The Idiot & The Godfather

I have lot of things to write about which keep accumulating over time, but let me complete about these two novels.

The Idiot - Confused mind
Since the novel, The Crime and Punishment was too good, obviously the expectations will be higher for this one too. Technically the book was very good. But if I had to choose between Crime and Punishment and The Idiot, I would prefer the former. The reason is that I am not a fan of confused thoughts. Iruku Illai.. only one of these two should be there , especially in love. Here in this novel, not only one person but almost three to four people are always confused about what they want.. Be it Myshkin, Agalaia, Natasya to name three. Psychologically it is in par with "The Crime and Punishment". But why do people have to be so confused about what they want and what they have !!! Are there people really like them anymore ? Its understandable if you like a person very much out of pity (Natasya) and love a person very much too (Agalaia). Liking is different from Love , not by a huge margin , but its different. I wasnt much impressed because of the confused minds of the characters. May be that is what the author wanted to achieve. No wonder, Akira kurosawa made a movie out of it. It gives huge scope to analyze the human emotions and if you can bring it on screen, with the help of good screenplay , it might be a fine movie....

Sometimes Myshkin seemed to be a very wise guy. But sometimes, we wonder why he would go behind Natasya when he would know what she will eventually do. It wasnt that hard to figure her out aint? or atleast I sat wondering about it. And his love for Agalaia, again here I wasnt sure if he really loved and when did that happen ?

All to end in a bad way... This novel , honestly, made me a little depressed :( But its true everyone of us have our own confusions, but this is too much.... The passion of everyone is very clearly expressed. You see a myriad of characters with wide range of emotions and passions in them. Ganya, Lizaveta, Totsky, Rogozhin, the kiddos, all are very ambitious to get what they want and to have it their own way. Reminded me of Aval oru thodarkadhai, Aval appadidhaan movies. Dont know why.. may be the tone of this story matched with those.

It was good to read though, because there was an element of surprise everytime. Coz, due to the confusions, people did things you didnt expect them to do :) and kept the novel going faster.

This was written in a era where Idiot means who had been affected with epilepsy, if I am not wrong. I wonder since when the word was used to scold someone. Isnt that a bad thing ? Whatever, in current times, I would say there wasnt one Idiot in this novel, there were atleast 3.

No doubt about the language or the translation. It was very very well done.

The Godfather - Stylish Mafia
I started this novel after my short break during Christmas and New Year. I heard that the movie is one of the very best movies ever. I had this novel from a friend for a long time, but wasnt sure of starting it. Ellathukum neram kaalam irukula...

It was like watching a Rajni movie. Avlo style aa irundhadhu... I am not sure if I can say that to any other mafia stories I have read. I wanted to complete this even before watching the movie (I saw that they are going to telecast it in HBO/Pix on 15th Jan). But now I wont feel bad even if the movie doesnt live up to my expectations. I was so happy with the book itself.

Not one character was wasted and all the loose ends tied up neatly. You can easily find out which scenes were lifted either from this book or the movie in other regional movies. Especially the restaurant murder by Mikey is the very famous one which is almost copied in most of the regional movies. Chance illa paa..super... Pucca mass entertainer. The only one person who was left a little loose was Freddie. Otherwise all others were neatly characterized. It is a definite read, if you like mass movies :D

If you get a chance, read it.