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Kagti is no doubt well versed in sports because she designs screen­play solely based on genre con­ventions. She takes a relatively unknown chapter in Indian sports history and leafs through it with exaggerated tension and antiseptic characterization. One after another, people grace the screen mouthing patriotic one-liners about freedom, nation and brotherhood. They talk and act like movie people, and not for once does Kagti try to draw real emotions from these folks, who, we’re told, are real.

Protagonist Tapan Das is modeled on the archetypal coach in sports movie. So by that ritual, Das is some­one who puts his hockey before his family. For a has-been, he has to prove to the federation, his play­ers and to himself that he still can bounce back. Then there are famil­iar sports movie troupes like “you don’t play for yourself but you play for the team” and “tussles between blue blooded players and working class players”. The film manages to incorporate every textbook move to fill its 170 minutes of run time.

In the past few years, Akshay Kumar has released many films that tap nationalistic sentiments. He has already taken up the baton of being the Manoj Kumar of his generation. But he pushes too hard as a dramatic actor in Gold, putting on a Bengali accent and engaging in his many jovial antics. But Kumar delivers Tapan Das with unruly effect. He’s delightful in the film’s lighter moments with actress Mouni Roy, who plays Tapan’s demanding yet loyal wife, while in scenes that demand intensity, Kumar under­performs, which many may mistake for subtlety.

The film also boasts talented actors like Kunal Kapoor, Vineet Kumar Singh, Amit Sadh and Sunny Kaushal. Their performances are commendable. One would think that if the script had given them more space to grow, they could have made a more lasting impression.

Coming to the hockey games, Kagti gives them a distinctly mod­ern touch. The way the players carry themselves doesn’t have the sense of yesteryears’ rawness. They feel polished and too pleasing to the eye. The climactic game has its moments and is played out with great tempo. But until then Gold digresses a lot; the finale deserved a better buildup.

With good backing from stars and studios, biopic sports films are hav­ing a great run in Bollywood. But films like ‘Gold’ suggest filmmakers need to get out of the shadow of safe genre filmmaking if they want this type of film to sustain for long.

Don’t let the name ‘Coffee Pasal’ fool you. You get a lot more than just coffee in there and it is in no way a ‘pasal’, but rather a complete departmental store if you will. So alongside an extended menu for coffee-based drinks, Coffee Pasal also offers breakfast sets, snacks, main courses for lunch and dinner as well as an assortment of tastiest pastries. There are smoking and non-smoking seat­ing arrangements, and plenty of books and reading material to while away your time. If you’re there to spend time, Arun Ghimire, the co-owner, offers you plenty of “chiya guff”, talking passionately about coffee or anything else you’d like to discuss. Besides its delectable food and coffee, his hospitality is considered another strong point of Coffee Pasal. Go get a steaming cuppa.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Brekkie@Narayanhity

- Oz Style Bush Steak

- Mushroom Risotto

Opening hours: 8 am to 10 pm

Location: Durbarmarg, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,500

Reservations: 01-4246483

Fiction

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

A.J. Finn

Published: 2018Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 427, paperback

We believe first novels hold a lot of promise but unfor­tunately a lot of first novels published each year disappear into a pool of works that never make it further than the first edition. Then there are some firsts that receive a warm welcome. A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window is one such work. Finn (nom de plume for Dan­iel Mallory) is a former book editor and, having worked mostly with the mystery genre, he knows the tips and tricks of the trade. That is prob­ably the reason why The Woman in the Window feels like a rehash of a few bestselling books you have read in the last few years.In the recent times, books like S J Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train have given birth to a whole new sub genre of psycho­logical thrillers where a woman whose credibility is undermined for some reason witnesses a crime. The Woman in the Window takes a similar route. Here you meet Dr. Anna Fox, a child psychologist who has become severely agora­phobic post a traumatic experience. She is terrified by “the vast skies, the endless horizon, the sheer exposure, the crushing pressure of the outdoors” and so she chooses to stay at home talking to her estranged husband and daughter on the phone, and making her tenant bring her groceries.

Taking photos of her neighbors and hence spying on their lives is her only ‘outdoor’ exposure. Then, from her window, Anna witnesses a murder at her neighbors’ home and she manages to call the police. But the thing is Anna is a drunk who is on many prescription drugs, none of which should be mixed with alcohol, and so the police don’t believe her account of what happened espe­cially since her neighbors deny the whole thing and call her a crazy per­son who has been harassing them since day one.

Even if you think the plotline feels familiar, be willing to give the book a chance because it will surprise you. Finn excels at planting misconceptions and confusing you. You can’t trust anything you read as, time and again, Anna is made to doubt her own memories. We don’t want to spoil it for you by revealing too much but we can tell you that the characters in the book are rarely who or what they appear to be. And it is this seed of doubt that takes root in your psyche early on that makes reading The Woman in the Window an entirely new experience even though the author has stuck to a tried and tested narrative.

There are no flashy twists and turns in the storyline but the carefully crafted psychological suspense driven by Anna’s secrets and fears will make you want to stay up late into the night to finish the book. Yes, you will forget all about it the minute you are done but it will feel good while it lasts. Let this be your escapist entertainment this weekend. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Non Fiction

THE CASE AGAINST SUGAR

Gary Taubes

Published: 2017Publisher: Portobello Books

Language: English

Pages: 365, paperback

Used to heaping two teaspoons of sugar in your coffee every morning? Guilty of having an entire bar of chocolate for lunch? Or are you one of those people who like a scoop of ice cream after din­ner? Then don’t read Gary Taubes’ ‘The Case Against Sugar’. You will be left questioning your life choices and fretting how much harm you have done to your body. But if you constantly wonder why you don’t lose weight despite eating clean and exercising or have a family history of diabetes and hypertension and want to lead a healthy life to prevent these conditions then Taubes’ book, a result of six years of research, could very well be an eye-opener. The Case Against Sugar starts by questioning whether sugar should be called a food or a drug. Then Taubes argues why it should be the latter. With a detailed and infor­mative history of sugar and the sugar industry, Taubes points out that our addiction to the sweet stuff leads to a lot of health problems we have come to ‘wrongly’ attri­bute to saturated fat. He talks about how sugar has “a unique physiolog­ical, metabolic and hormonal effect on our bodies” and how that has far-reaching health implications.

He also provides a history of sugar usage in the tobacco industry and how that might have contributed to the rise of smoking. He goes on to narrate how sugar triggers a genetic predisposition to obesity by lead­ing to insulin resistance, a condi­tion that contributes to diabetes, gout, and irritable bowel syndrome, among others health problems, and paints a picture of how sugar ulti­mately kills far more people than cigarettes. But while Taubes excels at making his point with detailed his­torical narrative as his backup, many of his claims also seem one-sided.

For instance, Taubes recounts an old struggle between American researcher Ancel Keys (who believed saturated fat was the primary cause of coronary heart diseases) and Brit­ish researcher John Yudkin (who thought sugar was the culprit). He says Keys was funded by the sugar industry and portrays Yud­kin as a moral person who was telling the ‘truth’. A little research will tell you that Yudkin was funded by the dairy, egg, and edible oil industries, all of which wanted to pin the blame on sugar. Taubes neglects to mention this. He relies on incomplete historical narrative rather than facts and evidence to present his case and that kind of writing is something that you will find throughout the book.

But Taubes also doesn’t conclude that sugar is bad for our health based on a superficial understand­ing of the subject, though in some places it feels like he is looking at the issue through glasses heavily tinted by his own beliefs. However, he has done a lot of research and left few stones unturned. We recom­mend you read the book to allow the information to improve your eating habits, whether by removing sugar completely, reducing its consump­tion, or by making dietary modifica­tions. Because that’s definitely what you will be tempted to do.