RIFLE RANGE BOY

Synecdoche, New York (2008) Learnt a new word today. Synecdoche is linguistic tool used to explain things. Smaller parts of an object is used to explain  the object as a whole. For example, wheels to refer to a car, barrel to barrel of oil and No. 10 refers to The British Prime Minister’s Office. In the same vein, the character  in this parable to symbolically denote the cycle of life of Man. The film also illustrates the various trials, tribulations, psychological challenges and nihilism that modern man goes through. It has a wealth of Jung's theories. We all aim for the unachievable but at the end and want to leave forever but at the end of the end of the day, our needs are simple. It tells the story of a self centred theatre director who has many challenges in his personal life and his attempt to create a larger than life account of himself in a play that never gets played over the years. The director writes the story of himself, hires doppelgängers to portray himse...

A Serious Man (2009) Written, Produced, Directed by: Coen Brothers You follow all the rules laid out by elders before you. You think living should be easy when you stick to the teachings of your religion of your belief. You know that God should pave a beautiful life when you follow His teachings. You think you made it when all these are followed and you are in the upper crust of society. Then it hits you; one malady after another - people whom you are under your wings are beyond control; values that you taught to your offsprings go to the drain; the humility that you think is a virtuous trait that makes a man is taken advantage of; you lose grip on the things you hold dear and then you start questioning, “Why God, why are doing this to me? Have I not followed all your guidance?” Professor Larry Gopnik thought he had a leash on everything in life, just like his ability to explain mind boggling equations in physics and to solve the equation of uncertainty! Almost overnight, everyt...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Unlike his usual self, Jim Carrey appears as a sober introvert character in this nonlinear narrative of the intricacies of the enigma called mind! It tells the escapade of a couple who fell out of love and cannot stand each other who decided to try out a new technique which helps to erase certain unpleasant memories from the brain. A shy Joel (Jim Carrey) cannot stand the antics of his free-spirited girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet). While undergoing treatment, they change their mind and decide to opt out. While all this is going on, there is another scandal involving staff of the company that provides the service, among themselves and with Clementine. Of course, in the end, love prevails but the fun is knowing how the brain works. Life, goes on, looking forward to life, by erasing or, at least, suppressing unpleasant thoughts. The trauma of hurtful or embarrassing thoughts has to be forgotten for the man to move on in life. Repe...

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (봄   여름 가을 겨울 그리고   봄, Korean, 2003) This is a very quiet movie with hardly any dialogue set in a serene lake surrounded by mountain. The message it carries, however, is ‘earth shattering’. In very few words, it narrates with symbolisms by using animals (rooster, cat, snake, tortoise) which refer to particular virtues in Buddhist and Eastern traditions. It is divided into seasons, not all in a year, signifying the life cycle that seems to repeat itself. A very young boy (maybe six) grows up in a floating Buddhist monastery in a lake deep in the wood with his sifu, an elderly monk. Their daily routine is laid out - daily walks, plucking herbs and chanting. The boy, mischievous as he is, ill-treats little animals in the forest, fish, frog and snake. The master was watching his every move, teaches him that every cruel deed would be carried by the heart forever. In the next segment, the boy grows into a young man. A mother brings her...

Lawlessness seems to be rearing its ugly quite too often of late. The respect of the law sounds too arcane for modern man to follow. He is looking for ingenious ways to get around the man-imposed sanctions. Laws are made to be broken, he says. Perhaps they could be broken as the enforcement is lax or sometimes, non-existent. Many things work on autopilot.  Wanting of intelligent life forms, everything operates at a single arc spinal reflex. A lorry driver high on stimulating intoxicants is let loose on the highways. Sure, he goes for tests! When he is sober, of course. Random on-the-spot are not feasible they say, blaming the logistics. No attempt is made to correct the status quo. Hakuna Matata. The driver has many outstanding summonses for flouting the traffic. There is a system to hunt down the wrongdoers but nobody cares. He is carrying more tonnage than he is permitted to but he still does. He knows he can get away with it. After all, daily living has become harder but h...

Spotlight (2015) When you detect something nasty happening in a system that seems to do a lot of good work, do you tell yourselves to look at the bigger picture and turn a blind eye or do you expose it no matter how trivial? Do you want to be a whistleblower and meet all its challenges to proof your words? Is it personal glory you are looking for? Is it your God sent duty to ensure justice is done on Earth? If truth is so strong, why does it not always prevail? Or is it proving itself through you? Are you that special? How far would you go to right the wrong which appears only in your eyes? Like the Watergate expose of Nixon’s wrongdoings, this film is based on the work of the team of Boston Global journalists who embarked on a journey of investigative journalism to proof the sexual mischief of many Catholic priests in the Massachusetts and the plot to sweep these misdeeds under the carpet. As the work may potentially tarnish the image of something dear to many people’s hearts,...

It started with the desire to maintain status quo to eternity, that the descendants of the rulers and their entourage should take charge forever and ever. Ceremonies were organised in their guise of appeasing the divine forces. Who the heck knows whether the celestial bodies existed or not in the first place but it just suits everybody fine. The upper ruling class were on the throne while the working class labouring for them. Nice. Everyone was told that we live for the society. Our primary aim, our reason for existence is for the continuity and well-being of the community. In that way, everyone was kept contended. Every soul, the weak, the sick, the handicapped were bestowed upon them the title that they hold a special place in the lap of the Gods. In that way, the rest of the living took it upon themselves that the others have their place in the sun. Soon the ignorant one became wiser as their feeble minds start wandering. They could buy their stories anymore. The fables had mo...

By Sanskriti on February 2, 2015. What was probably the first non-stop flight was made not from New York to Paris but from Ceylon to a place near modern Delhi, if the records are correct. According to the Sanskrit epic, Ramayana, a story many centuries older than the Greek epics, an Indian king made this trip in a balloon in five days. His carriage was called “Pushpaka”, meaning “butter-fly-like” and the epic contains a detailed account of preparations for the flight, with a vivid description of the balloon itself. What is more convincing evidence that the trip was actually made, is the fact that the poem contains an accurate and beautifully written description of an aerial view of the various cities and countries passed over on the journey. Only a super imagination could have conceived this perspective and picture. It is due to the investigations of Varam R. Kokatnur (’14 M.S., ’16 Ph.D) that this and many other fascinating discoveries about the learning of ancient India...

Eureka (ユリイカ Yuriika,   Japanese; 2000) It is an extremely long and draggy 3-hour long melancholic drama of what may happen to survivors of a potentially life-threatening ordeal. Most people would just push their bitter experiences aside and move on with life. Some may blank off that unsavoury incident and live in denial. A small group of people would be suspended in time and would relive the moment in their minds. Eureka is a Japanese movie set in rural Japan. It is done completely in sepia tone, save for last one minute as if to denote closure to the previous black episode. A bus is jacked. In the ensuing showdown with the police, the bus jackers, a policeman and some passengers perished. The only survivors are Sawai, the bus driver, and a pair of siblings (brother Naoki and sister Kozue Tamara). Sawai was used by the hijacker as a human shield before sharpshooter gunned him down. This gruesome blood bath proved too much for the three survivors. Sawai becomes a recluse...

The manipulation by the practitioners of the second oldest profession in the world can be seen as early as the Rig Vedic times. Hoodwinking of the public by invoking pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo traditions can be seen even here. The unholy union of the warrior class and the educated class seem to legitimise the ritual of horse sacrifice to appease the divine powers to prosper the kingdom. A white horse is let to run loose in the wild for a whole year under the hawk-eyed scrutiny of the kings men and officials. The animal would graze with impunity on peasants’ land. Any form of resistance or resentment would be a good enough reason for the ruling clansmen to rage war and take over possession of the property. Sure, this ritual smells prosperity from the word go. During one of these God-name invoking expansion exercise, King Rama met his long lost twin sons Luv and Kush. The scriptures tell of the fate of Sita, who was rescued by Ram and his Tamilian friends down south. Doubts about...

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) Written: Coen Brothers; Direction:Joel Coen Another quirky movie from the Coen brothers, only, this time, it in black and white. The trademark is their story is written all over. It is a story set in the late 1940s of a small town barber who is a loser, who does not say much but does all his talking in soliloquy. He is so withdrawn and is living in his world, still trying to make out the meaning of life right till the end of the movie. (Spoiler Alert!) At the end of the film, as he sits in the electric chair, he hopes that his uncertainties would all be answered in the afterlife, he hopes, if there is one! Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), the chain-smoking barber, like he says, “is just a barber” who works as an assistant to his brother-in-law. His wife, Doris, is a book-keeper who has an illicit affair with her boss. A mysterious customer hoodwinks the gullible Ed into investing $10,000 in a dry cleaning business venture. To procure the cash, he bla...

Yi Yi: A One and A Two (Taiwan; 2000) Thought provoking movie that tells about the simplicity of life and how it is made complicated. Life from the time immemorial has been birth, marriage, merry making along the way and death. Somewhere in the turn of time, we have made it perplexing and had created problems for ourselves. It tells the perspective of life from the eyes of three generations and three couples at the prime of their lives. There is NJ, the main protagonist, an engineer who did engineering not by choice but by pressure. He is a high-flying executive but still something is not fulfilled in his life. By chance, he bumps into an old school flame at a wedding and later during his business trip to Japan. His ex, Sherry, is now in the US after two unhappy marriages and imagines how life would have been if she had instead settled down with NJ. NJ’s wife, on the other hand, has a mid-life crisis. She goes on a spiritual retreat trying to understand the meaning of life and trie...

The Greeks say that a true Stoic sage would not crack under pressure. He would take all the curve balls that life hurls at him at the same stride as he embraces joy. He would find happiness in the simplest of things in life and would not gloat of others’ misgivings or be envious of others’ successes. He knows that everyday accomplishment has its weak points and every underachievement its merit! King Rama must have slipped into this role, a true Stoic sage, quite well. Imagine the tragedies that bemoaned upon him. He, however, continued performing his various duties, as a ruler, a son, a crowd pleaser without losing focus. Perhaps, the priorities of being an exemplary husband or a doting father did not fall into his dictionary. After waiting so many years in line for the realm, just when the ascent to the throne is imminent, he had to take a back seat and retreat into the jungle for 14 years. That too, because of some nonsensical promise made by his father.  Imagine an exile i...

When we look around us, there are many with different traits and with different views of looking at the happenings around them. Some are mere conformers who would not want to rock the boat and would just do what they are supposed to do, nothing more, nothing less. Anyway, they are not expected to think. Their mental capacity is only so much. Exploring beyond their actual potential would make them Little Napoleons, too good for raising hell but would run away with their tails between their legs at the first sign of aggression. Then, they are those with devious personalities. Reading between the lines and minding their comma and adjectives, they can think of the most conniving way, to escape persecution and punishment. They can make a child molester a Messiah. Then there are the ones who relate better with non-human lifeforms and take care of our livestock and dear pets. They think animals have souls and would abstain from killing lives but have no qualms about hurting their ‘loved...

The Big Short (2015) At the entrance to Aristotle’s Lyceum where intellectual discourses were in progress, a banner apparently read, 'Those who do not know geometry need not apply’! It only goes on to show how much mathematics was needed to grasp the finer aspects of human intellect. Intelligence and ability to articulate is of paramount importance to understand philosophy which in turn is the bedrock to comprehend the meaning of existence and purpose in life. On the whole, philosophers of the yesteryears, in unison agreed that our life on Earth is basically to appease the Agent Intellect. Some look at service to mankind as the way to reach divinity. In short, Mathematics were used to make life comfortable for everyone. And some things are pre-determined while others are malleable with free will. Fast forward to 1990s. The world has only one master to feed, greed. They use mathematics and the knowledge of chance and probability to hoodwink the general public to fulfil their o...

Gone Baby Gone (2007) Nature has created our offsprings to appear cute and lovable. It is nature’s way of ensuring that the adults innately protect them, and these weak ones too have a chance to mature to adult. Left to the elements, they would easily perish. So when a four-year-old little girl goes missing, the media and the general public goes into a frenzy. She is from the poorer side of Boston, born to a mother of a drug addict who spends more time in a daze and the company of men of questionable character than nurturing her child. In the midst of this, a private investigator and his partner (Patrick and Angie) are hired to help. With the assistance of the police chief and his men, they unveil a twisted plot of the child’s mother and her lover involved in a world of illicit drugs, money, ransom and the picture of a neglected child in the midst of all these. The tale only gets darker. The police officers involved in the rescue mission are also no angels. They take justi...

Main aur Charles  (Me and Charles, Hindi; 2015) Earlier in life, I took a keen interest in the intriguing case of the suave serial killer of Indo-Vietnamese descent who used to grace the tabloids in the 70s. He is alleged to be a master manipulator, a psychopath, a successful impersonator who speak many languages and could make members of the fairer sex weak in the knees! Hence, it is only logical that I should give a go at this mini-biography of the man himself. Unfortunately, the film seems like a bit haphazard initially, moving to and back between timelines as the story moves between three lifelines in three decades. The second half of the film starts to grasp the essence of the story by impressing upon us the conniving nature of the man. The choice of actor picked to depict Charles Sobhraj is excellent. His external appearance, barrette and large framed square spectacles caught the uncanny likeness of the serial killer himself. In the building of character and gaining emp...

Requiem for a dream (2000)  At the end of the day, what do we all want? I think that is the problem. We do not know what we want and we try to fill it up with all the things as they come along trying to chase an elusive dream, the merit of which is unknown in the first place. Everybody wants happiness and freedom as their ultimate goal. Happiness that allays them of all the uncertainties of life albeit its short-lasting euphoria but the longer lasting detrimental effects. Freedom for what? They feel free but free from what? Free to do what? This conundrum that has been plaguing Man from antiquity continues do so even as he has explored many frontiers far and near. A bored elderly widow with a addiction for game show, her son with an illicit drug addiction problem who yearns to prove himself to be a somebody, his best friend also a partner in crime and the son’s girlfriend, a daughter of a wealthy man but with psychological dependence on drugs form the basis of this movie. S...

I think, therefore I am Lesley Levene (2010) The title takes after Descartes' famous saying 'I think, therefore, I am'. A person is a person, is alive because he can realise his existence, he can think. The same idea was proposed by the great Islamic physician and philosopher extraordinaire, Avicenna @ Ibn Sina. He floated the idea of a blindfolded 'flying man' who is suspended in mid-air. Despite not being in contact with his senses, Man is still aware that he exists even though his senses are numbed. That, in essence, means we exist, that we have a mind of our own! Ever since Man started looking at the sky on a starry night after a hard day's work without much entertainment to idle the night away, he must have noticed the 'star' that he was at the previous night had changed location. He must have called his friend. Slowly, with their newly well-myelinated brain, propelled by their new diet of fat rich food of fish, they must have started putting ...

The Intouchables (French; 2011) This film was highly recommended to me for its humanistic elements. It showcases the bond developed by two men of entirely different background and how they each give each other a purpose to live in their trapped life. It is a tale based on the real life story of a filthy rich quadriplegic man, Phillipe, and his hired hand. Phillipe is wheelchair bound after a paragliding mishap and had earlier lost his wife to cancer. In essence, he is a broken man who is mainly frustrated with life. All the money in the world but entirely dependent on others to move around and even for personal care. His newfound helper is from the poorer side of town. He is an adopted child from Senegal with many siblings from his adoptive and different fathers. He did not volunteer for the job but was just there to show that he had attended an interview and claim his dole. By twists of fate, his attitude, of the arrogant kind, is the very attribute that fascinates Phillipe...