When I read No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency a few years ago, I thought it was a fun little book. What a world of difference locale and atmosphere can make to an otherwise ordinary storyline. Whodunits are dime a dozen but move the action to the middle of the Botswana, add generous amounts of local flavor and you have a something very unusual and almost genre defying. As easy as the recipe sounds, it is difficult to pull it off with finesse like Alexander McCall Smith did.
Watching Manorama – Six Feet Under reminded me of the book at least in ambience. Gul Panag is quite exceptional as the nagging wife of the protagonist – a reprimanded junior engineer, wannabe detective novel writer whose first book has sold all of two hundred copies. Vinay Pathak as the loud but well-meaning brother-in-law balances out the staid and sullen Abhay Deol, the hero.
The movie employs very few of the standard Bollywood props and moves at a refreshingly languid pace. Just like the book, this is a fun little movie with a cast of believable, regular characters set in somewhat unusual situations. Miss Marple, I am guessing would have approved of this village sleuth with an eye for detail. For the rest of us, this is Bollywood but edgier.
crossings as in traversals, contradictions, counterpoints of the heart though often not..
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