After watching Erkenci Kuş, the Turkish romantic comedy that has won the hearts of millions worldwide, I couldn’t stop myself from watching other shows of Can Yaman. (Yaman is the male lead of Erkenci Kuş). So, Dolunay (meaning Full Moon), starring Can Yaman and Özge Gürel in the lead roles, was my next stop. The series is also called as Bitter Sweet.
Dolunay revolves around Nazlı (Özge Gürel), an amateur cook and Ferit Aslan (Can Yaman), a young, successful, handsome, and organized businessman. Nazlı needs a job immediately to pay the rent of her apartment that she shares with her sister and her best friend. She accepts the proposal to work in Ferit’s house as his private cook upon her professor’s recommendation.
At the same time, she meets Deniz, whom Ferit treats as his younger brother, and becomes fast friends with him. Deniz soon falls in love with Nazlı, but she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. The relationship between these three gets even more complicated after Ferit proceeds to take custody of his nephew, Bulut, following his parents’ death. This is obstructed by Bulut’s aunt, Demet and her husband, Hakan who simply want to exploit the child for their nefarious gains.
Yet another wonderful drama has come to an end. Yet another hangover to deal with. Aşk Laftan Anlamaz started my journey into the world of Turkish dramas, and it continues with Erkenci Kuş (meaning Early Bird in English). It is also being called as Daydreamer in many places.
You don’t need to read the post to understand this is an amazing drama. Just drop everything and watch it on YouTube (English subtitles are also available.).
When good stories end, they leave you wanting for more.
That was the case with me after I finished watching Aşk Laftan Anlamaz, a 2016 Turkish drama serial (broadcasted on Show TV and comprising of 31 episodes each 2 hours long). Weeks after, I am still experiencing withdrawal syndrome.
Welcome to a new
Earth, inhabited by extraterrestrial predators that are blind but have a razor-sharp
hearing. They attack anything that makes noise. Consequently, most of the human
and animal population has been annihilated. To survive, you must be deathly quiet.
Recently, I watched two films, August Rush and Leap Year, and read a book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. While the films were good overall, the book was wonderful.
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, penned by Khaled Hosseini, the narrative seamlessly blends the stories of the two women protagonists, Mariam and Laila, against the backdrop of the Taliban invasion in Afghanistan.
In addition to a beautiful and heart-moving story, the writer has also employed rich prose to transport imagery to the readers, thereby, displaying his writing finesse. Hosseini has tremendously improved himself since his first book The Kite Runner. The book has definitely given me a new romantic pair to cheer – Laila and Tariq.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is as much “a story about a woman’s freedom from brutal and systematic oppression as it is about human endurance and courage to move on and start afresh.” It’s a story of hope.
As far as the films are concerned, I liked both of them, although when I checked the Internet, none of the films were appreciated by the critics. Carping is the profession of critics so, let’s leave them to that.
August Rush
August Rush tells the story of a charismatic young Irish guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Keri Russell) who have a chance encounter one night (the most common trope in romantic movies, lol). However, they are soon estranged, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance.
Cared for by a stranger (Robin Williams), August (Freddie Highmore) starts performing on the streets of New York and uses his impressive musical talent to find his parents.
August Rush is a story about a child prodigy in music and his attempts to find his lost parents. It was a simple story and proved to be a good source of relaxation. However, I do agree with the critics on one point- the movie ended abruptly and thus, left a jarring note.
Verdict: Fairy-tale ending. Watchable.
Leap Year Movie
The other film Leap Year (2010) was a good romantic movie starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, two formidable acting talents. It had a sweet, simple, and a humorous story.
Anna (Adams) wants to propose to her long-time boyfriend Jeremy and decides to do it the traditional Irish way. So she takes a flight to Dublin, but due to inclement weather, the plane has to land at Cardiff, Wales.
From there, she boards a ramshackle boat to travel to Cork, yet her plans are thwarted once more and she has to land in Dingle.
There she meets a surly but a handsome (yeah, bring on another romance movie trope!) Innkeeper Declan (Goode) who agrees to take her to Dublin.
Voila, Declan and Anna, along with the audience, embark on a road trip and lo behold! What a transformation both of them undergo.
The transformation of both Anna and Declan has been convincingly portrayed by the lead actors. Further, the chemistry between them is undeniable and jumps right off the screen.
Verdict: Happy ending. Definitely watchable!
All in all, both the films were good for biding time.
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To begin with, none of the movies left any deep impression on me but both were good.
16th June 2014
I watched two movies, The American Hustle and Seven Years in Tibet, and decided to pen down my thoughts about it. To begin with, none of the movies left any deep impression on me but both were good.
The first movie that I watched was The American Hustle boasting of a star cast of Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence. It’s an entertaining movie about two con men—Irving Rosenfield (Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Adams)—who play it small but are trapped by a FBI official, Richard DiMaso (Cooper), who wants to climb up the corporate ladder by entrapping some big fish (read Congressmen) into a scam.
