We are all caged animals!

High-Rise (2015)

Where are those happy days,
they seem so hard to find
I tried to reach for you,
but you have closed your mind
Whatever happened to our love
I wish I understood
It used to be so nice,
it used to be so good

ABBA's 1975 SOS

Continuing into the saga of nihilistic movies, this is one that fits the bill perfectly. When we were young, we always thought that the future would be so bright that we would need shades. Unfortunately, when we are here, in the future, it is still doom and gloom. The only vision that is clear to us is that of hindsight! And the ability to savour the memory till that too gives up on us!

In our formative years, we also thought that ABBA's songs were full of love and hope. Only now do we realise that the lyrics are dark and screams of melancholy. Even though this movie is set in the early 70's the director decide to use ABBA's music score of 'SOS'  (of the mid-70s) in the background in a few instances to subtly remind the audience of those happy days when we were full of zest to face the world had vanished

'High-Rise' is a British satire on the classes of the society. It metaphorically displays the tension that builds up in a 30 storey apartment complex. It starts off as an efficient self-sufficient building with a gym, swimming pool, playground and even a supermarket. The living arrangement is nicely choreographed. The architect (aptly named Royal, Jeremy Irons) occupies the penthouse with a separate private lift and a massive lawn to add to the splendour. As we descend, the occupants tend to be of the lower economic class. The protagonist of the movie, Dr Liang, is like a go-between. He can communicate with the upper and bottom floors' dwellers.

What starts off as a chirpy, upbeat state-of-the-art venture with full of hope for the future slowly starts breaking down. The power supply gets erratic; the garbage chute gets blocked and the main lift gets jammed. Somehow, the rich one still continue their uninterrupted supply. Their decadent parties still continue. They sneer upon the poor. The poor in return try to outdo their master by having even a wilder one with the bare minimum.

Things become more twisted as Dr Laing, who moved into this new apartment after the demise of a sister, is getting morose. His medical student, an arrogant son of an aristocrat who occupies the upper floors, commits suicide after Dr Laing pranks him on his CT Scan report.

As amenities supplies dwindles, sanitation declines and sanity plunges, the clash of the classes begin. The animalistic desires and primitive behaviour of the occupants surface. The whole societal structure collapses. Nobody works anymore and nothing works anymore. The once spanking new building with its seemingly harmonious occupants is just a fraction of its glory days in a distant memory.

Surprise, surprise. Despite the outcome of a social experiment that went pear shaped, many similar apartments are built in the vicinity.

Human beings are just kind on the surface when the ambience is conducive. When their space or their right is impinged, all the niceties will dissipate. They would just recoil into their inborn native tribal warfare mode. Chaos and caveman justice would be the order of the day!