Finding Forgotten Cities is an exhilarating account of how Harrapa and Mohenjo-Daro were discovered and findings were pieced together to advance the case for the Indus Civilization for the first time in 1924, with ample attention given to all the major characters that played an indispensable part in the story.
From this account, the Britishers that were at the forefront of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), especially John Marshall himself, the Director General of the ASI during the discovery and, in fact, for a good part of the first quarter of the 20th century, seem to emerge as unlikely heroes, but for whose love and passion for the antiquities of India, the beauty and significance of portals to India’s past may have been lost to the sands of time.
At times thrilling, and at times exuberant, the narrative unfolds like in a novel, with interesting detours into circumstances within which the ASI had to work. I just wished there were more details on some of the people besides Marshall and Rakhaldas Bannerji. Also, modern colour photographs would have helped paint a more vivid picture. Sometimes, the narrative while being pegged in a certain year went forwards and backwards too often, thereby causing me to lose the base year.
Nevertheless, being enamored with the Indus Civilization since my childhood, I finally had the opportunity to be transported back to a time where I could be a fly-on-the-wall even as the ancient cities I was fascinated with were getting uncovered.
Highly recommended for history lovers in general, and Indus Valley Civilization aficionados, in particular.
Batman v Superman is a movie that has director Zack Snyder trying hard to marry two worlds – a world that is inhabited with DC Comics characters and another world, enamored with Marvel Comics characters, that has already been shown how an extended Cinematic Universe should look, and indeed looks, like. So you have Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder teaming up to cobble together a DC Comics alternative universe and to pit one superhero against another just in time, before Paramount and Marvel steal their thunder with their own interpretation of a similar scenario – only they are trying a little too hard.
That is the problem plaguing the movie for the better part of its run-time – trying hard to quickly establish things or rather, to make you believe things, without having much to show for it. For example, you must believe Batman is fed up with Superman’s God-like reverence from the masses, because Zack Snyder shows a single scene of Batman getting miffed at the newspaper headlines. You must tell yourself the world is on the brink of yet another catastrophe because the characters are saying something on those lines, looking into, perhaps, a crystal ball that is never shown. You must convince yourself that Batman and Superman are in a conflict of war-like proportions – and, since they never showed a real buildup – simply because the movie title says so. You are asked to take huge leaps of faith and logic, because Zack Snyder wants you to never be sure about what really is happening up until the big reveal, which, after it arrives, is deliberately drowned in noise and chaos so Snyder can stretch the aura of mystification half an hour longer. On the way, you never know the reason behind why Superman would suddenly turn up in the middle of Batman’s daily business and let him know he let him off out of mercy. You never know how Lois Lane knows that the spear that she threw away held the key to annihilating the newest monster in Metropolis.
Add to that the mix and match of the different universes that Zack Snyder is attempting. Despite having made it amply clear ahead of the movie’s release that his universe was different to that of Nolan’s, he still imbues his universe with a forced darkness that evokes the ambience of Nolan’s, while also borrowing for his Batman, traits, most notably, the dead-pan, from the pre-Christian Bale incarnations. The problem with this forced grimness is that it draws itself to unnecessary comparisons with Nolan’s creation – and fails miserably at it because the bar has been set so high by both Nolan and Bale – while simultaneously flying in the face of the slightly upbeat mood of the same universe portrayed in Man of Steel. And if the intention was to show a Superman in deep conflict, a sign of the times he is living in, then it is back to the initial problem – you must believe without being made to spontaneously believe, that Superman is in turmoil.
The movie is hobbled by poor direction and banal dialogue, if not by tunnel vision and hammy or wooden acting. Visual effects are run-of-the-mill, and Ben Affleck is just OK as Batman – he is no Bale after all. Jesse Eisenberg goes over-the-top and strangely strikes you as a white version of Shah Rukh Khan in virtually every movie of his (ever). Amy Adams, Henry Cavill, and Gal Gadot, in that order, try to hold on to dear life in a floundering ship. Jeremy Irons’ cocky, wise-crack Englishman Alfred is an apology of a replacement for Michael Caine’s fatherly, sympathetic portrayal. But not all is hopeless though, since the best moments are reserved for the last half-hour, that is, after Wonder Woman appears and joins forces with the other two, when the movie begins to become bearable. From there on, it is uphill for the movie – reaching its zenith in the very last shot – but by then you wonder if it was an uptick two hours too late.
If you have been waiting for months to watch ‘The Revenant’, be forewarned it is not one for the faint-hearted. That this could be the case is alluded to five minutes into the runtime, when you have barely settled in for, perhaps, a popcorn-munching, cola-guzzling, sweet-faced Leo-watching binge that you are yanked out of your cosiness by a violent attack scene, thereby preparing you for a possible further assault of bloodiness, and thrusting you into a sustained state of alertness and stoicism. You will need a lot of those – either those or a deep slumber – for there is no let-up in the gore and violence following that. Whether it be the bear-mauling or arrows piercing foreheads & torsos and jutting out from the other side or axes slashing off appendages or mauled & mangled flesh or even Nature doing its thing, director Iñárritu’s goriness is remarkably realistic in detail and in-the-face – as opposed to the sanguine tongue-in-cheekiness of, say, Tarantino.
What emerges, slowly, is the surprising evolution of Tom Hardy’s acting – when you had had dismissed him as simply an improved version of Vin Diesel. With the evil on his face and in his voice – and as opposed to the over-the-top portrayal of evil in TDKR – so palpable you would actually hate him. Then there is Lubezki’s camera work- conjuring up angles and heights, sneaking into corners you would not expect, contributing to so much of the in-the-face visceral nature of the visual that sometimes the only respite you could get is by looking away. But then you would also miss his wizardry.
That brings us to Leonardo’s performance. It is hard to calibrate Leonardo’s acquittal – seasoned that he is – against the backdrop of the overwhelming circumstances depicted in the movie. Leonardo has pulled off quite a list of challenging roles in the past, where it was hard to discern Leo the man from the character he played – but here, where he speaks all of ten lines distributed equally over the first 10 minutes and the last 20 minutes, you are left to wonder whether he would be far ahead of the pack were his peers also to portray the daunting hardships that Hugh Glass must go through. In other words, it is a cakewalk for him, or maybe, the effortlessness is to blame. Which is to say, if he wins an Oscar this time, it was because he has been long owed one.
Meanwhile, director Iñárritu, in going for the jugular, does pull off the gore and treachery of circumstances in glorious detail but then he cannot stop any intended themes of relationships – between man & nature, civilisation & savagery, man & family – from submerging in that very sea of blood and breathtaking scenery. One theme in particular – visions and whispers of his dead wife – falls short in eliciting any sense of connect. Then you could fault him for the runtime, and since he is also partly credited with the screenplay, for also the story, because it feels incredulous that a character should be faced with insurmountable clichéd tragedy after tragedy, and also come up trumps in the end. In short, Iñárritu did better on ‘Birdman’.
Ultimately, however, ‘The Revenant’ descends into revenge saga territory, and by the time Glass has finally laid hands on Fitz (Hardy)- and you knew he would half an hour into the movie- you are left wishing you were over with it already, for only after you have freed yourself from the overpowering grip of it all, can you sit down to objectively separate the performances of the crew from the grandeur of the gore.
‘Scandinavia’ is the freshest sound to have come from the MLTR stable of music. I remember Mikkel insisting that MLTR were trying to re-find the 90’s MLTR sound. Well, let me tell you, they didn’t quite do that, but they did something different – so different it has come as an immensely positive surprise! The guitar work is elegant and occasionally, pleasantly boisterous, which shows Mikkel has been sweating it out a lot. In MLTR’s personal history, ‘Scandinavia’ will become a by-word for experimentation and freshness. The sound is introspective here, retrospective there, ambivalent now, vivacious then – a very beautiful mish mash of varied styles and colours.
However, if you are looking for Jascha’s trademark accent, inflections and huskiness from the previous albums, you will not find it here. Rather, Jascha has let himself free here and given it a personal touch, employing the accent you would hear from him during normal conversation.
I would pick these tracks as the best -‘Any Way You Want It’ for the classic MLTR rock-ballad touch, ‘Hanging On’ for the soothing feel, ‘Shanghaid In Tokyo’ for a completely new and peppy MLTR exploration of rock music & ‘Renovate My Life’ for some awesome guitar-work. In a somewhat typical MLTR practice of recent times, ‘Space Commander’ and ‘Crazy World’ represent the dance/disco genre on this album, albeit with some interesting lyrics and catchy embellishments. ‘Please Forgive Me’, ‘Heaven Is My Alibi’ and ‘Icebreaker’ are musings on relationships, with deep lyrics and finally, ‘Scandinavia’ is MLTR’s tribute to their homeland, told in the form of a kind of a coming-back-to-home narrative.
Having said that, listeners with a discerning aural ability and varied choice of bands, would be led to see strains of Coldplay’s ‘Myloto Xyloto’ and RHCP’s ‘I’m With You’ albums in this. All in all, a good, memorable package. A new personal benchmark for MLTR!
P.S. : MLTR’s quest for re-invention also extends to the booklet cover, unique for an MLTR album.
It was a cold November evening in Kathmandu, when a charismatic and heavily husky-voiced Nepali pop-cum-rock star, Sabin Rai, finally sang his last song to hand over control to the Masters-of-Ceremony Prosen and Malvika once again. And this time, the duo duly looked over the ushering in of a blue ambience, with the image of a revolving globe on the background screen and the Mikkel Lentz-produced ‘Eternity‘ theme slowly gathering steam. Then amidst the smoke, even as the ‘Salvation’ tune played, appeared the four Viking guys one after the other. Mikkel, clad in a dark brown suit, waved to the crowd, while Kare settled behind his drum-kit and Jascha in a white suit took position at his keyboard, wearing red coloured glasses, probably, a throwback to the good old days of Colours and Played On Pepper. MLTR launched immediately into (this time) the full-blown intro of ‘Salvation‘.
Initially, it felt like the sound was a little weak – either Jascha could not hear the other instruments properly or the surround was not effective, but to me it just felt like something was amiss, a little out of tune (Interestingly, when I listen to the videos on youtube, everything seems perfectly alright, which is a good thing!). When Salvation had been done and dusted with, Jascha said, “The next song is for the child…inside of every man.”, and ‘Sleeping Child‘ commenced accompanied by a very very loud cheer. The sound, according to me, was still a little shaky. This time though, the crowd, which had been mostly oblivious to the lyrics of Salvation, suddenly found its feet, crooning away with Jascha, even when the sound system totally misbehaved and blanked Jascha’s vocals for a line or two.
At the end of it, Jascha said, “It’s really amazing… to travel so far away to Nepal. You really, guys, know all our lyrics and our songs. That’s fantastic.” ‘Love Will Never Lie‘ was on next, and during the second verse Jascha was clearly displeased with the sound, making an animated gesture to the sound guy, and when the second verse had been sung, it all started to seem to be alright, at least that’s what Jascha’s thumbs-up to the sound engineer and the increased volume of Jascha’s vocals would have signified. Jascha played a flowing piano section in the end, by which my friend Rajiv was completely enamoured and had tears in his eyes. They proceeded to play ‘It’s Only Love‘ at the end of which Jascha said, “This is a song which we don’t play often. we have just started playing it in the last few concerts.”
Jascha then said, “The next song is very popular on Youtube…it’s a Youtube hit.’, and people started guessing a lot of names, but it was clear, however, that it was going to be ‘It’s Gonna Make Sense‘. Again, only a handful of people knew the lyrics to this song, which was good because it ensured that when Mikkel launched into a guitar solo just after the bridge, it could be heard clearly. I could, meanwhile, see Kare totally immersed in singing the lyrics to this song. Next, Jascha left his keyboards and slung an acoustic guitar around his neck, and shouted on the mic, “I am not able to see you guys. Are you there?… It’s also a bit difficult to hear you guys at the back. Are you there?” And the rocking intro to ‘Something You Should Know‘ ensued. In the song, I could hear a lot of improvisations, especially in the lead guitar riff, and in the bass line as well. Also the ‘uh hu hu hu’ at the end of the line ‘because I miss you so’ was a little different from the original. Mikkel again showed a glimpse of his guitar skills, when he improvised on the original guitar solo, with the distinctly different riff continuing. When that had ended, Jascha handing away his guitar, joked, “I don’t play the guitar. You probably heard that.” , to some more chuckles from the audience.
Jascha then continued, “The next song is very old song, and it is very special to Michael Learns To Rock. This song is what made MLTR famous a very long time ago…and it goes like this.” And sure enough, it was ‘The Actor‘, to which a fair part of the crowd sang along. After that, the rest of the band disappeared and Jascha remained on the keyboard, telling the crowd the reason as to why the former had left, “They are all old…And I am young.” which was met with peals of laughter. He went on to play ‘Naked Like The Moon‘. Jascha played the chord a trifle late at the beginning of the second verse, and it was becoming clear that he was discomfited by something, possibly a cough, but he braved on without showing it, and at the end of it, he made a gesticulation of wiping his forehead and heaving a huge sigh of relief with a child-like quality to it. And then he disappeared too. (We would later see Jascha having to cope with bouts of cough a couple of times, which he masked or gave vent to by going to the back end of the stage when he had had the chance.)
If one has followed the pattern of MLTR’s past concerts, then he/she would already get a feeling that Jascha plays solo on the piano exactly mid-way through, but we had been only 6-7 songs through when this happened and that planted a doubt in my mind as to whether this was not going to be a short set. All doubts were quelled though when the trio of Mikkel, Kare and the bassist returned to a smokey stage that warmed up to the ambient intro of ‘Take Off Your Clothes‘ followed shortly by a bass riff that sounded a little different to the original one in the song (guess it was a direct consequence of the inclusion of a new bassist). And while we were anticipating the first words of the song, surprise surprise! Mikkel unleashed a mad-cap, almost ‘metallic’, lead guitar solo which was a little but not quite similar to the original solo, even as a part of the crowd, including myself, went completely berserk, and meanwhile Kare thumped away relentlessly at the drums and the bassist slapped away vigorously at his bass guitar. It was a ‘jam’ right in the middle of a supposedly ‘pop’ band’s gig.
Before long, the jam had ended to seamlessly make way for the intro of ‘Hot To Handle‘, once again, with a refreshingly different lead guitar and bass-riffs. By this time, though, Jascha was back on stage, this time in a dark suit, with just a cordless microphone in hand. He came to the edge of the stage and as he sang the first verse, he swayed, jigged with his feet and snapped his fingers a-la performers in the ‘American Idol’ series. After just one verse and chorus, Jascha went back to the keyboard while the backing track seamlessly shifted to the intro of ‘Animals‘. This time, Jascha sang just the opening lines (which actually is also the chorus) and the bridge – ‘in the name of progress, everybody’s gone too far…”, only for the backing track to shift yet again seamlessly to the intro of ‘Blue Night‘. Again, Jascha sang only the first verse and first chorus. It was a medley.
The madness (in a good way) then stopped, and Jascha announced, “The next song is from our forthcoming album which we are going to release in the Spring of next year, and which we are also shooting a music video for. Yesterday, we were running around in the streets of Kathmandu shooting for it. It’s called ‘Anyway You Want It‘. We need your help today to shoot the video…Let’s make a video, a music video, OK?”, and the crowd was only very willing to oblige. We waved our hands and swayed in our places, while two professional cameramen shot away on stage and one of them also came down to the midst of the crowd to shoot a bit. The song was a pleasant, upbeat, although mid-tempo, rock ballad, much reminiscent of Sweetest Surprise, with a soulful short guitar solo. It also had Jascha letting out an ‘exultant’ scream at the end of the bridge. It must be really good in the studio version.
Jascha then thanked the crowd for their help, and went on to introduce the bassist, “You know, in our band we are just four guys. By the way, let me present to you a guy called Lars, playing the bass tonight. It’s actually the first time that Lars is playing with this band…We think that less means more…This is a song with very few instruments, an acoustic guitar only and drums.” It was time for ‘I’m Gonna Be Around‘, during which Jascha, after having threatened to descend the stage many times before, finally did so to walk down the aisle jutting into the crowd.
The next song on the set was ‘Complicated Heart‘ which, again, most of the crowd seemed to know the lyrics to. This song was exactly as we have heard in all the previous live versions. The song then gave way to ‘Nothing To Lose‘ which also had a fairly good response from the crowd. I had never heard a live version of this song, so it was fresh for a change. Then came ‘Angel Eyes‘ that lifted the tempo again. Then lo and behold, another song that I had never heard a live version of, rolled out – ‘How Many Hours‘. This was followed by Jascha saying, “The next song is a Chinese song.”, and even as the intro ensued, the crowed roared in joy to start singing ‘Take Me To Your Heart‘, another popular hit in Nepal. By the end of it people had started yelling, ‘Someday! Someday! Someday!’ given some tough competition by chants of ‘Paint My Love! Paint My Love! Paint My Love!’ as well as chants of ‘Once more! Once more! Once more!’ To which Jascha impishly quipped, “From what you guys are saying, it seems you want us to play our last song.” But then, the intro of ‘Final Destination‘ played, with the song culminating in the now-customary Mikkel guitar solo.
After it had completed, Jascha made a confession, “Our band has a lot of slow songs. This is one of our slowest songs”, and they went on to play ‘Breaking My Heart‘. During the second verse, something went wrong or out of sync, maybe, and Jascha sang the second pre-chorus louder than usual and in a peculiar way. Later, Jascha blurted out the standard introduction to ‘Wild Women‘, “I have seen many wild guys here in Nepal…but I wonder if there are any wild women out there?” The guitar-work on this was quite similar to that on the live versions we have heard. Jascha then introduced the song ‘25 Minutes‘ during the bridge of which Mikkel came down the stage to shake hands with fans. By this time, the demand for the song ‘Someday‘ had reached feverish pitch, and there was no choice left for MLTR than to relent. So they played it after announcing that it was going to be the last song for the night, with the accompaniment of the music video playing on the background screen. Then they waved and disappeared, even as the crowd yelled in excitement, ‘Once more! Once more! Once more!’
However, seasoned fans know better, that their gig is incomplete without ‘That’s Why (You Go Away)’. So, back they were in about 5 minutes to straightaway play magic on ‘Paint My Love‘ and then followed by their magnum opus farewell song, ‘That’s Why (You Go Away)‘. When Jascha, Mikkel and Lars lined up for the final bow, however, Kare could not join them. I learnt from my friends that Kare had been seen limping away to the backstage, the reasons for which are only subject of speculation (cramps? twist? strain? cut?). The stage then bore a deserted look, the music instruments and the equipment left behind seeming to be the only relics of the presence of our pop-rock idols. A dark silence then descended upon the crowd, mingling with the wave of cold that was fast engulfing Tudikhel, which had been hitherto kept warm by MLTR, bringing with it the painful & heavy realization that the road now led back home, lightened, however, by a very recently acquired trove of wistful memories that was going to be ours forever.
Photo courtesy : Fredi Roy
THE CONCERT IN A NUTSHELL
Date : 19th November 2011
Venue : Tudikhel Ground, Kathmandu, Nepal
Time : 6.30 PM to 8.30 PM Nepal Time. Gates opened at 3 PM Nepal time
Crowd : Awaiting accurate/official figures. However, unofficially reported by a newspaper as 6,000 – 10,000 excluding the organizers, volunteers, security personnel and media-persons
Organizers : ODC Networks, Nepal and Engage Entertainment India
Bassist : Lars (Lundholm?)
Set-list : Please refer to the song titles in bold in the note above, and read in the same order.
Lesser known songs played : It’s Only Love, Take Off Your Clothes, Hot To Handle, Animals
Minor hit songs played : Salvation, It’s Gonna Make Sense, How Many Hours
Lesser known but concert regulars : Angel Eyes, Final Destination, Naked Like The Moon
Notable exclusions : Strange Foreign Beauty, Out of the Blue, You Took My Heart Away, I Still Carry On
New Song : Anyway You Want It, from the forthcoming studio album and for which MLTR recorded a video out in Kathmandu and also during the concert.
Someone quoted Anonymous, and I quote him, “Better late than never.” I took this literally. So, for 29 years of my life, I waited until it was just late enough to not be called too late to put pen to paper…er, keyboard input to WordPress. I am Reed, and I trawl through the beautiful woods of the various places and things this world has to offer, fishing for the finest bits of timber. I am the Timber Trawler, and this is the story of my trawling.
The Timber Trawler 