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There is no denying that Twin­kle Khanna is smart and witty. Her fortnightly column in The Times of India is fun and the senti­ments hit home. It almost feels like she is in your head and is voicing out the very things you could never put into words and doing so quite eloquently to boot. Her first book, Mrs Funnybones, which came out in 2015 and was modeled on her wildly popular aforementioned col­umn of the same name, made her India’s highest-selling female writer of 2015. Her confession—that she is a way better writer than she was an actor—seems to be quite true indeed. Khanna’s third published work and her first fiction book, Pyjamas are Forgiving, is a drama that revolves around love, loss and longing, with marriage and infidelity thrown in the mix. It’s entertaining while it lasts, though it does have a few boring bits and pieces where Khanna goes off on some preachy rant of sorts. It’s definitely not Khanna at her best but it’s the same unpretentious writing that is her trademark that makes you want to keep reading.

The story is set in Kerala’s Shan­thamaaya Sthalam, a spa where peo­ple are supposed to live a simple life (clad in white cotton kurta and trou­sers) and consume copious amount of ghee to purge their systems of all the toxins they have accumulated in their day-to-day lives. The protago­nist is a middle-aged woman named Anshu who comes to the spa when­ever she’s feeling a bit unsettled. This time around, Anshu runs into her ex-husband, Jay, and his dim-witted young wife, Shalini, and it is this premise that makes most of the sto­ry. The backdrop—Dr Menon curing people of their doshas or imbalanced energies at the spa—makes for an interesting read as you watch Ans­hu’s life unfurl before you.

There are also other amusing char­acters that add an element of spunk to what could have otherwise been a monotonous narrative. The set­ting and mood are just right. You can almost smell the incense and hear the rustle of the leaves. It’s the metaphors, the forced clichés, and all the advice you have heard before and don’t want to hear anymore that weigh you down. Also, with her sharp comebacks, Anshu comes off as Mrs Funnybones and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Khanna, in one of her interviews, admitted that she doesn’t want to be a dreary writer but, in her quest to be witty and entertaining, she runs the risk of being repetitive and crafting characters that will never feel wholly new. What Khanna lacks in insight and literary expertise, she makes up with her cynical tone and humor but that can only stretch a narrative so much. Pyjamas are Forgiving would have been a rather tedious read had it been any longer.

Book: Pyjamas are forgiving

Genre: Fiction

Author: Twinkle Khanna

Publisher: Juggernaut

Published: September 7, 2018

Language: English

Pages: 256, paperback

Disclosure: This review is being written by someone who has seen not one of the previous five ‘Transformers’ movies. This, he is finding out, can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he can judge the sixth movie of the series, ‘Bumble­bee’, based solely on its cinematic merits. On the other, the review risks coming out as a little (or a lot) short-sighted.Anyway, let us jump right into it. First, it’s a storyline of a typical sci-fi movie: a tale of ‘good’ and weak­er creations of science triumphing over ‘bad’ and superior ones. On the planet of Cybertron, the good guys are the ‘Autobots’ who are in a civil war against the evil ‘Decep­ticons’. If the Autobots lose, the planet is doomed. But then they are losing the war.

They need time to regroup. Opti­mus Prime, the leader of the Auto­bots, sends B-127 to planet Earth where he will prospect the land for an Autobot base. If B-127 fails, that will be the end of the Auto­bots. Once on Earth, B-127, which can take the shape of any car in its view, opts for the body of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

Who should watch it?

If you are a die-hard fan of sci-fi action movies, and have loved previous Transformers flicks, you may like this one too. If you are not, you can skip it.

To cut a long story short, one day, teenager Charlie Watson (Hail­ee Steinfeld) finds this car in an old garage. She repairs the car and makes it come to life.

Watson finds that instead of an old car she has invited into her garage a good-hearted human­oid robot. Since the robot cannot speak, she names him Bumblebee. Unbeknown to Watson, when she starts the car, Watson also inad­vertently signals the Decepticons in Cybertron. They now know the Autobots are trying to regroup on planet Earth and resolve to destroy both the Autobots and the planet that could be their potential refuge. Without giving away the plot, what happens next should be familiar to any fan of a superhero movie.

 On planet Cybertron, the good guys are the ‘Autobots’ who are in a civil war against the evil ‘Decepticons’

Steinfeld’s performance as a fatherless 18-year-old rebel living with a stepfather she does not con­nect with is nearly faultless. She is that all-important human touch in a movie packed with metallic char­acters. There then is John Cena, the wrestler who plays an agent of Sector 7, a government agen­cy that monitors extra-terrestrial activities on Earth. He is a hard-noised former US Army Ranger who finds himself embroiled in the fight on Earth between the Autobots and Decepticons. Cena is perhaps the only wrestler in the WWE history who has been consistently projected as a ‘good guy’—an image that ‘Bumblebee’ amply exploits.

Based in 1987, ‘Bumblebee’ might offer those who grew up in the US at the time a sense of nostalgia. But for the rest the nei­ther-here-nor-there timeline can be hard to relate to. Moreover, the instant bonding between Watson and Bumblebee appears forced, as does the depiction of Watson’s love for her deceased father.

There are great action sequenc­es, especially the ones showing physical combat between the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ robots. And there are some hilarious moments when Watson is teaching the bungling Bumblebee disguise technics. Yet the film feels far too metallic and far too less humane. Not a bad movie at all. But it may not be to the taste of everyone.

Movie:  Bumblebee

Genre:  ACTION, SCI-FI

CAST:  Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Cena

DIRECTION: Travis Knight

We Nepalis are lovers of rice and if that rice comes to our plates in long grain, with exquisitely cooked meat gravy and garnished on top with saffron and coriander, we just might go crazy.

The Hyderabad House at Bhatbhateni (50 meters towards the Bhatbhateni Temple, opposite the Bhatbhateni Supermarket) has been titillating the taste buds of Nepali foodies with its big-portioned biryanis and other rich titbits. Hyderabad House gives you the taste of true Indian and Mughlai cuisines and surprisingly with a small collection of Chinese dishes too.But you might not want to order Chinese there. You’re better off with platefuls of kebabs, dumpukht biryanis, Hyderabadi soups called marag and other spicy, succulent Indian royalty like dishes.

Just a little reminder the dishes, tasty as they are, are a tad expensive at Hyderabad House. If that is no problem, you won’t regret a visit, we tell you.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Chicken Afghani Kebab

- Biryani

- Kebab Platter

Opening hours: 11 am - 10 pm

Location: Opposite Bhat Bhateni

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 3,000

Reservations: 4443839

As a kid when he is locked up for picking pockets, the orphan Sanghram Bhalerao aka Simmba sees the perks of being a cop. It’s not about maintaining law and order that attracts him to the job. He’s rather blown away at the potential of how much a cop can make underhand. Simmba eventually grows up to be a bent police officer who likes to scoop up fat ‘commissions’, acting as a middleman for both criminals and their victims. This corrupt cop played by Ranveer Singh is the protagonist in Rohit Shetty’s latest ‘Singham’ spin-off ‘Simmba’. Under Shetty’s pure masala aesthetics and ear-splitting back­ground score, we see cars float in mid-air and the hero lift off a dozen men in one take. When the film doesn’t take itself seriously, Singh’s natural energy makes us buy his anti-heroic qualities. It’s when the film shifts gear to give a sermon on a sensitive issue like ‘rape’ and slaps us with a populist stance that the film feels unbearably childish and narrow-minded.

 Who should watch it?

‘Simmba’ is designed as a crowd-pleasing masala film and packs in equal doses of action and comedy to fans of wholesome masala action films like ‘Singham’ and ‘Dabbang’. But it has a problematic social message that may upset many.

After we’re introduced to Simmba, the plot wastes no time to kick in. Simmba is transferred to a police station in Goa where a local kingpin Ranade (Sonu Sood) and his brothers dominate orga­nized crime. Simmba is quick to impress Ranade and enlists himself on Ranade’s pay-list, much to the dislike of Simmba’s junior officer, the honest head constable Mohile (Ashutosh Rana). In the meantime, Simmba also falls for Sagun (Sara Ali Khan), a girl running a catering business outside Simmba’s police station and whose deceased father used to be a daring cop.

In the film’s lighter moments early on, Ranveer Singh abandons all inhibitions and delivers an over-the-top Simmba, reminiscent of old-school Govinda and Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey from ‘Dab­bang’. He keeps things cool and funny with a flawed character like Simmba, although we can pretty well predict the transformative journey his character is going to take. But a rape sequence is then ill placed as Simmba’s coming-of-age moment. For once, Shetty and his screenwriters milk this moment for shock value and deliver patriarchal vigilante justice to a deep-rooted patriarchal problem. Women of this film remain in the periphery, while the men take things in their own hands to combat violence—with the help of violence.

Sara Ali Khan, who was impres­sive in her debut film ‘Kedarnath’, is used only for cosmetic purpos­es in this faux-feminist film. She makes random appearances during the film’s songs and turns into a wallflower among a parade of sup­porting characters.

‘Simmba’ doesn’t dig too much to make its flawed protagonist examine himself or to go through a personal crisis to come out with a changed heart. He rather changes suddenly without any personal growth or greater understanding of the world around him. And the plan of action he chooses is noth­ing short of the immature Simmba we meet at the film’s start.

Rohit Shetty is unmatched in orchestrating high-end action sequences but he still comes off raw in handling dramatic scenes with nuances. Shetty likes to make his point through heavy dialogue and takes a swing at challenging social problems with ultra-manliness and heroism. This has resulted in giving us ‘Simmba’ that breaks no new ground but solidifies stereotypical populist treatment of a sensitive issue that required more artistic and dramatic probing.

Movie: Simmba

Genre: Action

CAST: Ranveer Singh, Sara Ali Khan, Ashutosh Rana, Sonu Sood

DIRECTION: Rohit Shetty