What is it with the Swedish Crime fiction and TV shows...

...that they tend to be so gripping and completely worth the time spent?

This week I finished the second season of 'Bron/Broen' or The Bridge, the award winning Swedish/Danish TV crime fiction show; with Saga Norén and Martin Rohde in the lead, played by Sofia Helin and Kim Bodni. This was right after I finished the first season; because I had to see it! Odd as Saga maybe, real and in-touch-with-his-feelings that Martin maybe, and what a complementary pair they make, the characters just grow on you. If you have seen Bones, the US show, and remember Dr. Temperence 'Bones' Brennan, played skillfully by Emily Deschanel, you know a milder cousin of Saga! European shows make no bones of (no pun intended!) what they want to show or portray. The story line of Bron is simply gripping, the suspense creeps up on you, and in the end you get more than you expected. The cinematography seems largely 'grey' which adds to the drama and emphasizes the serious (sometimes Saga is really funny in her naiveté of emotions around people!) theme.

End of second season two, especially, brought out facets of Martin and Saga each that made you sit and think how do the writers and directors (several credited) pack so much into their work. The story line remains multidimensional throughout Helin and Bodni as well as a couple of others display immense talent. While the crime remains the main focus of the story, and you are in the detective mode all through, you cannot but wonder how the Saga and Norén's personalities will pan out given how their individual and separate lives are panning out as the series progresses. How many shows do that to you? (The Americans is an exceptional show in the same way).  Relationships are never easy, but the imminence of the inevitable lurks around in your mind even as you know things wouldn't workout how much ever you wish they would. I am sure I missed some dimensions even as I saw the original Swedish/Danish version with English subtitles. But what I felt watching Bron has made me start searching for more of the crime fiction shows from Scandinavia.

It all started last year, when I got in to a reading spree and managed to read about 50 books, mostly fiction, in the year. About a dozen or so were Swedish crime, starting with (of course!) Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, first of which is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I have not seen the movie yet, but I am not in a hurry. Some of the other writers I have managed to read so far include Karin Alvtegen (The Missing), Camilla Läckberg (The Preacher) and Henning Mankell (The Fifth Woman). I plan to read  Jo Nesbø's The Leapord, among others, soon. 

It had been a long time since I had read crime fiction. But, Swedish crime fiction pulled me back in to it. I must admit, I am a big fan of Jack Reacher by Lee Child. I have read all the books including novellas on Jack Reacher. That said, while I like Reacher for completely different reasons, little comes close the intense narrative of Swedish crime fiction, as far as crime fiction works go. I admit I am able to read the English translated version of these fine writings. So, while it would be great to have been able to read the books and watch the shows in native tongue, I am floored by what I have managed to gain from the translated or subtitled works.

A couple more useful links: 

My favourite page on Scandinavian Crime Writers

My Facebook page on Jack Reacher

Review of 'The Bastard of Istanbul'

The Bastard of Istanbul is a gripping tale of love, lovelessness and family secrets painted on a canvass of Turkey’s vivid cultural melange. The characters depict a lot of passion both in their rebelliousness and conformity, portraying in them the conflicts of daily life living the modern life with the burden of the past.

I picked up this book as a predecessor to the much acclaimed The 40 Rules of Love, a book I loved for its intense mystic undertones. The exceptionally creative narrative made me an instant Elif Shafak fan. The narrative is quite different as compared to 40 Rules. But interleaving time-spans to narrate intricate tale seems to be a favourite common factor. Intense characterisation with highly sensitive handling of characters’ emotions stays with you. For example the balloon seller sailing away on the boat over Bosphorus remains vivid in its detail days after closing the book.

The Bastard beautifully brings out the nuances of the cultural and political modern history of Turkey. If you are interested in the vicissitudes of Turkish and Armenian lives through the modern history of Turkey, this is as good a book that provides an up close and personal view. Be prepared for an insider’s perspective on the culture based political conflicts as well as generational differences in interpretations. It raises interesting questions like What’s better –to remember your history or the forget it or not know it all? How much are you accountable for the actions of your societal ascendants? The book is an interesting journey in the gastronomic essence of Turkish culture. Are the chapter titles the ingredients of Ashure? If yes, that’s another neat dimension to the narration. And when the ingredient list is done, you know that Ashure is ready. But, still, I did not see that end coming.

Elif Shafak is my favourite contemporary literary fiction writer in just two books in a little over as many months; three more arrived a few days back.  Bastard of Istanbul is a must read if you like to explore the exotic.

-Gowrish

Inception in one word: 'mindblowing'.

Inception is simply mind blowing! Christopher Nolan has written and directed one of the smartest movies in recent times; probably ever. The movie is smart not just because it makes you think and pushes the limits of your imagination. It is so because what could have easily become a complex screenplay has a simplified delivery. This is genius.

'An idea is the biggest parasite'. This line took me back to days of allegorical tale telling. A king unable to get rid of an idea in his mind approaches a wise man after all else fails. The wise man advises him that the day the king is able to not think about 'Mangoes', is when he will be cured. Putting an idea into someone's mind (aka inception) was easy, you thought? You have no idea until you watch this movie.

I went with a notion that Inception would be like one of Nolan's earlier films 'The Memento'. I was focussing on the timeline-maze that Nolan had created in that classic 'thinking' movie. Even if I were to unfairly compare the two, the latest one wins by a huge margin. The comparison is not so unfair since both  delve into aspects of the mind. The Memento played around with the linearity of time-flow. Nolan 'messed' it up pretty neatly to challenge the viewers. Inception on the other hand is about getting deeper into moments as the story proceeds. As a hobby photographer, I enjoy playing with 'slowing time down' in away a good fast lens can. Inception is a treat for the mind and the eyes.

One, two, three, oh boy, four layers? How did Nolan even think he could get the audience to buy into this plot? How do you keep the audience with you all along? This is where the smartness kicks in. Simplicity is ultimate sophistication. This movie is a fine example of it. I did not even budge through the movie.

Visuals and camera tricks are the key dimensions of smartness of the movie. Awesome scenes keep pushing you in and out of reality pretty artfully with details that would be lost outside the large screen. I must admit I took a shot at watching this movie on a laptop; 16 minutes later I decided that I had to do something and watch this in mega size. A 'smart' decision.

The performances are award winning. DiCaprio plays Cobb, the protagonist dealing with his own mental demons even as he manouvers skillsfully into the minds of the subjects. Supporting him, his 'team' (everyone) delivers convincingly. Music links the layers of this movie. The music paces with the layers, transitions you in and out of them and helps you keep tabs on where you are.

In India, even in a 90 minute movie is given an intermission. Glad that this 165 minute sitting did not have any. Probably, someone up there (producers/ director) drove the condition that there shouldn't be one. Another smart angle to delivering the story convincingly.

Is this movie for real? It's time I got my own totem to figure it out.

Review of Cesky Sen

Saying that the directors, Vit Kusak and Filip Remunda, only intended to pull an April Fool's day prank on 10 million people would obviously be too perfunctory an observation. Pronounced "chess-key sen", the movie literally, 'Czech Dream', is a wonderfully directed documentary comedy on one hand and a reality show on the other. The power of consumerism can be tested in different ways and media's overpowering influence used to make people do things is what the movie primarily tells you.

Two students of Czech Film Academy, by way of their final year project, test the concept of modern consumerism that embodies the notion that a lot of fact is really only part truth when it comes to media campaigning. Their movie is a satirical corroboration to this notion by trying to prove that they can successfully create a 'bubble' out of thin air and make people believe it is real. They do this by conceptualising a hypermarket that will improve the lifestyle of the Czech public with a promise of low prices, great offers and a dream shopping experience. They do this with sponsorships from a top luxury apparel brand house, a media company (who have differences with the directors' motives on ethical grounds but choose to be professional and do the job anyway for the learning it would provide), real market surveys (this part is a small treat for marketing students) with real families and volunteers and before all this even a grant for making the movie from the nation's Ministry of Culture.

The whole process is documented in this film with superb music; a melodious mix of directed music as well as impromptu responses from the public. The 'Hey ho!' is still haunting me as I write this. The music is also a part of the publicity campaign that is both no holds barred 'corporate' as well as replete with double entendres of carefully chosen words- 'Don't bother', 'don't wait', 'don't shop' etc. There is no escaping from the deluge of messages that the dream supermarket ad campaign provides- TV, Radio, fliers, public interviews etc and the public chases the dream to its ribbon cutting ceremony.

In the course of the movie, the directors themselves learn a lot about the science and art behind the marketing promotion of a hyper market. With clothes borrowed from the sponser, they appear in publicity campaigns featuring as the managers of the 'Czech Dream' hypermarket in Prague (whose location they do not reveal till the very end of the campaign). What happens next is an easy guess on most groundsm especially the reactions of the ropable crowd of 'shoppers who meet the surprise'. But some responses from the calm people there are surprising and insightful toward the motives of the directors.

The movie is well cinematographed, even if in 'no glamour, only documentary' style. The music, the script and the natural responses from the unsuspecting participants is quite moving yet funny.The movie was shot, read as the 'dream scam' was played, a few months before the European Union referendum was signed by the people of Czech Republic.The movie aimed to raise questions in the people's mind by brining more people face to face with the need to take a careful look at the national media campaign to vote in favour of joining the EU.

To a marketing student Cesky Sen reiterates that when consumer expectations clash with reality the result is not always pleasant either for the marketer or for the consumer if there is a gap beyond the lattitude of acceptance by the consumer. Like any caricature, the gap is accentuated in the movie. This is a point well made by the award winning directors who have been acclaimed to have a promising future based on the critical success- not sure of the box office success- of their debut venture.

A colorful Road Trip

A road trip typically combines the thrill of driving your own car through countryside and highways with the freshness of seeing rural and natural sights that one gets un-used to seeing in a city. In a road trip natural colors are easy to come by. Here are some colours of Karnataka that that we saw flying around us in the Ghats and along the coastline.

That the Western Ghats are green is common knowledge. The myriad shades of green shone by the tea gardens of Kalasa, Kudremukh and Samse, coffee plantations stretching from Sakleshpur to Mudigere and the sporadic deciduous and rare coniferous foliages sprouting out from deep red mountain soil remind you that tropical heaven is only a few hours drive away from home- the natural red and green.

Green is also the color of hope. The Shiradi Ghat road renovation project gives hope that the Mangalore Bangalore corridor will boost economic growth over the next decade more than what the recently inaugurated railway track will. The 9 inch thick tarmac starting Sakleshpur and the 1 foot thick concrete beams at the hairpin bends are being laid out with deliberation. Making no mistakes this time, the road has been closed to heavy traffic and opened to only controlled private car/light vehicular traffic.

The Greater Mangalore, if you may, area is poised to see amazing growth in the next few years. The infamous, for road accidents, NH17 belt going north from Mangalore is seeing new shades of grey- those of concrete and tarmac laid in the form of four-lane if not six-lane expressway complete with underpass and flyovers. The road will be made safe by itself. Left to man's fancies, however, nothing is safe.

All this, on top of the existing airway, railway will bootstrap the connectivity of the ports and upcoming SEZs with the hinterland. New SEZs for an energy company and several IT companies will lift this town from its tier 2 status to metro in the next decade.

That apart, the blue skies above and backwaters abutting the highway remind you that it is a little too unusual for rains to cause havoc in the evenings. What ought to be pink and blue- the two colors of spring- actually make you think black for the dark evening skies as well as the creeping impact of global warming. Forget that and the white sands of Maravanthe and the aquamarine waters of the sea beyond bring you right back to where we intended to spend one afternoon. Hot, you bet, and sultry worsened by last night's rain.

The legacy of the dynasties remnants of one of which, Hoysalas, we visited at Belur and Halebid ought to carry a bright orange glow. Orange is the color of endurance. That such intricate sculpture work has weathered nature and foreign invasions through the years is a testimony to capabilities and talents of a foregone era. The ornate pillars of the Chennakeshava temple, the hallmark of Hoysala architecture, is replete with the traditional jewellery designs that find their way into contemporary ornaments. The black polished pillars of the Jain Basadhi at Halebeedu even after close to a thousand years reflect the visitors' awestruck faces as if they were built yesterday. The musical notes that can be drawn out from the lightly constructed pillars strike the right chords of surprise.

Looking out for all these colors, we drove out of urban landscape on a Monday dawn, drove through the hinterland and ghats smelling coffee, tea, tender cashew, damp paddy and sugarcane fieldsdown to the hot coastal belt. We drank a lot of tender coconut, locally made carbonated jeera and ginger coolers sun-burned ourselves, sweated out in buckets, swallowed oodles of fresh air, woke up in the mornings to rare sounds of common birds, dug our heels in hot white sands, learned that Kudremukh National Park is replete with vistas of dark green and blue mountains against a pastel blue sky and also learned that exploration of Karnataka by road on our own car is the next best way to do it; the best way is on a bike such as an Enfield.

We returned four nights later content for now but thirsty for more, covering more than twelve hundred kilometers but not tired, intemittently cut off from communications like cell and email but not feeling any bad about it to the home-city happy but not too happy about it.

The colors we saw in this road trip are just a few sprinkles. There is a whole rainbow out there in Karnataka.

Review of "creEper":

A guy and girl and a box. A narrator, a Sutradhar (puppeteer) and a story. Any which way, the one hour performance of creEper at the Rangashankara ( here) is worth a watch. The narrative style is impressive and the message well emphasized, even if it is not new. The play connected with the audience with its familiar theme of loss of soul in an imploding city with what better example for Bangaloreans than that of Bangalore.

The performance by the two protagonists (this is the entire cast, by the way) was intense at moments but overall touching. The play had its moments of 'I know what you mean' and 'let me finish your sentence' with a third of the audience that comprised of a college-going crowd, and therefore involving them. Because, many of the juvenile fears and indulgences of the young (and some of ours) found their way into the script, which was supposed to look like an impromptu one. The 'extemporary' goal well achieved while trying to tell a story all the while agreeing to disagree on how they would tell it.

The first part of this play, which is based on the 'Vikram and Betal' lore, 'generally screws around with the audience' (as also conceded by the Sutradhar at halftime) as the storytellers confuse the audience with their bipolar approach to narration, confide with them their fears and demons and while not convince the audience, set an open platform to put on it whatever they want to achieve in the second half. One of the story tellers is a rationalist while the other is a sentimentalist and very dramatic, just enough to keep the audience interested and sometimes agitated.

The impact of lighting on a low-key (photographically, one that involved less exposure to light) stage performance such as this is lasting. The shadows added the key ingredient of proxy-characters while the two actors played out their moves on the stage.During some moments of musing by the characters in the story-inside-the-story , one could see the third and fourth characters in shadows. The interplay of characters and shadows aided by the lighting kept me interested throughout the play with eyes and ears overwhelmed by the effect. That way, there was a lot to see in the play.

So, at the end of first half, by when the audience know that the story is about memories, loss and separation of two souls (not two people) born in Bangalore, the story unfolds itself into one that gives snapshots of same experience that could have been had by a middle-class couple at different times in Bangalore. First one at the turn of the 80s decade of the last millennium, another that happened at turn of the millennium and the last one 'yesterday', if not 'today'. The experiences are no doubt accompanied by the dreads that lurk around them. With quotidian samples to indicate the timeline, someone who has lived in Bangalore for, say, even 15 years (if attentive, even so much is not required) will relate to the game played out by the two and catch on to the fears that gripped, or still grip, Bangaloreans in their daily life, because 'people are being ripped apart for everything'.

You are reminded in the end that 'where grows a tree, a creEper grows', leading the audience to the moral of the story (Not so sure about the camelback used in the name). The end is supposed to be full of hope, but the audience is left unsure of it, because the 'rational and detached' narrator herself succumbs to the dark forces. At a very basic level this play could be construed as a reality-check, if one agrees that doing so does not take the juice out of it.

By the way: This article was posted using w.blogger (here), a first for me. I am quite pleased with the result, while I am still confused over whether or how I can include labels from my desktop.

How much do people care about art?

This is the first question that came to my mind when I walked into the auditorium where a 90 minute session on 'Art Appreciation' was being held. I was hoping to gain some tips on understanding what make a painting great . By a long shot, I was also hoping to implement the knowledge I gained into taking better photographs. I have very little in my portfolio about which everyone can be consensually proud.

And the reason for that thought to cross my mind was that there were only 4 people in the audience. Speaker and organisers combined, there were 3 others!Had the organisers known the answer to the above question, maybe they would not have booked a 250-size auditorium for the event. Before the lady started talking a couple of men walked in, but we still did not have enough people to need a mike for the talk.

Probably, I am one of those who use their left brain more than they use their right and would like to know what it means to be able to use the latter one better. This is probably why I began to take photography seriously. In my endeavours, I have been able to take technically good photographs, aided by a great camera, but have failed to undestand why some photographs would be deemed good, while I thought they were pretty simple and vice versa . It has probably more to do than just the interplay of the five elements of a fine picture. Undersanding that is one journey that will never end.

About the session itself, apparently, I had misread the agenda. THe speaker,CH,spoke eloquently about Indian art, its brief history and about the position of Indian art in international market, about the contemporary masters, established painters and the upcoming artists. CH no doubt did justice to her day's task. She touched upon a subtle point about buyers of art today. She clarified that, in India, as has been seen overseas in the past, a lot of people buy a painting for same reason why they would buy a piece of land; ROI. While a true connoisseur would buy the painting for it's appeal, value and the feeling it invokes in her, and let the painting grow on her, many current buyers do it because they can see the painting fetch more dollars for them over the next few years. That's it, more $$$.

I had never really thought seriously about art investment, obviously because I do not have the money. So, when CH began talking about how to go about buying a painting, I had to overcome a lot of force that wanted me to walk out of there. But I stayed.After all, if I left, she would lose a seventh of her audience that evening!