RIMA SURESH

Let me just say, do not waste your time. Don't bother buying it, here's why. I had to read this for a review writing competition and bought its PDF, and boy, is the book bad! It essentially is four stories about four different people, but clearly, the author has a type for her characters- rich, privileged and clichéd people, with a disturbing level of complacency for characters trying to bring about the true essence of life. The first story is about an infatuation that turns out to be a one-sided true love (sort of?). It gives off major "Adultery" (Paulo Coelho) vibes, sans the substance. It talks about the common childhood friendship developing into a toxic relationship that in a way transforms the protagonist. She suffers a deep depression according to the author, but is on a fine day motivated by a couple of ants (strong King Bruce and the spider vibes here), and she is inspired, writes a letter to the boyfriend confessing her perspective, washes her face, gets a relaxing shower and her depression (for which she was having medication as mentioned earlier) disappears. And the lack of knowledge the author shows about people bouncing back from depression is unsettling. Again, the author, when faced with the need of portraying a strong female protagonist, chooses her character to be a tomboy, with long hair (It’s the same deal for two of the stories in the book which have female protagonists. The style of narration is breathtaking-ly bad. Particularly the story “Walking without a dime”, where the story amazingly transforms from a normal teenage birthday wish to an elaborate plot to kick the protagonist out of his home. I get it that he author is trying to show us the importance of hard-work and perseverance, but there are far more interesting ways to tell a tale. This story is crappier than a low- budget Malayalam comedy drama. As for “The Secret behind my Glass Wall”, the author tries to bring about a beautiful coming of age story, but instead takes a turn to describe what actually is a toxic relationship a man of about 20 (considering that the female protagonist is 13 at the start of the story) has for a much younger girl, whom he develops intensely possessive feelings for because she saved his life. The shocking part is that even after rejecting him multiple times, our bold female protagonist comes back and apologises for her ignorance towards true love. The last story, “The Loner” talks about the fairy tale-like presence some people can have in our lives. The notion of the author’s fairy tale consists of an independent, careworn adult man going on to have an apparently non-consensual sexual relationship with a married woman, which confuses the readers. The protagonist seems to be searching for motherly love and care from the said woman, but he enters into a sexual relation with her, which is straight up insensitive and weird. The author also spends her time gushing about how ‘fair-skinned’ the female character is according to her protagonist. The stories are not set up in any particular time period or date, which compels the readers to imagine it as her mindscape. Her treatment of typecasting the female and male characters is not something the readers would appreciate. . Overall, "Four Cuts" would serve you as a leisure-time read, if you have no other books lying around.

It's literally the stupidest movie I have ever seen. It doesn't really have a firm plot structure. The director and writers have attempted to confuse the audience and keep them in the edge of their seats for a major part of the movie, but they fail miserably at it. It just seems to be moving sluggishly slow and I genuinely got so bored that the climax just didn't matter. And please, don't get me started about the plot holes. It is an ambitious project with brilliant actors and an appealing asthetic, but it failed to impress.