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What aspects of a movie draw your attention from the very beginning? The casting? The opening scene? Cinematography? Acting? The introduction of characters? Have you ever had an instance when around 15 minutes down the line, you realize the film’s background score is so good that you re-watch from the beginning again just to pay more attention to it? Oh the perks of modern technology.

Although background scores and non-choreographed original sound tracks (OSTs) have a major hand in making what’s playing on the screen relevant, most of the time they are barely noticed unless they really stand out. The 2018 Tamil language crime-thriller “Vanjagar Ulagam” (“World of crafty people”) was a surprise though. It came as a random suggestion and became one of the best movies I have watched this year, mostly because of its music. In fact, it was not even on my review list initially but replaced a major Bollywood star’s release in this column. Thanks mostly to its music.

Vangajar Ulagam’s story revolves around Shanmugam alias Shaam (Ciby Bhuvana Chandran), who one day wakes up from a drunk stupor to find that he is accused of murdering his neighbor, Mythili (Chandini Tamilarasan). Shaam has no alibi and nothing to establish his whereabouts on the murder night. But his co-worker, investigative journalist Vishagan (Vishagan Vanangamudi), believes that the murder has a bigger backstory and is the ploy of a sinister criminal called Sampath/Durai Raj (Guru Somasundaram), who is also wanted by cops for multiple crimes. Thus begins the cat-and-mouse story of journalists, police officers and criminals all chasing each other throughout the film.

The plot of Vangajar Ulagam is relatively new, well-written and the screenplay holds the film together till the end. Writer/director Manoj Beedha uses a relatively unknown cast in lead roles and yet manages to create a cult classic-like vibe with the unsophisticated proceedings. Without the infamous, larger-than-life actors with “star” in their prefixes, the film relies on acting talents of the cast and the elegantly simple filmmaking instead of gaudy gimmicks.

Now coming back to the movie’s best part, the music by Sam C.S. literally stands out. With only three OSTs in the whole film and the rest as background score, sound design in Vangajar Ulagam is phenomenal. There’s a lot of Carnatic influence in the scores, accompanied by electronic music, mainly dubstep. Then there’s an addition of modern jazz and some really mean metal sounds. Combined with excellent cinematography, the music creates a cinematic experience that is mystical and trance-like. The film stays true to all genres of music it uses. Instead of the emulated facsimiles of rock, metal and jazz that mainstream Indian cinema usually creates, the music in Vangajar Ulagam is raw, punchy and hits you hard.

Another stand-out along with the music is the performance of Guru Somasundaram as Sampath/Durai Raj: the actor playing an eccentric criminal mastermind with a dark secret is convincing.

His physical appearance, dialogue delivery and facial expressions all align to give a realistic touch to the persona he embodies. Without any disrespect to other actors, Guru’s Sampath/Durai Raj alone seems like the inspiration behind the trippy background music.

If only the climax had been better the film would probably have gotten more popularity. Because despite the film’s chances of becoming a cult classic and a major twist in the end, including a shocking revelation, the climax seems to lack the intensity expected of a film that is consistently captivating for the most part.

Who should watch it?

This is a film we recommend not only to thriller movie fans but also to music lovers. Vangajar Ulagam is a treat to watch and listen to. This is one Netflix film that should come with a “must wear headphones” recommendation because the music hits you hard.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Crime/thriller

Actors: Ciby Bhuvana Chandran, Guru Somasundaram

Director: Manoj Beedha

Run time: 2hrs 2mins

Let me get this out of the way: I’m not a Paulo Coelho fan. ‘The Alchemist’, which seems to find its place in almost everyone’s list of favorites, isn’t a book I’m crazy about. But there are some Coelho books, like ‘Veronica Decides to Die’ and ‘Eleven Minutes’, that I must admit I enjoyed. Still, Coelho, whose books have sold 300 million copies in print, isn’t an author I recommend or get excited about.

I bought ‘The Archer’ entirely because it’s a slim book. I’m trying to read a book a day this January just to give myself a pat on the back at the end of the month and feel like my life is headed somewhere as I continue to work from home. Also, flipping through the book at Ekta Bookstore in Thapathali, Kathmandu, I realized I could enjoy the illustrations even if I didn’t particularly like the book (and I didn’t think I would) and could justify spending money on it.

The Archer begins with the arrival of a stranger who says that the local carpenter, Tetsuya, is the best archer in the country. He challenges Tetsuya to a contest. Though Tetsuya hasn’t picked up his bow and arrow for years, he agrees and then goes on to perform better than the stranger. A young boy is witness to all this and wants to learn the ‘way of the bow’. Tetsuya relents on the condition that the boy never reveals his true identity. The rest of the book is basically a series of motivational dictums where archery is used as a metaphor for life lived well.

It took me about 45 minutes to read The Archer and more than half of that time was probably spent gazing at the illustrations. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t like it that much but there are bits and pieces that aren’t bad. The ‘life’ advice was a little too much in-your-face and it did sound repetitive at times. But, I feel, we must embrace whatever ideas we can get on how to live a balanced and harmonious life. Yes, such advice comes our way all too often, from ‘well-meaning’ people, but if it gets you to try and improve your life even a little bit, it’s perhaps worth enduring these not-so-gentle reminders.

However, I would not encourage people to read the absolutely mundane stuff that Coelho seems to come up with. I have met people who believe if Coelho gets non-readers reading, then there’s really no harm in that. I disagree because I think we are dumbing down our senses by consuming words that don’t do anything other than make the author rich.

So, if you must, read The Archer once. Borrow the book. Find a free e-book or the audio version. See what kind of mindset it leaves you in. But please, please don’t let Coelho ever dictate how you think or set the tone of your reading life.

Fiction

The Archer

Paulo Coelho

Illustrations by Christoph Niemann

Translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa

Published: 2003

Publisher: Viking  

Pages: 130, Hardcover

Are you connected to the internet? Social media? Do you have secrets you shared with someone online? Skeletons that, if they are out of the closet, will make you want to go hide inside one? Or personal information you’d never want to make public? Even if the secret might not be that big, taken out of context, it can blow out of proportion and completely destroy your reputation in days, if not hours.

This is what happens to the people of Salem, Massachusetts in “Assassination Nation.” The city goes berserk when a hacker gets into the phones and computers of almost half the city’s population and publishes their personal secrets online.

In the process, an anti-gay mayoral candidate’s secret as a cross-dresser who hires male escorts starts circulating in the city, completely destroying his career. Then a high school principal is adjudged a pedophile as he has some pictures of his six-year-old daughter taking a bath. Similarly, a lot of personal information about people of Salem circulates on the internet, breaking reputations and causing enmities.

In all of this, high school friends Lily Colson (Odessa Young), Bex Warren (Hari Nef), Em (Abra) and Sarah Lacey (Suki Waterhouse) are the main victims. Not only do they have to cope with the hack among themselves, they also have to survive the angry city mob set out for their blood because they’re blamed for all that’s happening. Basically, the city wants to make them a scapegoat.

Written and directed by Sam Levinson, Assassination Nation is not exactly a fresh release. It originally premiered in theaters in September 2018 but popped up on Netflix’s new releases section only recently. And don’t get fooled by the name. Although it sounds like an outright action/thriller movie, Assassination Nation is actually a dark comedy that assassinates the character of the judgmental folks in our society. The film is a satire on how fragile people’s privacy has become in this modern world because of technology and how vulnerable we have become to internet terrorists.

Stylistically, Assassination Nation is a young film, with most of its story revolving around teenagers and their lives. Using young people, their lifestyles and dialect, the film tackles the issues of bullying, classism, drug use, toxic masculinity, homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism and much more. With its sassy and sophisticated styling, the film exposes the horrors of American society, which at the same time might reflect those of most modern societies the world-around.

Giving a big hand to the film’s storytelling is its cinematography. The 1h 48mins long film is fast paced and changes motifs quickly. Sometimes so quick that some characters do not even get time to establish themselves. There is just too much happening—sex, violence, treachery, camaraderie, drugs and all. The screenplay hence feels rushed at times. But through all the stormy proceedings, Marcell Rév’s cinematography stays coherent.

The cinematography suits the film’s grand design. It strangely lets the audience sit back and enjoy a chaotic grind without struggling to make sense of what’s going on. The camera angles are mostly unorthodox and sometimes extraordinarily brilliant. A few single-take long shots make you wonder how the scenes were perfected.

Who should watch it?

The film, with the daily lives of the generation-z at its center, can definitely be watched by people of all generations. Assassination Nations speaks nothing but the truth. Even with fictional liberties in the making and a few stylistic exaggerations, the film stays true to its subject.

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Dark comedy/Thriller

Director: Sam Levinson

Actors: Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Abra, Suki Waterhouse

Run time: 1hr 48mins

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards Non-Fiction 2014, ‘The Opposite of Loneliness’ by Marina Keegan is a collection of essays and stories that captures the universal hopes and struggles as one prepares to face the ‘real’ world after graduation. On her graduation day Marina had said, “I will live for love and the rest will take care of itself.” Her love for and fascination with life is evident in each one of the 18 essays and stories in this collection.

Marina died five days after graduating magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. Her boyfriend, who was neither intoxicated nor speeding, fell asleep at the wheel. The car hit a guardrail and rolled over twice, killing Marina but leaving the driver unhurt. Her parents, Tracy and Kevin Keegan, wanted the state to drop the charges of vehicular homicide against her boyfriend because ‘it would break Marina’s heart’. When he went to court, they stood by his side and the case was dismissed.

Marina’s dream—after hearing novelist Mark Helprin say, during a master’s tea at Yale, that it was virtually impossible to make a living as a writer today—was to become a writer and ‘stop the death of literature’. Published posthumously with the joint effort of her professors, friends, and parents, The Opposite of Loneliness is all that the world will ever get to hear from Marina. It’s unfortunate because Marina, it seems, was a gifted writer. Her essays and stories draw you in and you find yourself tuning the rest of the world out.  

What made the book compelling, for me, was definitely her writing that’s laced with humor. She doesn’t hesitate to make fun of herself and she does so with an enviable ease. In a way that helps you try and accept your own idiosyncrasies a little more. Her writing is also emotional and contemplative, thus forcing you to look at things from different perspectives. An important underlying message of much of her work is that it’s never too late to live a life with joy and meaning. We could all use a little reminder every now and then, couldn’t we?

The Opposite of Loneliness might not be writing at its finest but Marina’s voice is fresh and unpretentious. She wasn’t trying to sound a certain way or writing to impress. Reading her makes you feel she loved to write and so she did with reckless abandon. That makes it even harder to read her but you know, deep down, that hers is a book you will be recommending and revisiting as often as you can.

Essays & Stories

The Opposite of Loneliness

Marina Keegan

Published: 2014

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Language: English

Pages: 208, Paperback