RIFLE RANGE BOY

Freedom at Midnight Authors: Larry Collins & Dominic Lapiere (1975) Freedom, surviving the tests of time. One look at the title, one might be forgiven to think that it might a draggy almost 600 paged slow account of the events leading to the lowering of the Union Jack and the subsequent hoisting in the full glory of the tri-coloured new flag with the emblem of Ashoka Chakra (Wheel of Righteousness). Luckily, it turns out to be one of the best accounts of the history of British India right down to the nitty-gritty account of little secrets of Indian now lost royalties. It is the result of three years of extensive research and numerous interviews. Browsing through some of the comments online, we can see other people’s viewpoint on this book. Some lament that it is a one-sided Western view of the happenings in a helpless land of the natives. Most of the account of the event are through Louis Mountbatten’s written journals, letters and one-to-one interview with him by the aut...

Revenant (2015) This brutally graphic movie reminds me a lot of 1971’s ‘Deliverance’ where the American wilds were the backdrop. Only, this time, it is the freezing sub-zero outdoors, and survival is not only from the harsh, brutal forces of Nature, but danger lurks from barbaric acts of Man. Set in the turbulent times of America when nature is raped, wildlife is pushed to the brink to extinction and the serene lifestyle of the Native-Americans is disturbed as the Western frontier is conquered, a group of poachers who trade in pelts is attacked by a band of Natives. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), an excellent trekker, is part of the hunting group. He has a half-breed son with a Pawnee woman, who we later discover had died before the beginning of the story. While fleeing from his attackers, Glass is severely mauled by a bear and is seriously wounded. As he was slowing down the party, in the harsh weather and it seem sure that Glass would die, the Captain appointed (and paid) ...

Al Andalus It is a reversal of sorts, a reversal of roles. Way back in the 8th and 9th century AD, the greatest universities which promote intellectual discourse and thinking were in the regions which practised Islam. Islamic civilisation was the hip thing to follow. They supported liberalism, freedom, equality and justice, something alien to the rest of their neighbours. Ask for the best universities, they would name you, Alexandria, Cordoba, Seville, Istanbul and Baghdad. Equal rights for women? They would quote the Quran. The younger generation thought that was the best thing since sliced bread, but the only thing is that sliced bread had not been discovered yet! They were doing hype things. They had coffee, musical recitals, public debates, jurisprudence, perfumes, libraries and social lubricants. What the rest of the world had to offer? They were barbarians living in the Dark Ages. And the rest of the world was worried that the newest of the Abrahamic religions which had th...

Islamic State (2014; Vice News) This documentary is the product of the field work of a Vice News journalist who managed to gain permission to follow the Press Officer of Islamic State, a certain Abu Musa. The officer draped in Arabic garb, spotting a reggae-type of a hat in place of the keffiyeh, donning unashamedly Ray Ban shades and wearing an ala-Castro beard minus the moustache. The crew follow them in a battle weary town of Raqqa in Iraq. The whole movement of IS seems to be working towards the dream of one particular individual named Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi. Al-Baghdadi is a demigod whose charismatic speeches appear to recruit more and more followers for his course. Youngsters, pre-teens and teenage boys, speak passionately about their willingness to shed blood and give their lives for the honourable path of their fight. The Vice News cameramen follow the soldiers on their field trips across the Iraq and Syrian borders. All along the way, roadshows are held to lure new rec...

Pirates of the Caribbean Series The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Dead Man’s Chest (2006) At World’s End (2007) On Stranger Tides (2011) The lure for control, power and money drove many shady characters to the 4 corners of the world. Of course, by this time, the time frame upon which this film is set, Man has already realised and accepted the Earth to be a sphere. The brave Portuguese seamen paved the way to find sea routes to reach the East when the Islamic Empires controlled land routes. The early Portuguese seafarers had no plans to conquer land. All they wanted was to control ports and prosper via tax collection. The brutal Spanish sailors tried to outdo their Iberian Lusophone neighbours by finding an alternative sea route to the East. What they discovered instead were Indians who were ‘red-skinned’ and mountains of precious metals. The hospitality of their hosts was returned with barrage of artillery and small pox. Pretty soon, scores of ships were plying the Atla...

I learnt a new word today, abjection. From what I understand, from a sociological point, abjection must be something that is abhorred and the mere sight of it is repulsive. We show abjection to something that we have tried to keep away and do not want to be seen with.  In the same way, abject poverty is put in the same kettle of fish. Everyone want to be high heeled. Hence, we show our repulsiveness to being poor by putting it in the abject category. We show abjection at people embroiled in the quagmire we once were, as if they are stuck in a time capsule that you somehow managed to escape. You want to erase all traces of you bring in the same boat. You abhor the boat people who you think would tarnish the sanitised world that you and your fellow countrymen have carved for yourselves. We all clamour to be free from our unsavoury past. We go to great lengths to forget our old path which were paved with figments of our tarnished or unpleasant past. We want to unchain the sha...

Rice People (អ្នកស្រែ, Neak Are, Cambodian; 1994) Story based on: Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan by Shahnon Ahmad They say ‘Mother Nature has all for us, it is a miracle!’. The hippies say they do not need any education and self-control, all they need is the air that they breathe, love and weed, probably. We are told that we have to show respect to Nature as we owe our existence to it. After watching this movie, only then do you realise that Nature is neither forgiving nor forthcoming in rendering a smooth passage for our survival. It is indeed a Herculean task extracting produce from its soil. This film, based on a novel by a Malaysian laureate, Shanon Ahmad, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan (Struggle all the way), just illustrates that. This movie, made by a Cambodian, is altered to suit local sentiments and is the first Cambodia’s entrance to the Academy Awards. Pouev is a farmer in a post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia with a small plot of land for rice cultivation. Life is hard...

So goes the legend from the Indian sub-continent... There was a massive war between kings. King Ram was embroiled in a battle, he must be a just king because he is Ram. His brother was morbidly injured. His army captured the enemy’s doctor and forced him to treat their wounded leader. The good doctor asked his captors. “How do you know that I would treat him to the best of my ability?”, he said. “For all you know I could not give him the best that is available.” Ram, the righteous one, could do no wrong. Despite all the violence and destruction that were going on around him, like all the senseless killing and the uprooting of a whole mountain by the first superhero known to man, Hanuman, to retrieve a particular herbal remedy, Sanjeevani, he is still the good one. In an authoritative voice, he verbalised, “It is your Dharma that you should be a healer. No matter who is injured, your job is to heal, irrespective of their political allegiance or social strata. I believe that yo...

Whicker’s World Classic Full Documentary: Penang I Haven't Taken My Own Shoes Off for 45 Years.. .! (1976) One cannot imagine how much Penang has changed in 40 years. When we view this documentary, we can see how much the skyline is obscured by buildings and there is not much of a horizon to see. Alan Whicker gives a rare glimpse of Penang that I had first-hand experience, Penang in 1976, as a teenager trying to make sense of things around me. The documentary looks at the island of Penang, of a third world country, from the rose-tinted lenses of the British man. His main highlight seems to be to show the Thaipusam celebrations, a self-mutilating theatrics of penance and gratitude to the Gods, as described by him.    His first three guests include an ex-civil servant, Cunningham Brown, who decided to stay behind in the comforts of the tropics after Independence. He still has a cushy life as a king, cared for by the natives. A Scottish doctor, Dr Reed Tweedy, cam...

Kahaani (Story, Hindi; 2012) It is a kind of a stereotyping. Whenever a film is done with Calcutta as the backdrop, invariably Durga Pooja procession is in the background. In Satyajit’s film the statue of Durga and Navarathri celebrations were in the background of a few of his movies. Talking about Satyajit Ray’s movies, there is a striking similarity between this one and many of Ray’s masterpieces. The common theme here the presence strong female role and the empowerment of women. The theme of Durga’s prayer only re-emphasises the formidable strength of feminine powers to combat evil. The fairer sex is by no means the weaker sex. Their ability to strength to withdraw labour is testimony to this effect. Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) is a visibly pregnant lady from London who arrives in Calcutta in search of her missing husband, Arnab Bagchi. Arnab, who accepted a post at the National Data Centre in a small town in Bengal failed to contact his wife. Hence, the worried wife arrived the...

There he is. At one look at the smile and the curling of the right lip, I knew it is him. Phew, it has been 20 years. That is how long I have not seen him. Gosh! Has it been that long? That droopy eyes are still there. The worry lines had increased. Boy, he sure looks tired. Tired perhaps of putting all of the world’s worries on his shoulders. We are meeting after all these years at a Christmas party of a mutual friend. We both have been embroiled in own commitments that old friends took a back seat and new ones stay distant, in distance and geniality. As before, many years ago in our young adulthood, oblivious to the general public who were wishing each others wishes of the occasion and engaged in meaningless cursory banters, we found ourselves a cosy, quiet corner to continue what we used to enjoy all the time, a serious discourse on the purpose and meaning of life. My friend’s childhood is a tale of survival and fighting against all odds to stay afloat in life. For him, phrases...

Singapore GaGa (2015) Director: Tan Pin Pin I would not have given a second look at this hour-long experimental show that was due to be screened in Kuala Lumpur as part of bilateral cultural exchange. Unfortunately, the Malaysian censor board felt that one of the words uttered was deemed confusing. The committee decided that that part of the speech must be blanked to avert apparent confusions at the level of infantile minded audiences. The director refused, and the presentation was withdrawn. The director had performed to sell-out crowds in Singapore and at various international film festivals just for the records. The presentation is a collection of sounds in the daily lives of an average Singaporean as he travels the MRT, walks on the streets and his HDB flats. The familiar sounds are the basking at the stations, the loud succinct sounds of news read in local dialects and the public's murmur against their daily activities. A senior citizen spends more of his daytime in...

Agora (2009) Now that I am currently listening to Peter Adamson’s podcast named ‘History of Philosophy’, this film makes a lot of sense. This podcast tells, in so many episodes without a gap, the thinking of Man from Thales all through the thinkers from Greece and present-day Turkey to the Romans and so on at a snail’s pace. Even after all these years, we are still fighting over the same issues. On one end, a group is trying to keep their minds open and attempting to explore that there may be more than one way of doing things, that they could probably solve a problem while looking at it from another angle. And the other group counters this argument by saying that our mind is too feeble to understand the many intricacies of the universe. And we, the mortals, should not question that is already written in the scriptures. Egypt was known for its advances in mathematics and geometry even in the Pre-Socratic era. Pythagoras is said to have travelled here to acquire knowledge. After Alex...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12073349/Its-time-to-say-No-to-our-pampered-student-emperors.html The Rhodes statue row can be blamed on a generation raised to believe that their feelings are all that matter A student wears a sticker calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil John Rhodes from the campus of the University of Cape Town   Photo: Reuters/Mike Hutchings By  Harry Mount 5:45PM GMT 29 Dec 2015 1750 Comments The little emperors have grown up. The babies of the late 90s – mollycoddled by their parents, spoon-fed by their teachers, indulged by society – have now reached university. Some of the brighter ones are now at Oxford,  demanding that the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel should be torn down , because of his imperialist, racist views. "Universities are reaping the whirlwind of two decades of child-centred education" We shouldn’t be so surprised. If you’ve ...

Unforgiven (1992) Produced & Directed by: Clint Eastwood This depressing Western is not your typical swashbuckling gunslinging escapade that one would expect. It instead, looks at nihilistic look at life through the eyes of a reformed bandit in late 1800s of the Wild West. Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood), a reformed professional gunfighter, is now a struggling hog farmer. His pigs are sick, he is poor and has two kids (children) to feed. He gave up his wayward ways after his wife changed him into becoming a new man, giving up his whiskey and the senseless killings. Sadly, his wife succumbed to smallpox. Mundy lives a broken man, pledging not to go to his old ways ever again. But when a young punk (Schofield Kid) turns up at his home with the news of two crooks with a bounty on their head for mutilating a lady’s face, at a time when he was in dire straits, the temptation was too much. For his children’s future, he joined forces with his ex-partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) to...

Episode 7: Star Wars, The Force Awakens (2015) Generations Y, Z and even the millennial are talking about it. There is no reason why the self-proclaimed upholder of the Jedi pioneers, the Generation X, would not want a piece of the action. Perhaps, not to go as far as joining the frenzy of pre-booking the movie tickets way before the ticket window opened. Nevertheless, I managed to catch a glimpse of the whole show a few days after its launch in a the thinly packed cinema hall near my house. The minute the slanted scroll of subtitles started rolling, I was magically transported to an era long ago in place no so far away when I was a 14 years old boy. This teenager was frantically trying to keep up with the reading of the script and desperately attempting to understand the head and tail of the saga. The story did not make much sense then, but he was mesmerised by the splendid display of special effects (SFX). He was spellbound when the Death Star exploded to smithereens. The sig...