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A historical fiction novel set in old Hollywood, ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ opens with rookie reporter Monique Grant being asked to interview the Hollywood star who has had a glamorous and somewhat scandalous life. Monique goes to meet Evelyn to get her story for Vivant, the magazine Monique works for under Frankie, an ambitious and ruthless editor. But Evelyn tells her she isn’t interested in a magazine cover—that it was just a ruse to get to Monique. Rather, she wants to tell Monique her life story that Monique is free to publish as an authorized biography once Evelyn is no longer around.  

The book’s primary narrator is Evelyn, interspersed with Monique’s voice here and there. She takes us through her life—from her foray into Hollywood in the 50s to eventually winning the Oscars in the 80s. We get to know each of her seven husbands and her one true love, Celia St. James, while being enamored by the glitzy but often chaotic Hollywood life. But how does Monique fit into the picture? And why is Evelyn ready to bare her secrets to the world when she has done so much to protect those she loved and herself by putting up a façade for so long? It’s these two elements that don’t let you put the book down for long. You want to know what exactly drove Evelyn to keep remarrying despite being in love with Celia. You need to know what her plan is now that she is almost 80 and thus no longer guided by the same beliefs as during her younger days.

Reid is a master storyteller who knows what she is doing and is evidently in love with her craft. There are sentences that you want to keep rereading. It’s the smoothest prose I’ve read in a long, long time. I’m quite stingy with my five stars but this one was a winner through and through. There is never a dull moment in the story. Everything that happens feels important and gives you a complete sense of the characters and their emotions. You love and hate all the characters equally, just as you have a love-hate relationship with most of your closest ones. Even the ‘bad’ ones aren’t really bad. They are just human.

Reid shows us that everyone has flaws but nobody is really unredeemable—that a lot of times who you are depends on what your circumstances are at that moment, that you aren’t defined by any one thing but are rather a culmination of many different things, decisions, and emotions. She also addresses the issues of homophobia, racism, and sexism and does it with so much empathy that nothing feels forced or out of place. Bottom line: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a flawless book that will always have a special place in my heart.

Five stars 
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published: 2017
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 389, Paperback

The 2015-2020 period in the Nepali film industry was all about anthemic songs. Filmmakers spent a substantial chunk of the whole budget on one song and its music video, which would then go on to be bigger hits than the films themselves. Songs like “Purba Paschim Rail” from Chakka Panja, “Ye Daju Nasamau” from Chhakka Panja 2, “Parkha Parkha Mayalu” from Mangalam, “Thamel Bazar” from Loot 2, and many others became instant hits with millions of views on YouTube and thousands of airplay on radio and television.

The 2017 movie “Dui Rupaiyan” met with a similar fate. The movie’s OST “Kutu Ma Kutu”—with music by Rajan Raj Shiwakoti, and sung by Shiwakoti himself along with Melina Rai and Rajan Ishan—featuring actor Swastima Khadka, created history as one of the highest played Nepali music videos, with YouTube views crossing 150 million. The film, however, got the opposite response and blew cold.

Directed by Asim Shah of G21 Production, Dui Rupaiyan is an action-comedy that follows two friends Jureli (Nischal Basnet) and Dari (Asif Shah) and their adventures with a two-rupee note. The small-time crooks take up a smuggling job from Boss (Tika Pahari) who hands them a marked two-rupee bill which they are to exchange with illegal gold on the India-Nepal border.

On their way to the mission, the duo stops by for lunch at a local restaurant where Dari indulges in a chance tête-à-tête with the owner Maya (Menuka Pradhan). Unfortunately, their encounter is interrupted by Maya’s husband Bom Bahadur Tamang (Buddhi Tamang), a sub-inspector of police. They do manage to escape from the strict policeman and reach the rendezvous point on the Indo-Nepal border only to realize they have lost the two-rupee note and cannot get the goods in exchange. The duo then find themselves in deep mess with ASI Bom Bahadur on their tail and the Boss’s trusted aide Juddha (Prateek Raj Neupane) also looking for them, seeking blood. How Jureli and Dari manage to get themselves out of trouble makes up the rest of the film.

Dui Rupaiyan is a film full of goofball moments, unexpected conflicts and witty escapades. The fast-paced film races through and is fairly enjoyable through its 1hr 52mins run-time. But the fast pace that works in the film’s favor also works against it, not allowing the audience to grasp the crux of the story. Nor do they get to understand their characters in-depth and empathize with them when needed. This might be one reason the film failed to get much audience in the theaters when it was released.

Still, there is more to like about the film than not. Co-writer and actor Asif Shah seems to have put every effort in trying to make the lead characters memorable. Both Shah and Basnet, in the lead roles, fit the storyline like it was tailor-made for them. Only if the writers had been able to give them some more identifiable quirks and traits and a convincing backstory, both Jureli and Dari would have become sequel-worthy characters.

The film’s background score is another noteworthy accomplishment. Rohit Shakya and Shailesh Shrestha use multiple genres in the background to match the energy of the characters on- screen. The soundscapes they use add to the film’s visuals and make the mediocre cinematography more enjoyable. Another OST of the film, eponymously titled “Dui Rupaiyan,” featuring Aid Ray and Laure rapping to Shakya’s music, is hard and gives the climax, as well as the end, credits the necessary weight. 

Who should watch it?

“Dui Rupaiyan” is a movie you watch, enjoy and forget. The film did have an opportunity to create memorable moments but besides “Kutu Ma Kutu,” there is little to remember. Still, in its entirety, the film is entertaining for anyone who loves light-hearted action comedies. Also, compared to most films released between 2015 and 2020, Dui Rupaiyan fares too well to not watch.

Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Comedy/drama
Actors: Asif Shah, Nischal Basnet, Menuka Pradhan
Director: Asim Shah
Run time: 1hr 52mins

Some books are so hyped that when they let me down, I feel something must be wrong with me. Maybe I just didn’t get them? Perhaps my brain is the size of a shriveled raisin? Or was I distracted when reading, which I shouldn’t have been, and what does that say about me as a reader? These thoughts are discomfiting and, frankly, makes me feel a little stupid. I take a lot of time to bounce back and pick up another book when this happens. I don’t want the next one to disappoint as well and that’s a lot of pressure. I hate books that put me in this position and most recently it was ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ by Maria Semple that got me all riled up.

I had high hopes, having heard so much about the book. Afterall, it had also been made into a movie starring Cate Blanchett. I searched for a physical copy despite having the e-book in my kindle. I was so sure it was going to be a great read and that I would want to see the spine on my bookshelf. From what I had heard and read, this was a fantastic story about a family trying to understand one another better and the power of a daughter’s undying love for her mother. I even thought I would enjoy the format in which it is written—a hodgepodge of emails, transcripts, invoices, school memos and even FBI reports.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the story of Bernadette Fox, a woman in her fifties who lives in Seattle with her husband, Elgin Branch, and their daughter, Bee, a high-school student. Once an acclaimed architect, Bernadette is now a recluse of sorts. She spends most of her time at home, coming out only to drop Bee off and pick her up from school. She’s not involved in any school activities like the other parents and is actually contemptuous of the ones who do. Then when Bee asks for a family trip to Antarctica for scoring perfect grades, Bernadette throws herself into the preparation only to disappear days before departure. Everyone thinks Bernadette broke under pressure but Bee is convinced there is more to it than meets the eye.

My problem with the story is that much of it is just about Bernadette being on the brink of a meltdown and how the town folks don’t like her much. It goes nowhere for more than half of the book—just pointlessly moving about in circles trying to establish a point that could have been made in a few chapters. It got a bit too much after a while. The emails and invoices felt gossipy. Semple was a television writer for 15 years and it’s evident that she still thinks like one. You had to piece together a story with the help of the various correspondences and, while that would have made for a fun read, Semple’s choppy narrative makes you lose interest pretty fast.

2 stars
Fiction
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Maria Semple
Published: 2012
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pages: 324, Paperback

Netflix’s latest release, the 2020 Indian film “Shikara,” based on the backdrop of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir in the late 80s and 90s, draws inspiration from many places. For one, it narrates the horrid accounts of Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to leave their homes in fear of their lives, based on the real survivors’ accounts.

The movie is also partly inspired by the book “Our Moon Has Blood Clots” by Rahul Pandita. Most importantly, the producer/director Vidhu Vinod Chopra dedicates the film to his mother “Shanti”, who left Kashmir in 1989 and never returned. Chopra, who himself was born and grew up in Srinagar, Kashmir, was a first-hand witness to what transpired there after the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) began a separatist insurgency for independence.

Debutants Sadia Khateeb and Aadil Khan play Shanti and Shiv Kumar Dhar, a young couple from Kashmir who find themselves in the eye of a cyclone during the insurgency. Shiv and Shanti meet as strangers during a film shoot in 1987 when they are asked to walk as a couple in a scene. Shanti is reading a collection of poems called “Shikara,” which is coincidentally written by Shiv.

The two fall for each other and with their parents’ consent, get married, and start a new chapter in their lives in a home they lovingly name “Shikara.” But around the same time, violence starts brewing in Kashmir. Within a year of their marriage, Shiv and Shanti have to flee from their home, leaving Shikara deserted, and spend the rest of their lives as refugees in their own country.

Despite its theme of politics gone violent, Shikara is not a harrowing political drama. It is actually a romantic film that focuses more on the lives and struggles of Shiv and Shanti than on the Kashmiri Pandit issue. Drifting from reality, the film has a lot less violence than what actually transpired and the plights of the Kashmiri Pandits have not really been voiced in the film. No wonder it got a bad rap for being soft and misrepresentative. Coming from a Bollywood veteran like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who in a way is also a victim of the insurgency, the storytelling in Shikara is criminally underwhelming.

Still, the acting, background music, and aesthetics make it enjoyable for the audience who are not looking for much depth in a movie. Debutants Khateen and Khan who play Shanti and Shiv respectively are beautiful to look at and also execute their roles convincingly. The supporting characters in Shikara do not get much significance and it's mostly Khateen and Khan projected on screen, which gives them enough time to display their brilliance.

But the actor duo also has to share screen space with the exquisite beauty of Kashmir. In Shikara, cinematographer Rangarajan Ramabadran uses almost every trick in the book to capture the mesmerizing beauty of Kashmir. And this is not just the lakes and mountains we are talking about. Ramabadran follows his characters through the narrow lanes and quaint suburbs of Kashmir, giving the audience more footage of the gorgeous valley.

The camerawork is further nourished by color-grading that is mostly kept warm, and adds an almost surreal atmosphere to some scenes. The visual tone maintained throughout the film makes it akin to a picturesque work of art on canvas.

Now to another gem in the film, the background music. While the original soundtracks of Shikara are not memorable enough, the background score adds girth to the already brilliant cinematography. Interestingly, the man from down south, A. R. Rahman, with his apprentice group Qutub-E-Kripa, creates interesting soundscapes to help narrate a story placed in the northernmost part of India. The use of ethnic Kashmiri music along with contemporary sounds works well for the film’s theme.

Who should watch it?

As mentioned before, Shikara is an aesthetically beautiful romantic drama. If you do not have a problem with how this film fails to represent the many atrocities faced by Kashmiri Pandits and does not even address the underlying issues of their exodus, you will enjoy Shikara like any other Bollywood film.

Rating: 2.5 stars
Actors: Shadia Khateeb, Aadil Khan
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Run time: 1hr 58mins