God is a Gamer - Book review

Genre: Thriller
Author: Ravi Subramanian

This is my first book by Ravi Subramanian. Having heard a lot of this author whose books have gained wide popularity as great thrillers, I was more than thrilled to get my own autographed copy of his book.
Though I must admit, when I saw the note

Dear Aishwarya,
Wish Best Wishes
- Ravi

I was left wondering why my boss(who is also Ravi incidentally) would send me a book, especially a thriller!
It took me a few seconds for the fact to sink in that it was actually the author himself. That was how much I expected an autographed book at my doorstep! :)

Now coming back to the book itself, the first few chapters looked promising, shaping a story that went on parallel lines.
While one chapter introduces a Senator in the US, the other jumps to a Banker in India.Then suddenly you are reading about some Nigerian riots in Goa.
The book has very short chapters and it keeps moving from one scene to next leaving the reader to catch up, if he / she wants to keep pace.The multiple story lines that do not seem to have any connection with each other, slowly starts fitting into the puzzle, once the concept of TOR and Bitcoins come into picture.
The author has done his research well, on the concept of Bitcoins, TOR, how gaming works and of course, the banking domain. As we are exposed to each of these, he tries his best to keep it simple, crisp and yet to the point. Though cramming so much information wherever possible, mostly explaining it through the characters' conversations itself, didn't make the characters sound convincing.

(Caution : Spoilers ahead)
In order to build the story quickly, the author has compromised the characters. It was little over the top when Aditya allows his long estranged son to lead a business empire when he hardly knew him for a couple of days.
The same was felt when Tanya and Varun hit it off -to the point of love, in just a couple of meetings. The whole characterization of Varun had been shady from the beginning, and when in the end the FBI pin it on Tanya, it has been very clearly assumed that the readers will not be attentive. because just a few chapters back, we were are made to understand that Varun places a device in Tanya's house without her knowledge.

It seemed like a grandiose plot, that just had to be put together in whichever way possible, but ultimately tripped on it's own feet, while sounding like those who desperately try to fling their newly acquired accents and slang at all meetings, only to lead to awkward pauses.

Rating : 2.5/5

Inception

Sanity is when what you believe is what is real, and is what most others, who are sane, also do. It is when your dreams are your own, but your reality is the same as it is, for all. But what if what you see is what all others also see, but it isn’t so? Are you dreaming? Are you sane?

Until Inception, this was not possible. Nolan made it happen, though.

An intricate, mesmerizing maze, of mind games, that leave you undecided about yourself and shake your opinions of reality itself. A husband not able to let go of his dead wife, ridden with guilt, trying to make amends to a lost life. Others, adept in the craft of stealing ideas, who do it for a living - to help him. And the target, a vulnerable heir to an industrial empire.

The story keeps you hooked till the end. Makes you sit without batting an eyelid, lest you miss that one small action that takes you to another level of a dream. Dreams – That word which helped to explain the innermost wishes of a complex mind. Here the whole world of dreams in shown in a completely different dimension, you never ‘dreamt’ of.

The twists in the movie are explained before they actually happen, in case you get lost in the labyrinth of the ideas and dreams taking form on screen. The emotional fabric throughout keeps it taut, and gives a soul to it. In all the scenes where Marion Cotillard enters, ravishing, reeking of some mystery - which you feel you can never place your finger on - you feel like delving straight into it, and wanting to know every bit of this puzzle. And then there is the performance of the DiCaprio exuding charm and intelligence into every scene. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is surely going to go places. He has carried that smart, suave character so easily. Especially, the scene in which he tricks Ellen Page to kiss him, makes you go.. Aaaah! Also the subtle rivalry between his character, Arthur and that of Mr. Eames played by Tom Hardy is a delight to watch. The dialogues in any Nolan movie, have been its life, and so it is again in this one. There is humour, sarcasm, pain, fear, sheer thrill and a myriad of other emotions that flow out to you in each scene.

While Christopher Nolan delved into the thin line between a hero and a villain in his last venture, this time, he plays with dreams and reality, shaking the very foundations that make our lives normal.

The special effects used throughout the movie, are just so perfect, you can literally feel it, when the water just blasts through the dream of Cobb, when he gets dunked, right in the beginning. The other scene where Ariadne, (Ellen page) plays with the architecture, trying out different things, like folding the whole place on top of itself, or shattering a glass partition to make a whole new way, just scream of technical brilliance.

This movie is going to join the other brilliant works of this great director, and many other greats who didn’t just give us movies to watch, but gave us things to chew on and to contemplate. I so badly wish some of our own directors are given a resounding ‘kick’ and woken up from the dream they have been living so long. Sigh! So long guys!

Avatar - Some thoughts!

Avatar is no new release, I know. But well, I got the tickets to watch that very recently and so here are some of my views on it. This might be a very very late review (if you can call it so), but I felt like writing about it.. so here goes. :)

Just when you thought that the greatest movies were those with the most complicated scripts, or story lines with layers and layers behind each frame, here is one to trash all that!

You go in there expecting grandeur, but what hits you is simplicity! It is not a wonderfully fresh story line, or refreshingly brilliant characters, it is the sincere and simple narrative. Everything is simply put there, point blank for all. But very few always get it, so instead of the usual narrative; James Cameron uses 3D, to make you feel one with an imaginary world, in parallel with the one we are already living in. He uses a new species The Na’vis. And unfolds a brand new Avatar of cinema!

All this while, we expected twists and turns, something spectacular that made those bucks you spend in the cinema hall worthwhile. In Avatar, except for the new technology that has been used to make the film, for a layman it is as lucid as it is for a 4-yr old. Good vs Bad, where the Good ultimately wins.

Here we also get to see how things work when there are a bunch of individuals who work for themselves, for their own motives. How their interests take precedence over everything, over lives, over peace, over The Right!! There is an irony that is brought out, when the tiny humans try to overcome the giant Na’vis, using the machines and technology that is far too superior and powerful for the native people of Pandora. How arrogance and greed overcome us humans, how we get blinded for our s
selfish motives!

But as in any film, there are a few things that linger unexplained. Why this perfection in everything in the Pandora? Pandora.. the name itself seems ironical. The people, if they were meant to be of another world, are more like us. The same two eyes, one nose and one mouth. I forgot the two ears! :P

Why is the stretch of imagination never going beyond that part of it? I’ve been waiting to watch a movie that depicts aliens in a different way, but somehow, they always get to what we have already seen or experienced. Speaking in the physical terms, of course.

Coming back, really, why the perfection? The Navis have perfect bodies, the old, the children everyone! Living in harmony with nature makes you perfect!? Is that what James Cameron wants us to believe? Even in the tribes there are fat people. But nope not here! Now that was one thing that made me wonder, what message this is actually sending out. But there is good, bad and ugly in Pandora. The dog-kind-of hunters that almost hunt Jake Sully, predators, herbivores that are almost equivalent to goats, monkey-like creatures. But there were exceptions. The lizard like creature that flies with its own wings that spread out like a spiral fan, the spiral plants that withdraw into themselves when they are threatened. The luminescent forest itself. It has taken many a creative mind to come up with all these things!!!

There is a never-say-die villain here. He is the right match for our ‘It is not over until it is over’ hero of course. But is it right to call him the Hero? Doesn’t Neytiri actually save him twice? Isn’t she the one who has the real guts to go against her own people for an outsider?

There is a deviation though. The money-guy who never understands any other language other than money, is for a change right on the site of action. He is along with the people who are working for him. Quite odd! Coz usually u find these guys teeing off with a Bluetooth on. Maybe that is the reason, Bluetooth doesn’t work across planets.(I know that was a really bad one.. sorry couldn’t help :P)

The indigenous communication devices, technology that brings images in thin air, (though falls short of providing an automatic wheelchair for Jake Sully) could make you scratch your head. But again you are diverted from these by the magnificence of the world. The hanging mountains is one such. Every frame in the movie is significant, and you’ll know that each creature has a role to play in the end by the time you are 15 minutes into the movie. They surely can’t waste their time sketching and creating such creatures just for a 1 minute scene! And sure enough you get to see all of them in the end doing justice to their part, pulling at your heartstrings right when you could let your mind wander about.

Good against evil. Acceptance vs alienation. Man vs woman. Nature vs humans. Navi’s vs humans. In the end you learn love triumphs. Love for everything around you. Even the smallest dandelion seed (fluffy things in the air, whatever they actually are), even the tiniest blade of grass, loves you. If you love it back, you win! Seems absurd doesn’t it? :) Well, that is the toughest thing James Cameron tries to convey. Very few take it back along with them though. The message could get overshadowed by the expectation for special effects and 3D, cinema like never before experience.