It has been a long time since I have written a review, atleast on the group list. I thought with the considerable hype around Slumdog Millionaire, I should write a first day first show review. The Story The story is quite simple and must be familiar to people following the endless news coverage. It is about a kid from the slums, Jamal Malik, who is on the verge of winning Rs2 crores in Kaun Banega Crorepati. As he is just one question away from the final prize, he is whisked off to the police station overnight to be questioned if he has been cheating. He is subject to some heavy torture by the police, played by Saurabh Shukla and Irrfan Khan. Then he reveals how he has been able to answer each question as it corresponds to an event in his life. His brother, Salim and childhood love Latika, are with him on and off through his life and Jamal’s quest for Latika through brothels and gangsters dens becomes his obsession. He is finally released by the police and he goes on to win the prize a...

There was a time I used to read all the Booker prize winners, from 1997 to 2003 – I read 6 out of the 7 winners; only missing out on the 2001 winner – True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. Of late though, the awards have become pretty mediocre, at least by the reviews I have read of them, and more importantly, their impact. I have seen a steady deterioration since 2004, when they awarded the Booker to Alan Hollinghurst’s “The line of Beauty” over David Mitchell’s “Cloud Atlas”. The selection was universally panned at that time. I did not read the former but read the latter and was bowled over by the sheer literary inventiveness of Mitchell. Post 2003, most of the books were apparently very dull and eminently forgettable and probably have been. Even Kiran Desai’s “Inheritance of Loss” was supposedly a very weak winner. On the whole, most of the Booker winners I have read have really impressed me and I would gladly re-read many of them and have actually re-read like “God of...

FICTION Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie Entertaining read. But somehow I kept losing interest in the book, did not find it gripping enough. I am not much of a fairy tales guy. Full Moon PGW Very good Blandings story. Road Cormac McCarthy Pulitzer price winning book set up in a dsytopian landscape where the world has been destroyed due to some reason and people have resorted to cannibalism to survive. The story is of a father and his son's trek along the country to reach a safe place. I did not find it compelling enough, it would have been good as a short story of say 50-100 pages but nothing to keep the interest sustained for 250 pages. Vengeance George Jonas Did not realise that Munich by Spielberg was based on a book. Just came across this in BCL. Started off well but gets a bit repetitive and the writer seemed to have lost interest in the later stages of the book just as Avner lost interest in killing. Train to Pakistan Khushwant Singh A great book set...