Behind the Beautiful Forevers: The Brutal World of a Mumbai Slum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a remarkable piece of non fiction prose. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Katherine Boo, the book follows the lives of various people who live in Annawadi, a small slum next to Mumbai's international airport. Annawadi is surrounded by glittering hotels and a concrete wall plastered with ads for tiles that promise to keep your house "beautiful forever." Behind those ads reside the disenfranchised citizens of 21st century Mumbai.

The book presents many vivid characters but it centers on Abdul Husain, a teenage scavenger who spends his day looking for and sorting through trash so that he can make a profit on recyclable waste. He is reasonably successful in this venture and is his family's main source of income since his father is too sickly from TB and his mother has her hands full with her nine children. However, when his mother decides that their growing prosperity merits some renovations to their shack, she unwittingly angers Fatima, their one-legged next-door neighbor, whose actions set off a chain of events that lead Abdul and his family through the bowels of the nonsensical Indian judicial system.

Annawadi's other residents include Asha, a middle-aged woman who has made influential friends through dubious methods and is trying to attain her dream of becoming a slumlord. Her daughter, Manju, is poised to become Annawadi's first female college graduate and she runs a small "bridge school" for the children of the slum, funded by government money that her mother obtained through one of her many illegal ventures. Manju doesn't approve of all this corruption and tries her best to run her life on ethical lines, but there's only so much you can do and still survive in Annawadi. Her best friend Meena is less fortunate: she doesn't go to school, suffers repeated beatings from family members, isn't allowed to leave the house except to collect water or go to the toilet, and has her marriage arranged at age 15. By comparison, Manju is practically a princess. There is also Sunil, a 12-year old scavenger and occasional thief who returned to Annawadi with his younger sister after a stint at the orphanage run by Sister Paulette who gives the orphans ice cream when foreigners arrive for a site visit, but otherwise sells their food and blankets for a profit and pockets all the charitable money she can get.

Boo only enters the narrative in a final Author's Note at the end of the book. Here she explains how she spent time in Annawadi from 2007 to 2011, wearying the residents with multiple interviews, teaching children how to use her Flip Video camera so that they could document many of the events related in the book, and culling over 3000 government records from the Mumbai Police, public health agencies, hospitals, electoral offices and more, to illustrate in detail how these entities systematically alter details, falsify documents, and treat the poor as ignominiously in death as they do in life.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers presents the age-old story of Indian corruption, but instead of random facts and figures, Boo gives us the names and stories of actual people who are offered basic human rights only if they can pay for them. Boo doesn't pretend that these people are flawless human beings - they all harbor varying amounts of vices and virtues, just like the rest of us. But they are victims of a corrupt and demoralizing system that has left them with increasingly impossible dreams of a better life.

Neverwhere: A Whole New London

Neil Gaiman is an incredible author who is always churning out something new and innovative. I've enjoyed much of his previous work, like Good Omens (co-authored with Terry Pratchett), The Graveyard Book, and Stardust, so I thought I'd give his 1996 novel Neverwhere a try. I was well into the book when a friend told me that it was actually a novelization of a TV series that Gaiman and Lenny Henry wrote for the BBC. I suppose I should now watch the series to see if it matches the fantastic world that the novel has created in my head.

Neverwhere tells the story of Richard Mayhew, a thoroughly ordinary London dweller with a decent job and a nagging fiance who suddenly discovers a completely different London. Late at night he stumbles across Door, an aristocratic Lady from the world of London Below, a city in the sewers of London that is composed of all the people who have been marginalized by London society and have literally "fallen through the cracks" into this world. Door is being chased by assassins and Richard unwittingly becomes a denizen of London Below when he stops to help her. What follows is your classic hero's quest, through a dark and mysterious world that turns Richard's perceptions of London upside down.

Gaiman has brilliantly distorted various locales and each page offers a new surprise and burst of literary invention. Knightsbridge in London Below features an eerily dark bridge where the Night might steal you away. Earl's Court is a subway car that only people from London Below can enter and is presided over by an actual Earl. The characters are also vivid fantasy creations, like Door who has the power to open anything (even an orange), the swashbuckling Marquis de Carabas who is just fulfilling a debt and may not be trustworthy, and the thoroughly fiendish Messieurs Croup and Vandemar who delight in torturing their victims and have a mysterious employer who keeps changing his mind about whether or not Door should be killed. 

Neverwhere is fast-paced, funny, wildly inventive, and supremely thrilling. It is an excellent fantasy novel for people who love the genre but don't have the time to delve into something with an extensive mythology. Also, BBC Radio 4 recently finished recording Neverwhere as a radio drama that will be released in six episodes early next year. With a cast list featuring actors like James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Sophie Okonedo, this is a project that's bound to be amazing. It's also further proof that this is a story worth telling in every imaginable format. So read Neverwhere (or watch it or listen to it) and discover the world of London Below. 

Sweet Tooth: Spies and Literature Collide

The holidays are a time to either catch up on your reading or make a resolution to read more in the New Year. So this week I'm offering recommendations of books that have entertained me in the past few weeks. First up, Ian McEwan's latest novel, Sweet Tooth. No two McEwan novels are alike and Sweet Tooth delves into yet another new genre - the spy novel. However, it's a spy story with a literary twist, one that becomes increasingly intriguing as the novel goes on.

Set in the 1970s, the story is told from the perspective of Serena Frome, a young woman who loves to read but is forced by her mother to study Mathematics instead of English at Cambridge. She graduates with a less than stellar degree in maths, but thanks to an affair with a professor, she is groomed for an interview with MI5 and obtains a low-level secretarial job with the Security Service. Here, her love for speed-reading novels puts her in prime position for a new program called "Sweet Tooth," through which MI5 hopes to secretly fund novelists that write capitalism-loving, communism-bashing literature that the government can use to vanquish Cold War propaganda. Serena is enlisted to liaise with one of the selected novelists, a man named Thomas Haley, but of course, the liaison quickly turns romantic and things get complicated.

The novel starts out with the promise of suspense but it isn't a true spy thriller. "Sweet Tooth" is a pretty tame program in the roster of secret government programs, and the novel's focus shifts to Thomas Haley's work and his writing process. Serena reads his short stories and we get tantalizing glimpses of weird tales that explore interesting gender dynamics. There are subtle clues scattered throughout his stories and Serena's reactions to reading them foreshadow how this story is going to end. All the while, Serena has to maintain her cover, but as she falls more in love with Haley, she needs to figure out whether it's time to come clean about her role in MI5.

The character of Thomas Haley is semi-autobiographical and various events and people mentioned in the book are taken from Ian McEwan's own life. That makes this novel interesting for any McEwan fan. But the truly intriguing aspect of this novel is revealed only when you read the final chapter. That's when the story gets untangled and laid out bare, or for some readers, even more twisted and bizarre. It's an ending that thoroughly appealed to me but had a decidedly mixed critical reception.

I'm of the opinion that any novel that generates heated discussion about its perceived merits or failings is a novel worth reading. Sweet Tooth is one of those rare books that demands to be re-read immediately upon completion. The more you read it, the more you come to appreciate the art of literary deception.

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year: A Year-End Delight

The British panel game show is a format that always brings me joy. I've already waxed lyrical about the marvelous QI, currently in its tenth series on the BBC, but a few weeks ago, a friend alerted me to Channel 4's The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. Established in 2004, the show celebrates the end of the year with a pub quiz-style panel show that recaps the newsworthy moments of the year. 

Jimmy Carr hosts the show every year and offers up sarcastic, racy humor and the world's weirdest laugh. The questions present more of a challenge for American viewers - there are a few about American pop stars or politicians, but otherwise the focus is squarely on UK events. But at no point does this diminish the sheer pleasure in watching these shows and attempting to complete a "Say What You See" puzzle, which consists of pictographic clues that often rely on British slang to be solved. I've been traveling back in time with the quizzes (I'm currently on the year 2007), and the more I watch, the better I get at delving into the cultural references and obscure Britishisms that warm the cockles of every Anglophile's heart. 

Of course the joy of any panel show is the caliber of the panelists, and Big Fat Quiz is reliably stocked with well-known British comedians like Rob Brydon, David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade, and the always hysterical pairing of Noel Fielding and Russell Brand. You won't recognize most (or any) of these people if you are a British panel show novice, but believe me, you won't forget them after spending two hours in their company.

American TV is grossly dismissive of the holiday season and for the next several weeks, networks will put on a predictable assortment of Charlie Brown specials, re-runs, and It's A Wonderful Life. British TV, on the other hand, is all about celebrating the holidays in front of your television sets, and the Christmas special is a highlight of any British series. So this year, along with the sure to be wonderful Christmas specials of Doctor Who and Downton Abbey, get excited for The Big Fat Quiz of 2012. And head on over to YouTube so you can catch up on all the end-of-year goodness you've been missing so far. 

Game of Thrones: Fantasy, HBO Style

Last month I finally finished watching Game of Thrones, after friends had spent the better part of a year exhorting me to watch it. What can I say, my friends know best. Given my love for Tolkien and fantastical lore, my fascination with Game of Thrones was inevitable.

Based on the gargantuan series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin (which I will have to start reading immediately), Game of Thrones is a massive enterprise to set on screen. The story is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a sprawling world with several regions that contain differing landscapes, traditions, gods, customs, and people who are at war over a variety of political ambitions. The sheer number of characters is overwhelming and the show has to keep going back and forth between various story lines without confusing the audience. In fact, the first few episodes nearly lost me because I despaired of ever keeping these characters straight. But the key to the show is to just watch it and not worry about the details. The plots are brewing with suspense, romance, and political intrigue and you get swept away with the story. Eventually, without even realizing it, you've internalized the geography of this vast land and discover you can name all the members of the House Stark or House Lannister without breaking a sweat.

David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are the showrunners responsible for adapting these mammoth novels for TV and they have done a simply tremendous job of portraying a complete fantasy world that somehow still feels realistic and believable. Yes there are people with strange names in odd costumes using old-fashioned contraptions with some magic brewing in the background. But the show always focuses on the humanity of its characters and makes them relatable even as they fight with swords and talk about dragons. And of course, the sheer scope and excellence of the show would be impossible without a sizable budget from HBO, who are continuing to stand by their slogan, "It's not TV. It's HBO." Every episode feels like a movie, with impeccable production design, beautiful cinematography, and crackling scripts that can veer from humor and romance to danger and gruesomeness in a matter of seconds.

Adapting fantasy novels for the screen is always a tricky business, but HBO doesn't do anything by half measures and Game of Thrones is a flawless bit of fantasy television. The special effects are always top notch, but more importantly, the actors and writers have combined forces to portray characters that are utterly fascinating and give you a reason to tune in every week. The show has some of the strongest female characters on TV, which is all the more remarkable since Westeros is an old-fashioned world where women are mostly bandied about for political gain. Like all great fantasy works, it's the people you least suspect who turn out to be the true heroes. Of particular note are Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf-prince of House Lannister (played by Peter Dinklage who deservedly won an Emmy and Golden Globe for his work), Daenerys Targaryen (played by the wonderful Emilia Clarke) who started out as a political pawn but has become a force to be reckoned with, and nine-year old Arya Stark (played by the fantastic Maisie Williams), a tomboy with an indomitable spirit who seems poised to introduce all manner of complications in the war for the Iron Throne.

The show's second season kept leaping from strength to strength and the season finale was an emotional rollercoaster that entrenched my love for this new fantasy world. I'll have to wait until March for the next season, but till then, there are a stack of novels, thousands of pages long, that demand my attention.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Begins

As illustrated by my previous post about The Hobbit Facebook page, I am a massive Tolkien fan. Therefore, when I went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I spent three joyful hours back in Middle Earth, nostalgic for that lovely land that I had last seen in theaters nine years ago. However, despite my enjoyment, I recognize that this is no movie for the casual moviegoer.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was a daring experiment in fantasy film-making. Sure, there are plenty of Tolkien fans in the world, but in order to become true blockbusters, the movies had to appeal to everyone in the audience, even those who had never read The Lord of the Rings. As a result, Jackson crafted a sumptuous set of movies that offered just enough background to keep the audience informed but proceeded at a brisk enough pace that no one got bored. The movies were dazzling visual spectacles (thanks to the otherworldly New Zealand scenery) with great attention paid to costumes, hair and make-up, production design, music, and anything else that could help audiences differentiate all the characters and regions of Middle Earth without requiring extensive exposition. And there were action sequences and intrigues and romances aplenty, so that everyone found something to like.

With The Hobbit, Jackson no longer harbors any populist aspirations. This is a movie that feels like it was made for fans of Tolkien and the LOTR trilogy, people who just want to spend several hours in the theatre reconnecting with the characters and stories that they love. Why else would Jackson turn this tiny children's book into a trilogy of movies? Instead of giving us a simple movie, Jackson and his fellow writers Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens have constructed a much more elaborate tale that delves deep into Middle Earth mythology and provides a very thorough prequel to the LOTR trilogy. This movie covers the first six chapters of The Hobbit (a mere 100 pages), but it boasts a three-hour runtime because of additional material culled from the appendices to the Lord of the Rings and long backstories about the hobbit and thirteen dwarves who serve as the heroes of our tale. This is a level of detail that can only appeal to a hardcore Tolkien enthusiast. After all, if you don't know anything about Middle Earth, why would you care about the Necromancer, or the history of the dwarves and their distrust of elves, and the other countless stories that only tangentially affect the main adventure plot of The Hobbit?

The Hobbit is still characteristic of the impeccable filmmaking that characterized the LOTR trilogy, taking great pains to make Middle Earth feel as real as possible. I did not see the movie in the 48 fps format that has caused a great deal of debate, but watching it in 2D at a paltry 24 frames per second was enough to keep me satisfied. The background score hearkened back to the themes that were so familiar in the LOTR trilogy, and there are plenty of cameos featuring characters from those movies. Ian McKellen (who plays Gandalf) is the only actor from the LOTR trilogy to return in a starring role in this trilogy, but the new actors, particularly Martin Freeman as the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage as the dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield, do a wonderful job of stepping right into their fantastical roles and easing the audience back into Middle Earth.

The movie could have benefited from more judicious editing - various action sequences felt overlong or tedious because they were almost identical to prior sequences. At times it feels like Peter Jackson simply missed making these movies and couldn't help but include long sequences that let him spend more time in Middle Earth. Occasionally the dialogue felt schmaltzy and laughably sentimental, but again, as a fan you can forgive anything. The highlight of the film is certainly the Riddles in the Dark sequence featuring Bilbo and Gollum. Performance capture enhancements in the decade since the last LOTR movie mean that Andy Serkis' performance as Gollum feels even more nuanced and brilliant than ever before. And this is the scene that introduces the One Ring, an object that will set off the epic events of the Lord of the Rings.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an indulgent movie for any Tolkien fan, but an overwrought movie for anyone else. I loved it and cannot wait for the next installment when we finally get to see our heroes interact with Thranduil, Bard, and of course, Smaug. But if the detailed fantasy and mythology of Tolkien's Middle Earth doesn't interest you, watching The Hobbit might be a very tiring journey.

My Mother Was Nuts: Penny Marshall's Hollywood Travels

Penny Marshall was the first female director to make a movie that passed the $100 million mark at the box office (she did it twice). Her memoir, My Mother Was Nuts, offers an insight into her journey to and through Hollywood, and also reveals her gift for telling incredibly funny stories.

Penny grew up in the Bronx with her older sister Ronny and older brother Garry (i.e. Garry Marshall, the hugely successful comedy writer and director of films like Pretty Woman, Valentine's Day, and The Princess Diaries). As evinced by the book's title, her mother was an odd woman, who hadn't planned on having a third child, didn't much like her husband, and had a rather laissez-faire attitude to parenting. She ran a dance school in the cellar of their apartment building and Penny was forced to attend dance classes through much of her childhood. The book opens with hilarious tales of Penny's formative experiences at school, in the Bronx, and at Jewish summer camp, where she and her siblings faithfully recited prayers despite the fact that they weren't Jewish and had all been confirmed in different religious denominations based on which church needed their mother to put on a dance recital that week.

In college, Penny got pregnant, married her first husband, quickly realized she had made a mistake, and set off for Hollywood. What follows is a dizzying series of stories populated by the creme de la creme of Hollywood society and comedy royalty. Penny fully traded on the fact that her brother was an established writer for The Dick Van Dyke Show and he furnished her with all of the contacts and information that would help her make her way. He also wrote Laverne and Shirley, her breakout TV hit that also gave her her first chance to direct. Penny isn't coy about the fact that she broke into Hollywood through nepotism, but it is equally clear that the sheer force of her personality and ability to strike up a friendship with anybody paved the way for her huge success.

Of course, not everything came up roses, and there are plenty of stories about sex, drugs, and rock n' roll that could have been her undoing. Fortunately, she made it through relatively unscathed, and the tone of her memoir is always humorous and self-deprecating. The stories about her two most successful movies, Big and A League of Their Own are particularly endearing for anyone who is a fan of those films. Given the breadth of Penny's work and friendships in Hollywood, her stories feature a who's-who of anyone and everyone worth knowing in the business of making movies.

My Mother Was Nuts offers an in-depth look at one of Hollywood's most successful and influential women, who managed to make it in the heavily male-dominated sphere of directing movies. Penny Marshall is clear that she took all the help that she could get and made sure she only worked with people who would respect her. Ultimately, that's valuable advice to any woman trying to make it in any field.

The Campaign: Comedic Fact Or Fiction?

Politics has always provided endless fodder for comedians. The 2012 American election cycle offered a particularly bountiful cornucopia of comic characters, namely the motley assortment of oddballs who raced to become the Republican nominee. So it is little wonder that Hollywood came up with The Campaign, a fine entry into the already crowded field of 2012 political comedy.

Written by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell, The Campaign follows a seemingly innocuous election for a representative of the 14th Dictrict of North Carolina. Democratic Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is running for his fifth term unopposed and thinks this election will be a cakewalk. Unfortunately, he faces a setback when he leaves an inappropriate message on the wrong person's answering machine, leading to the revelation that he is a philanderer with a less than squeaky-clean image. Brady is a typical swaggering politician and as he blusters and digs himself into a deeper hole, Republican strategists realize this might be their shot at winning back the 14th District.

Jon Lithgow and Dan Akroyd play the Motch brothers (the politically savvy among you will recognize this is a blatant dig at the Koch brothers), corrupt businessmen who want to put forward their own Republican candidate and win the 14th District in the crucial swing state of North Carolina. They choose Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), a thoroughly inexperienced and weird man, whose father happens to be a powerful associate of the Motch brothers. They also hire Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), campaign manager extraordinaire, who is in charge of grooming Marty and ensuring that he looks, talks, and acts like a successful Republican candidate.

Cam initially underestimates Marty, but he soon recognizes the power of the Motch juggernaut and Tim Wattley's ability to turn anyone into a viable political candidate. Cam and Marty have some hilarious debates, eschewing any real talk about political issues for plain old-fashioned mud-slinging. Eventually, things really escalate, and a whole host of dirty tactics are employed by both campaigns in an effort to confuse the populace and win votes by any means necessary. The Motch brothers pour in money to help their candidate win, and when it looks like Marty might actually have some scruples, they switch sides and decide to back the much more corruptible Cam.

Ultimately, The Campaign is a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at election shenanigans, ludicrous attempts to orchestrate campaigns for thoroughly idiotic political candidates, and the use of unlimited money to trick voters and win elections. It's a sobering thought to realize that as over-the-top as this movie might seem, it's really not that far from the truth. Perhaps American political candidates haven't descended to the level of punching babies yet, but all that other stuff has a ring of truth. So be warned when you watch The Campaign. It is hysterical and entertaining, but after you're done laughing, you will sadly realize that the real world of American politics doesn't have quite so optimistic an outlook as its movie counterpart.

Pitch Perfect: College A Cappella Can Be A Riot

Sometimes you just need to watch a movie that makes you laugh. Pitch Perfect is that movie. An inside look at the world of competitive collegiate a cappella (yes, that's a real thing), it features an ensemble of hilarious women who are singing their way to stardom.

Anna Kendrick plays Beca, a newly-arrived freshman at Barden University. Her father is a professor who wants Beca get a college education before she pursues her actual ambition of moving to LA to DJ and produce music. She's fairly aloof and not pleased to be there, but her father insists that she join at least one club and try to make friends before she writes off the entire college experience. When Chloe (Brittany Snow), a member of the Barden Bellas, the college's all-female a cappella group, hears Beca singing in the shower, she insists that Beca audition and join their group.

The Bellas put on a disastrous performance at last year's International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. As a result, their uptight leader, Aubrey (the wonderful Anna Camp), is focused on getting them back to the championship stage to redeem themselves and defeat their arch rivals the Treble Makers, Barden's all-male a cappella group. The problem is that Aubrey only wants to perform tired classics from the group's decidedly dusty repertoire, while Beca wants to experiment with some fresh mash-ups. The rest of the Barden Bellas are comprised of a rag-tag bunch of girls who are all weird and wonderful in their own way, including the fantastic Rebel Wilson, who plays the straightforwardly-named, Fat Amy. She prefers to be called Fat Amy so that no one will call her that behind her back - that should already tell you how much this character livens up the proceedings.

Throw in a romantic subplot with Beca and Jesse (Skylar Astin), a fellow freshman who gets recruited to join the Treble Makers, and you have yourself a movie. Beca and Jesse have an uneven relationship where he's clearly making more of an effort to win her over, but things even out as she begins to open up and accept that college and a cappella aren't as terrible as she suspected. Of course, the movie is punctuated with fantastic a cappella routines that feature some great singing, engaging choreography, and plenty of silliness and spectacle to keep you entertained. Written by 30 Rock writer Kay Cannon, and produced by Elizabeth Banks (who also stars in the movie as a hilarious a cappella competition color commentator), this is a very Bridesmaids-esque movie, that showcases funny women who are just having fun.

Pitch Perfect isn't the kind of movie that wins awards, but it wins over audiences. And in the long run, that's all that counts. So start watching and get ready to laugh, sing along, and have a good time.

Dial M For Murder: The Best Laid Plans...Etc.

Film is a visual medium so the unofficial motto of moviemaking is, "Show, don't tell." However, Alfred Hitchcock was never one to follow the rules and on re-watching his classic Dial M for Murder, I was struck by how much it is driven by relentless verbal exposition.

Ray Milland plays Tony Wendice, a retired tennis player who is married to Margot (the cool and elegant Grace Kelly), a wealthy woman whose money has kept him very comfortable. However, he discovered a year ago that she was having an affair. Margot ended the affair once Tony started paying more attention to her, but like most Hitchcock husbands, Tony doesn't want his wife, just her money. So he decides to set an elaborate murder plot into motion, an intricate enterprise that will give him a watertight alibi and solve his wife problem once and for all.

Tony blackmails a man named Swann into committing his wife's murder. The idea is that Swann will sneak into the house at night when Margot is home alone. Tony will be out at a party, surrounded by people who can vouch for his whereabouts, and will phone home at 11. When Margot enters the living room to answer the phone, Swann will slip out from behind the curtains and kill her. The first part of the movie leads up to the execution of the murder plot; the second half follows the aftermath of the night's events and the ensuing investigation.

Dial M For Murder is remarkably contained and all of the action takes place in the Wendice's house. But there is very little action, apart from the murder scene. Most of the movie consists of Ray Milland talking; talking about his discovery of his wife's infidelity, talking about his decision to kill his wife, talking about how he has set up the crime, talking about how the actual murder will be conducted. He stage manages the entire affair, explaining to Swann exactly how his wife will wake up when the phone rings, turn on the light, open the door, walk up to the phone, answer it. But all that talking and planning is Tony's undoing. Things never go according to plan, and the beauty of the movie is how the entire thing unravels because Swann doesn't follow one direction exactly as Tony planned.

Hitchcock made some fascinating mysteries and Dial M for Murder is no exception. It is not visually evocative like Rear Window, but Ray Milland's voice will penetrate your brain as Tony explains every piece of his master plan. Psychopaths like the sound of their own voice, and if you pay attention to Tony Wendice as he goes on and on about this murder, you can speculate about how it will all go horribly wrong.

Gone Girl: What Happened To Amazing Amy?

When I read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, I learned one very valuable lesson about mystery novels. Never trust a first-person narrator. Let that lesson be your guide as you start reading Gillian Flynn's thrilling Gone Girl.

The novel opens with the disappearance of Amy Elliot Dunne from her Missouri home on the fifth anniversary of her marriage to Nick, a man she met and married in her hometown of New York City. Amy's parents are psychologists who made a lot of money in years past by writing a series of children's books about "Amazing Amy," a character modeled after their perfect daughter. Unfortunately, her parents were recently beset by financial troubles and took most of her trust fund money. When she and Nick were both laid off, they moved back to his boyhood home of Missouri to take care of his ailing mother. Nick and his sister Margo set up a bar with the last of Amy's trust fund money and she settled into being a bored housewife. Until the day she disappears.

The novel alternates between Nick's narrative starting from the day of Amy's disappearance and excerpts from Amy's diary beginning from the day she met Nick. Amy's diary paints a picture of two people who fall rapidly in love but have been facing increasing strain in their marriage. Amy is patient and enduring, trying not to become a harridan, but Nick's growing aloofness and quickness to anger become worrisome. Nick's narrative makes it clear that he was unhappy with his marriage and he keeps hiding things from the reader, choosing not to divulge vital details that could explain what exactly he was doing when Amy disappeared. As the days pass, media scrutiny grows, the press are camped out on his lawn, and the police are asking uncomfortable questions. And eventually, people become convinced that Nick has murdered his wife.

It is hard to sympathize with Nick, a man who obviously has secrets, and as the police pursue their investigation, there's a mounting pile of evidence to suggest that Amy never left the house alive. Amy's parents want to trust their son-in-law but they too lose faith in him until it looks like his sister might be the only person who believes he is innocent. Whether or not that belief is justified is something you'll have to find out for yourself.

Gone Girl is a brilliant piece of writing that delves deep into the twisted psyches of its characters and presents what can only be described as one of the best twists I have ever encountered in a mystery novel. Halfway through this book you will gasp, perhaps utter an expletive, then furiously flip pages till you get to the end. You will feel exploited, misdirected, confused, and exhilarated all at once. Trust me.

Talaash: Suspense & Surprises

The women in charge of Bollywood are rapidly proving that they really know how to make a movie. Written by the brilliant duo of Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, and directed by Kagti, Talaash is another movie that proves that Bollywood isn't as clichéd as people imagine.

The opening credits present Mumbai's streets at night, featuring its seediest and most vulnerable inhabitants, all set to a smoky song that immediately sets the movie's film noir tone. The first scene gives us a spectacular car crash and the ensuing investigation serves as the plot. Inspector Shekhawat (the ever-amazing Aamir Khan) is the lead investigator who has to determine why the man in the car, a famous actor, drove his car off the road and into the ocean, and why exactly he was alone in the wee hours in such a seedy area of town. Shekhawat is a good cop, and intelligent and incorruptible member of the notorious Mumbai police force. However, he is also struggling with a personal tragedy, the accidental drowning of his eight-year old son, which has naturally devastated him and his wife (the wonderful Rani Mukerji) and is eating away at their marriage. The scenes chronicling their relationship are particularly affecting and lend an emotional core to the movie in the midst of all the sordid suspense.

During one of his late-night drives, Shekhawat runs into Rosie, a prostitute who agrees to help with his investigation. Kareena Kapoor does a great job of imbuing Rosie with both charm and world-weariness, and although you hope Shekhawat maintains his good-guy persona and doesn't cheat on his wife, you could probably understand if he slipped. Rosie's inside information leads Shekhawat deeper into Mumbai's underbelly that is teeming with violence and poverty. There are many unsavory characters who all hold some piece of the puzzle, and the suspense builds excruciatingly as Shekhawat struggles to put all the pieces together.

Talaash is impeccably filmed, capturing the film noir aesthetic and accurately portraying people from every strata of Mumbai society. The songs are expertly woven into the movie, enhancing the dark tone and offering a chance to breathe before you are plunged back into the mystery. It is a captivating thriller, well thought-out and briskly told, with elegant pacing and editing. Unfortunately, it makes one huge misstep in the form of the surprise twist at the end. The twist ties the whole movie together, and it is a disappointment because it completely alters the film's genre and crediblity. This is something Reema Kagti also did in her first film, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., which was a perfectly charming movie until something was revealed about two characters that made it impossible to take the movie seriously.

Talaash is a dynamic piece of filmmaking, and if you discount the final ten minutes, it is a flawless movie. Sadly you can't discount those ten minutes as the story's resolution depends on it. Nonetheless, I heartily recommend it, because we all know of movies we love that don't necessarily work on every level. Talaash is firing on all cylinders in terms of cinematography, plot, acting, music, and production design. Just because it features a disappointing final twist, you cannot dismiss all of the great work preceding it.