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Simply put, Yaa Gyasi is a genius. Her books, and there are two, brim with an unparalleled understanding of the human mind and condition. You don’t just read her stories—you feel and live them. Gyasi, whose debut novel ‘Homegoing’ was published in 2016, has a subdued writing style that makes every word seem important. In 2017, Gyasi was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists and in 2019 BBC selected her debut as one of the 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.

‘Transcendent Kingdom’, Gyasi’s second work of fiction, was probably the most awaited book of 2020. The internet was abuzz with anticipation for another masterpiece from a brilliant writer who was only getting started. And she didn’t disappoint. The book is an excellent meditation on life and how we are sometimes consumed by our losses. But it also celebrates the resilience of human spirit and the way we don’t stop trying to rebuild our lives.

The novel’s protagonist is Gifty, a PhD candidate at Stanford University, who is running an experiment on mice to study the neural circuits of reward-seeking behavior. The mice are addicted to a sugary energy drink and caged in a behavioral testing chamber fitted with a lever that administers either the drink or an electric shock. With the help of optogenetics, Gifty is trying to identify which neurons are firing whenever the mice press the lever. She is interested in those mice that can’t stop pushing the lever, even after being shocked dozens of times.

The experiments are Gifty’s way of trying to figure out why humans do what they do. The driving force behind the study is her need to understand why her brother Nana couldn’t get over his drug addiction and make sense of his death due to overdose. Gifty hopes her work will someday lead to an effective diagnosis and treatment of addiction. Then, her mother comes to live with her after suffering from a relapse of the severe depression she had after Nana died and Gifty’s carefully crafted world crumbles. She is forced to confront some traumatic memories as she takes care of her mother.

I have always loved narratives that explore parent-children relationships. They help me make sense of the complex ways in which we are often forced to navigate it. Stories like that make me realize that you don’t always have to understand your parents and that love is still possible without it. In that way, Transcendent Kingdom really hits home and leaves you with a bittersweet feeling. It’s sad, it’s contemplative, and, above all, Gyasi’s power-packed prose haunts you for days after you finish the book. 

Four stars
Fiction
Transcendent Kingdom
Yaa Gyasi
Published: 2020
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 264, Paperback

For meme lovers and connoisseurs of contemporary online humor in our part of the world, the name Sachin Tichkule is likely to ring a bell. Especially when they are out and about in the monsoon and see roads flooded for lack of drainage, and potholes so big, they could almost be a swimming pool for toddlers. The ones acquainted with the life and times of the iconic contractor Sachin Tichkule can’t help but look for him on the streets of Kathmandu, running behind a road-roller or watching over road maintenance. 

In the 2010 Hindi-language movie “Khatta Meetha”, Sachin Tichkule (Akshay Kumar) is the man next door. He is a contractor from a respectable middle-class family who has big dreams and small coffers. With no means to pay bribes to get his hands on lucrative government contracts, Tichkule struggles to stay in business, even as his family loses faith in him.

To cope with the corrupt system, Sachin in his own wayward ways tries to be a part of the corrupt system, fighting with his self-respect while trying to succeed in his career. And luck is not on his side. Not only does he have to deal with a skeptical family and corrupt bureaucrats, the arrival of his ex-girlfriend, Gehna Ganpule (Trisha), as the area’s municipal commissioner makes matters worse. Gehna holds a grudge against Sachin because of their bitter past; she is also a strict government official and would have nothing to do with his frivolous shenanigans. 

The story of Khatta Meetha is simple yet relatable, especially in a corrupt country like ours. Written and directed by master filmmaker Priyadarshan himself, the film takes political satire to the ground level. It shows how even the smallest players in a country’s economic ecosystem could be spoiled by the greed of corrupt bureaucrats and businesspersons. The fragile morality of humans is questioned and provoked in this cleverly written film. 

Unfortunately, Priyadarshan tries to do more than narrate the struggles of Sachin Tichkule, which would have made the film more organic and realistic. Instead, the writer/director takes the focus away from Sachin in the second half to weave conspiracy theories that do not gel with the film’s opening half. Maybe this was one reason the film did not do so well at the box office when it was released. 

Still, the televised reruns of Khatta Meetha and its availability on YouTube have helped gained this film a cult following, with numerous online memes being dedicated to its characters, just like the earlier Priyadarshan-Akshay Kumar combo “Hera Pheri” (2000), which was initially a box-office dud. Khatta Meetha has a similar track record but it does not come close to the hilarious magnanimity of Hera Pheri by any chance. 

All-in-all the movie does not have an elaborate production design. As mentioned, the film portrays a part of our society almost like it exactly is. There are comparatively fewer exaggerations than most Bollywood films but it does not completely shun fictional liberties to become an arthouse cinema. It’s kind of a delectable mix of both. 

Despite Priyadarshan’s witty writing and direction, the film has its share of shortcomings. But here steps in the energetic Akshay Kumar who gives it a lift. To play Sachin Tichkule, the actor—one of the highest-grossing in the industry and also known for his versatility—has to shirk his stardom and manifest life as a common man. This, the actor does with such commitment that the character and the actor become inseparable. Also aiding Kumar with the comedy sequences is actor Rajpal Yadav as Rangeela, Sachin’s aide and confidante. Together the duo spins one magical moment after another. 

Who should watch it?

Many of you have probably watched Khatta Meetha already. But even if you have, this is one movie a lot of people won’t mind revisiting. Though not a box office hit, the movie, which portrays pervasive corruption and government apathy, was pretty relevant in the past and is equally so now. 

Rating: 3 stars
Drama
Cast: Akshya Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever
Direction: Priyadarshan
Length: 2hr 38min

I have read many thrillers. So many that I’ve lost count. Over the years, I have become really good at figuring out who the bad guy is. I would say I’m right 95 percent of the time. Let’s up that to 97 percent. You can tell I’m quite smug about it, can’t you? So, when I’m more than halfway through a thriller novel and still can’t guess who the murderer/stalker/rapist is, I have to give it to the author for weaving a unique and captivating narrative. I have to concede defeat.

‘The End of Her’ by Shari Lapena never gave anything away despite having so much going on. I could not make up my mind about any of the characters. They all seemed flawed and perfect at the same time—very human. One moment I would think I had it all figured out, and the next I would be unsure again. The plotline isn’t unique but what Lapena has done with it is phenomenal.

Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin girls in New York. Stephanie is a stay-at-home mom and Patrick works a nine-to-five job to foot the bills. Despite being largely sleep-deprived, they are happy. Then Erica arrives. She was Patrick’s first wife’s best friend. She also had an affair with him. Now, she claims Patrick murdered his first wife. She then starts blackmailing the couple, threatening to go to the police otherwise.

Patrick insists he is innocent, that his first wife died of carbon monoxide poisoning. She was in the car while he was shoveling snow right before they were to leave to visit her parents. But Erica says he wanted her out of the picture so that he could start all over. She says she was too scared to come forward earlier. But she wanted to warn Stephanie when she found out he had remarried. Then, why is she blackmailing them? Did Patrick really kill his wife?

 The entire novel reads like the last 50 pages of a thriller; there is so much happening and so many gasp-inducing moments in each page right from the start. There are also other engaging sub-plots that weave into the story and make it compelling. Author Linwood Barclay called Shari Lapena ‘The queen of the one-sit read’ while Steve Cavanagh said she was one of the best thriller writers in the business. The End of Her was my first Lapena book and I’m a fan. Immediately after finishing The End of Her, I started searching for her other books and I’m elated I found ‘A Stranger in the House’. If it’s even half as good as The End of Her, it should be another fantastic read.   

Four stars
Fiction
The End of Her
Shari Lapena
Published: 2020
Publisher: Penguin Random House  
Pages: 414, Paperbac

The web series “Ray,” created by Sayantan Mukherjee and based on short stories of the famous Indian auteur and writer Satyajit Ray, occupied enough space on my social media this week to make me give up everything else and gobble up the entire series in a single sitting. That’s the power of social media influence and since its release on June 25, Ray has been exercising full control over social media with people recommending the series without a second thought.

The anthology, written for the screen by Niren Bhatt and Siraj Ahmed and directed by Srijit Mukherji, Abhishek Chaubey and Vasan Bala, contains four different stories originally penned by Satyajit Ray. Although the stories are of completely different people and places, they are all identical in the sense that they revolve around the psyche of their central characters and how they interact with their respective environments. The series weighs heavily on its main characters to retell Ray’s stories, with each episode tinged with suspense, a stylistic signature of the master storyteller.

Ray begins with “Forget Me Not” where Ipsit Rama Nair (Ali Fazal), a successful entrepreneur known to have a sharp, computer-like mind that never forgets suddenly finds himself searching for lost memories after a mysterious encounter with someone from his past.

Next, in “Bahrupiya,” Indrashish (Kay Kay Menon), a regular office employee and a part-time make-up artist struggling with work and his love life comes across an unexpected inheritance. Alongside a large amount of money, Indrashish gets a book on the art of makeup and prosthetics from his recently deceased grandmother, forever changing his life.

In a train journey, two strangers sharing a compartment quickly befriend each other. A popular performer Musafir Ali (Manoj Bajpayee) and a wrestler-turned-sports journalist Aslam Beig (Gajraj Rao) become drinking buddies in “Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa.” But it turns out that the strangers share a past, the recollection of which haunts one of them throughout the journey.

“Spotlight”—the final act in the series—is about a celebrated actor Vikram ‘Vik’ Arora (Harshvardhan Kapoor) who is going through an existential crisis as critics slam him: he supposedly has no acting talent besides his looks. Vikram’s insecurities are augmented when a religious figure called ‘Didi’ (Radhika Madan) appears at the resort he is staying in and completely takes the spotlight away from him.

As a series, Ray is one of the best things to happen to Indian filmmaking in 2021. The individual, independent episodes both excite and disappoint. “Forget Me Not” seems to hit the hardest with its dark, cynical climax and the sheer brutality of the characters involved. The beginning and end of this episode flow on entirely different tangents, unsettling the audience.

“Bahrupiya” wants to carry on with the same darkness, but fails. The story of a simpleton Indrashish turned into a sinister criminal needed some more screen time to be better told. Despite the seasoned Kay Kay Menon’s brilliant performance, the episode is underwhelming, to say the least.

“Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa” is light, poetic, and musical. The two main characters share almost equal screen time and are a treat to watch in their elements. Shot almost entirely in a train compartment, the audience will not miss anything else while the two veteran actors Bajpayee and Rao spread their charm on screen.

For newcomer Harshvardhan Kapoor and his “Spotlight”, Ray is a group of death. Not only is he pitted against some of the best in the industry, his episode is also aired last in the series after the audience has soaked in so much entertainment that it’ll need an absolute banger to raise their interest. Surprisingly, the actor does a better job in this episode than in all of his past performances. But this time, the storytelling, direction and his lead co-actor do him dirty.

Who should watch it?

The episodes getting slightly negative reviews in the series are because they’re being compared with each other. Outside the series, every episode of Ray is way more remarkable than maybe 70 percent of the Hindi-language films/series released this year. This is a series a regular OTT viewer should not miss.

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Drama
Actors: Ali Fazal, Kay Kay Menon, Harshvardhan Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee
Directors: Srijit Mukherji, Abhishek Chaubey, Vasan Bala
Run time: 3.8hrs approx.