DISCLOSURE

“POWER IS NEITHER MALE NOR FEMALE. “

Disclosure is a novel by Michael Crichton (yep, Jurassic Park fame) written on the year 1993.This book about sexual harassment in corporate companies. Normally, anybody will think that this would be a story of a girl being harassed by her Boss. But, it is not so. It is just the opposite in this novel.

This book is about Tom Sanders, who is a very able and upcoming executive. When he comes to office one day, expecting to get his much expected promotion as the Vice-President of the company after more than a decade of honest work, he is shocked to find out the promotion to have been given to his ex-girlfriend, who’s under the protective wing of Bob Garvin (who is the Chairman), and who’s not as talented as he is.

What happens next is that his ex-girlfriend, Meredith Johnson calls him out for an official meeting at 6’o clock in the evening, at the very first day itself. When he goes to see her, she expertly seduces Sanders .Being unwilling and scrupulous, Sanders decides not to try this, halfway through the foreplay. This makes Meredith mad and she swears to kill him and attacks him. Sanders gets out and goes home.

But, when he comes to a meeting the next day, he is stunned to hear that Meredith has complained about sexual harassment by Sanders. When Sanders tries to make clear of what actually happened, no one even cares to hear his version. Everybody laughs at him when he tries to say it is he who was harassed. Strangled by an unsupportive management, which is ready to pound on him and by stranded by a suspicious wife, he is unsure of what to do.

After going through a session with the Philip Blackburn, the chief legal counsel, he finds out that nobody is ready to hear his version and the management is taking up the side of Meredith. Now, on the face of a merger with another company and at the brink of his company going public (which meant big money through cheap shares being given by company), he finds himself to be transferred to another, entirely new department. Thus, being not given his promotion and being stripped of his profit, added to the fact that Garvin has a blind-spot for Meredith, makes Sanders enraged. He rightfully calculates the effect of negative publicity to the company on the face of the merger, and decides to sue the company.

When he meets up with a lawyer, Louise Fernandez, she dismisses his case at first, saying it has no witness. She says to him that a man’s word against a female’s, in case of a sexual harassment, as being easily neglected and will never work out. But, she agrees to help him after hearing the full story. He consoles him by saying that even if they could not get justice through sexual harassment; they’ll win on grounds of impartial treatment of sexes when it comes to suing the company.

Garvin comes to know Sanders is going to file publicly a case the next day and being aware that this is eventually going to end up ruining the merger, he wishes to mediate using a reliable judge. But, Sanders has his own problems. A public suit against his company means expenses till the end of the case (3 years) and that too without a job after such a bad publicity. His only real chance is to make the company buckle up before the merger, which is just a couple of days ahead. But, as things go on, he finds that there is a cynical and manipulative scheme to bring him down by defaming him. What was the scheme devised by Meredith to defame him? Was sanders able to get his promotion? And did the merger happen?

Well, this book has everything. A subdued hero who decides to strike back; a vicious and manipulative villain; an elusive trial; an unknown friend who steps in to help Sanders and to direct him whenever he strays out of the path, through email (believe me, this unknown friend when unravelled came as a surprise to me) and a series of bombshell filled events (especially the plan itself) leading to the climax. There was one doubt that was nagging me from the start of events. Why would an attractive girl try to seduce her ex-boyfriend at the very first day itself, though she screws around often with her sub-ordinates? Believe me, you would not have thought of an explanation as given at the end. It all made sense at the last. And the climax is nothing short of EXPLOSIVE. You might think what could be pretty explosive in a perfectly guessable climax. Let me tell you again amigo, the climax is really unpredictable.

Michael Crichton pulls up a very good thriller which will not let you rest till you finish the last page(had me awake till 3 in the morning!) .Opposed to the popular belief that Crichton’s novels are a little slow, this book is very fast paced. This is not the usual Michael Crichton novel where an experiment goes awry. This novel deals with a vivid problem faced by a very common man, being very realistic and down to earth.

And did I tell you about this book being unputdownable? After being through 150 pages, I thought Crichton has tried up for a new genre of thriller. After completing 250 pages, I realised it to be a great novel and upon finishing it, I realised it is one of his best. Crichton outdid himself in this novel. Whether this is his best , can only be told after I finish his Jurassic Park novel. A very recommended book if you want to study a thriller (an unconventional one), which will make you stay up and lose a night’s sleep.

GOOD WILL HUNTING

Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The story is set at Boston and it revolves around the greatly intellectual yet troubled young man Will Hunting (Matt Damon).Will is a great genius with a photographic memory and is well adroit at mathematics. But this is not all about Will. He is an orphan and he is quite irascible with mercuric temper.

The film starts with the MIT Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) announcing the students of a challenge, in which they are to solve a very difficult theorem put in a chalkboard, which he wishes someone would prove within the end of the semester.

Will who works as a janitor there, comes across it and solves it. When Lambeau finds out that the theorem has been rapidly proved, he inquires his students on who did it and is unable to find the man. Trying to find out who did it, he posts again another, more difficult problem. When he finds Will (who’s a janitor there) writing on the board, he chases him away. But, he is taken aback when he returns to find out the problem solved.

Lambeau decides to track down Will. But, Will has his own problems. He faces imprisonment after attacking a police officer who tried to stop an assault by Will. Realizing Will has enormous potential, Lambeau goes to Will's trial and intervenes on his behalf, offering Will a choice: either go to jail, or be released under Lambeau's personal supervision to study mathematics and see a therapist. While being formidable at maths, Will bullies all the therapists he sees, with contempt and sarcasm. Lambeau comes to know that Will is not sociable to anybody, except for his three friends, who Lambeau deems stupid.

Exasperated, Lambeau calls in his friend, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) to help him out. As usual, Will bullies him and ends up nearly throttled by Sean for passing a comment on Sean’s wife. But, Sean is not a man to give up easily. On their next meeting, Sean tells Will that he does not see a confident man in him, but a cocky, scared kid. Sean also accuses Will that he can’t learn anything from Will, which he can’t read in some book and unless Will talks about himself, he is not interested. Soon they develop a good relationship. But, this relation is far from a Doctor-Patient relationship, where Sean helps Will to deal with his misanthropic behavior and encourages Will to pursue the girl Skylar(Minnie Driver),whom he met on a bar near MIT ,whereas Will helps Sean in recovering from the loss of his dear wife.

While all seems to be going well, a conflict arises between the seemingly friends Sean and Lambeau. While Lambeau is keen in directing Will’s life towards maths and achievement, Sean differs from it. Knowing that Will has no interest for maths or any research, Sean is keen in helping out Will to figure out his goals and to help Will recover from his personal demons. Meanwhile, Skylar is moving to California and asks Will to come along with her. Will, with his faulted defense of pushing away people, refuses and walks out.

When Will refuses to give an honest reply to Sean's query about what he wants to do with his life, Sean shows him the door. Will tells his best friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck) that he wants to be a laborer for the rest of his life. Chuckie becomes brutally honest with Will: he feels it's an insult for Will to waste his potential, and

That his greatest wish is to knock on Will's door one morning and find he isn't there. What happened to Will? Was Sean able to help him? Or was he forced into research works? Or did he just continue his life as a laborer? And more importantly, what happened to Skylar?

Though the story is predictable, it is the characters that would fascinate you. Every character is well built. Not to mention the witty and intelligent conversations, especially those between Will and Sean.

Matt Damon as will hunting does justice to his character. Whether it comes to solving equations or hitting the guy who harassed Will while he was a child or pondering with Sean on whether or not to get involved with Skylar or romancing with Skylar, he is marvelous. Minnie Driver as Skylar has done her part well too. The romantic scenes are entrancing. It’s quite intimate in a way. Ben Affleck knows how to play trusted friend cum well-wisher role well. But, the crowning performance does not go to any of them. Robin Williams scores home-run so easily. He is at ease all out the film and handles his character quite easily and adeptly. Be it the scene where he explains his wife’s imperfections to show Will that nobody is perfect and encourages him to take up a chance with Skylar or be it the scene where he explains the way he met his wife(my personal favorite) or the scene where he argues with the professor about Will’s future, the man is brilliant. Truth be told, from the very scene where he takes Will for a small talk to the lake, he engrosses you with the movie and captivates your full attention.

This movie is much concentrated on the how human brain acts weirdly sometimes. How it does not uses its natural potential yet strives for something else and more importantly, how peculiarly and complexly it responds to pain and responsibility.

While asked by Sean on what ‘Good Books’ are he says ‘Whatever blows your hair back’.

Well, this movie does. It does more than that. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie at least once.