Unaccustomed Earth
June 28, 2008
Each author has a favored setting. Sometimes it is just an imaginery world whether at Malgudi or the Middle Earth. That is where the characters come alive. There is also a favored time period in which most authors tend to operate in. Films are also like that. Each director tends to create a pattern of work. Jhumpa Lahiri is specializing in documenting nuances of the Bengali immigrants. With the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies, a book of short stories she found her personalized parking spot among contemporary writers. Then came her novel The Namesake in 2003 which became a phenomenal success even as a film directed by Meera Nair. If I had to compare her first two books, I would vote in favor of The Namesake as representative of her skill as a writer. Except for the title story in The Interpretor of Maladies, which I loved, I did not find the others very engaging. That explains why i am not on the Pulitzer Prize panel of judges !
Jhumpa Lahiri is herself a product of the immigration experience. So it is natural that she speaks about the inner world of the Bengali immigrant. The stretches and demands that happen when people leave their land of birth and lead a life that they are unaccustomed to. This time it is about children of immigrants and their awkwardness in straddling the world that their parents never seem to give up and the world around them in a country outside of India that they inhabit. The Slate puts it aptly
It is about not fitting in or settling down, not starting over from scratch and freely forging a new identity or destiny. Her characters balance precariously between two worlds—not just Asian and Western, but inner and outer, traditionally circumscribed and daringly improvised, unwilled and willed—and they do so not just transitionally, but permanently.
When you have eight short stories to read in a book, chances are that there are those I liked more than others. Like in her first novel, I liked the title story the best. It is about the daughter coping with the death of her mother as she stumbles upon evidence of her father’s romantic interest in another lady. The beauty of the prose lies in being able to capture how the two different world views lead to an awkwardness in the relationship. Another story I loved in this collection was the one called Heaven and Hell. That is the story of a Bengali wife’s attraction to another immigrant Bengali man only to fall out of favor for marrying a white American lady. A story that will remind you of Satyajit Ray’s film Charulata which remains one of my all time favorites in cinema.
The stories are all about upper middle class Bengali couples and their children who have grown up in the adopted land. The subtle insights into that world are charming. For instance the struggle of parents whose son drops out of an Ivy League college and becomes an alcoholic reflects the Bengali immigrants’ view that education helps a person to climb social rungs in the adopted home.
Her natural style seems to be the longish short story. Or shortish novel (is that a novella?) if you will. I find that format tougher and more stringent in its demands of form and characterization. Yet Jhumpa Lahiri does it well… at least in majority of the short stories in Unaccustomed Earth.
Mithya
June 26, 2008
Occasionally one gets lucky. On my way from Delhi to Bangalore last week I noticed that the airlines was offering a fabulous choice of films. I settled for Mithya (Hindi word for falsehood) - a movie I had missed when it was released in February 2008. Read more
Management Compass: The Interview
June 18, 2008
Meanwhile Shubhadarshini who runs Management Compass contacted me for an interview. The mag reminded me of Competition Success Review but a lot more slickly produced and with its own summary of events in the business world. Here is a transcript of what I had sent to them:
1. What is it about the B-schools that makes it a good backdrop for a story?
An author must write about things that have a ring of authenticity. I went to a B-School and the story is therefore set in a surrounding that I am familiar with. The dilemmas of B School life make for an interesting combination for B-Schools.
2. Campus stories is a trend started by Chetan Bhagat. Your comment.
Chetan’s book was the first one to sell so many copies and so the setting became well known. But there have been stories set in campus or school settings before - just that they never became so popular.
3. In terms of characters, how rich are the B-schools?
A character is interesting because of the way the author has written about them. There are interesting characters all around us. It is a question of writing about them in a manner that brings the character alive.
4. What is it that can be repeated in terms of context?
My book Mediocre But Arrogant touches on so many aspects of B-School life that get repeated year after year - hostel life, bad food in the mess, crazy Professors, relationships… all of it makes for a potent plotline!
5. What else can be provided to the readers?
The setting of the city. In my case, the story is set in the beautiful town of Jamshedpur. The life in that town is contrasted with life in the city of Delhi. That again is an opportunity to bring the nuances of the two places.
6. How strong and prevalent is writing among B-school students?
B-Schools demand a certain proficiency of communication skills. So everyone needs to have a certain degree of skill in writing. However that writing is more around Business Writing as opposed to creative writing. Most people do pen a few lines at some stage or the other. People write when they are impacted by an event and want to express their thoughts. The trick is to just do it consistently.
7. How did the current authors like you flourish your language?
I just wrote the way it comes naturally to me. I never thought about any specific audience or anything because it was my first novel. I was not even sure anyone would want to publish it.
8. All the books that have been done till now have the humour element, can you visualize a different genre of books like a thriller or a suspense?
I am sure someone could write a thriller or murder mystery set in a B-School. Any story or genre is possible. Just that it needs to be written plausibly.
India’s Funniest Blogger
June 14, 2008
If you do a search for “India’s Funniest Writer” - OK so don’t just rush off to do the search right now - you will come across a site called http://ouchmytoe.com. It is run by this delightful writer called Jamshed Velayuda Rajan. In the interest of the mental health of the masses, he has allowed himself to be called Jammy. Read more
Sarkar Raj ***.5
June 13, 2008
Ram Gopal Varma has had a thing about violence, crime, suspense and all that. He dropped the option of doing Engineering from Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh to make his first film in Telugu called Shiva (1989) starring Nagarjuna. Sarkar Raj is his 27th film as a director.
His film with Rangeela (1995) with Urmila Matondkar (how could I not mention his muse) and Jackie Shroff made Hindi cinema viewers sit up and take notice of this. It was Satya (1998) that started the series of films on the underworld. A stylishly made film that gave the audience a glimpse of the forbidden underworld. Then came Company (2002) a fairly forgettable film. A lame effort at cashing in on the success of Satya and the audience’s insatiable desire to know how the Mafia actually operated.
Ram Gopal Verma (RGV to the media) struck gold with Sarkar (2005). Widely believed to be a depiction of Bal Thackrey and the Shiv Sena, that was sort of Godfather I without subtitles. Made with the same style and with some striking similarities (including in some scenes Amitabh Bachchan’s imitation of marbles in the mouth Marlon Brando in Godfather. In 2007 it was a remake of the legendary Sholay - loosely retitled as RGV ki Aag. The film crashed deeper than the debris of the Titanic.
So time to payback the loan to the bank!! Here comes Sarkar Raj - the sequel to Sarkar. Well the Godfather also had a part II and III, did it not? So why deny RGV his right to make a sequel? Then comes the million dollar question. Is the sequel as good? Let me first say what I liked about Sarkar Raj.
1. I love the slick photography, the stylized shots and the pace of the film.
2. Awesome understated performance by Abhishek. He clearly overshadows Amitabh. Note to Abhishek, “Dude, your wife clearly has difficulty matching up in the acting skills department.”
3. Abhishek’s lines were crisp and impactful.
4. Slickly edited by Nipun Gupta who also edited Sarkar and Nishabd among several other RGV films.
What did I not like?
1. The music or lack of it. It was like watching the film with the neighbor’s blaring music system being audible at the same time. Add to it the sound of a jackhammer and a fire engine. That is the music/ soundtrack of the film. Man, I was ready to pay Amar Mohile (the music director) to delete the music tracks so that I could watch the film in peace. Not sure why RGV felt that he needed to have someone chant Govinda. Govinda endlessly all through the film. If the idea was to create fear, well, he succeeded. I dreaded hearing the music. Try talking to yourself while this plays in the background.
Here is the music audio track of Sarkar Raj
2. Sayaji Shinde whose spine chilling performance in Shool (1999) as the villain Bachchoo Yadav remains my fave villain in the same league as Gabbar Singh of Sholay. If you have not seen that film, you must. And then if you see Sayaji do the character of Karunesh Kanga, it is just disappointing. With another actor playing that role, I would have just ignored it. Since it is Sayaji, he should know that I am disappointed. I am sure that really matters to him!
3. Amitabh does this mumble mumble version of Subhash Nagare “Sarkar” on the odd occasion. But I can live with those, because he was brilliant otherwise in the title role.
Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5. Go watch it.
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