. If "PINK" is going to be a social movement, no one we say 'NO ONE" could have conveyed the message beautifully. He is a powerhouse of acting.
The whole movies boils down to one single point "Consent". When a girl says no, she could be your girlfriend, friend, date, sex worker, or even your wife, it means "NO" in bold. We don't know how many people are aware of the word consent in this country. If they are ignorant of this fact, let this movie enlighten them. And nothing going to change the feudal mindset because they are prisoners of misguided tradition and we can only pray for their mental well being.
This movie is a tight slap on the patriarchal society who condemn, judge, and degrade women on the basis of length of their skirt, time to return home, living alone in a big city, her habits, her lifestyle. Pink is an exceptional movie with a strong social message; however; it never is preachy with its solid screenplay. We even feel this film should be included in school syllabus to teach children about the importance of 'CONSENT'.
Do yourself a favour and watch PINK if you have'not already. It is not every day you get to watch something like this. What actually transpired between the men and women is shown as end credit roles, so be patient until the end.
Book: Parva
Language: Kannada
Author: S.L.Byrappa
Genre: Mythology
If somebody asks me to pick one book that tops my reading list it would be Parva. A Kannada novel Written by veteran S.L.Byrappa based on epic Mahabharata. This has been translated to several languages.
It was my father who recommended the book. He had the copy, which was brought in early 80s. It was in a very fragile condition by then. He explained it was borrowed by many back then and was debated in fervor. I started it immediately after my 10th board exam. From then onward I would have read it 8 to 10 times and know the story and characters like back of my hand.
Now a days there are 100 versions of epic Mahabharatha out there and nothing comes close to S.L.Byrappa's Parva. The story begins at the end of Vanavasa (12 year of exile in forest) and Ajnatavasa (1 year in disguise). Both Kauravas and Pandavas are now on the quest to collect warriors to fight for them. It is narrated in different point of view of many characters such as Kunti, Bhima, Draupadi, Arjuna, Satyaki, Karna, Dhuryodhana and so on.
As much as I love all the characters it is Draupadi who stands out to me. A royal princess, married to the most powerful men of that time, her life is nothing but bed of roses. It is a feat to read her transforming from a innocent, coy bride to her strength displayed at the time of infamous disrobing to her unshakable determination to seek justice. She falls out of love with handsome and romantic Arjuna for various reasons. She opts for more caring and compassionate Bhima at later part. Her repulsion towards Dharmaraya is evident though she is bound by duties to treat all her husbands equally.
All the characters here are mere humans and not gods or demi-gods even the mighty Krishna. They do not possess any supernatural powers. And all born through natural process of "the birds and the bees", not by boons granted to Kunti by sage Durvasa.
Byrappa created the most believable characters with flaws just like how we human beings are. Author spent years traveling all over India. His research mainly consists of geography, anthropology, techniques of warfare, socio-cultural detail, and philosophical approach. He took sabbatical from his new job to do all that. He is totally impartial to all the characters he created. It is rather hard for an author because somewhere down the line he is prone to fall in love with one character
more than the rest.
I'm reluctant to read the English version of Parva for the fear of losing its magic in translation. And nothing can be compared with reading the book in its original language. For me "Parva" is the holy magnum opus.
TV Show: Modern Family
Seasons: 11
Genre: Sitcom
Creators: Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan
Starring: Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell
It must have been more than a decade since we stopped watching Indian TV shows, be it regressive Saas-Bahu Saga or well-orchestrated reality shows. News channels are no better, less news and more debate, yelling news anchors, breaking news, mudslinging. We digress.
We're privileged enough to keep us entertained during the pandemic and we never forget to count our blessings every single day
Right now it is marathon of Modern Family. We finished six seasons and can't stop gushing. Modern Family is an American Sit-Com shot in mocumentary style with characters frequently directly talking into the camera. Set in suburban Los Angeles, California, the story revolves around Jay Prichett and his dysfunctional family. Old fashioned patriarch Jay Prichett, married to much younger and sexy Colombian, Gloria with whom he has a baby boy and and a son, Manny, from Gloria's previous marriage. Jay has two adult kids, Claire and Mitchell from previous marriage, which ended in divorce. Claire is married to Phil Dunphy, a realtor and self-proclaimed "cool dad". They cluelessely raise three kids together; Haley, a popular, bemused teenage girl; Alex, super intelligent, nerdy; and Luke, a weirdo and cool in his own way. Jay's son Mitchell, an environmental lawyer and his husband, Cameron raises an adopted Vietnamese baby girl, Lily. They all stay in the same neighborhood and its their daily life's nitty-gritties.
It is not a traditional sit-com with usual laugh track. The show focuses mainly on parents and how they raises their kids and interact with each other. Theirs is a modest and close-nit family. Each character is very well-etched, though we see a little bit streak of Monica in Clarie. We will be well-acquainted with the character's mannerism and quirk to an extent that we feel they are real people whom we actually know. And the episodes are not interconnected.
It is clever and well-written story. The writers deliberate take on a lot of social taboos to show us how shallow and prejudiced society we live in. The life lessons at the end of episodes are heartwarming, but never preachy or soppy. It broadens your way of thinking and compels you for self-introspection. The writers create most hilarious and tear-jerking moments throughout the series. Kids get razor-sharp one-liner to match the adults too. All character share great chemistry with each other and they cracks you up most of the time. The entire ensemble of cast is brilliant. We're not surprised it has so many accolades in its kitty.
Our favourite characters in order of preference.
1. Cameron Tucker; over dramatic, passionate, bubbly, and outgoing.
2. Phil Dunphy; a cool dad, calls parenting as peerenting, drives his wife, claire up the wall most of the time.
3. Gloria; loud, outspoken, feisty, sexy, with a heart of gold.
4. Manny; wise beyond his years and an aptly called "old soul".
5. Jay Prichett; acts tough, although deeply cares for feelings of all his family members.
6. Claire Dunphy; over protective, over-bearing, stressed out mother.
7. Mitchell Pritchett; oh! We love his eye-rolling.
8. Haley Dunphy
9. Alex Dunphy
10. Lily Prichett-Tucker
11. Luke Dunphy
12. Joe Prichett
With critical acclaim, this one is a stellar. We still have to go along five more seasons. Highly recommend this one to anybody who appreciate good comedy.
