John Wright’s Indian Summers - Prologue to a review

Firstly to avoid any confusion this is a book review and not that of someone’s holidays in India. Though to some that’s exactly what John Wright had.

The setting is India - a concoction of colour and culture. Over 1 billion people and every single one of them cricket crazy. India was reeling from the implications and allegations of the match fixing saga (aka Hansiegate). The team being it's usual mercurial self which such great achievements as losses to Kenya.

Enter John Wright. The former New Zealand opener and captain. Mooted as a candidate for the Indian coaching job. Certainly not the frontrunner – after all he was a foreigner. India had never had a foreign coach and there certainly wasn’t a shortage of former Indian players rushing for the job. As fate would have, this former Canterbury lad from one of the smallest countries in the world (where the sheep far outweigh the people) was to coach the most populous cricketing nation in the world through several heady and giddy years.

Indian Summers is John Wright’s personal account and thoughts on his journey and time with the Indian cricket team. John Wright has written this book in much the same way he played and coached (I realise after reading the book) – sharp and straight to the point. Nice and simple. It feels like reading his diary and joining him on the tumultuous rollercoaster ride when he was Indian coach – enduring the dizzying highs and the cavernous lows. Not to say it is dry, quite the contrary in fact. John has lent his rather quirky and witty sense of humour through the book while not missing the point.

What it is not and never claims to be is a gossipy, trashy, tell-all, scandal-ridden behind the scenes recount of a team filled with such talented players who miraculously seem to find a little time in their busy ad-filled, restaurant-running, endorsement-packed lives to play a bit of cricket. There are no great revelations of factions within the team or scandalous dressing room altercations between players and coach. And I for one have to say it is a nice refreshing change….

The Real Last King of Scotland

Following on from my last blog post reviewing The Last King of Scotland here is another movie, much older which depicts Amin in a, shall we say, less flattering light. I have only seen the trailer but it looks like some interesting watching albeit propaganda. Keeping in mind of course that the movie was made while Amin was still alive.

The Last King of Scotland - A Review

A last minute dash to the movie theatre and after several minutes of grueling parallel car parking, I was at the movies. Accompanied by a close friend of mine, we weren’t at a multiplex but rather a quaint arthouse theatre. Due to our lack of planning and coordination, we had chosen a movie that closely matched our timings. An afternoon session of The Last King of Scotland. All I knew was that it revolved around General Idi Amin – the Ugandan self proclaimed ‘father of the country’. A relatively unknown cast, an independent film, an off-beat topic – what lay in store?

Brilliant! This could be one of the most defining moments in Forest Whitaker’s career. He pulls off an amazing performance as Amin and at times makes you wonder if he really didn’t know Amin at all. Such is his portrayal of the character. Having lived in Africa and seen many movies about the dark continent, my pet peeve has always been the little things like pronunciation of words and accents of actors. Whitaker gets it all down to a tee including speaking the local dialects. In fact if I hadn’t known, I may have mistaken him for a Ugandan. He is Idi Amin. In his own inimitable way, he makes us love and hate Amin and gives a human touch to a person most of the world knew only as a monster. But at the same time he doesn’t forsake the side of Amin most of the world saw. In a single scene and throughout the movie he morphs from the powerful dictator to a big laughing teddy bear and back. A truly amazing performance!

The other actors have also played their part but they are all supporting actors including James McAvoy who plays the Scottish Dr Nicholas Garrigan, the protagonist, through whose eyes we see the plot unfold. He plays his part as do the others but they are all supporting actors and overshadowed by the enormous Whitaker.

There are some who may say that the plot is contrived and there may be some merit to that. But in this post I am going to refrain from commenting because I don’t want to give any spoilers. One thing I will comment is how the movie has quite elegantly intertwined real events in Uganda's history into the film and on more than one occasion used it to propel the plot forward.

If there needs to be one reason to go and see this movie it is Forest Whitaker. They say that some actors make a movie and role their own. He has certainly done so and I for one would certainly be disappointed if he didn’t win the Oscar.

Certainly one of my movies of the year. I rate it 4/5.