GRAVITY (HOLLYWOOD SPACE SCIENCE DRAMA)

Written & Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, Produced by Alfonso Cuaron/ David Heyman, Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Music by Steven Price. Cinematography by Emmanuel Libezki

Storyline: Medical Engineer, Dr.Ryan Stone (Sandra) and Astronaut, Matt Kowelsky (George Clooney) set out to space walking to repair a mal functioning unit of the Hubble Telescope. While doing so, they get info from their space station Explorer, that a catastrophic stream of debris, which is a result of a Russian destroyed space shuttle is right on their way and ordered to abort their job. But before they do so, the debris hits the Explorer and the Telescope destroying both. Both the astronauts have a narrow escape and try to reach the nearest International Space Station (ISS) but find that the crew over there have already abandoned the ship sensing danger from the orbiting debris, which has already partly destroyed the same. Matt instructs Dr Ryan to use the capsule of ISS to reach the next nearest Chinese space station Tiangong and sacrifices his life to save Dr Ryan. She completely loses hope and plans to kill herself by shutting down the oxygen levels of the capsule but recoups herself thinking about the sacrifice of Matt. She somehow reaches Tiangong and propels herself to Earth through its functioning capsule just at the nick of moment before the orbiting debris once again devastates Tiangong. Dr Ryan’s capsule lands in a lake and she walks out on the full gravity of the Earth, a pleasure that she never thought of enjoying again.
Positives: The movie watched in 3D gives a weightless feeling to the viewer throughout. The true experience of being lost in space and the difficult situations that astronauts face betting their lives is well established. The Director’s skill in screening the entire movie with just two people and their struggle to get back to Earth alive, is commendable. Cinematography and the visual effects of living in space is excellent. Great background music.
Negatives: Viewers might get disappointed when they don’t get to see any other character in the movie, and not as a great entertainer. The advanced technology could have maneuvered the shuttles out of the orbit of the 90 minute cycles of the debris and avoid impact. Absence of quantified sentiment might have brought down the expected success.

My rating is 3.5 out of 5

IDENTITY THIEF (HOLLYWOOD CRIME COMEDY)

Directed by Seth Gordon, Produced by Scott Stuber and Pamela Abdy, Starring Jason Bateman and Melissa Mc Carthy. Music by Christopher Lennertz.

Storyline: Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) is an accountant in a multinational firm, living in Denver with his pregnant wife and two daughters. He struggles to make his ends meet due to low salary for a long time. Just at this moment, his credit card identity gets stolen through a fake call from a woman (Melissa). She is a professional identity thief with card printing machine and does this to live a lavish life at the expense of others. Sandy realizes one day about his stolen identity when his credit card gets declined in a petrol station, due to his outstanding dues on the card. Sandy almost loses his new job due to involvement of police and vows to prove his innocence by getting hold of the imposter. He finds her in Colorado and struggles to get her back to Denver and make her confess her guilt. During the journey, he develops a soft corner for her when he learns that she is an orphan and without a proper identity or a person to care for her, which shaped her behavior. Similarly, she also respects Sandy for his true gentleman nature and after meeting his beautiful small family. She finally confesses her fraud to the police and helps Sandy retain his job and good name once again. In return Sandy Patterson fetches her a new name and a her true identity forever, from government records.

Positives: A soft comedy with crime of a different nature mixed in right proportions. Melissa’s performance has taken the lion’s share of the movie. Her chubby body shape gives scope for enough comedy scenes. Nice car chases.

Negatives: The story is not new and nothing novel in the idea. Crime model is not practical as such fraudulent usage of credit cards can be easily traced and curbed due to latest technology. Involvement of some hooligans trying to get hold of Melissa seemed to be unnecessary. Comedy scenes are limited to Melissa and more of emotion linked to Jason’s role. A movie that need not be for home collection but can be viewed once.

My rating is 2.5 out of 5

Alexander the Great - The Macedonian Who Conquered the World by Sean Patrick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another good motivator from Sean Patrick. This time the choice of the author is Alexander the Great, who plundered everything in his way. What made him do so?

“Drive in One’s Self” is the main topic of discussion in this book. After the famous Genius Code description by the author in his previous book, the one great motivator that makes a person great is said to be the Drive to achieve his/her passion; just like Alexander the Great, from Macedon. Alexander took his throne of Macedon at a young age of twenty, and surprised everyone through his extra ordinary warrior skills and ruthless fighting spirit. His passion to conquer entire known world and introduce the superior Hellenic culture across the world was his purpose and goal. He went on to suppress all kinds of internal revolts against him from his family members, tribes of Thracia, Thebes, Athens and Thessaly. His formidable armed forces of experienced warriors, though small could devastate much larger armies in their way under the command of their great leader. He went on to conquer all the kingdoms around Macedon and also the vast and rich Persian empire with the same zeal and ferociousness. One by one, all major kingdoms including Persia, Illyria, Thebes, Boetia, Phoenicia, Plataea, Babylonia, Gaza, Egypt and part of India fell for the great warrior, unable to face the superior war strategies and the unbeatable winning spirit of Alexander. His soldiers were always charged with the same passion that drove Alexander and were unstoppable in every land they invaded and conquered. He led his undefeated army for 22,000 miles and founded 70 cities in just 12 years. Ultimately, in 323 B.C., Alexander succumbed to a mysterious fever, at the age of 32, when he was said to be under a depression and loss of his wild drive to establish a superior way of life and lift it to a new echelon of economic, social and academic prosperity across the world.

Positives: Alexander’s history summarized very effectively in this short book. His theory of working towards the goal through a definite purpose, confidence, diligent analysis and planning is quite inspiring. His interesting philosophies like “I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity” are worth noting down. The author’s selection of great leaders to bring out his valid points is impressive, a great way of inspiring the reader. Must read more on The Gordian Knot of King Midas.


Negatives: Everyone cannot be an Alexander as this great king could achieve what he did through his barbaric force and ruthless terror, not in a civilized world. The volcanic drive inside Alexander and his superior planning can be adopted but not the means he adopted to achieve his goals. What’s the use of having a short life with forced glory?

My rating is 3.25 out of 5


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The Secret of the Nagas by Amish
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author is a management graduate from IIM Calcutta. This is his second book, of the Shiva Trilogy, in continuation of “The Immortals of Meluha”. He is a great believer of Lord Shiva and his power.

Storyline: After having captured Swadweep, Shiva camps at Ayodhya with Sati (his wife) and his army. Shiva gets enlightened by the Vasudev Pandit in Ramjanmabhoomi temple about the purpose of Neelkanth. But, he develops sheer hatred against the Nagas, whom he thinks have murdered his best friend, Brihaspati, while destroying Mount Mandar. On his quest to find out the secret behind the powerful Nagas, he visits Kashi, where Sati delivers a baby boy, Karthik. The Nagas are found to be the suppliers of secret medicine to the rich kingdom of Branga (a deltaic land formed by the confluence of the two mighty rivers Brahmaputra and Ganga). This medicine heals and cures diseases, beyond the imagination of the Meluhan medical knowledge. The curiosity makes Shiva visit Brangadesh and finds that the kingdom is stuck with a mysterious plague which kills and deforms their children. The medicine from the Nagas cures them. This is when Sati is rescued by her abandoned first son (Ganesh) and her sister (Kali), during a lion attack. Ganesh and Kali were abandoned by Daksh due their birth deformities, and christened as Nagas. This fact is hidden from Sati, who later confronts her father Daksh for keeping her in dark regarding this and accompanies Shiva to the land of Nagas, only to discover that the Nagas are well organized harmless people put to lot of hardships by the arrogant Suryavanshis. The book ends with Shiva discovering the secret of the Nagas, who is none other than a man whom he assumed to be lost forever, found teaching about good and evil to Naga children. To be continued in the next book, “The Oath of the Vayuputras”.

Positives: New facts like the origin of the Lord Ganesh and his genetic link to Goddess Kali/Sati came as a surprise. The origin and importance of Kashi, Prayag, Vaishali etc are worth reading. The beauty of the forests of Sundarbans and Dandakaranya well elicited. A new land Branga (present Bengal) and its taunted riches are quite impressive. The all India voyage of Lord Shiva and his enlightenment about Good and Evil as the two sides of one coin in different territories of the country is worth memorizing.

Negatives: This book is a little boring compared to the first. The original version of the birth of Lord Ganesh is in total disobedience with this version. Reader might get confused. My personal doubt is that is Lord Shiva much younger than his wife Sati, who is estimated to be over one hundred years, due to the influence of Somras, when she married Shiva?

My rating is 3.5 out of 5


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The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author is a management graduate from IIM Calcutta. This is his debut novel, the first of the Shiva Trilogy and a great believer of Lord Shiva and his power.

Storyline: Shiva, a leader and a fierce warrior of a tribe called Guna in the Himalayan mountains, near Lake Manasarovar adjacent to Mount Kailash, who led a simple life, was lured by the advanced civilization of the Suryavanshis from a land called Meluha, in order to lead them to a war against their opponents, the Chandravanshis from a land called Swadweep, under the pretext that Chandravanshis want to destroy Meluha out of jealousy, with the help of Nagas, another deadly clan from down South of India. Meluhans differ from the Swadweepans in their disciplined and organized lifestyle in comparison to the free and conservative nature of their counterparts. Both of them follow and interpret their deity Lord Ram’s principles in their own way. In the process of administering their eternal, exclusive and prestigious drink ‘Somras’ on Shiva, the Meluhans discover that Shiva is none other than their long awaited Neelkanth, who is supposed to be their savior and destroyer of evil, as per the legend they believed in. Shiva falls in love with the widowed daughter (Sati) of Daksh, the emperor of Meluha and gets married to her. In return, Daksh forced Shiva to lead a war against the Chandravanshis led by their ruler Dilipa, after the suspected attack of the former’s great Somras manufacturing facility, by the latter. Shiva after defeating Chandravanshis in a fierce-full war, realizes that they are not at all evil but just different from the disciplined and advanced Suryvanshis. He repents for his mistake of being responsible for the death of so many innocent Chandravanshis, who also believed in the same legend, mentioned earlier, and waiting for their Neelkanth. The book is left open ended when Sati is attacked by a Naga when she accompanies Shiva in Ayodhya, the Swadweepan capital.

Positives: One of the best book series of recent times by an Indian author. A great interest is generated among the readers when one starts reading the book as it pertains to the identity and popularity of Lord Shiva, the highest worshiped God by the Hindus. Anxiety mounts every second as one is driven by interest to know what happens next chapter by chapter. One gets to know the origination of the Somras and its great immortal effects on human body scientifically explained. Terms associated with Lord Shiva and their importance explained with scientific logic like Mahadev, Nataraj dance posture, deadly weapon Trishul, tortoise formation in war etc are worth reading.

Negatives: Might be disturbing to staunch followers of Lord Shiva, that he was once a human being and was subject to all kinds of physical and spiritual emotions just like all of us and could be even be misled by someone else. This book questions the fact about the basic belief in every Hindu whether the Gods that they worship today were once upon a time just humans who have become great by their deeds and virtues

My rating is 3.75/5


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