Digi's Blog

There are few novels which grab your attention when you simply read the synopsis given on its back page. There are few synopses which promise you something awesome but fail to deliver. And then there are few synopses which promise you a strong plot. “THE BRIDAL PYRE” is one such captivating novel. Written by debutante Avantika Debnath, this one is a brilliant one. PLOT Written in first person, the novel describes the story of Meera Debnath, an independent and educated working woman who hails from a Bengali background. With an army background, she is everything you would find in a self made woman of today. An online matchmaking site conversation leads to her getting married to a Bengali guy residing and “working” in USA. Ignoring all the warning signs displayed in front of her eyes in BIG BOLD letters, she goes ahead and marries the guy and his conservative family. Little did she know that this would be the biggest mistake of her life. Post marriage, she realizes that the...

It is a golden period for the gujarati film industry. Yes I prefer to call it that instead of the horrible names “DHOLLYWOOD” and “GOLLYWOOD”. Is it mandatory to copy everything from the United States? Coming back, the Gujarati film industry is witnessing a phase like never before. It all started with the “Chetan Bhagat of the Gujarati Film industry”, i.e Abhishek Jain. His 2 films opened a door of vast opportunities and soon everyone followed suit. The latest offering is Kirtan Patel’s “Bas Ek Chance”. Now this is a special film because apart from it being a gujarati film, it is also the first mainstream film to be almost entirely shot in my city Vadodara. Let us have a look at the music of the film which has been composed by Pranav – Nikhil – Shailesh.     “ LAAGI RE LAGAN ” starts off with soft guitar riffs and a lovely female chorus which reminds you remotely of “Jab se tere naina”. Aishwarya Majumdar  takes the reins from there on. Along ...

Mythology mixed with fiction is a tricky genre – you need to take care of a lot of things. You need to make sure your book is interesting enough with the right dallops of mythology, without going overboard. Also, in India, you need to make sure you don’t hurt or offend peoples’ sentiments. When properly done, this genre is a treat to read. It all started with Dan Brown who literally revolutionarized this genre. He combined history and fiction and the results were fantastic. Amongst Indian authors, I guess it was Ashwini Sanghi who first took up this genre, and he did wonders too. With “The Curse of Surya”, I was skeptical initially. Let us see whether I was proved right or wrong. As the usual format for this genre goes, we have a lead character in the form of a journalist named Sangeeta Rao and an American called Alan Davies. You guessed it right – there IS that mandatory romance track between these two. But that is not the story, so let us leave that out. The plot ...