Chimes With Tinkle

The month's copy of Tinkle arrives, and there is frantic page turning till the one-page Suppandi jokes are read, re-read as you double up with laughter, the happiness reaching your heart and eyes, and then you go to your Mom, Dad, brother and everyone else and share the joke, and they laugh too.

Tinkle is never read in a definite order by anyone. We all had our favourite picks and we went to those stories first. We couldn't help ourselves from getting to our favourite ones before we read the rest of it! So, here's my list of constant, evergreen, lovable superstars who gave most of us such a wonderful childhood with beaming eyes and riotous laughs!

1. Suppandi. There is not a single person who has read Tinkle and doesn't like Suppandi! His stupidity is just too adorable. And, baby Suppandi stories were just too, too cute and funny. Best, and the one that gets the first attention when a Tinkle copy arrives. 

2. Pyarelal and Lajo. These two kind-hearted village couple from Hastipur were my most favourite. I just loved the Pyarelal stories too much. And, Pyarelal to me was way too pyaara. I would love the way Lajo, fond for Lajiwanti, Pyarelal's wife, used to make him his favourite Jackfruit curry with so much zest, and I loved the way Pyarelal always talked to his wife about all the problems and they solved it together, and also how he always made small gifts for her like swings and garden. These characters were too genuine and innocently beautiful for me to not fall in love with!

3. Shikari Shambu. Dream of snoring away to glory, and hitting jackpot of luck, rewards and praise? That's Shikari Shambu for you. A sleepy and scared misfit forest officer always finds himself being praised and lauded while the wild animals he was supposed to trap keep running into self made traps as he sleeps before them. What's not to love about a good Shambu story!

4. Tantri the Mantri. Raja Hooja, the naive and laddu-loving desi king, and his sinsiter mantri Tantri is all that is necessary for a good entertainment. Seeing every planned plotting of Tantri to dethrone Raja Hooja backfire beautifully for reasons the crop up from nowhere was the best feeling ever! This was one hilariously fun series!

These were the absolute favourites, but I also used to like Nasruddid Hodja, Ina, Mina, Mynah, Mo, and Defective Detectives a lot. There were also many favourites from the stand-alone single stories that featured every month. The only comic series that I never liked, for some reason that I never figured out what, was Janoo and Wooly Woo. 

Tinkle was doubtlessly one of the best things we have grown up with! Have an old Tinkle at home? Pick it up, and read them again! If not, check out Tinkle Online!

The Mezzanine

Title: The Mezzanine

Author: Nicholson Baker

What can happen over a lunch hour? Well, a lot can happen over the lunch hour. 

Howie works in the office, his job is unspecified. It is lunchtime, and our hero has popcorn, hot-dog, cookie and milk. We ride with Howie up the escalator to the mezzanine of his office, and also travel through his beautifully keen mind as he explores the most mundane things in the most interesting way. 

How did paper milk cartons replace glass milk bottles? Have you ever wondered on the miracle of perforation? Have you ever bothered to notice the buoyant nature of plastic straws? Have you ever given two thoughts about vending machines, paper towel dispensers, and popcorn poppers? Too boring? Try Howie's mind, as Baker glides you through the magnetic maze of meandering thoughts of everyday triviality in the most bizarrely eloquent string of illustrative and vivid word play.  

The Mezzanine is an extremely humorous, plot-less, and conflict-less brilliance drowned in a versatile brandishing of descriptive, detailed, and intricate narration of the regular monotony captured in the most ingenious and amusing flow of language, nailing every act to it's very atom, and also through generously sprinkled extensive footnotes. 

Here's an excerpt to show you the well-arrayed wordplay!

“The neurons that do expire are the ones that made imitation possible. When you are capable of skillful imitation, the sweep of choices before you is too large; but when your brain loses its spare capacity, and along with it some agility, some joy in winging it, and the ambition to do things that don't suit it, then you finally have to settle down to do well the few things that your brain really can do well--the rest no longer seems pressing and distracting, because it is now permanently out of reach. The feeling that you are stupider than you were is what finally interests you in the really complex subjects of life: in change, in experience, in the ways other people have adjusted to disappointment and narrowed ability. You realize that you are no prodigy, your shoulders relax, and you begin to look around you, seeing local color unrivaled by blue glows of algebra and abstraction.”

As a hilarious gimmick, The Mezzanine entertains you thoroughly leaving you smiling unawares at the vast description of broken shoelaces, comments on Aurelius's Meditations- all made in the same zest and comic droll. 

I loved it, it was a very amusing read!

Parasite (Gisaengchung)

Movie: Parasite (Gisaengchung)

Language: Korean

Directed by: Bong Joon Ho

Written by: Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin-won

Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Chang Hyae-jin

Music by: Jung Jae-il

Running time: 132 minutes

Father Ki-taek, mother Chung-sook, son Ki-woo, and daughter Ki-jeong of the Kim family struggle to make ends meet for a regular living, with no jobs for any of them. What seems a boon when an offer comes their way to Ki-woo, to tutor the daughter of the rich Park family on the recommendation of a friend, soon turns into a string of lies. The well-rehearsed lies, and some well staged plans, lead to the whole Kim family being employed with the Park family, without the Parks knowing the connections between them. There develops a symbiotic relationship between the Parks and the Kim family, and the lives of these two families placed in disconnected worlds cross over. But, the parasites discarded by the Kims, as a part of their hatched plans to get employed, return to threaten their newfound lives, making the heart of the story. 

The movie captures the differences in privilege with a honesty that is haunting. The dependence, and the troubles born out of truth and lie is almost parasitic. Privilege till the end remains a dream for the Kims. Their attempts to be employed without lying fail. But when they lie to live, the lies bury them deeper. The details in the film are intricate and well-knit, pushing you to a space of familiarity, and slight discomfort on seeing blank truth, at the same time. 

Parasite is a brilliant film. The Korean drama feels extremely true to its title, and it is so real that it keeps you at the edge till the very end. The story is simple, but the sequences are beautifully placed that it leaves you guessing all the time. You know some things would happen as you watch the movie, and they do- but never at the moment that you think they would happen. The film is bounty with twists and turns, and leaves you high on expectations at some points only to hit you with that unexpected tangent of events.  

Parasite refuses to fit into a pre-decided confinement of a single genre. It is thrilling to the point that your brain spins with the score of possibilities, and it is also with consistent comedy, leaving you at the end with a feeling of a roller-coaster ride I could bet you haven't been on before. 

Freaky Friday

Movie: Freaky Friday

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Directed by: Mark Waters

Produced by: Andrew Gunn

Based on: Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

Music by: Rolfe Kent

Anna, a normal teen with aspirations to take her rock band to great levels, always gets into a fight with her mom, Tess Coleman, a single-mother who thinks Anna’s band is just irritating noise. Anna and her mother differ in everything- from music to hairstyle and fashion to studies. Anna’s mom plans to marry a man named Ryan, whom Anna doesn’t get along with at all. Also, Anna’s band get the chance to participate in the upcoming band auditions, but Tess doesn’t allow her. On top of all this, Anna has an irritating little brother whom she can’t put up with. And the result: Anna and Tess, her mom, get into a big row.  

They all go to a Chinese restaurant, and there the whole issue bursts out, and mom and daughter get into serious arguing with a lot of “you are ruining my life” dialogues from Anna. A Chinese woman sees this, and gives them both the fortune cookies. When they eat it, and they both alone feel an earthquake. The argument ends there, and they are both happy to be safe. They go back home after dinner.

In the morning, Tess finds out that she has gone into Anna’s body, and Anna in hers! They get all miserable at the thought, but agree to keep it between themselves. So, to look like themselves, Anna goes to office, while Tess goes to school. She, for the first time realizes the truth of Anna’s complaints when Mr. Bates, the English teacher, gives her an “F” grade, calling it subjective grading, even when Tess answers his questions correctly. She also finds that Anna is true, more than ever, calling her ex-best friend, mean and horrible, when the girl passes her a note during examination, and then claims that Anna copied from her. But, Jake, a boy Anna fancies but Tess doesn’t have a good impression on, knows the truth, and helps Tess finish the exam paper. Her impression on Jake changes. She also understands why her daughter always ended up in detentions.

Meanwhile, Anna has all the fun time. She enjoys spending with her mom’s platinum credit card, and makes Tess's form look all trendy. She takes up her mom’s role in office, as a physiatrist, and attends to her patients, as well as possible. She understands that she can never be like her mom, and also understands the pressure her mom is usually under. Anna even attends Harry, her little brother’s, parent teacher meet. There, she sees an essay written by Harry on how his sister is the best in the world. She is bowled over by the genuine feelings of his, and doesn’t see him as irritating anymore.

When Anna and Tess finally meet, after completing each other’s respective jobs, they go back to the Chinese restaurant, and meet the old lady’s daughter demanding her to change them back. But, the old lady’s daughter apologizes to them, and tells them that there is no other way than to make the note inside the fortune cookie come true- to understand each other and do a selfless act.

Nothing happens, and Anna feels certain that she’s going to be struck in Tess’s body forever. They try different things but they go in vain.  Finally the day of Tess’s marriage to Ryan arrives, and that same day Anna’s band have their auditions. Anna’s friends and co-artists in the band, take Tess away, thinking she is Anna, for the auditions, after they plead Ryan to allow them. Anna, who is Tess’s form, follows them after Ryan asks his to-be wife to go and cheer her daughter. On stage, Tess is not able to play the guitar or give a solo because she doesn’t know to. But her friends are confused as to why she wasn’t doing it. Anna comes to the rescue, and plays on her guitar offstage, while Tess mimes on the stage. Tess realizes that it isn’t all just noise, as she had imagined it to be, and it takes a lot more to go stand up on the stage and perform. They  get through the auditions, and both mom and daughter are thrilled at the victory.

They go back to the marriage hall. There, Tess asks Anna to tell Ryan that they ought to postpone the marriage, since she doesn’t want her daughter to marry the man! But, Anna goes up, brings everyone to attentions, and gives an emotional speech praising Ryan as the special man who made Tess and the family happier, instead of telling him to postpone the marriage. That selfless action of love fulfills the note in the fortune cookie, and Anna and Tess swap back to their respective bodies.

Tess and Ryan marry. All ends happily!

The movie was fantastic! I completely loved it! The characters are so cool, and the acting was excellent! The whole movie was very creative! My favourite characters are Tess and Anna. I especially loved the parts when each realized they couldn't be the other, and yet started appreciating each other. The parts when Anna tries to treat the patients, and Tess tries to act like her teenage daughter, which she completely fails to do, is hilarious!

It was a movie worth watching!

Elf

Movie: Elf

Genre: Fantasy, Comedy

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Produced by: Jon Berg, Todd Komarnicki and Shauna Robertson

Story by: David Berenbaum

Music by: John Debney

Buddy, as a baby, gets into Santa Claus’s gift bag. Santa, carries this baby off to the North Pole, and Buddy grows among Santa’s elves. One day, after he has grown to be an adult, he realizes that he is a human and not an elf! So, he comes to New York in search of his real father, Walter Hobbs. He finds his father in the Empire State Building. His father is not sure about their relationship, and thus, takes him to a doctor for DNA verification.

It gets confirmed that Buddy is indeed Hobb’s son. Buddy moves into Hobb’s home, and wins the appeal of his half-brother Michael by defeating Michael’s bullies. But he doesn’t act his age, and it becomes a problem as he begins to go around.

He makes friends with a girl called Jovie, who works in the toy shop. There, he is shocked to find out that the children are tricked by a fake Santa Claus, and that it is not the Santa Claus he knows! So, he picks up a fight after pulling of the fake Santa Claus’s beard. Finally, he is chucked out of this place.

He asks his friend, Jovie, out, and they enjoy their outing. He interrupts his dad in a meeting with an author, and disrupts the business by mistaking the author, who is short, for an elf. The author gets angry, and leaves. Exasperated, Hobbs asks his son to get out of his life, and tells him that he doesn’t care anything for Buddy. So, Buddy runs away, after leaving a note of apology. As he wanders, he catches sight of Santa’s sleigh crashing, because the last of Christmas spirit had gone off. He tries to fix it, but it doesn’t work.

Meanwhile, Michael sees the note at home, and runs to his father, who is half-way in a meeting, to tell him the sad news of Buddy leaving. Hobbs realizes his mistake, and leaves the meeting to search for Buddy, even though it costs him his job. They locate Buddy, and understand what he is trying to do. Michael helps Santa by taking Santa’s book to the media, and making everybody believe in Christmas.

Jovie, Buddy’s girl, overcomes her shyness by singing a Christmas song, and spreading the Christmas cheer. The spirit of Christmas increases and Santa’s sleigh starts flying again. But it doesn’t have enough spirit to fly completely. Only when Walter Hobbs starts believing, and joins the song, the spirit makes Santa’s sleigh fly right into the sky.

Everything ends happily.

The movie was very funny. I don't know what else to say about it!