Billy Crystal stars in this story he wrote about a comedy writer dealing with steadily oncoming dementia, the pain of having lost a wife he loved so much, a difficult relationship with his kids and some people at work he cannot stand. But then he finds a young singer, a feisty woman who brings a lot of love, the present moment and fun into his otherwise falling apart life. Ends up coming to a good place. Nice music.
Enjoyed it.
Sally Rooney is considered one of the top 100 influential people in the world according to Time (one wonders how they figure that out) and is considered one of the brightest literary talents in the world right now. I found 'Normal People' in Anjali's shelf and started reading it.
It starts off with two characters Connell and Marianne who study in the same school. Connell's single mom works as a cleaner in Marianne's mansion. Marianne is considered to be a social misfit, ugly, but she has a special charm for Connell. The two have a relationship based on Connell's trust that Marianne would not go and tell everyone about it - in school he is popular as an all rounder who plays football and also studies well and is good looking. Marianne keeps the secret which means that Connell completely acts like he does not know her outside of their relationship. They break up when he decides to ask a popular girl out for the school gala without asking Marianne because he is too embarrassed to be seen with a loser like her.
They go to college where the roles reverse. Rich Marianne gets popular because of he money and social status while Connell is lagging behind as a poor boy. They continue to have their secret affair/friendship going while dating others. It continues throughout the book - the bond these two share is deeper than any other they experiment with but they never come out with it until the end - she with her deep insecurities which make her put up with severe abuse in all her relationships, almost craving it, and he stops trying to look good for others and listens to what he wants. He ends up writing, she ends up going back to him as she is. They remain friends, always coming back to one another, somehow finding a space to be themselves, to be ok with their insecurities and fears and not be judged for it.
Its told very nicely and brings out the vulnerabilities and frailties of both the characters, subtly showing the honesty and the dishonesty they share. Definitely a book one will not forget - you may forget the characters but that feeling remains, something we all may have experienced, and that is what Sally Rooney achieved through 'Normal People'. It is for all the times when you were sure but something made you hold back.
2023. Hindi.
Bored with his monotonous IT job, young Gaurav shoots his mouth off about how bored he is and God listens to him - his boss fires him. Back at home he finds a moment of epiphany and starts a startup called 'Maa's Magic' or something to that effect where he delivers mom-cooked food to bachelor boys working in the big city. Startup succeeds, grows big enough to control him, he fires the moms and hires machines, loses business friends and girl, and then comes back with moms blessings. Those friends of his were good fun.
Nice and warm though predictable. But then we have seen so much that it is difficult not to predict. Or whatever. Overall, nice like the mom's dabbas.
2021. The movie is based on the marriage and the troubles faced by author Roald Dahl with his film star wife Patricia Neal. Olivia is their first daughter (named Olivia Twenty because when she was born Dahl had twenty dollars in his pocket.
The family has a good life until their son has an accident when he is four and suffers brain damage. Then Olivia dies of measles which devastates Dahl who dotes on her. He shuts off the world, his wife, his children and retreats into a lonely world. His loss of Olivia distances him from his second child Tessa. When Patricia leaves him seeking space from his behavior and wanting to restart her career with a film with Paul Newman, she comes after her to America. Neal ends up winning an Oscar for her part in that film 'Hud'. The couple see happier times for a while after that.
Much of Dahl's personality comes out in the film - his writing in his secluded room, sharpening his pencils, his muse a little boy who appears and seems to guide him, his penchant to eat chocolates and makes balls of the silver foil, scotch at hand, his extreme sensitivity to criticism. The walks to the local chocolate shop with his children, their suggestions for his book including a river of chocolate etc are endearing. Neal fell sick and was nurtured to good health by Dahl and a band of associates. Both Dahl and Neal supported vaccination for measles heavily.
Watch.
Written in 1891, the byline for Tess of the d'Urbervilles is 'A Pure Woman'. One can guess how Thomas Hardy must have approached this subject in times of extreme sexual repression and gender bias. Tess obviously goes through the stigma of being impure which brings up the question of what is pure and impure.
The story begins with a bang when Tess's father who does not do much for a living except drink, finds out from the local parson that they are not the Durbeyfields as they mistakenly call themselves but are related to the noble d'Urberville family. This does not bring any great fortune to the family except a sense of grandeur. Tess, the oldest of their daughters, somehow manages to kill the only horse they have in an accident and is forced to seek employment to help the family finances. Her mother asks her to go to a well off family who go under the name of d'Urberville to seek employment. Turns out that this family has appropriated the title to elevate themselves socially. Anyway the young man from the family pursues Tess relentlessly and makes her pregnant against her will (rapes her in other words) and leaves her. The girl loses the child, picks up a bad reputation and goes to work in a faraway farm where another young man falls in love with her and she with him. When he proposes marriage she tries to tell him the truth but he refuses to hear and soon after the marriage confesses to her that he has had an affair with an older woman sometime in the past. She confesses to her affair upon which he takes umbrage and tells her that he cannot be married to her and leaves her. Tess is all alone, her father dies and the family is turned out of their house, when the first chap who fathered a child with her, arrives to make amends by asking her to marry him. The husband who went away to Brazil also returns to make amends by which time Tess, the eternally confused, marries the first guy. When the second guy (the husband meets her) she says she hates the first guy and can only love her husband who deserted her, and kills the first guy. The husband and wife run away for five days and spend a great honeymoon before the law catches up with her. Before she is hanged she tells her husband to marry her younger sister who is a pure woman. Thus ends Tess's story.
It's incredible how these guys think and behave, how she easily reduces herself to be their servant, how she is judged and how she judges herself. But those were the times and I am certain that it must have been a controversial one because the woman takes revenge on her perpetrator even though he tries to make amends by giving their family shelter and offering to marry her. Complicated lot if you ask me.
