Bombay & Shantaram - End, The Girl Who Played With Fire

I have finally finished Shantaram, it didn't get better but got slightly worse towards the end. I like the author and I was in tears at the very touching ending but his prose has problems that come out as you keep reading and I decided that I would have liked this book better if it was just 150 pages or something like that.

Last night I have seen
Bombay (1995) directed and written by Mani Ratnam, dialogues by Umesh Sharma.
Loved it to bits. I was crying by the end and desperately wanted the film to have relative happy ending (I remember this also happened at Always: Sunset in the Third Street). Mani Ratnam is a good story teller and he has a way with his actors.

The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book of the Millenium series and I got right into it loving is even better than the first one. I liked the female character better in the first novel and this novel started with her. I like the way Stieg Larsson describes things in a matter of fact way but somehow making them really interesting and a joy to read.

Bara No Nai Haya - End

I have finally finished Bara No Nai Hanaya and I have no idea why I lingered over it for such a long time. It was a three hankie viewing and it ended on a very satisfactory note. There was a special SMAPxSMAP episode at the end of the disc and what can I say? I love Takuya Kimura.

Shantaram is going well but at this point they are in Afghanistan and it is all war war war. I liked Prabaker story line much better. And there is a certain repetitivness to the prose which starts to annoy but all in all it is still captivating and I'm enjoying it very much. Just not as much as I was enjoying it at the beginning.

Meanwhile I have tried to watch films and one of them was Rocknrolla but even though I think Gerard Butler has an inexplicable (to me) hotness I managed to sleep during the middle to wake up and keep viewing without losing any of the plot. I have a self imposed rule not to include anything I have not completely seen or read here so I'll just casually mention this one.

Dead Calm, The Fugitive, Tara Road, Knowing and Shantaram (still)

This weekend was full of films
Dead Calm (1989) Directed by Philip Noyce, written by Terry Hayes from the novel by Charles Williams

I love this film more in this second viewing. It is a tight little thriller with many many close up shots.

The Fugitive (1993) Directed by Andrew Davies, written by Jeb Stuart, David Twohy, Roy Huggins
I liked this just as much this second time. Harrison Ford is great.

Tara Road (2005) Directed by Gillies MacKinnon, written by Cynthia Cidre, Shane Connaughton, adapted from Maeve Binchy's novel.

Read the novel, skip the film. Andy McDowell aged really well though and I appreciated her seemingly botox free face.

Knowing (2009) Directed by Alex Proyas, written by Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White.
It was nothing special, in fact I fell asleep at the last minute.

Meanwhile Shantaram is awesome. I love it more with each page and often get teary eyed.

Push-End, Kurbaan & Shantaram

I have finished Push yesterday and overall liked it a lot. Now I started reading Shantaram written by Gregory David Roberts and I'm loving it so far. Especially after just returning from Mumbai :)

Kurbaan (2009), directed by Renzil D'Silva, written by Renzil D'Silva, Niranjan Iyengar, Anurag Kashyap, story by Karan Johar.

It was OK and didn't put me to sleep but I didn't like it as much other films on the subject matter (Dil Se, Fanaa, Black & White, Aamir and New York were better films)

Various Films and Books

It has been a month since I wrote something here. Being very busy + going on an internet free vacation caused this. Here are some short comments on what I read and watched:

A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens. Excellent book. I love Dickens, not as much as I love Hardy but very close.

A Judgement in Stone, written by Ruth Rendell. I think this is one of Ruth's best. I had seen the film adaptation and also liked it very much. Go Ms.Rendell!

One Night @ The Call Center, written by Chetan Bhagat. He is a decent writer and this book was no exception. Enjoyed it very much.

The Broken Window, written by Jeffrey Deaver. Another Lincoln Rhyme novel. I think Mr.Deaver's books will be better if he eases on the twist flow a bit.

Currently reading:
Push, written by Sapphire. It is a good book and I have been crying more than once reading through it. I hope that the lead character, Precious pulls through.


On the plane I watched
All About Steve (2009), directed by Phill Trail and written by Kim Barker.
It was nothing special, I still cried (am hopeless)

More Than Blue (2009), directed and written by Won Tae-Yeon
Well it was a weepie and I wept but didn't feel close to either of the leads.

Surrogates (2009), directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by Michael Ferris, John D.Brancato, adapted from graphic novel by Robert Venditti, Brett Weldele.
It was nothing special. I think I fell asleep at some point for a few minutes but woke up and didn't really lose the plot.

At the hotel I have watched
Laws of Attraction (2004) directed by Peter Howitt, written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Robert Harling.
I liked it but then again I'm most forgiving for this genre (rom-com).

And I also watched a big chunk of The Incredible Hulk but not all of it so will not add it here.

Wow, all this amounts to so little viewing and reading. I somehow am not as eager to watch films as I used to. I wonder why and I wonder whether I'll come out of this mood.