I’m Thinking of Ending Things book review: Feels like a fever dream
Would you laugh at me if I said I bought ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ by Iain Reid because I just loved the book’s cover and feel? The slim volume felt so nice in my hands. I was holding the book the entire time I was browsing at the Pilgrims Book House in Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur. When it was time to pay for the other three books I had selected, I couldn’t put I’m Thinking of Ending Things back on the shelf. So, I had the cashier ring it up as well. I had already watched the film adaptation by the Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman and it hadn’t made much sense to me. I hadn’t enjoyed the dark and dreary setting. But the book was a lot better than the movie, albeit as confusing.
The story is about an unnamed woman who has been dating a dullish man called Jake for about six weeks when the two decide to go visit Jake’s parents. Now, she doesn’t really know why she’s doing it considering she’s thinking of ending things. She feels like she has sleepwalked into it all and that the two of them, despite the initial attraction, aren’t meant to be together. But still, she finds herself in the car, on a road trip. Here we get to see what she likes about Jake and the two talk about things like memories, faith, the importance of relationships, and how everything is multifaceted. Their conversations give you a lot to think about.
Also read: The Silent Patient book review: Absolutely riveting
Throughout the trip, the woman keeps getting phone calls. But she doesn’t answer them. She keeps making excuses—it’s just her friend calling, she’ll talk to her later or the battery is about to die—and lets the call go to voicemail. You get the sense something is off long before the actual horror begins. There are no other cars on the road, and when they finally reach their destination, all the houses are burnt out or dilapidated.
Though Jake says his parents are expecting them for dinner, the house is in complete darkness. It all feels chillingly sinister. Jake displays awkward behavior time and again. There were times when I felt that had I been in the narrator’s place, I would have jumped out of the car and run screaming. Then, Reid also makes you question the narrator: Is she reliable? The novel takes a horrific turn when the couple stop for dessert (in the middle of a snowstorm) on their way back and then make a detour (to dump the empty containers).
I’m Thinking of Ending Things feels like a fever dream. The claustrophobic setting makes it frighteningly good. Reid’s sparse prose and a dialogue driven narrative keep you hooked. What you know gives you goosebumps yet you wish Reid had told you more. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but just this once I’m glad I did.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
3.5 stars
Fiction
Iain Reid
Published: 2016
Publisher: Scout Press
Pages: 216
Ankhon Dekhi movie review: Underrated and under-watched
YouTube is a strange place. Here, a video of someone eating a bowl of noodles (mukbang) can get over two million views while a gem of a movie, made using a considerable amount of time, resources and artistry fails to get even a fraction of that attention. Viewership is unpredictable and were it not for its algorithm that leads the user towards videos based on their past preferences, I for one would not be spending as much time on it.
On the long list of works of art that have not gotten the attention they deserve is the 2015 Hindi-language drama “Ankhon Dekhi.” Released on Shemaroo Movies’ official YouTube channel more than a month ago, the film has just over 80,000 followers while the channel itself has over 17.8 million subscribers. So criminally undiscovered.
Written and directed by Rajat Kapoor, who has an amazing filmography of offbeat, unorthodox, low-budget treasures, Ankhon Dekhi is another feather in the cap of the filmmaker as well as its entire cast of talented actors. Unlike most Bollywood movies banking on their lead actors, the film is a team-effort of an ensemble cast who won many awards and accolades for the film when it released.
Rajesh aka Bauji (Sanjay Mishra) is a patriarch of a big, extended family living in congested confines of a small house in old Delhi. An event in his life leads him to decide that from then onwards, he would believe only what he sees. But the figurative “believe only in your own eyes” becomes literal and his new-formed eccentricity starts making life difficult for him and his family.
Bauji takes his family and friends on a new adventure in life with his only-believe-in-what-you-see theory as he starts denouncing God and everything he previously believed in. Basically a summation of comedy of errors, the film has its darker sides and an ending left to the audience’s interpretation.
Also read: Kate movie review: Old wine in new style
Veteran actors Sanjay Mishra, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Pahwa and Saurabh Shukla join a lesser-known ensemble of actors to create magic. The storyline gets absurd and abstract at times but the natural performance of actors and honest storytelling do not let the film lose its realistic shape. Every character is given a specific role and their combined contributions culminate in what has to be one of the finest Hindi movies.
Ankhon Dekhi is not only a film that entertains but also a visual treat that shares an idea with the audience. As a society, we have been so used to taking small bits of information for granted that we do not even question the integrity of the source. For us to believe someone is good or evil, we do not even need to see the person for ourselves. We are fed this information by the people and society around us and nurtured to believe in collective thoughts and opinions. Bauji, our protagonist, tries to break this shackle of mis/information and finds himself in all kinds of troubles, at the same time liberating himself from what he sees as lies he had been believing all his life.
Another factor that adds to the charm of Ankhon Dekhi’s unorthodox storytelling is the music which is melodious yet unique and again, criminally undiscovered. Composed by Saagar Desai, lyrics written by Varun Grover and sung mostly by Kailash Kher, the film’s score is based on Hindustani classical music but with a fusion of modern rhythms. Composer Desai takes the storytelling knack of Rajat Kapoor to create music that co-narrates the story of Ankhon Dekhi. Granted that the songs are not catchy, but they were not meant to be. Not all good music is supposed to be consumed like cookies by the masses and Ankhon Dekhi’s score is a prime example of that.
Who should watch it?
Ankhon Dekhi is a beautiful film that deploys comedy to deal with an existential question. The storytelling, acting, cinematography and music are top notch, and typical of Rajat Kapoor and his team. So for anyone who’s enjoyed Rajat Kapoor’s works, it’s a must-watch. For the unacquainted, you will still thoroughly enjoy the film and go on to explore more of his works.
Ankhon Dekhi
4 stars
On YouTube
Drama
Cast: Sanjay Mishra, Seema Bhargava, Rajat Kapoor
Director: Rajat Kapoor
The Silent Patient book review: Absolutely riveting
I had heard a lot about Alex Michaelides’ ‘The Silent Patient’. Authors like C.J Tudor and Lee Child whom I considered the masters of thrillers were raving about it, calling it smart, sophisticated and a very clever book. It’s also being adapted into a screenplay for Brad Pitt’s production company. I put off reading it because the blurb made it sound like a garden-variety thriller. I only picked it up when I wanted a light read. I felt I could read a few pages and then do something else and come back to it and so on and so forth. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. The blurb doesn’t do justice to the riveting story. The Silent Patient is a taut psychological thriller that you won’t be able to put down.
Alicia Berenson, a rising artist, has been convicted of murdering her fashion-photographer husband, Gabriel. But after shooting him in the head five times, she stops speaking. She is taken to the Grove, a secure psychiatric unit, but no medication or treatment can make her talk. Theo Faber, a London-based psychotherapist, is obsessed with Alicia as he has spent two decades in therapy himself, trying to overcome the trauma induced by a father who was cruel to him. As Alicia has had a similar upbringing, he feels she will be able to connect with him and that he is the only one who can make her talk.
Also read: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: Blown away
The narrative has Alicia’s journal entries that give us an insight into her life because by the time we meet her she has already stopped talking. We also get to know other people like her husband, Gabriel, her brother-in-law, Max, and some of her friends through these entries. And they are all intriguing, undecipherable characters. Theo, while conducting therapy sessions with Alicia, also speaks to some of her relatives and acquaintances.
The switch between the two voices is refreshing and keeps you hooked because you feel like you are on the verge of discovering something that could be crucial to the plot. Michaelides is primarily a writer of screenplays and that skill has come in handy while working on The Silent Patient—the scenes are so descriptive and thus easy to visualize.
I liked the writing style of The Silent Patient. Not everything is explicitly stated but you can draw a lot of conclusions by analyzing the information you are given. Michaelides keeps throwing things your way to flip the entire narrative around and you are left rethinking everything you have read and reevaluating all your thoughts. The book has several consecutive plot twists that leave you speechless and wondering if any author you have read and loved thus far can now live up to the high expectations you will have from them.
The Silent Patient
Four stars
Fiction
Alex Michaelides
Published: 2019
Publisher: Orion Books
Pages: 341, Paperback
Kate movie review: Old wine in new style
It’s a bit like “Kill Bill” mixed with “Salt” and “Lucy” and a dozen other Hollywood productions that have femme fatales as their central characters. And like most Hollywood flicks that feature female assassins, Netflix’s latest release “Kate” is stylish, fast, violent and centers on betrayal as its main theme.
Such a cliché if you ask me, when some of the most dangerous women on earth have to be scorned at first to unleash their wrath upon men. It’s like they have to be brutally betrayed every time to find a purpose in life. Personally, I find this approach to filmmaking crudely reductionist and overused.
Still, the American action thriller Kate is a fast-paced visual delight that’ll keep you entertained much more than the Hindi-language anthology “Ankahi Kahaniya” which was my initial choice for the review. But as its name suggests, the stories in “Ankahi Kahaniya” would have been best left untold. It’s a yawn-fest!
Now coming back to Kate, the movie is a commercial production that at times feels like one of those ‘fan-made’ trailers on YouTube which are created by cutting scenes from various movies and joining them in a sequence. So formulaic and unoriginal is Kate that you know who the actual villain is even before half-time. But there are elements that keep you entertained and not make you feel like you’ve not wasted your time.
Also read: Shikara: Visually engaging but sans vision
Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a deadly assassin who has been groomed from early childhood by her handler Varrick (Woody Harrelson). Even though she is a ruthless assassin, Kate and her agency have one understanding, one rule—they never kill a target with children nearby. But on one mission, Kate is forced to assassinate a high-ranking yakuza boss who is with his teenage daughter Ani (Miku Martineau).
Cut to almost a year later and Kate, haunted by her memories of terrorizing a young kid, decides to retire from her job. She discusses her retirement with Varrick, who is not very pleased with the decision but still agrees with her choice. But on her final mission to kill another yakuza boss Kijima (Jun Kunimura), Kate finds she is poisoned with a deadly substance called Polonium-204 which has no known antidote and she will die in the next 24 hours. What she does to find out who betrayed her and how she extracts revenge makes up the rest of the film.
As reluctant as we are to give out spoilers, we’re sure more than half of our dedicated movie watchers have already guessed the finale. Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and written by Umair Aleem, Kate is rummaged into an old Hollywood mold and then adorned with modern glitters to make it acceptable for the current audiences.
The cinematography, editing and background score of the movie combine to make it an exciting package. Together, they make the action sequences, which make up almost 70 percent of the film, seem fresh and captivating. Actor Mary Elizabeth Winstead seems to have trained herself well to pull off the hand-to-hand fight sequences as well as sword- and gun-fights. As the titular character, Winstead gets the most screen time in the 1hr 46mins movie and is impressive for most parts. But there are times, mostly during emotional scenes, when the actor feels like she’s too tired to act because of all the action sequences she had to perform.
When the titular character gets the most screen time, the supporting actors, no matter how talented, lose their presence. This happens in Kate to veterans Woody Harrelson and Jun Kunimura. The characters performed by the two seasoned actors do not get much thought in writing and are underwhelming to say the least. The potential they carry as actors and the impact their characters could have had are somewhat lost in the fast-paced sequences and linear storytelling of Kate.
Who should watch it?
Kate is a Hollywood masala film and we know by experience that masala films always tend to get good audiences. So for people who don’t mind watching a repetitive storyline in return for some eye-catching action sequences, Kate is definitely an entertainer.
