Havana Bay

Martin Cruz Smith is a first timer for me and I did not realise that he had written Gorky Park which was made into a movie a few years ago. Arcady Renko is a humourless Russian investigator sent to Havana to investigate the death of another little known Russian spy in a water accident. The book begins very slowly and takes even more slowness to get into the characters of the plot. There are few police people and a Cuban female investigator Ofelia all of whom don't want to investigate the Russian's death. There is a liberal sprinkling of the mistrust between Cuba and Russia in the book a kind of Cuban hate of Russia for leaving them in a lurch and sort of leaving them as holding the last communist post in the world. The plot gets bogged down repeatedly in the Cuban Russian interplay of emotions which is not dispelled despite a few more murders taking place. Smith has done a good job in slowly unfolding the plot to its conclusion in the Havana Bay but I thought the ending was a bit too abrupt. He should have allowed the emotions between Arcady and Ofelia to be taken to a logical conclusion. This was supposedly Arcady's fourth book in the series, it would be interesting to read his earlier works on Arcady and also his later works. Goodreads 4/5

The Accidental Prime Minister

The Accidental Prime Minister is a kind of unofficial biography of the greatest Prime Minister that India could have had but for his inherent shyness and introvertedness and the machinations of the Congress party loyalists close to the Family to ensure that no credit goes to the man or to anybody who is not from the Family. It is a strong and damning indictment of the Family, the psychopancy  of the Congress party leaders, the egotism of some of its stalwarts who could not see eye to eye with the PM, the egotripism of some senior bureacrats.  This man with impeccable credentials, distinguished educational background and rich experience could have been the greatest Prime Minister that India ever had because he had the vision for India but he was deliberately downplayed and not allowed freedom to do things his way. The book is absolutely brutal in its treatment of the political establishment especially that of the Ruling party and the Left leaders during the India US nuclear deal. Sanjaya Baru has spoken his heart of the person with whom he was closely associated during his tenure. After reading this book, one get's pure admiration for the man who has led India for the last 10 years. Highly recommended reading. Rating 5/5

Journey Down Melody Lane

"Down Melody Lane" written by Raju Bharatan a music writer is a kind of autobiography of Indian Hindi playback film music from mid 50s to mid 80s. Raju is a lucky chap who has had a ringside view of all the music directors, composers &singers from the late 40s onwards and on intimate terms with most of them. He has sat with, talked to, listened to compositions, the recordings, the practice sessions and in turn the music idols have disclosed much details to Raju in the process. This book looks at the music rivalries, jealousies, camps, but also gives an insight into the most happening events surrounding the hindi film music during this era which was undoubtedly the golden era of music. The narrative is quite horrible, but in the end it is a most satisfying book because then you are reading about your idols like Naushad, C. Ramachandra, S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman,  Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mahendra Kapoor, Mukesh etc. etc.

Unscathed

True story of a UN peacekeeping gone horribly wrong in Sierra Leone in 2000. The inability of the UN unarmed peace keeping missions to return fire from rebel soldiers as young as 12 and 14 years comes out as horrifying especially when these child soldiers have no compunction in shooting down people. Quite a gripping fast moving book. Goodreads 5/5 

Live by Night

Live by Night is a 2016 drama film starring Ben Affleck, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana among others. It is a prohibition era movie when gangsters ruled the roost in American cities. Ben (Joseph) is a small time gangster just back from world war I duties but he runs into Robert White who is owning the Irish gang in Boston. Joseph falls into love with his daughter Sienna (Emma) but they fall out with each other and Joseph is in jail for a bank heist and murder of three policemen. Joseph comes out and straight way goes to the Italian boss Maso Pescotore out in Florida, where he establishes their side of operations with his friend Dion. Out there Joseph falls in love with the sister of the Cuban mafia, Joe Saldana and there are some steaming scenes between them. In the meantime, he is supported by the local sheriff but his daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning) who wants to become an actress in Hollywood, instead becomes a prostitute. The sheriff's brother in law meanwhile is a member of the KKK and he starts bombing various premises of Joseph. To extract revenge against the brother in law, Joseph produces some incriminating photographs of Loretta and asks for the head of the brother in law in return for giving details of the address of Loretta. Loretta comes out and promptly becomes a nun declaiming all the gambling activities in the Miami area including a gambling house which Joseph was planning on setting up. As expected things reach a head between the Irish gangs and the Italian gangs in the end. Of the acting only Sienna Miller is praiseworthy, Ben Affleck is wooden throughout the movie. Too much of sub plots in the movie. Overall rating 2/5 

Cruel Intentions

Cruel Intentions is a 1999 movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair among others. Its an absolutely horrible movie made with bad script, horrible acting and rotten story line. Ryan and Sarah are rich step siblings, but all they think of is to seduce others. Sarah has a drug problem also. Ostensibly their parents are not shown, but like super ultra rich they have their own obsessions. Sarah is all the time plotting others' downfall, while Ryan is equally the same but he writes a journal. His newest exploit is Reese who is the school principal's daughter but he falls in love with her instead. Lots of things happens in between, but in the end I am happy that it got finished. Rating 0.00001/5 

61 Hours

61 Hours is a Jack Reacher story by Lee Child. A few of these Jack Reacher stories have been converted into movies starring Tom Cruise. Jack Reacher is a kind of ex-military but now wandering aimlessly with minimal possession, and wherever he lands he finds some trouble in which his expertise is required. This time he lands in a town called Bolton in South Dakota in a bus of elderly tourists. It has been snowing, the roads are skidding and the bus falls into a gorge, luckily no major injuries, but Jack is stranded in the town for a couple of days, enough for him to find out something amiss there. There is a gang of bikers and some unused depot where strange things are going on. One old lady who has witnessed some horrific crime and is under threat by a gang operating out of Mexico. All that happens fast paced in a reverse countdown basis, so that keeps the reader engaged. It is no doubt a fast paced thriller. Jack talks to his ex-boss in Washington to get a lot of info on the Mexican gang. Goodreads 5/5