Reviews & Musings

About the Book When the devilishly handsome, legendary Bollywood superstar Rajvir Kapoor is found dead in the thirtieth-floor study of his swanky new home, Xanadu, the entire country is aghast.  Barely hours before his death, Xanadu, had been teeming with the pick of the country's elite: hot-shot celebrities, business magnates and close friends and family of the iconic actor - all of whom had come together for the grandest party Mumbai had ever seen. Investigations reveal that Rajvir Kapoor was murdered, and now everyone is a suspect. Professor Shantanu Bose, eminent nano-expert and part-time sleuth, a house-guest at the time, is willy-nilly forced to join the investigation. He finds himself in an alien world of the glitterati and their idiosyncrasies, where murky secrets are revealed and facts muddled. As Shantanu struggles to piece together the puzzle amidst the confusing moral codes adopted by the people of this starry realm, glamorous Mumbai seduces him and h...

:About the Book: What the world knows about Sanjay duty is only half-truths. best-selling author, film producer and renowned journalist Ram Kamal Mukherjee unravels the enigma and stigma surrounding Sanju Baba. There can be no last word on Sanjay Dutt. Ever. Even as he walks a free man after more than three decades of prison terms and controversies, Dutt remains a classic case study in all that defines the ‘star’ system in Hollywood industry known for its deep-rooted sense of entitlement. However, there is one question that dominates: who is the real Sanjay duty?  Is he a man who has been ‘wronged by the media’, as his friend and filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani wants everyone to believe? Is he a son who could never recover from his mother’s death? Is he a son whose father political leanings made him an easy target? Or is he a myth, created by a consortium of film journalists, industry insiders, political fiends and adversaries? Delving deep into both the man and his circums...

Introduction Picture (C) Privy Trifles ISBN :    978-8129151353 Genre:  Non-Fiction/ Bollywood Publishers: Rupa Publications Price:  Rs. 295/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction Source: Amazon.in ISBN :   978-9386228581 Genre:  Non-Fiction / Biography Publishers: Juggernaut  Price:  Rs. 499/-  ( I got the book for review from the  publisher )

Introduction ISIN: 978-93-84030-30-8 Genre: Non-fiction / Cinema Publishers: Westland ltd Price: Rs. 250/- ( I got this book from Writer’s Melon for review ) Some like Farah Khan and Zoya Akhtar had sterling antecedents but it took a tough childhood and intermittent assignments on film sets to win the box office with Om Shanti Om and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, while Ashutosh Gowarikar auditioned for folk dances and failed with his debut film, Lagaan created cinematic history and Anurag Basu had to first dance as a background extra and later overcome cancer to witness Barfi win hearts and awards. These and other hitherto unfamiliar stories of directors belonging to the "100 crore club" like Rohit Shetty and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the adventurous Kabir Khan and the maverick, Mahesh Bhatt take us through the unusual lives of 15 filmmakers of extraordinary films. Sonia Golani achieves the incredible by sitting each director down to candidly discuss the hype arou...

Introduction   • ISBN – 9780143065111 • Genre: Non Fiction/ Entertainment • Publishers : Penguin Books India • Price: Rs. 299/- (Note: I won the book in a Goodreads Giveaway !)   Bollywood Nation charts the evolution of Indian cinema from its mythological films in the early 20th century to its world-class gangster and terrorist melodramas of today. In doing so, the book investigates why and how our films have become so deeply embedded in the nation’s popular imagination. Is it merely that cinema is the only common form of mass national culture in a country that does not have either a common language or a common religion—or is it entwined with greater social, cultural and spiritual aspirations?   By narrating the story of India through the stories that our films tell us, Vamsee Juluri posits cinema as the voice of the nation and examines how it has shaped our understanding of our place in the world. Behind The book   Source: Google Imag...