Smorgasbord Fantasia

Vada Chennai (meaning North Chennai - and not, 'come to Chennai' !) sees the stars of Aadukalam get together again - in what is termed as Vetri Maaran's dream project, slated to be released as a trilogy, this is part one of this highly ambitious outing. Coming fresh off the success of the viscerally engrossing and equally disturbing Visaranai (the interrogation) that plays off our deepest fears and misgivings about the System which screws us over pitilessly and brutally, the grander and more ambitious Vada Chennai perhaps pales in comparison. But just a wee bit.  But patience. Because this is Vetri Maaran's grandiose dream taking shape in celluloid and we cannot go wrong, in trusting this genius. As is proved in the final twenty minutes of the movie, where we see the metamorphosis of Anbu, the protagonist played by Dhanush (as usual in absolutely crackling form) The part two - titled Rise of Anbu has us waiting with bated breath. But the first half p...

"Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “ Can’t Wait Wednesday ” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!  Coming fresh off the opening salvo, in the Age of Tyranny series, I am eagerly awaiting the second book, God of Broken Things by Cameron Johnston . Edrin Walker is not a pleasant man to be around but he attracts trouble. And that leads to some kick-ass action and wild savage magic that can rend the flesh off bones and break a mind, or two.  Here's the synopsis: Tyrant magus Edrin Walker destroyed the monster sent by the Skallgrim, but not before it laid waste to Setharis, and infested their magical elite with mind-controlling parasites. Edrin’s own Gift to seize the minds of others was cracked by the strain of battle, and he bare...

I am surprised at the lower-than-expected levels of hype around this brilliant debut, that burst onto the scene last year - Traitor God by Cameron Johnston . Like how did this book, not make it into the Best-Of-2018 lists mushrooming around? Why didn't people read this absolute doozy of a grim-dark badassery with a bastardly wisecrack of a protagonist headlining the damaged act in a gorgeously realized, gutter-fest of a city that is seething with magic and roiling with horrors from the dark deep? Why didn't I read this earlier? Anyways - with the second act of Acts of Tyranny coming right up, it was best that I do amends for the damages sooner than later. In the first few chapters of Traitor God, it is quickly established that Edrin Walker - professional loaded-dice player, peoplemancer and an inveterate drunk, is essentially an escapist. Having escaped from his birth city of Setharis - plagued with debts and chased by daemons, Walker is not ( definitely not!)  a blas...

So the first big movie for 2019 for the MCU, Captain Marvel dropped last week on Friday - and I managed to catch it, first day. The International Woman's Day datelines aren't a coincidence. The first big Marvel act headlined by a woman (also co-directed by another: Anna Boden. Go girl power!), Brie Larson dons the big fiery gloves of the super-saver of the Universe. She strives her best to bring in the big-bangs (literally, photon blasts of pure fury shot from bare hands) while juggling the flawed, human act ( amnesiac, prone to a temper with an ego to spare) and is tons of fun to watch. But is the movie good? The numbers do the talking. I think, as I write, this one's going to be become one of the top-grossing Marvel movies of all times. But is this my favorite Marvel movie? Nope. That honor still goes to... Black Panther ? Captain America: Civil War ? Infinity Wars ? Sigh. Tough one, but getting back to Carol 'Vers' Denvers. The movie opens onto a hazy ...

"Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on! This week, it is T he Red-Stained Wings by Elizabeth Bear . (Unfortunately, one of the few really "good" authors out there, whose books I haven't yet started on!)  Set in the world of Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky trilogy, book two of The Lotus Kingdoms takes the Gage into desert lands under a deadly sky to answer the riddle of the Stone in the Skull… The Gage and the Dead Man brought a message from the greatest wizard of Messaline to the ruling queen of Sarathai, one of the Lotus Kingdoms. But the message was a riddle, and the Lotus Kingdoms are at war. Comes out, from TOR books in May 2019. I frankly cannot wait, to plunge ...

It was in 2013 that the movie, Annayum Rasoolum released. A decisively dark take on the Shakespearean tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, set in the busy alley-ways of Fort Kochi, it was a doomed love-story between this Muslim taxi-driver who falls hard, for a Christian girl working as a retail staff for a saree shop. The movie itself. while not really a big commercial hit, was one of those early signs of the greatness that Fahadh Fazil, the method actor in Kerala, was poised to break out for. A lot of you would probably have noticed this lanky youth prone to violence and angst who plays the younger brother to Andrea Jeremiah's character of Anna in that movie. An overprotective, irascible younger brother who lights the fuse for the explosion later on in the movie. That youngster - Shane Nigam , disarmingly handsome with his dimpled smile and those twinkling dark eyes that can turn at will into liquid pools of expression of pain or despair, went on to be launched as a hero, by the ...