(Book) A Case of Exploding Mangoes written by Mohammed Hanif

The subcontinent’s answer to Catch 22!!! and Slaughter House V!!

This book is one of the best dark political comic thriller that I have read in a long time..this is bitingly satirical and at times cuts you like a knife while making you split on the other side with laughter.

And for anyone who knows Pakistan’s troubled political landscape even passingly, this book is a realization that the best way to express themselves is by humour – the savagely comical variety. The truth which would be depressing in a factual format suddenly becomes something that can be laughed at and laughed with. You understand the anguish much better when you have shed a few tears of laughter…

The book is based loosely around the assassination of General Zia-ul-Haq, who died with almost his full military brass and the American ambassador in a plane crash in 1988.

But the story becomes a sort of “Murder on Orient Express”, with everyone trying to do the killing – the generals, trade unions and our hero and narrator,  Under Officer Ali Shigri, who seeks revenge for the death of his father, a decorated officer but who is ultimately haunted  by his actions.

The book is dark and funny at the same time. The events happening are dark but the narrative and the characterisation makes it humorous. There is intense lampooning of General Zia and other military top brass, which cuts them down to size and makes you almost feel sorry for them at-times. In fact Zia comes across as a dangerously deluded avuncular character who has got worms in his ass, who is browbeaten by his wife and uses the Koran as a daily horoscope.

That the author makes the country almost devoid of civilian in the narrative is deliberate. It heightens the sense that the military are living in their own lie. And the occasional glimpses of the people only results in them abusing the ‘uniforms’, much to the soldiers’ amazement, who thought they were idolized…

The book alternates, in its chapters, between Ali and Zia, with our narrator stumbling from one hole to another (sometimes, quite literally), meeting quite interesting characters on the way especially the ‘Secretary General of the All Pakistan Sweepers Union’. Zia, on the other hand moves from one paranoia to another, convinced that someone is out to kill him (he was not wrong of course!!). The two characters converge in the closing part of the book, when Zia is killed in more ways than one!!!

What makes this book stand out is that the material it deals with is dark yet the author manages to bring out the laugh out of you almost every page. You feel like a phantom floating above a comic opera. And that is the best vantage point from which to see the panorama. At times what Zia and Co is doing almost seems unreal, but then you realize that we have been fed too many boring news reels!!! And seeing them bumbling around makes you almost closer to them and produces better laughs!!!

And boy, is this book racy. I finished it in one sitting and its 364 pages long! It just keeps you on the edge, not only with the humour but also because you can see the plot thickening!!! And yes, the political satire is mature, which makes it even more enjoyable!!!

One of the best reads of the year for me definitely, if not one of the best of all times!!!

Labels: Books, comedy, humour, pakistan, satire

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:31 AM 0 Comments

(Series) Curb your enthusiasm conceived by Larry David

This is one of the most successful American comedy series so it is a bit of a surprise that it is so little known in India.

This is all about the most cynical social misanthrope that you cant help but fall in love with!!! Larry David, creator of Seinfeld, plays himself, albeit in a highly exaggerated form.  He plays a semi-fictionalized self, living as a semi-retired writer who has made a lot of money after the uber-successful Seinfeld series. A lot of other characters play themselves – Ted Danson, Richard Lewis, Mary Steenburg notably. A lot of delightful guest appearances happen throughout the seven seasons (there is another one to come out in 2011) – people like Mel Brooks, John McEnroe, Martin Scorsese, Ben Stiller, Shaquille O'Neal, David Schwimmer, Lucy Lawless  and the Seinfeld cast play themselves in sometimes more than one episode…

The show in mainly centred around the relationship that Larry shares with the people around him – his wife, his friends, his manager, his friends and a lot of people that he meets daily – waiters, drycleaners, drivers and so on. He is a misanthrope with highly eccentric ideas and theories especially about social conventions and suffers from a foot in the mouth syndrome. But he is eventually good at heart and frequently goes out of his way to help his friends and other people around him, though he still manages to put off the people who he is helping.

The main feature of Larry’s characters  is that he is absolutely socially incorrect. He would say and do things that people would not because, well, we have been taught not to do so. Larry is always getting into troubles for this reason, frequently being thrown out of people’s houses and having to try and try and make up with people who are upset with his improper frankness.

He would almost always say what he has in mind even if it is completely out of context (which is very usual) or offensive (from mild to extreme). He is constantly getting into one warped situation or another. His manager, the incorrigible adulterer Jeff Green (played by Jeff Garlin) is almost always a partner in all the troubles – either as a direct participant or as an advisor or a confidante. In almost all the serials, Larry gets a tongue lashing from Jeff’s foul mouthed wife Susie (played by Sussie Essman).

At the end of each serial, Larry ends up with more trouble than he started out with. At the end of each serial, you wonder how people tolerate him at all. And at the end of each serial, you wonder why his frequently embarrassed wife, Cheryl (played by Cheryl Hines) doesn't leave him (she does in a season, but comes back eventually).

And at the end of each serial, you end up laughing and grinning away like crazy – at Larry’s antics, his theories, the embarrassing situations he gets into and the way things always seem to go wrong for him. And it takes just one serial for you to get comfortable with the characters and it is soon that you become addicted to the series. You just want to see what other troubles he can get himself into…

This is one comedy series that you can keep for a long time and which you can watch anytime. There is no irritating canned laughter and that's the way I like my comedies. I want to hear my laughter. And I was constantly hearing it throughout the seasons…

I was almost heartbroken when I got through with the seasons. Life seemed a little less joyful but hey I can always watch them as re-runs. After all they are all on hard drive!!!

Labels: america, comedy, humour, series

posted by Protik Basu @ 7:34 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy (all 5 books) written by Douglas Adams

The thing with cult-classics which you have not read or seen is that you many times you feel let down by the end of it, having driven your expectations sky high before you started off. Something similar happened with me with Star wars after I finally decided to see all the six movies in one go (the first three were enjoyable, the last three were a let down)…it has something to do, I think, with the fact that many of the cult classics became such at a certain time and place and with the decades passing and with changing technology and sensibilities, things that might have seemed extraordinary become pedestrian or archaic…

So, it was with some trepidation that I started off with this hugely successful series - a series that started with a radio show, grew into a trilogy and then five books, spawned comic books, movies and two types of towels!!!

After having finished all the five, all i can say is that I don't remember having laughed so much except for “Three men on a boat” and “Yes Minister” series…and I have never read such veritable nonsense that strangely seems to make sense. Even though I knew that Adams had improvised while writing, which led to some contradictions, the storyline is solid enough to be a immensely rollicking ride. You have to suspend your belief of course and after the first few pages when the earth is destroyed, it is not really difficult to do so!!!!

What pops out of the pages are not something alien as such but things you can almost relate to but they happen in such bizarre combinations that they cant help but bring a grin to your face. The combinations of such absurdities are just too numerous to recount but one thing for sure is that out of almost every page would come out something that can only be the product of a feverishly creative imagination taken notches higher by a haze of cannabis!!!

I think that the cake for the most unintentionally comical character in literature has to go to Arthur Dent!! if the best humour is created by contrasts, Dent’s perennially flummoxed character has to be one of the best examples. From the moment he is rescued by Ford Prefect by the use of a towel and had a fish stuffed in his ear, Dent goes unboldly where no man has ever gone before!!! Along with Ford, Zaphod, Marvin the depressed robot and Trillian, a fascinating and unlikely group is formed to trawl the universe. They are helped along with the encyclopaedically unreliable ‘Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy’.

The incidents and the stories and the sub stories are just too numerous to recount but something that I found fascinating was that in the total of 1000 odd pages that make up the five books, the humour never flags and you never lose interest, inspite of the absolute nonsense that seems to be going in the pages. Strangely for all that nonsense, you never once feel alienated from it or feel that its been too much. 1000 pages of utterly fascinating nonsense – that's quality writing!!!

How can you forget the question of meaning of life, the actual rulers of earth, the real message of dolphins, Gods last message, the origin of cricket and the reason why the rest of the universe hates earth, the real ancestors of earthlings and so on…if you want the answers to all these, turn the pages. You wont be disappointed with the answers though you might be a little more than surprised

If I have to pick the best out of the five, it would be difficult to do so, since each one has a character of its own. The first one is the most fascinating, probably because its the first of the series and you get almost a culture shock when you read it. The last one is pretty dark at the end…

For someone who goes through life without reading these, it would be a huge loss. These books redefine a genre of their own and the humour is right there among the top in world literature…

The review has to go on for atleast two dozen pages if the books have to be described properly in all their humorous glory. Better still to read them…

Labels: Books, comedy, humour, science-fiction, series

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:10 AM 0 Comments

(Movie) ‘The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming’ directed by Norman Jewison

This is a movie that you will not hear of easily and after watching it, you would wonder why…

This is about as good a political comic satire as you would get. True, the acting is woody and over the top at times but the storyline is funny and the over the top action seems appropriate for the mood of the movie.

A Russian sub runs aground off the coast of America, on a small New England island town, when the commander of the sub tries to get a closer look of his ‘enemy land’. Not wanting to create an international incident, a nine man contingent is sent to the island in order to secure a motorboat to help draw out the sub.

And that is when the fun starts…in spite of the best efforts (may I say comical) of the Russians to make themselves blend in, suddenly the island is in the throes of an irrepressible rumour – The Russians have invaded!!!

The movie panders to stereotypes, both of Russian and American, in order to bring out the humour but it works quite well. As is quite obvious, the story is about how rumour feeds off itself and how panic spreads by the mere repetition of the rumour. The sight of the hapless and bewildered Russians trying to make sense of it all in face of them being branded as the steamrolling invading force is incredibly funny. The American gung-ho style of meeting the invader head on becomes funny when they actually start to search all over the island for the enemy who were supposedly all over the place…

There is obviously a message in the movie, if you care to look for it – as to how stereotyping and propaganda creates caricatures of people whom who we consider as enemy. But the message is so obvious that you sit back and enjoy the comical satire and you wonder how the poor Russian are ever going to get out of this one!!!

Alan Arkin is the best character in the movie – the over-confident second in command who feels his English is top notch (the scene where he teaches emergency words to his colleagues is simply hilarious). He is the translator and the coolest brain in the sub.

I think that the thing to be considered is that when the movie was released, in 1966, the cold war was at its absolute peak, the time when Dylan was singing “Let me die in my footsteps” (about the government generated scare of Russian annihilation). This movie is about how senseless all the propaganda is and that, to me, is a brave statement to make. And the best way to make a statement like that is by humour.

That, this movie does brilliantly…

Labels: comedy, humour, movies, satire, war

posted by Protik Basu @ 1:02 AM 0 Comments

(Movie) Igby Goes Down directed by Burr Steers

If ever you wanted to see Holden Caufield on the screen, this movie is it…

Some purists feel horrified at the fact that someone has taken the classic and turned into a modern story. I, however, feel that art must renew itself periodically, otherwise it atrophies. Especially when the portrayal is as beautiful and sensitive as this one…

Igby (Keiran Culkin) inhabits a world where he sees hypocrisy and duplicity everywhere. He is close to his father who now lives in a mental asylum and he hates everything else…Its a world that is coming of age but is already repelled by what he sees is the result of coming of age…

The story follows Igby as he stumbles from one relation to another, all the while keeping his humour and sarcasm up while he is getting scarred…and his sarcasm really makes you go splits most of the times!!!

The movie is populated by memorable characters, from his elder  brother Ollie (Ryan Phillippe), a manipulative smooth talker, Mimi (Susan Sarandon), their mother who is a complex book all by herself, Rachel (Amanda Peet), the vulnerable mistress of his godfather D.H. Banes (Jeff Goldblum), who in turn is the classical alpha-male and Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), the hippie love interest, who in a fit of conformity betrays Igby.

The acting by Culkin, however, to me, is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is his character and his acting that holds the fibre of the story together. He is someone who is sensitive and highly vulnerable but who hides it all behind a mask of sarcasm and callousness. The times when his vulnerability comes forth makes for some of the most memorable moments in the movie. His leave-taking was one of the most poignant parts of the movie, especially the scene with his father…

A quirky, sensitive movie about people who are branded outsiders, by themselves and by others. As I said, Holden Caulfield in modern day New York…

Watch this and you would take away memorable characters, great acting and a wonderful bittersweet feeling…

Labels: america, book adaptation, comedy, movies, rebel, satire

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:09 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Ladykillers directed Ethan and Joel Coen

Except for a few unnecessary gags, this is one hell of an enjoyable comic movie. I understand that people compare it to the original and don't like it  as much for the same reason.

But hell, I have only seen this one and would then, fortunately, be able to judge it personally on its own merits…

The star of the show is undoubtedly Tom Hanks. He literally carries the whole movie on his shoulders. Playing a dandy professor with an overdeveloped sense of the literature (especially of Poe), Hanks (as Prof Dorr) is actually the head of a criminal crew who aim to rob a casino in a sleepy town in Mississippi. And the whole crew is uniformly and wonderfully eccentric especially Gawain(Marlon Wayans).

The gang is pitted against the landlady of the house from which the tunnel is to be dug (where Dorr has taken up tenancy as a cover),a pious black elderly widow (who is fat in the nice stereotypical black landlady way!!). A band of criminals against her…nice contest, wont you agree?!!!

The ups and downs of the gang through a series of mishaps makes this one seriously funny movie. There wont be any gags pulled nor any special action sequences. It would be just in words and facial expressions that you would get you giggling…and yes, watch out for Hanks. It was one of his best performances I have seen, in a role that seems to be cut out for him. He is verbose, speaks in a eighteenth century tongue, is a wonderful orator and is also equally ruthless. Excellent combination!!!

Of course, beware – this is not a thorough light-hearted comedy. If you don't like darkness in your comedy, you may not enjoy it that much (and if you like it, you would enjoy this). I mean, this is not Mr Bean or Friends. This movie would fall into a dark-comedy-thriller genre if there is such a genre. It actually feels like a movie made in another era. Maybe because its a remake of the 1955 original. That feel only adds to the appeal that of this movie…

Though a few gags could have been done away with, this is a movie that you can watch many more times than once…if for no other reason, for the sight of Hanks' (or Dorr's) quotes and oratory especially his rendering of Poe’s “To Helen”…

Labels: comedy, Crime, movies, remake, thriller

posted by Protik Basu @ 1:09 AM 0 Comments

(Movie) Modern Times directed by Charlie Chaplin

There are some movies that you can enjoy immensely as a child and then realize how much more there is to enjoy in the same movie, years down the line…

Perhaps that is why movies of Chaplin are ageless. You laugh and cry with him as a child and as a ‘grown up’, but as the latter, you realize the true genius of the man.

Art without commentary on things around it is worse than useless, a mere trinket, soon forgotten. This movie proves that the medium can provide entertainment and make a profound political statement as well, while never becoming preachy or descending into propaganda.

And the best way to make a statement, especially a political one, is to make it through a satire. And this is what this movie does brilliantly…

The very first scene gives a clear indication of what is to follow – a herd of sheep morphs into people coming out of a factory while the  voice over narrates the joy of pursuit of happiness via modern capitalism.

Chaplin is a worker in a factory, a place where literally everything is controlled and the worker is no better than another cog. The boss is a like Big Brother, appearing on TV screens (even in the bathroom) and commanding the work to be speeded up (all the while himself doing nothing except work on jigsaw puzzles). There are many memorable scenes in the factory sequences – that of Chaplin trying to keep up with his work of screwing nuts, being force-fed by a feeding machine which is supposed to increase productivity (by cutting down on lunchtimes) and of course of Chaplin having a nervous breakdown.

This was made at the time of the Great Depression and Chaplin proves his genius by weaving into the story all the tensions, the helplessness, the dehumanisations that the common man went through in trying to maintain his dignity. Right from trade-unions to robbers trying not to starve, to street-smart yet vulnerable gamins trying to get by, Chaplin brings in every aspect of society at that time – all the while, never losing his comic touch. He pairs up with an doughty orphaned  gamine girl (Paulette Goddard) – making a team of two, a team that is determined to survive at all costs.

Amidst all the gloom of the times, the two are refreshing in their innocence and their unwillingness to let go of their small dreams. The scene where the two dream of a home together is hilarious as it is touching.

The film ends with them walking towards the horizon, not giving in to failure. The last lines of the movie pretty much sums it all up -

Gamine: What's the use of trying?
Chaplin: Buck up - never say die. We'll get along.

As simple as that…

When it ends, you realize that you have laughed with abandon at the all of the crazy scenes (the waiter scene, Chaplin’s nonsense song, the roller skating scene among many many others) and have also been touched profoundly.

It is a movie that makes as much sense today as it did seventy years ago. Except the superficial looks, nothing much has changed really…

A movie not to be missed. Chaplin and film-making at its absolute best…

Labels: america, classics, comedy, humour, movies, Political, satire

posted by Protik Basu @ 12:08 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) Wag the Dog directed by Barry Levinson

A delightful movie about spin doctors and how they can be shaping our reality right as we breathe. And it is so funny and mind boggling that you fear that its true!!!For isn't truth stranger than movies?

This movie is a cult-classic. And you soon see why…

The first lines of this movie sets the tone for what you realize is going to be quite a different movie - Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. What if the tail is smarter than the dog? It would be the tail wagging the dog!!!

The American president’s re-election campaign has run into serious trouble with a sexual misconduct allegation that is just about to burst the dam. So what would you do? You would call the spin doctors of course. And what would they do? Obviously create a world-shaking crisis that would over-shadow everything else and induce a panic-stricken population to rally behind its hero president (if you create it, you can defuse it – especially if its a fake event)

And the man behind the creation of the event – Robert De Niro. Who better to portray a man who is amoralistic and who does his spin doctoring as an everyday job. But since this is a truly magnificent event, who would he employ? Hollywood of course!!! in the shape of Dustin Hoffman. Its a world of people untroubled by the ethical  dilemma of any sorts – the only worry is of logistics. Truth and justice are words that would be met with quizzical stares by people here – people who run our world of policies and information.

So a war is manufactured and sleeper cells in news agencies are activated and modern information democracy does what it does best – create a blinkered dictatorship of news.

Problems arise and are solved and with each solution, you begin to gain more insight into how the world might really be working!!!

Its funny but not hilarious. Its funny in a very terrifying sort of way, a combination of words that can be understood only when you are through watching the movie. And the feeling only grows towards the end…

But there are these moments when you realize that the movie makers are really telling a stark truth couched in a satire. You see shades of the American administration strategies over the years (The Bush years especially are pre-empted by this movie). And then something that was the coup-de-tat for me – the two spinners (De Niro and Hoffman) talking about arranging the Nobel Peace Prize for the President. I did a literal double take. Well, Obama’s advisors sure see the movies!!!!

A movie like few other. A movie that needs to be seen to be believed.

One thing is for sure. You will not be unaffected by this one.

Labels: america, book adaptation, comedy, conspiracy, movies, satire

posted by Protik Basu @ 9:33 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) To be or not to be directed by Alan Johnson

Now this was a movie that I had seen way back in school when we used to have lots of time to kill in the afternoon and this movie had a lot of re-runs on star movies. And when I watched it after so many years, I enjoyed it as much as I did then. Perhaps more, since now I realize how difficult it is to get a clean and fun comedy movie to watch.

And that’s just what this is. It is light-heartedly funny with lots of side jokes in it. It’s about a bunch of polish actors caught in the invasion of the Nazis in 1939. The story is about how they go about preventing the Nazis from getting hold of a list of members of the Polish resistance mainly by doing what they know best – acting. In this case, impersonating Nazi officials. At the end, Mel Brooks even impersonates Hitler (and forgets that he is doing so, in the climactic scene at the English pub). In the process, everyone escapes during a performance and its all a happy ending. The main storyline is serious fun and never flags in the punch in the jokes. Equally funny are the side stories that complete the picture. The Nazis are caricatures, as usual but funny.

A light hearted movie that can be watched many times and you can start from almost anywhere in the movie and start laughing right away…now how many movies can make you do that?

Labels: comedy, movies, satire

posted by Protik Basu @ 8:41 PM 0 Comments

(Movie) The Sunshine Boys directed by Herbert Ross

What do you get when you put two old retired showmen together for one last show? especially when they cant stand the sight of each other? and when one is absolutely irritatingly and lovingly cantankerous and the other is suffering is suffering from slight dementia?

The answer is one hell of a rip-roaring hilarious movie!!!

Willy Clark (Walter Matthau) and Al Lewis (George Burns)were one of the best known vaudeville comic pair but who fell out when Lewis retired suddenly…now cut to the present. They are old but have lost none of their rancour. That's the fun part!!!

Now many years later Willy and Lewis are given a chance to get back together when Willy’s nephew Ben Clark (Richard Benjamin) gets a slot from ABC to pair them together…but the problem is that Willy does not want to because he still passionately hates the sight of Lewis. Lewis is willing but unwilling to put up with the bad behaviour of Willy…

The result is absolutely side-splitting. The dialogues are witty and the acting by the two lead guys and the poor nephew who is caught between an ancient feud is serious fun. The contrast between the acting of Willy (every muscle in his face seems to act on their own) and Lewis (placid and unchanging expression) just about completes the picture. The ending is also very appropriate for the movie and is a perfect ending, according to me…

This movie cannot be explained..it needs to be seen and the blues will chase themselves out :) One of the best comedies I have ever seen!!! 

Labels: comedy, movies

posted by Protik Basu @ 9:54 PM 0 Comments