Capote : A movie that explores the time in life of Truman Capote when he wrote “In cold blood. Bonus is a glimpse in the success of Harper Lee, who was Capote’s childhood friend.
The Angel at My Table : The movie is about the New Zealand author Janet Frame, who wrote more than 20 books. Her struggle with the mental illnesses andthe challenges of being a sensitive artist are depicted in a matter of factly way in this lovely movie.
Citizen Kane : Inspirational movie about the creative life and the successes thereby, and the key motivations for any creator. The direction and the editing of the movie itself is amazing. It is worth all the hype.
Inside Llewyn Davis : Songwriters have lives very similar to indie writers. Coen Brothers recreate the sixties Greenwich Village, a hotbed of country music and track the life of Llewyn Davis, his struggles and the realities of a struggling artist.
Pyaasa : Guru Dutt’s masterpiece that tracks the life of a poet, Vijay, who struggles to make ends meet and finds the true love of his life. Also watch “Kaagaz Ke Phool” by Guru Dutt which is about a film director facing failure.
The Hours : The movie mixed Virginia Woolf’s life, the narrative of her book – Mrs Dalloway, and the life of a person who is impacted by the book. Nicole Kidman’s authentic portrayal of Virginia Woolf won her an academy award for best actress.
Revenge of The Mekons : This movie will tell you how to lead an authentic life as an indie creator while sticking to the principles of art you want to create. It is also a lesson on living a happy life with meagre mean and learning continuously about your craft.
American Splendor : The movie is about Harvey Pekar, the creator of the underground comic book, “American Splendor”. Pekar worked in a government office all his life while creating his books, a reality in most writers’ lives.
Paterson : Paterson is a bus driver in the city of Paterson and is also a poet. Or should we say he is a poet who is also a bus driver. The mundane life of Paterson, his attempts to remain creative and make a living, and his response to a crisis is depicted by Jim Jarmusch is a heartbreaking and heartwarming manner at the same time.
Sideways : Miles is an English teacher and an aspiring author who takes his friend Jack on a wine tasting trip before Jack’s marriage. The writer’s anxieties are again brilliantly portrayed by Paul Giamatti, the same actor who player Harvey Pekar in American Splendor.
Five Easy Pieces : Jack Nicholson’s brilliant portrayal of Robert Dupea, who is a construction worker with a history similar to Amitabh Bachchan in “Kala Patthar”. Is his mundane existence an escape from a more pristine past?
Almost Famous : “Almost Famous” is about a 15 year old kid, a precocious writer, who gets an assignment to write a feature about a rock band, by Rolling Stone, the leading rock magazine. Bonus feature, Philip Hoffman’s brilliant portrayal of Lester Bangs.
Creative Process
“Once”, “Begin Again” and “Sing Street” by John Carnay are peans to creating rather than consuming. They depict very ordinary protagonists that take creation seriously and enjoy the process more than the product. A must for creative lows.
Adaptation : This masterpiece by Charlie Kaufman depicts a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman writing a screeplay based on the book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orleans. The movie is about him fighting the writer’s block and creative the screenplay that becomes “Adaptation” the movie. Talk about recursive storytelling!
Synecdoche New York : Aging theatre director Caten Cotard gets McArthur grant of a million dollars to fund any project that he wants to do. He creates the replica of New York city with characters that match his life. How the real life and reel life blur is the story of this brilliant movie.
Barton Fink : Another masterpiece by the Coen Brothers, Barton Fink tells a story of the eponymous play writer who has come to Hollywood to write a script but has a terrible writers block. Bonus feature is the character said to be based on William Faukner.
8 ½ : Fellini’s brilliant depiction of a Director’s Block – an equivalent of the writer’s block in the world of movies – is a must watch for the frustration of a creator who can not match his earlier work. Writing your second/third book? This is a must watch.
Day for night : Life of an indie filmmaker is brilliantly portrayed in this work of genius by Francois Truffaut. The movie takes you through making of a movie and shows how fragile is the creative process.
Deconstructing Harry : Harry Block is a writer, played by the director Woody Allen, who also directs and writes the movie. Harry routinely writes about people he knows and get it back from them. The movie is about his visit to receive an award, and his life as it flashes back during his journey.
A prairie home companion : Robert Altman’s masterpiece about the real radio show, “The Prairie Home Companion” that stars its real host, Garrison Keillor among the ensemble cast that includes Meryl Streep and Virginia Madsen. A very close glimpse in the creative process of a real time show.
School or rock : Richard Linklator’s love song to rock music features a goofy character called Dewey Finn, who is a musician who does not have money. Jack Black brilliantly plays the self-assured musician turned music teacher who builds a rock group from the bunch of school students.
Wonder Boys : Based on the wonderful book by Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys is a campus movie in which the protagonist, an author with the first hit book – played brilliantly by Michael Douglas – is struggling with his second book.
“Many happy returns of the day, dude. Look what I bought for you?”
“Oh! “Manhattan Beach”! I was so looking forward to read this.”
“I know, I know. When we were in Goa, you read “A visit from the Goon squad” even in the dim light of that open air bar where the group was playing Beatles. I tried to read it when you were snoring, and I could not fall asleep. It was my magic wand for falling asleep in ten minutes. That was the moment I knew what your birthday gift is going to be.”
“Well, thank you for the birthday special. The remark about my reading choice, I mean. And thank you for straying away from your Beach Read and Eleanor & Park.”
“Oh, you are welcome. It was a fun trip to that section in Crossword where you get to sit very easily. The books were also looking absolutely untouched, brand new. I got an idea to write a book, as a matter of fact – tentatively named as “Hundred ways to get good night’s sleep.””
“Oh, come on. That should be the name of the other section where Fault in the Star and Love Story reside. With a subtitle of “A million ways for the guy to get the girl in the end.” How can people read hundred books where two people are in love, and then get out of love and get in love again in the end. The guy hesitantly touches the girl, the girl uses a million adjectives and adverbs to describe the feeling that a million other protagonists have used in the past. Some light sex, not described in the book if the book is a light romcom, described in detail if it is an erotic romcom, and all the combinations in between.”
“Yes, of course, you need more plotless novels where the protagonists debate about the meaning of life for 580 pages and do not find it in the end. Or there are interweaving stories that bore you to death with their mundane narrative, and protagonists that are losers – almost always. What is it about loser that those writers like? Besides the awards I mean.”
“I know, only the romance novelists know how to take a beaten up plot, change a little bit about the settings, give protagonists features that have never been tried before, use the “Romancing the beat” formula, and roll in the money.”
“I guess that’s enough about our reading habits dude. What is your birthday resolution? Well, you are sixteen now, right?”
“You are so sweet. You know girls never like to grow up, right? I don’t mind being wise and grown up. I am going to be twenty seven, thank you. Of course, as a guy, you are not supposed to remember that. It is the prerogative of the girls to remember everything about their father, then about their boyfriend/husband, and then about their kids. That’s an outline of the nice path that a girl’s life is supposed to take.”
“But I am sure you enjoy that right? What is better than to care about people you love.”
“Why does it have to only be a girl who cares? Why not the boy for a change? Anyway, to answer your question, my birthday resolution this year is to take some more time for myself. I have to try hard to do that because of all those things going on with my career. And of course I not Amrita to water my plants every day, and be happy to take care of husband and in laws.”
“Oh you are binging LitFic movies now. But more seriously, it makes total sense take that time out for yourself, girl. Life is too short to be indulged in trivialities.”
“You mean trivialities like romance novels?”
“Haha, not that one. Can I have my birthday kiss now?”
Anyway, I always loved it when we played The Doors, I absolutely adored the voice of Jim Morrison. Guess what, I do not like Doors any more. I really don’t? What do you like then? I listen to a lot of different kind of music. Punk, post punk, hip hop, and many other types of music like that. I need to check that out dude! Forget music for a moment. Do you feel the same angst, the same depth of emotions that you felt when we were nineteen. Maybe more. We did not have any clue about what life is, at that point in time. We took it too casually, I guess. We took it for granted. We felt that it was there for us, all the time. Waiting with its arms open. Always welcoming. In the past decades, I have learnt that it is not true. Life is not there all the time. You have to seek it. You have to cajole it. It will try to act funny. It will hide, and make faces. It may even wear a mask. Pretend to be someone else. But the chase is worth it. When you find life, when you find yourself, behind all those masks, you feel orgasmic. You feel like you have arrived at where you wanted to be, all the time. Wow, that was deep. When did you become a philosopher? Wait, you always were. You used to read Ayn Rand, didn’t you? Yes, of course. And guess what? I do not like Ayn Rand any more. Of course, she is a brilliant writer, but her brand of philosophy is just stupid. Meant mainly for adolescents. I guess I have some growing up to do then. I still adore Ayn Rand. Have not read anything after that I guess. I have just lived through the interdependence of everything, and everyone. When we were nineteen, we believed that we could be just ourselves, and change the world to suit our purposes. We also thought that it’s a good thing. A very solipsistic worldview. If we could change the world at our whims, anyone could. And then what would the world be? An ever-splitting chimera of infinite parallel tracks that never merge? Well, that could be a possibility. But I feel the world is made up of everyone’s desire. Everyone’s will, if you may. You can not change things at your whim or fancy. You have to navigate the solid automata of the past. And most likely, you are just acting out the script that the automata has imposed on you. Well, dude, just take a break, okay. This is becoming too hardcore. Do you still drink whiskey with icecubes? Yeah, but now you are shifting to our post-college days. In college, there was no money for whiskey, remember? We used to drink mosambi, that funny smelling, weird high giving shit that was concocted right outside the campus, you remember? Of course, I remember. I also remember the post college whiskey days. Remember that trip when I bought my first bottle of Chivas Regal and we drank the whole thing with those kebabs we picked up from a street vendor. Yes, that was bliss. Life was then a neverending conquest of more and more expensive drinks. And none of those gave the high we got with the mosambi. That’s too unfair dude. Remember the Japanese whiskey I got in one of those summers. It was so smooth. Yes, I am being a little unfair. But the bang for the buck was not there at all. When you buy a bottle for twenty thousand rupees, you want to be able to fly when you drink the first sip. Haha, that’s true. I guess, we went into social drinking. Collecting bottles to fill our bar with the most expensive drink. Collecting mementos of the places we traveled to. We remembered those trips as acquisitions, trophies that we collected and kept in the showcase to show off how much of life we had conquered. Guess who is becoming a poet and a philosopher now? Is that the effect of this fine whiskey? I know at a point in time, your brain did not move till you finished the whole bottle. Yes. Sometimes I used to smell of vodka when I reached office in the morning. My boss asked me to go wash my mouth when we were traveling to a client meeting. He did not want the client to think that I was drunk for an early morning meeting. Oh memories! I wonder what they are. Memories. They just stay there, stay there to haunt you, haunt you with their enticing pleasure content, or pain content that has become pleasure over a period of time. I always wonder how painful memories become pleasurable when time passes. You fondly remember the times when you failed. At the time when you failed, the feeling was terrible, but somehow, now, it has become some kind of victory that pleases your mind. I guess you feel great that you survived those days. Yes, absolutely. That’s why I don’t agree with Daniel Gilbert about his assertion that raising children is painful. When you check the moment to moment feelings, you may feel pain. But what matters is how it turns into memories over a long period of time. Any skill is painful to acquire, but will give you immense pleasure over a period of time. That’s what these hedonistic psychologists get wrong. Wow, you ARE a poet, philosopher and psychologist rolled into one. But seriously, I agree with you. Even friendship is a pain at times. Half the time you spend in laughing at the other guy. Still you prefer it over the conversations with people who keep praising you and making you feel good. You know, deep in your heart, that the guy who talks good is not going to be there when you have a problem. It is the guy who laughed at you would be there to cry with you, to console you, to cheer you, when you hit the bottom. Cheers to that dude! Cheers!
Though all forms of writing are unique, poetry stands out. Mainly because it is so commercially unsuccessful, and anyone who writes it has to be passionate about the craft and not money. I have written poems all my life, and I am happy to publish an anthology of them in my new book, “Significant And Heartfelt”. As I say in the blurb, “These poems are a boisterous celebration of life in all its forms without judging it.”
One of the people to whom I dedicate this anthology is Poet Grace, whose real name was Manik Godghate. Manik was the name my grandfather gave me at my birth, but it never appeared in any of my official documents, so I was never called Manik by my friends or colleagues. When I had to start my writing career, I chose that name, not only because of my grandfather, but also as a tribute to Poet Grace. (Incidentally, the other part Bal comes from another Marathi poet, Bal Sitaram Mardhekar).
If you are a poetry lover, and have a KU subscription, you can check it out. I am not going to market this book aggressively, since I know it is no use. Poetry does not sell. But still I would like to be read by genuine poetry lovers, and your feedback would mean a lot to me.
Here is the blurb :-
Significant And Heartfelt is Manik’s first poetry collection. These are poems that talk about love, life, longing, death and sorrow. Manik has dedicated this book to his influences – T.S. Eliot, Mirza Ghalib, and Poet Grace(aka Manik Godghate). The poems are as internal looking as they relish the world outside. In a poem, Manik is shocked by a suicide, in another he is talking about “Life Itself”. There are poems about a small, quaint street in Bangalore, and there is a reply to Wang Wei about the changing nature of One’s poems. Manik talks about Aliens in the same breath as he talks about a Yogi meditating on his breath. These poems are a boisterous celebration of life in all its forms without judging it.
There is world, vast and uncaring Lonely and beautiful and fearsome, meaningless and undying, compassionate and tuneful, inharmonious and barren. You decide to reside on mars, just for the sake of novelty And to take only the few humans, who love you and have unquenching Thirst for random snippets of mockery and the trees that do not dwell in the past life of thornful rose-queens yet sounding like a song with two guitars and a small piano played by the post-punk dudes You decide to travel tomorrow and rest for the night in the cozy bed made just for lustful drama-queens trying to dream non-alien images.
This is the first of several novels that John Macdonald has written with Travis McGee as a protagonist. Travis, who likes to be called Trav, is a self confessed beach bum, someone who works on special cases only when he runs out of money earned in the earlier case. In the interim, he spends the money earned on entertaining women on his yacht, named Miss Agnes.
The novel carries the marks of the period it was written in, and the state of the genre at that point in time. It is misogynist, has crudely sketched characters that speak melodramatic language and an unconvincing, elaborate plot. Still, it catches the readers attention due to MacDonald’s skills of narrating a story in a lucid manner. He builds the suspense by a first person narrative by McGee, who thinks of himself as a suave, smart, lady-magnet, super fit agent, who knows what life is. The first person narrator builds the antagonist as an exact opposite of himself, crude, dumb, a rapist, who does not know the subtleties of life.
McGee thinks women like him and he knows how to treat women, but the actual events show something else. So one wonders if the whole misogynist narrative is really a world view by the narrator, McGee. Even then it may be difficult for some people to like that kind of worldview.
MacDonald is an expert in describing action and some crucial parts of the book are essentially visual action. No wonder there is a movie planned with Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike in it. McGee’s character is also ideal for a movie, and there are movies made from other books in a series. MacDonald also describes intimate scenes really well, not talking about the action, but around it. It is something I find difficult to do.
In terms of characterization, McGee’s character – whether you like him or not – comes out really well. There are several incidents in the book that allow MacDonald to define the character from multiple sides. Unfortunately, one can not say the same thing about the other characters. Most of them, except possibly Lois, are not sketched so well, and come across as caricatures.
MacDonald has a habit of inserting philosophical and political commentary in the book. It adds some flavor to the book and makes it richer. He comes across as a knowledgeable and humane writers, which makes me feel that the particular tone of the book is a stance he has taken as a viewpoint from the lead character’s perspective.
In short, a likable book if you are going to give a benefit of doubt to MacDonald. I would give it 3.5/5 and would recommend it for people who like thrillers and mysteries of the Raymond Chandler kind. I want to read a few more of his books to understand how a series is built.
(Trivia :- Apparently Sam Elliot acted as Travis McGee in one of the movies. I really want to see that one.)
Carrie is an interesting first book. Technically, it was not Stephen King’s first book. It was his first published book. He took it up as a challenge from a female friend to write a book where the protagonist was a woman. In one of the interviews, King has said that it have women liberation kind of an angle. King had thrown the idea of the book written on paper in a wastebasket, where his wife picked it up. She thought that the idea had potential and urged King to write the book.
Carrie is a very unusual child. She is raised by a mother who is a religious fanatic who thinks that Carrie is a cursed child. Carrie goes to a local school where she is not a very popular child but has a desire to be one. She is unusual in a different sense, she has telekinetic power, power that lift and move things just by thinking about it. The author makes us think that the powers are triggered by an incident in the school that is described by King in a way moving style.
The format the narrative of the book is very interesting, containing several different types. There is a third person narrative that seems like an omniscient narrator kind of a tone. There is a narrative that is in form of excerpts from a book written about the incident. There is another narrative which is again from a book written by one of the other student from the school. And finally, there is an article written by another student in some newspaper of magazine. The variation in narratives works pretty well in building up the anticipation and King is a master at describing actions and events in such a manner as to keep you at the edge of the seat.
The characterization of the protagonist is done really well and you can say the same thing about the supporting characters. Carrie’s mother is sketched really well, which is partly an explanation of why Carrie is the way she is. Other students, the main ones especially come alive. The culture of the town, the school, the teenagers at that point in time – all of these come alive in King’s writing. King is very good at descriptions of scenes as if they are from a movie. You get a feeling that you are watching the movie.
The climax arrives somewhere near the middle of the book and due to all the anticipation built by King, it is a little underwhelming. So is all the narrative that follows the climax. After that, the book becomes monotonous. It would probably feel much better on a screen since most of that stuff is very visual, but just imagine the all the destruction that appears in Avengers – Age of Ultron described in words. I felt that the first part of the book was amazing but the later part just did not live up to the hype created so well by King.
What can you learn as a writer from King? The art of multiple narratives that talk about the same thing, giving you multiple ways to look at an event. Narratives that hide things to build suspense. Building intertwined events that give a sense of the doom. King is a master in building the suspense and an atmosphere of doom. All the while in the first many pages, you get a sense of impending ruin. He is also a master in giving a holistic treatment to a character, however evil or disgusting it may be. He gives a very balanced treatment to Carrie, and you feel supportive of her at times, as if what she is doing is the right thing to do if you had been through the circumstances she has been through. He does not seem to write for an audience, but several type of readers would love the book.
I would rate it 3/5 with a recommendation for people who like supernatural horror of a mild manner. It is also recommended for people who like twisted young adult books.
Kafka on the Shore is like a surrealistic painting or a David Lynch movie. There is a plot, there are characters that are occasionally coherent and there are elements of mystery. But, if you are looking at resolution, that too a water tight, Sherlock Holmes kind of a resolution, you are bound to be disappointed. But if you expect lyricism, a poetic resolution, Murakami does a fabulous job of it. His prose is minimalistic, no surprise that, considering his fandom for Raymond Carver, it is lyrical and haunting. After finishing the book, you can not believe you could not put it down. It does not seem to contain that much of an anticipation, but it does.
Life has been harsh for a fifteen year old Kafka, the book does not tell you why, but it has something to do with his father. He embarks upon a journey of … well the book does not tell you what. There is a parallel story of Nakata, an old man with a paused intellect. Nakata makes his living by talking to cats, yes, that is what the book is like. Cats talk. Nakata is also going to embark upon his own journey … well not only the book, but even Nakata does not know why, what and where. Do the two protagonists have anything in common? Would their journeys have anything in common? Does the weird stuff resolve? I would be doing injustice to the book, if I tell you any of that.
There is plenty of music, plenty of philosophy, plenty of pop culture, modernist icons – all of which give you a feel of this being a post-modern book. The philosophy talks about Hegel in the same breath as Buddha. The characters spout enormous gyan(knowledge) that completely belie who they are. But that is the core thesis of the book. Things are not what they look to be. There is deeper significance of everything – you just don’t know what it is. And probably even the author does not, and he does not care. There is conversation about musical scales, Beatles and Mozart. In fact, you can see the book as a musical symphony, something that is exquisite, but indeciferable. As music poses a challenge to the rational mind hypothesis, the book also seems to do the same.
There is a lot of violence, but it is in the vein of Tarantino. There is sex, immoral sex – things that will make some people very queasy. But the way Murakami narrates them, makes them sound very ordinary. So, in this world, they are just literary devices, just like the Yama and Yami story in Indian mythology. There is a lot of mythology in the book, Greek tragedies mainly. Murakami uses them to create the effect he wants to create. Ultimately, it is the job of the reader to figure out if they mean anything. No wonder there are puzzle sites dedicated to the book, where people are trying to figure out what Murakami is trying to say, just like there are sites dedicated to Dylan lyrics. Murakami probably meant the book as one single, big poem. He talks about metaphors explicitly in the book, as well as many other literary devices. The characters suddenly burst into being a literary critic and tell you about these devices.
In short, the book is an experience. Especially people who like lyricism and go by their intuition to understand things. I am actually surprised the book sold millions of copies. It just tells you the talent Murakami has for narrating stuff like it was an ordinary thing. His talent for narration is amazing. The book is unputdownable, though you may feel a little disappointed after finishing it. Half way through the book, I thought I am going to read it again, but in the end I felt that it is a one time read. Recommended with a 4/5 rating.
What is it about Raymond Carver that attracts so many creatives? I first heard of Carver when Rhett Miller mentioned him in an interview with Robert Christgau. Old 97’s even recorded a song with the title of a Carver story named, “What we talk about when we talk about love?”.
Then I encountered another Carver fascination when I saw Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts”, a fabulous movie, listed as a “Great Movie” by Roger Ebert. Altman cobbled together nine short stories by Carver, made the protagonists related and created one single story that is nothing but fascinating.
Alejandro Inarritu’s Birdman is a story about an aged actor – who played a super hero way back, trying to establish himself as a serious artist. And whose story would he choose to be made into a play on broadway? Of course, Carver’s. Birdman is as much about Carver as it is about the other topics like creative insecurity.
And as I started reading my first Murakami yesterday(yes, beat me with a stick), I kept on getting a sense that Murakami is somehow influenced by Carver. And it turned out he is. Influenced is a mild word – Murakami was a big Carver fan, and credits Carver in shaping his literary sensibility. They met in California for two hours, the meeting is immortalized in a poem by Carver, but Murakami did not dare to tell Carver that he wrote novels. What is it about Carver that influences so many greats? Well, that is a post for another day! Let me get back to my “Kafka on the Shore”
Some great reviews of my books by popular book bloggers:
Anusha of I’ll read anything reviews “Brothers Sen Gogh”.
She says, “What I liked the most about this book is the strong based characterisation. Where you can actually understand the person, identify with and relate to. This combined with a powerful story has made the book a complete piece according to me. ” Please see the link below for the complete review.
Farshana of Rain”n”Books reviews “Whiskey and Suicide”.
She says,
“Phew, what an emotional roller coaster ride!
If you are interested in taking a journey thru an entire spectrum of colors, be sure to read this collection of short stories by author Manik Bal.” Please read the complete review on her blog page.”
Manik Bal’s short story collection, “Her Revenge” is available now. With this diverse collection of short stories, Manik Bal continues to explore the, and the mundane in the bizarre.
