Chowrasta Crossroads of Love

http://calcuttatube.com/chowrasta-crossroads-of-love-2009/1681/

The Complete Ariadne Oliver Vol.-II

The most biographical of Christie's character, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver accompanies the authoress' most egoist sleuth Hercule Poirot in three of the cases and finds herself a lone audience in the fourth one. The content of this volume are

1. Third Girl
2. Hallowe'en Party
3. Elephants Can Remember
4. The Pale Horse

Even an avid reader of Christie stories, I was not prepared for the incident that triggered the 1st case. In what I think a most curious start to an Agatha Chrisite novel that I've ever read, a girl rushes to Poirot apartment, informs him that she thinks she had killed somebody and leaves hurriedly. Quite obviously it was enough to upset the fussy detective's breakfast and he starts on a mission to unravel the mystery. He gets help from the mystery writer Mrs. Oliver and together they set upon a trail of truth and a body, both of which seems to be cleverly camouflaged. One thing that I noticed in this novel was that, starting from the confused client several of the major charaters are the 'next generation' types that is so unlikely of Christie and her fans who mainly associate her narrations with a more conservative and British surroundings. But this story, so to say seems more Amercanised which was clearly needed for the plot's sake and Christies again shows her talent of critically portraying all the generations in style. Though the end seemed somewhat obvious, at least a part of it, but the Christie twist will again keep even the critical of readers fascinated at this quite convincing yet cleverly concealed motive. Another point worth noticing is that this novel portrays a gradally ageing Poirot when we see how he relies on certain clues supplied by a Mr. Goby, another pvt. investigator who does much of the research part but the grey matter churning is left for the master himself.
The 2nd story begins with a teenager's murder during a Hallowe'en party where Mrs. Oliver was present as a guest. She requests Poirot to investigate the death and thus sets the detective unearthing a trail of truth shrouded by an evil past. Here too reference to Poirot getting old can be observed. A very interesting character in this drama is a Ms. Emlyn, a character closely resembling Ms. Marple with whom Poirot seems to compare notes on occassions. This may be the closest that Christie has brought Poirot face to face with Ms. Marple type lady and quite surprisingly Poirot is shown to be less egoist in her presence.
The 3rd story is about a mysterious double death that took place years ago requiring attention for such a long time. This story can be loosely categorised as a classic as it is more of a novel than a mystery. True it contains evil but curiuosly it evokes sympathy for the criminal at its completion. It is also devoid of any arrests and Poirot only unearths the mystery that had surrounded the episode and which remained dormant for years. Mrs. Oliver actively plays her part in gathering information from the 'elephant's that she labels for the aged persons with a memory like the quadruped. Actually it is only these 'elephant'ine minds that helps Poirot to gather the loose threads and though the ultimate truth is a bit predictive but the reading is enjoyable.
The final story is a Christie wonder where the author brilliantly camouflages the crime with her masterly imagination. The final twist will produce shok to the readers and also the unravelling may seem a bit simplified but the shroud of witchcraft that gets the better of the story is worth appreciating.

Pashando Pandit

Narayan Sanyal’s novel starting with the death of the young wife of the aged Nayaratna Prashanta Bhattacharjee, the 3rd pandit of a school at Chetla is based on how the Nayratna maintains the purity of his soul amid all the enticements and the obstacles presented to him by the society. Akin to his novel, Parabola Sir, I don’t know which one was written earlier, it is draped with all the emotions and sentiments that, at places, seems quite unrealistic. That he has to bring his daughter decently, seems to get the lower priority as compared to his responsibility as a school teacher. True, the purity, innocence and truthfulness of the pundit is, no doubt, praiseworthy, but I don’t think impracticality in actions can be at all considered to be a virtue. It is nice to see that the pundit never show any lust for earning easy money and also destiny plays a major hand in one instance to shove him in the right direction, but earning money deservingly too seems to be a wrong path for this pundit. So those who had read the other novel will find the closing more or less predicable.

8 x 10

This Nagesh Kuknoor's presenations of the Hindi thriller is based on Jai Puri, a forest ranger in Canada who is gifted with an unique supernatural power by which he can enter the photograph of a person and can describe the events through the later's eyes for 1 min after the snap had been shot. Though this he employs in helping others in trouble but a session of this supernatural manifestation leads him to a severe life-threatening crisis each time he performs. But it seems that he will need this againa and again while trying to unravel the mysterious death of his father following a photo shoot-out with a suspect list consisting of his uncle Sunder, a longtime family friend and lawyer Anil and his friend Adit. In this he is assisted by the eccentric police detective Habibullah Pasha aka Happi who also points out that apparently Jai's mother benefitted the most monetarily following the death. So a confused Jai tries to solve the mystery with the most vital source of information being the only 8 x 10 photo taken moments before his father's death. Jai confides his ability to Sheila, his steady girlfriend but she seems to think that Jai's supernatural power is only the product of his confused mind and this seems to affect their relations too. Soon Sunder is found hanged in his house and a murder attempt is made on Jai and Sheila. This makes him more determined to solve the mystery and unravel the enigma that threatens to culminate in a dangerous showdown.
The concept is good, music limited, but the intensity curiously seems to be lacking is vigour near the final phases. Best acting seems to come from Javed Jaffri while Akshay Kumar gives a it-could-hav-been-e'en-better performance. Girish Karnad makes a pleasant comeback after all these years and Sharmila Tagore is ever so graceful with her expressions. Ayesha Takia and Anant Mahadevan brings up the rear. Overall this is a nice wathc and the picturesque locations adds to the beauty of the sets. Also mention must be made of the stunts that is quite breathtaking at places.

Kaaler Rakhal

http://calcuttatube.com/kaaler-rakhal-2009-bengali-movie-review/

Chalo Potol Tuli

http://calcuttatube.com/chalo-potol-tuli-charbak-bangla-drama-review/1901/