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Confession time: I’m smitten by Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s ‘Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe’. Ever since I finished it, I’ve been dreaming about it (quite literally too—Dante made a guest appearance in my dream where my dad was trying to train our dog to do somersaults by doing it himself). The title initially felt like a mouthful but, after reading it, I realized it beautifully sums up the book’s essence. The cover is gorgeous too. 

It’s a YA novel but I believe it will resonate with readers of all generations. I wish I had read the book as I was growing up. It would have definitely broadened my then-narrow perspective on gender and relationships. I plan to reread it soon and see what nuances I might have missed in this beautiful coming-of-age story that is a though-provoking exploration of sexuality and identity.

The book is about two Latino boys, Aristotle or Ari and Dante, who first strike a friendship at the pool where Dante teaches Ari how to swim. The two lead different lives—Dante, the son of professors, is a confident boy while Ari is shy, comes from a modest background and has a brother in prison. Ari is an angry teen while Dante has an unusual way of looking at things. They seem to have nothing in common but surprisingly get along well.

The story is narrated by Ari and though his view colors the narrative, every other character still manages to shine through. Dante specially wins your heart with his charming ways. The family dynamics between the characters and their parents is engaging. There is also a strong sense of disavowal of toxic masculinity—Danta cries easily and doesn’t feel the need to express his dominance through violent acts. I feel there is a need to explore the vulnerable side of men in literature to reinforce the idea that strength has nothing to do with being unemotional and that emotionality is a feminine trait.

As the boys transition into young adults, Sáenz portrays different facets of growing up, focusing mainly on masculinity and the complicated, often warped, ways in which we start developing ourselves. The book also deals quite a bit with race, ethnicity, homophobia, and psychological trauma. Sáenz has been able to bring these elements together without anything feeling distorted and confusing the reader. It’s all seamless. Some chapters are long and some are short but each is impactful and crucial to the overall plot.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe doesn’t have plot twists and intense drama. The simplicity of the story is what makes it compelling. The story consumes you, and refuses to let go of its hold long after. It was the hopeful and uplifting read I needed during what felt like a desperate and bleak time. It was a soothing balm to my lockdown woes.

Five stars
YA Fiction
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Published: 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 359, Paperback

After more than a year of continuously watching and reviewing Netflix movies/series, it started getting a bit monotonous. I know it’s an OTT platform and there are new releases all the time, but the whole waiting and watching does get a bit boring when you know you have to review a movie every week. So, I decided to surf through YouTube to see if I could find something interesting.

A quick search for Bollywood movies gave me multiple options but the one that caught my eye was the 2018 film “Baazaar,” for personal and semi-professional reasons. The Indian language crime/drama is largely based on the share market and it’s inside stories. Enough reason for an aspiring NEPSE trader to watch, you might think. Well, that is partly true.

The film uses two men from different walks of lives and backgrounds to tell the inside stories of power and money struggles in the stock market. Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra) is a small-time stock-trader in Allahabad who idolizes Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan), a Gujrati share market tycoon based in Mumbai. Rizwan’s wish to work with the very best in the share market makes him chase Shakun, who in turn recognizes the youngster’s potential and thus begins a collaboration between the two men—the former a naïve entrant and the latter a ruthless whale. Facilitating their relationship is Rizwan’s co-worker and girlfriend Priya Rai (Radhika Apte), who has an already successful career in the firm they work for.

As Rizwan starts making money by the millions for Shakun, the two get close. Shakun, usually reserved and distanced, starts taking a personal liking to Rizwan and even their families, including Shakun’s wife Mandira Parekh (Chitrangda Singh), get involved. But like any bull or bearish trend in the market, their relationship also does not last long. Greed for power and lust for money comes between, with guile, treachery and retribution coming into play.  

Directed by Gaurav K. Chopra, Baazaar’s story feels uncannily similar to Oliver Stone’s 1987 masterpiece “Wall Street,” although there is no official mention in the credits. The writers of Baazar try to show the darker side of the stock market where deception and scam are just another day’s work. (This is kind of true for almost every share market.) The film has intense movements and suspenseful subplots to make it thrilling enough.

Still, the three writers credited for Baazaar do a lazy job of omitting the very details of how a market operates for real. There is a lot to watch in the film, but nothing to take away. It focuses more on the power struggle between the players than realistically show at least some actual processes that the audiences could relate to.

Badly written it may be but the film flows at a good pace, making its 2hr 17mins length bearable despite the boring soundtracks and background music. Like most of the Bollywood films on stock markets and finances, Baazaar too uses its females as mere tools in storytelling and pretty faces on screen. Both the central female characters—Priya and Mandira—played by the best actors in the industry were in a position to make an impact on the story, but the writers only make them blend and then fade into the background.

This lack of character-building for other actors, including Mehra’s Rizwan, shifts all the focus on Khan’s Shakun. Shakun, who has made it to the top of the market with his shrewd trading skills and a little help from his wife’s family money, is a multi-layered character with shades of black and white throughout the movie. The actor Khan does a fine job of getting into his character but still feels tied down due to the terrible writing and stereotypical characterization. 

Who should watch it?

Baazaar fetishizes the stock market and the uncountable amount of money that floats in it. Glorification of financial crimes works for some and doesn’t for others. So you know if you really want to watch it.

PS: We’ll most probably be doing a YouTube movie every alternate week. So if there’s something you’d like to get reviewed or saw a movie you particularly liked, please send us a link. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or mail us at [email protected]

Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Crime/drama
Actors: Saif Ali Khan, Rohan Mehra
Director: Gaurav K. Chopra
Run time: 2hr 17mins

Tambudzai is a black Zimbabwean woman in her forties living in a women's hostel in Harare. It’s a temporary arrangement as she is older than the permitted age and has to find a place of her own soon. But having quit her job at an advertising agency after white male co-workers got credit for her work, she is struggling to find accommodation and employment. The traumatic experiences and hardships that she goes through affect her mental health and she is even institutionalized for a while. All in all, Tambudzai or Tambu has a difficult life.

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel ‘This Mournable Body’ that got shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize is somewhat bleak. But despite the general theme of despair running through the book, This Mournable Body is actually a story of triumph and the strength of the human spirit to persevere. Tambu is aware of the brutal reality of her situation but she never loses her sense of self. She is a strong character. She is every woman who has ever found herself in a difficult situation.

This isn’t a book without problems—it’s slow, for instance—but it shifts your perspective on things and that’s an important kind of storytelling. But what I loved about the book is that it is narrated in second person from Tambudzai’s perspective. You feel like you are Tambudzai and literally in the midst of all that is happening. Tambu is sometimes quite self-centered and thus a difficult character to like. If it hadn’t been for the writing style that put me in her shoes, it would have been frustrating to understand or feel connected to her.

I did, at various points in the novel, wish I knew more about Tambu—where she came from, what her childhood and growing up years were like, and how she ended up where she was. Turns out, This Mournable Body is actually the concluding novel in a trilogy. You needn’t have read the previous parts to pick up this book—it works fine as a stand-alone novel. But reading the other two books will definitely give you a better sense of things.

The first book, ‘Nervous Conditions’, published in 1988, is about Tambudzai’s childhood. The second, ‘The Book of Not’, out in 2006, follows her time at convent school before she starts working in advertising. Set 20 years later, the final instalment of the series chronicles the later years of Tambu’s life. It’s a sad depiction of how the education system is filled with false promises for black Zimbabwean women and how they deal with that reality. It’s also an essential commentary of sorts on class, race, and misogyny that divide most societies even today.

Three stars

Fiction

This Mournable Body

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Published: 2020

Publisher: Faber & Faber Limited

Pages: 363, Paperback

For someone who watched football in the 90s, the ponytailed figure of Roberto Baggio leading his team from the front in every match with the same zealous energy is a memory that can’t be easily erased. Nor can the iconic image of Italian football’s legendary forward and attacking midfielder ever be forgotten in the annals of world football. Baggio, in his career span of roughly three decades, gave the sport some of the most memorable moments and the biographical feature film “Baggio: The Divine Ponytail” (l Divin Codino) celebrates his contributions.

The movie starts when Baggio (Andrea Arcangeli) is 17-years-old and plays for the local team L.R Vicenza. Born to a lower middle-class family, Roberto lives with his parents and seven other siblings in a small apartment. The opening scenes with long shots in the confined space of his family home suggest how chaotic and equally colorful Roberto’s early life must have been.

Then, in 1985, he is recruited by the Serie A team Florentina, a big moment for him and his family. Everyone around Roberto seems to be supportive of his football career and see him making a name for himself and the country, except for his father Florindo (Andrea Pennacchi). Baggio has an uncomfortable relationship with his father and although Florindo is not totally against his son’s career, he is not very appreciative either.

But Baggio is unhindered by any negativity in his life, including a major knee injury he gets in the early stage of his career. Baggio quickly recovers physically and gets into Buddhism to help him recover spiritually and goes on to deliver record-setting performances in football. In 1993, he wins the coveted Ballon d’Or and is in the peak of his career when in World Cup 1994 he misses a deciding penalty against Brazil in the finals. This incident would haunt him for the rest of his life, even giving him nightmares at times.

The movie Baggio, directed by Letizia Lamartire, covers most of the footballer’s professional life and some of his personal life in a fast-paced sequence of events. The storytelling is quick and concise, but owing to its brevity of just 91 mins, the film feels more clustered than compact. Many questions have been left unanswered. There also seems to be a discrepancy in the chronology of Baggio’s life and career.

We get little into the life of Baggio and are shown more of what is easily available on the internet. For instance, his embrace of Buddhism, as shown in the movie, is unconvincing. Also, we are told in words that Baggio has had problems with his coaches all through his career, but we do not get to witness much of this conflict. Nor do we see his relationships with his fellow players, some of them icons in their own rights. For the rest of the film, there is just not enough conviction and emotion as expected in a passionate biography of a famous sportsperson.

Actor Andrea Arcangeli, playing Roberto Baggio, cannot be blamed for this though. He has done a convincing job of portraying the flamboyant Baggio on screen. He acts his part and definitely looks his part, doing everything expected from an actor. It’s the storytelling that lets the film down. The makers seem to be confused about whether they would like to show the professional side of Baggio, or his personal side, and end up not doing enough on both the fronts.

I had never expected I would ever say this, but this film is just too short! A sportsman with Baggio’s list of contributions and achievements should have definitely been given more screen time. With the healthy pace the film maintains, a 2.5hr long feature or even a mini-series would have been more interesting.

Who should watch it?

Football fans, new and old, unquestionably. Even if not as a good movie, watch it as an ode to the rockstar of international football. As mentioned, the film’s steady pace will not let you get bored even if you find a lot of pieces in the puzzle missing, and the acting performances are decent enough.

Rating: 2.5 stars
Genre: Biography, drama
Actors: Andrea Arcangeli, Andrea Pennacchi
Director: Letizia Lamartire
Run time: 1hr 31mins