Netflix Recommendations

Here are my Netflix Recommendations, I can't recommend them enough. And last I checked, these are still on Netflix. Don't be mislead by my conciseness - each of the show & the characters are rich.

Burn Notice - Set in Florida. Ex-Spy & friends solve cases to help people while trying to get back his Spy job. 

White Collar - Set in NYC. FBI agent enlists Art-Thief solve other big-budget theft cases.

Leverge: is well similar to above in genre. Problem solving thriller of a team of 5 and well-packed in each episode.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - Australia production set in 1920. Mystery. Saucy heroine & interesting team. 

Murdoch Mysteries - Canada production set in 1800s. Mysteries solved by scientific-minded Detective Constable. Entire cast is endearing. In different episodes, they bring in some future gadget or tech and pretend like they are the early inventors of that. Some of the real life celebs of those times are brought in characters in some episodes.

Death in Paradise - Set in Caribbean St Mary's island. English inspector & local team solve cases. Sun sand & coconut trees everywhere. Best viewed in snowed-in January winter.  

Father Brown - BBC village priest & friends solve murders.

Good show, first coz adorable Arthur Weasley actor plays the lead, then the whole repeat ensemble cast grows on you. The village setting, green open surroundings, stone houses grow on you. 
Other notes: Everyone wears colorful dresses 1950s fashion. Old British did not stick to monochrome or dark colors like US, but more fancy color choices like Indians. Everyone is prom & proper in manner. Village reminds me of our own villages, atleast South Indian Kar. Just no plastic or paper trash or garish billboards around. Tourism hype apart, all European small towns are like Indian small towns & villages.Everything seems romantic when described in English or some fancy language or on Instagram. 

Bletchley Circle - Great follow-up to Imitation Game movie. Set in the same place. 4 coders who are retired after war and dealing with the duller life, where they play a secondary role now. Meanwhile new mystery brings them together.  

In each of these BBC shows, the location is so outstanding, its another character in itself.

Madame Secretary : Set in Washington DC State office and White House. But depicts the real corporate talk, life and politics. Real world dynamics. Not dramatic or exasperated sarcasm. Very textbook showing what to speak, when and to whom. All about problem-solving.

The Crown: Impressive but not additive to go on a marathon spree. Each episode is full enough to keep you satiated and to process it before you are ready for the next episode. It is capturing cinematic-ally, by the varied cast and their acting, gently walks us through historical events, esp the Diana-free gossip. Best show to slowly improve English wit and in Europe history, rather politics. Elizabeth’s personal and UK’s political unwrap in consequent waves. Dialogues have surprising humor even within intrigue. It's only 1 season old with 10 episodes, but they have plans for more seasons - something to watch out for.

All of these are best for that quite TV watching after a tiring weekday. They are in proper bit-sized 40 min-1 hour chucks, with no cliffhanger to click on the next episode. Or go on a marathon binge if you can afford it, for full immersion in their setup. 

All of them are mystery genre, but not extreme thriller, not horror, not gory. Grownup up but not scary for rest of the family. They have a season long mystery to solve, but each episode has a mystery which is solved by the end of it. Monk was the only perfect show, which had an addition mystery was was show-length and which never distracted from it and actually wrapped it up cleanly in season finale. but unfortunately Monk no longer on Netflix. All of them have an interesting ensemble. Each interesting character, and something to like in each.

City of Lakes - Half Marathon - 2017 - Race Recap

I had run the City of Lakes - Half Marathon in 2015. And this year I got a chance to run it thanks to my Run club buddies.

Lovely perfect September morning. Temps must have been in the 60s. Cloudy sky. So I ditched my cap this time. We parked in one of the side streets around Lake Harriet and walked to the start line at Beard's Plaisance, near tennis courts. Turns out the finish line was at Lake Harriet Bandshell, so the return walk was 1 mile. Yes, it counts as recovery walk.

Race first loop was around Lake Harriet, then through the road to Lake Calhoun. Here the elite runners form Africa were returning to Harriet after completing Calhoun. Ah what a sight. I got to see the the lead female runner from their group. Then a loop around Lake Calhoun, where we encounter the first timer-carpets for 3 mile. Weather was still perfect temp and cloudy sky. After looping Calhoun, it was back to Harriet and when I reached the tennis courts, the group from Africa was leisurely walking after after finishing first. I yelled a Congratulations and they politely replied and said I was doing good :)

The next loops around Lake Harriet and then Calhoun did not feel so long or endless. At Mile 11 at Calhoun, I did feel an anxiety rush into me, sort of negative thoughts which I had distracted from for so long. So the pace dropped in the last 2 miles. But I knew that my pace must have been great in the initial miles. I had minuscule walk breaks this time.  Finish time was 2:59:34 hour with a pace of 13:53. So thrilled to be sub-3 hour after almost 1 year. I have my Run-club buddy to thanks for, who I ran with throughout.

At the finish line, I was joking that this race is the first, where they touch-our-feet for Namaskar at the end :) Because the volunteers pull out the timer chip strapped to the shoe-lace. Good thing - they know we are not going to be able to bend for another day or two.

Swag was a lovely medal in the shape of sailing yacht or boat - apt representation of Lake Calhoun & Harriet. And a glass mug. This one had opaque etchings instead of colored one in 2015. T-shirts here, are for category winners.

Mishti-Doi Craving

I recently identified a feeling and called it "Bengali-craving". Not Bengali food, not fashion, not language. I have not lived in Bengal or indulge in any of these at any point in my life. So I don't have much explanation on what that craving was ? But I noticed it a few weeks after watching Vicky Donor and Kahaani.

Bingo, I blamed it on the diet of Doordarshan. Specifically of 80's and 90's, when at any given point of time, they did play a show in Hindi with it's roots in Bengal. Shows based on Rabindranath Tagore's work, Mahasweta Devi's stories, or movies by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Bimal Roy and some of Basu Chaterjee's movies. I guess the imagery stayed back more than I knew. That way I can also blame Hemant Mukhrjee, Salil Chowdary, RD Burman and Bappi Lahiri, who used a lot of melodies between their Bengali and Hindi films

Among all, this one is the sweetest memory for me. Satyajit Ray's Apur Sansar, end sequence. I was captivated by the location and sannata, just the wind and few dialogs.

So yes, this craving meant a repeat show of Talaash. Come to think of it, this Doordarshan TV serial had all the big-shot Bengalis associated with it.

Once Nostaligia was covered, we needed something current, something of this age. Not that anyone went away, but Bengaliness is coming back on center-stage again.

Beginning with Vicky Donor. Protagonist was Delhi-Punjabi but the heroine was Bengali and they had some Kolkata locations as well. That is what triggered this in the first place.

And soon came Kahaani (2012). That was some sucker-punch of a movie. I am a nobody to praise its excellent Kahaani/Story ! It needs to be seen. Cool Bidha Bagchi and really really sweet Rana. Their unique poster lead to a really interesting movie. And one side-effect is - it makes me hum a lot of 80s RD songs. A lot of them played in background, in Bengali.

Last few years has definitely seeing a surge in Bengali-backed movies. And then thanks to Netflix I got to see these 2 new movies a billion times.

Piku

I still don't know what Piku means, but nevertheless I have watched this movie like 50 times.
Ad-films background of the director shows up, in those well composed shots, which last under a minute.

Very interesting dialogues and sequences. People speak up at the same time. 2-3 disjointed thread run through a single conversation. Someone says no & does exactly that. Every single talk around constipation is included at different intervals. True depiction of how bugging 60+ & their adult kids dialogues.

Classic trope of AB having a side-kick to make things interesting, and his friendship with Raghuveer Yadav. Deepika and her kajol eyes. Her bickering with AB and defensiveness when outsiders/Rana comment. Irfan is a gem as usual, every sequence he was part of.

Production quality is impeccable. Piku's cluttered house, but with impressive wall artworks. Rana's messy house. Trip packing sequences and getting up at dark O' thirty for a long road trip. For a road trip movie, they picked great locations. Night time Ganga ghat at Varanasi, so many sights in Kolkatta, Delhi.

Music by Anupam Roy has been on loop in my Youtube.

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy

So when the movie trailer came out, I was turned off. Not believing they could making something watchable for something in my favorite genre - Raj-era environment, Calcutta, Detective, Mystery. And later it lingered on Netflix for a long time, before I watched it.

Movie was very tightly made. So when it ended, I did not understand many things, I had to re-watch it - just to answer, "Wait what" questions. Then, I guess I played it 50 more times. Everytime kids came back home, they would be exasperated, cause this was always playing on TV.

Superb and controlled acting by Sushant as obsessive-compulsive about finding the truth. His compulsion to find the truth, takes things forward. Tough Ajit, and that gang of bachelor boarders. Really menacing villain - his end sequence with heavy metal background music, elevates this to SuperHero movie level. No mention of 'Satyanveshi' word - hope that happens in a Sequel.

In terms of frames, I could put a snapshot of every single scene here and still not be satisfied. This movie is worth watching with unblinking eyes. Watching the tram go away in the middle of the night. Marriage invitation piping up but not distracting from the storyline. Angoori devi makeup room. And many more.

Production values were superb. The way they built outdoors locations and crowds. And blended CGI into it. The Making videos are educational.

They ended with an awesome hero, trusted friend and a menacing nemesis. That is the perfect combination for a franchise. So looking forward to the sequel. Every indication so far shows it's not in plans. Attention of all producers and makers have dissipated.

Music - now there is no equal for it and yet it was prefect in the movie and very hum-able outside. Yes no item or dance number yes, chalega. All songs were in background, spreadout and blended with the background music. Heavy metalish in a Raj-era movie - and no one notices. Unexpected yet perfect.

2017 includes its share.

Jagga Jasoos. My detailed review in the link. I got twitter responses from Anurag Basu. That's included as well.

This one was eye catching thanks to rich imagery of Africa and North-East India. Its Bengali-heavy maker team did add their nostalgia elements. But there were no clihed Bengali stereotypes in the movie. They did not even say "Cholegaye" in Khaana Khaake Chalegaye, :D In the story, there was a stopover at Kolkatta, but without any sightseeing, just tram and few other studio props. Offline I did find out about the Bengali specific Easter eggs (agapastala, tiktiki, shundi), but it no way changes the flavor of the movie.

Bengali-ness simply enriched these movies, without overwhelming it.

My Yearly Movies List here.