The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello, hello! This year has been a bust as far as the Indian movie scene was concerned (for us). We watched a few good ones, though and so, are sharing those as solid recommendations to enjoy over a long weekend!  Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies): Hands down, the best movie of the year! Won't be writing much here because we have a whole post about it. Read it ! :) Streaming on Netflix.  Kill: A gory, thrilling, slick action flick that's made in India! Fast-paced and so, so, so thrilling. Streaming on Netflix. Watch it!  Stree 2: A sequel that is not a sophomoric disaster! Yes, please! This movie takes us back into the Stree universe, except, we have a new villain and also, some new allies. A fun, spooky watch, for sure! Streaming on Prime Video.  Munjya: A nicely made horror movie inspired by the myth/ legend of the Brahmadaitya- the belief that if a Brahmin youth days within 14 days of his sacred thread ceremony, he becomes an evil spirit/ entity. Highly recommen...

Hello, hello, Another weekend and another 'what to watch' post on this blog :)  Today's recommendations are a nice mixed bag of true crime, horror and romance! So, let's get into it, shall we?  Nobody Wants This is a rom-com that is an instant throwback to the mid-2000s! Not only because it stars millennial heartthrobs Adam Brody and Kristen Bell but also it is, basically, a classic rom-com. Has several laugh out loud moments and all the formulaic, trope-heavy things that defined the rom-coms in the early to mid-2000s.  Messed up, commitment-averse heroine- check.  Stable, nice-boy hero- check.  He falls first- check.  She falls harder- check.   And, like I said, lots of LOL-worthy moments, mostly stemming from the hero's extremely Jewish family and the heroine's messy-chaotic family.  This is not a perfect show but it is one of the better rom-coms one has seen in a while. Plus it has six very short episodes which I like. I am so over 50 minute lo...

  What Today Looked Like:  Started a new book. Mayadevi's London Yatra by Bulbul Sharma is a charming, slice of life and bittersweet stories about regular people and ordinary lives. I am a couple of stories in and really enjoying this book.  Still reeling from a fever, so most of today was spent sleeping off and sweating off this flu. Ugh. I feel so out of it and weak.  Coffee in a tiny but happy mug. It's from Chumbak.  Finally watched Godzilla Minus One and absolutely loved it. It's streaming on Netflix and you have to watch it. I love all things Godzilla but these new one (the American films) and the whole Godzilla is our friend..is a bit odd. I am much more inclined to think of him as a super villian. This Japanese film has some seriously good visual effects (it won the Oscar) but it has an incredible story and a whole bunch of amazing characters you grow to care about. It's got thrills and a heart. 

 Hello, hello, Another weekend and if you, like us, plan to spend it in the relatively cooler comforts of home, then we have some movie recommendations for you!  Let's get started!  Late Night with the Devil: An interesting horror-thriller movie where a late night TV host bites off more than he can chew when a Halloween special episode (live) turns out to be truly horrifying. This is a really nicely done movie and there is a nice little twist as well. If you are not a horror fan, don't fret, it is not very scary. Can be rented on Prime Video.  Thanksgiving: A slasher flick set in a small town on Thanksgiving. A mysterious entity starts killing people, who survived a Thanksgiving night early Black Friday stampede at a popular store. A group of high school friends finds themselves in the sights of this killer and it is a race against time to save themselves from him. This is a fun, fast-paced slasher flick. Full time pass. Can be rented on Prime Video.  Godzilla x...

  Hello, hello, We just finished watching Laapataa Ladies on Netflix and we loved it so, so much that we simply had to get on here and recommend it to all of you!  So, without further ado, let's get into our top 5 reasons for watching this absolutely smashing movie: 1. The writing! OMG, the writing! It is funny, insightful, wise and so pitch perfect! I haven't watched an Indian movie in the past 5-6 years where the writing made me actually clap more than once! So, so good!  2. The story. A simple story of two brides getting lost because of being inside navel-length ghunghats. Phool, married to Deepak, sleeps on the train and, Deepak mistakenly takes Pushpa/ Jaya to get off with him at his station because both women are dressed in similar bridal sarees with a huge ghunghat. Chaos ensues! The story is about how both the women find their way back home and to themselves.  3. The found family in this movie so absolutely adorable! The people that Phool (Deepak's wife) find...

 Hello, hello, Welcome to the very first Friday of 2024!  I hope you are as excited as I am that the work week is done and a weekend (and all its myriad possibilities) spreads out ahead of us!  Sharing some of the recent things that we've been loving!  The beginning of any New Year means setting up our planners and journals. This here is my sister's Hobonichi Techo. She is back in the Hobonichi after 3 years and this cover is from The Black Canvas . The crochet pencil case is from an Instagram shop whose name I can't remember.  Are you a fan of stickers? We are. They just brighten up things like laptops and Kindle and iPad cases and can be easily removed and replaced with other stickers. This one is from the Strawbabie store . The Kindle cover is from Amazon . My sister has the slightly larger 11th Generation Paperwhite and it is so difficult to find a good cover for it.  I spent some time organising my journal/ planner supplies in my The Ink Bucket planner...

  Book: Devotion of Suspect X Author: Keigo Higashono  Pages: 448 Read on: Kindle and Paperback  Read in: ~4 hours  Plot Summary:  Yasuko Hanaoka accidentally kills her ex-husband, when circumstances rose to an unendurable level of ghastly behaviour from him. What follows is an elongated and witty brain-game between the investigator and her accomplice, Ishigami, who aided Yasuko in covering up the murder.  The Devotion Of Suspect X is the story about an ingenious plotter, and clever Dr Manabu Yukawa, who helps in solving the case. Yasuko Hanaoka works in a restaurant. She is divorced, and is a single mother to Misato. Her ex-husband, Togashi, was an abusive man, stalking and extorting money from her. With similar intentions, he showed up at Yasuko’s home, this time threatening to kill her and her daughter if she refused to lend him money. What started from denial, reached to a heated argument, and within a short span of time, turned to a nasty fight. In the...

Hello, hello, We've been having a very rainy week in Mumbai and so, have been watching a mix of old and new and underrated horror movies! Sharing some that we enjoyed for fellow horror aficionados.    In no particular order, here are the horror movies we enjoyed!  1. The Pope's Exorcist: Inspired the real life adventures and misadventures of the actual exorcist hired by the Pope in the 1980s to help individuals suffering from demonic possession, this is a pretty gnarly movie. When an American widow moves to a tiny town in Spain to restore and sell an ancient abbey that belonged to her husband's family, she finds a demonic entity possessing her young son. The Pope's Exorcist is called in to help the little boy.  Streaming on Prime Video.  2. Slumber: When a family that has consistent, horrifying nightmares approaches a sleep clinic for help, little do the doctors know that they have bitten off more than they can chew and what seems like some kind of sleep disorde...

We watched Adhura early this morning. The skies were dark, it was quiet all around with the only sound being the gentle pitter-patter of rains. Just the perfect mood/ vibe to watch a horror show set in a boarding school exploring themes like revenge, past sins, secrets and such!  Here are 5 reasons why you should definitely watch Adhura this rainy weekend!  1. The setting is absolutely gorgeous and perfect! The show is set on the beautiful campus of The Lawrence School, Lovedale, Ooty and the misty greens, the darker-than-dark nights and the beautiful, regal old buildings amp up the spooky atmosphere of the show!   2. The story, as I mentioned earlier, is set in a boarding school in the hills. The batch of 2007 is back on campus for a reunion and a little 10-year-old boy, called Vedant, is acting strangely and scaring the beejeejus out of his bullies. Is Vedant's metamorphosis somehow connected to the return of the batch of 2007? What connects whatever entity is possessin...

  We watched Lust Stories 2 last night and here is a full on spoiler-filled review for y'all!  BEWARE- FULL SPOILERS AHEAD- SKIP THIS POST IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS Lust Stories 2 is an anthology of four short films centred around, what else, lust. The themes for each of these stories are different and so, as an anthology, it works well. Also, all the stories are women-centric, which given the theme is always nice to see. So, without any further ado, let's dive into the individual short films.  The first story is directed by R. Balki and is, honestly, one of the most ridiculous and far-fetched ones in the anthology! While it did make me chuckle on multiple occasions, the whole schtick of a Dadima insisting on her granddaughter have sex before marriage with a potential semi-arranged marriage groom is just ridiculously far fetched given the social milieu and the kind of family shown in this story, which is an average middle-upper-middle class family!  Can you imagine ...

 Hello, hello! Sharing our favourite movies (a mix of Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and English) of 2022 with you.  These are across genres like thrillers, drama, dramedies, horror-comedies, action and such.  As we wind down the year and, hopefully, you have a little more time on your hands, these movies are good ones to watch!  Without further ado, let's get into it!  We will be back with our Top OTT series faves across fiction and non-fiction very soon!  Enjoy! 

  I saw the trailer for Govinda Naam Mera when it came out and frankly, I didn't think I'd watch it. It looked so loud and so over the top, I didn't think this would be something I'd enjoy.  Yet, last night, as I doing my dinner prep, I figured I'd try it for ten minutes while I chopped veggies for my pasta and then switch to something else when I sat down to eat.  And surprise, surprise I began to enjoy myself and laughing.  The trailer really did this film dirty. It is so much more than a loud and overly sexual film, it's a fun ride from start to finish with a lot of laughs and even a twist or two.  Here are 5 Reasons You Need to Watch Govinda Naam Mera on Disney Hotstar:   1. It's a laugh riot. It's reminiscent of old Bollywood, the 90s comedies~~ a little bit of physical comedy, funny lines and even a touch of slapstick humour. But all of these combined make for a film that will have you laughing out loud several times. It's the kind of film you ...

 Hello, hello, It's Friday! That means, the weekend is here for us to binge some really amazing OTT content!  Without further ado, let's get into some of our recent faves across different OTT platforms... 1. Chup (Zee5)  In  Chup, a serial killer is brutally murdering film critics using lines from their own reviews. So, one critic gets "ruthlessly cut" while the other ends up "all over the place" and, well, you get the idea! Who is this killer and why is he killing film critics?  Sunny Deol as the ace homicide detective and Pooja Bhatt as a criminal psychologist are on the case! BTW, so good to see both after such a long time!  A pretty good thriller film with stellar performances from Dulquer Salman and Sunny Deol! Worth a watch for sure!  2. Bodh (Hoichoi) Bodh (conscience in Bengali) is a gripping and nicely written show about justice and not being afraid of facing off against more powerful people in the quest of that justice!  Retired judge, A...

 Hello, hello, A nice long weekend is staring us in the face and if you are not travelling anywhere and planning a cozy weekend at home, like us, then we've got you covered!  Sharing some of our must-binge shows and movies below that will have you all set for the weekend!  1. Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (Prime Video) If you, like us, loved and watched Pretty Little Liars, then this reboot of the series is eminently watchable! Also, even if you haven't watched the OG PLL but love slasher flicks, then this one has to be on your watchlist!  Set in small town Pennsylvania, just like the OG show was, and revolves around 5 girls connected by a macabre incident in their mothers' lives!  Don't want to give too much away, but 5 episodes in and we are totally hooked! Give this a watch!   2. Old (Prime Video)  A creepy, makes-you-think kinda movie that is very watchable, Old is almost quintessentially M. Night Shyamalan but also not.  A family on holid...

  So, I just finished bingeing Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 1 and I have some thoughts! Without wasting any time, let's get into it, shall we?  STOP! WAIT!!  THIS POST WILL HAVE SOME SPOILERS, WHICH WILL BE CALLED OUT BEFORE EACH MENTION. PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET!  Things I Loved:  1. The very fact that the show was back after T-H-R-E-E long years! It was so good to be back with the characters that you've grown to care about so much! It was so good to re-visit that crazy ol' town of Hawkins, Indiana and get back with the gang and do some mind-flayer demon hunting shenanigans!  2. It was good to see some real-life high school struggles faced by teens make its way into Stranger Things!  SPOILER BEGINS: Mike and Dustin are struggling to fit into high school while Lucas has joined the basketball team and is considered (sort of) cool. On the other hand, in California, Will seems all alone and struggling to fit in as well but Elev...

83, the movie, released on OTT on Sunday/ Monday midnight and we, almost immediately, watched it!  If you don't know, 83 is based on India's first (and historic) cricket World Cup win in 1983. Back then, the Indian cricket team was not the powerhouse that you see today. We had great players, true, but they nowhere had the winning track record or the kind of fame that our cricketers have had since the 1990s. The reasons are several, but an important one being that cricket in India became a national (and media) obsession only after we won the World Cup in 1983. True, there were cricket fans in India even before 1983, but the way the sport and the sportsmen captured the common person's imagination and became an obsession and religion of its own owes a huge part to this team that won us the World Cup in 1983 and instilled a huge sense of pride in our men in blue!  Without further ado, let's get into 5 compelling reasons to watch this amazing film!   5 Reasons to Watch 83:...