RIFLE RANGE BOY

Becoming Cary Grant (Documentary; 2016) It is tough being on top of the pecking order. Your every move and omittance are hawkishly scrutinised and publicised. People in the lower end of the food chain, without an iota of a clue of what it is to set the trend for tomorrow's society, sit in their armchair to pass judgements on the appropriateness of their leaders' moves. For the leader who had spent a lifetime trying to get to the top, he would find it increasingly difficult to perch on the top savouring the fruits of his endeavour. Then he would ask himself the meaning of it all. He would ponder on what he is actually seeking for and when does it all end? Roosting a lonely high up on a pedestal where most of his contemporaries are out-of-league, he explores realms less travelled for answers. In the 60s, LSDs were in vogue to search the answers to these intriguing questions in the hidden crypts of our gyri and sulci. Correctly or otherwise, this medically sancti...

http://www.riflerangeboy.com/2012/07/12-year-old-my-stepmum.html A 12-year-old, my stepmom?   Moondru Mudichu (3 Knots, Tamil; 1976) Before fame and ego took over the best of them, Kamalhasan and Rajnikanth used to act together in many memorable films. Of hand, comes to mind are Avargal, Aval Appadithaan and Apoorva Raagangal. Sridevi's debut as heroine at the age of 12+ Child abuse or what? In that vein, Moondru Mudichi showcases sterling performances by this duo and another talented actress from the south, Sridevi, a debutante then as a heroine at the age of 12+ (born 1963). Kamalhasan and Rajnikanth are soul mates and roommates. Kamalhasan falls in love with a college student Sridevi, but the chain-smoking devious Rajni has both his eyes fixated on the lass and has no qualms expressing his desires to her behind his back. During a boat outing, Rajni lets Kamal drown after he fell overboard in full view of Sridevi. During police interrogation, he denies kn...

Credit: orangjohor.com Lest we forget that the building of civilisation is paved with a bloody trail of heartaches, violence, injustices and loaded with double crossings, mutiny and vices. No matter how much we try to whitewash and sugarcoat our history, the fact remains. The victors and losers are equally culpable to take the blame for the mayhem that put us all in a quandary in the first place. No one party can put their fingers to accuse the other of drawing first blood. Winners always sanitise their ascent to power through mutual consent as though the conquered willingly embraced their intruders with open arms. People do many things to escape torture and fear of death to themselves or loved ones. Towns did not flourish the God-sanctioned ways. Without fail, thuggery, vices condemned by religions, sex, intoxicants and threats helped. Skyscrapers did not sprout through teachings of the book but via earnings of the unholy kind. Once conquest is complete, the victors are...

traveldigg.com Everybody yearns to be free. They want to be liberated. They dream of eudaimonia. Sadly, their search for bliss is anything but fulfilling. When we are young, we long for the time when we are adults and do not have to play to the whims and fancies of our parents or to bow to societal pressures. We thought we had to conform, as a payback measure to our parents to all the food, accommodation and care rendered in our teething years. Then we get our keys at 21, and we thought that is it - our path to unleashing the caged animal within us. With education came conformity and decorum. With a life partner came mutual respect, reciprocity, tolerance, empathy till death do us apart. With the expansion of the family tree, came commitments, responsibility and leadership by example. The elusive freedom and liberation just slither us by. We tell us that is just the circle of life. We still bear hope of release from the shackles in the horizon, and we straddle along. Cor...

Pujiyathithukkule Oru (Film: Valar Pirai, New Moon; 1962) Singer: T.M. Soundarajan The wisdom of Nature (Fibonacci numbering!) pinterest.com Tamil movies and songs have been a constant companion to the Tamil diaspora the world over to spread the age-old Vedantic and Puranic teachings about life, living and the divine forces that control our day to day activities. Their lyrics transcend religion but is secular in outlook and applies to all, irrespective of one's theological conviction.  It can boldly be said that in no other songs written in any other languages anywhere in the world can anyone see so much of philosophy and wisdom extruding from its lyrics.  This song, sung by the undisputable leading Tamil cinema playback singer, TMS, is a gem with pearls of wisdom sounding like angels' lullaby to one conversant in refined Tamil language. It explains, in simple terms, the concept of divinity to our nimble minds. Kudos to the premier lyricist and poe...

Sully (2016) Director: Clint Eastwood This movie is quite relevant in this time and age. The democratisation of access to information and freedom to verbalise has reached such a height that everyone with half a brain is a warrior, at least in cyberspace. With the luxury of an obscene amount of information that their disposal assisted by the ease of artificial intelligence (which, knowledge-wise, coincidentally is as much as its inventor), turns every armchair critic into a seeker of the Truth and a self-appointed Robin Hood of the oppressed. Heroes are born every day, but most of them remain unknown to us all. They appear out of thin air at the necessary time, do things beyond their expected capacity and disappear as quickly as the manifest. Sadly, many a time, their genuine intentions are questioned and put under the spotlight for scrutiny. Too much trust is placed on computer simulations. The human factors like empathy and compassion which had brought mankind through so many ob...

Hollywoodism : Jews, Movies and the American Dream (Documentary; 1998)  The main driving point of this documentary is that the American Dream that Hollywood is trying to propagate is no American invention. It is the message brought in by a few Jewish immigrants who escaped the pogroms in the shtetls (Jewish village) of Eastern Europe. They invented Hollywood and owned the six leading studios in Hollywood in the 1920s. The message that they try to disseminate are their own experiences; Harry Warner and his three brothers who brought sound to the motion pictures; Samuel Goldwyn @ Goldfische, the biggest of the independent producers;  Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Studios; Louis B. Mayer, founder of MGM; Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount; and William Fox of 20th Century Fox. They all came from an area within a 500-mile radius area in Europe, between Poland, Hungary and Russia. They end up living in Los Angeles within a 15-mile vicinity. After leaving the tyranny ...

Social Engineering, Agenda 21 & Transhumanism - The Secret Manipulation of Humanity (2014, You-tube; David Icke) Recently, I was introduced (not in person) to this erudite, fast-talking, fearless critic of modern civilisation. He can be said to be one of the doomsday prophets who predicts a very bleak future for mankind. He foresees a future where Man would not be a thinking individual but rather one whose reasoning power is numbed, thanks to the subversive actions of alien lifeforms and their representatives on Earth, the descendant of the Rothschilds and many other leading members of the society including the ones in the Fabian society.  In this 2 and a half hour presentation, the speaker tirelessly covers many ranges of topics that he has been trying to do a summary of all the things that he has been trying to theorise all these years. First, he suggests that human beings many centuries ago had full use of their brain, living blissfully long lives in harmony. An a...

Echoes of Silence (1994) Author: Chuah Guat Eng It is long overdue, but it is never late than never. For many years, Malaysians have been writing novels in the English Language. Sadly, their following is few and far between. Through my association with a group of up and coming writers and with the power of social media, it has come to light on the treasure troves of writings of Malaysian writers in the lingua franca left by our colonial masters. I am not just referring to authors to the likes of Tan Twan Eng, Rani Manicka and K.S. Maniam. Do you know that periodically Malaysians do hit the headlines for the right reasons, literary awards being one? Guat Eng is hailed in the local literary circle as a 'Godmother' of sorts. She has been an active participant in the writing scene and was in the advertising field. In this story, which is set around the early years of Malaya, though the World War Two, we are ushered into a fictional world of how Malaya used to be and a peculi...

Shanti Stupa at Dhaulagiri India has always struck to everyone as the land of mysticism. In its area lies the secret of its many centuries of civilisation and the many forgotten treasures and wisdom of yesteryear. Everyone goes there, in his full view, is yet another splendour of a previously well advanced enlightened with advancement in engineering, sciences, mathematics and ethics so sophisticated that is beyond compare. Some of the things that we see are just mind-boggling. Some of the tales narrated to us are beyond belief, wanting of rational scientific explanation. At the turn of last year, I had the opportunity to gaze at a fraction of these wonders during a short trip to Odiya. Besides Emperor Asoka and his Kalinga Kingdom which is often mentioned in our textbooks, this tropical climate state is also well known for two other mammoth structures with its logic-defying features. 'The masses' lulling themselves with the  notion   that their nation, at one t...

Credit: thenewsminute.com It was a Saturday night, and I was sitting smack in the middle of a temple going late 40s and an early 50s group. They had earlier decided to let their hair down and to indulge in the intoxicating bright nocturnal lights of capitalism and its lure. As the night slithered away into the darkness, their topics of idle banter started becoming more philosophical. From Malaysian politics and the lethargic state of affairs in the country, they ventured into the wisdom of the Vedanta. Somebody started talking about the symbolic gestures of deference amongst Hindus of touching or slightly signalling towards the feet of someone elder. It may a signal of deferring to the great soul that resides in the physical body of the one being touched. The soul has achieved so much, and the younger newbie submits humbly in awe. There are some who refuse to touch the feet. They believe that everyone carries their sins and evil deeds of their past lives in the lowest part...

Pulsagari (North Korean; 1985) Director: Shin Sang-ok Although we have hardly heard of North Korea (NK)'s indulgement in the celluloid industry, The Supreme Leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-Un and Kim Jong-Il before him, are movie buffs. The elder was so desperate to bring his country's movies to the international arena (and to make propaganda films) that Jong-Il kidnapped South Korea's famous film icons of the 60s, Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife Choi Eun-hee for this purpose. In 1979, Choi went missing in Hong Kong. Shin was the prime suspect in her disappearance. In trying to investigate her vanishing, he was kidnapped by Kim's men and whisked off to NK. Here, Shin found Choi safe and sound. After series of torture and rehabilitation exercise, Shin decided that the best way to escape was to play ball. Both Choi and Shin soon became a feature in NK high society. He was coaxed to make about 7 movies, of which Pulsagari is one. A ...

The Lost City of Z (2017) It was a time when wealthy British aristocrats would amuse themselves with risky expeditions to savage lands to examine the lesser beings in 'uncivilised' territories. They would study them like guinea pigs, record their habits for future references and in the process rob them blind of precious metals and of a rich civilisation. It was a time just before the onset of World War One and Major Percy Fawcett is seconded to the Royal Geographical Society to do some surveying work in the interiors of Bolivia. Fawcett does his work and returns but not without realising that, unlike his contemporaries who think that the Amazon natives are anything but civilised, he feels the land holds the remnants of an advanced culture. After a failed return trip to discover the lost city that he calls 'Z', his life gets embroiled in the Trench War. Injured, he is refrained from pursuing any further expeditions. The calling proved too strong. On the insistence...

It was not just another day. It was a day of jubilation, the day Murugan defeated the asura Suryapadman. Coincidentally, it was also the day of the blue moon showed it fiery side after being engulfed by the dragon. When my mother was a little girl, people devoid of scientific knowledge used to tell that it was a transient event when Mother Nature, tired of holding the Earth all these while, decided to switch hands. Now we know it is the lunar eclipse. If the Supreme Mother is indulged in such gravity-defying task, it is inappropriate for mortals in merrymaking activities including eating and enjoying the outdoors. In those days, and even now, the event is marked inauspicious. These days, in spite of our technological know-how, the society has somehow paradoxically have re-discovered the splendour of the age-old lost wisdom. They have combined it with current knowledge and try to give it a rational explanation to our ancestors' practices. Substantial changes in the electromagne...

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) They say that there is no such thing as the perfect crime. Even when a seemingly seamless crime is committed, somehow, something would go awry. A slight oversight, a chance DNA evidence or worse still when it involves two or more partners in crime, mutual suspicion and fear of double-crossing would spur one of them to act silly to arouse suspicion of the unsuspecting. The criminals occasionally appear at the crime scene to look at his 'trophy'. Nature has its own way of punishing the perpetrator. Even though its fixing of things may not appear clear-cut, one can feel that poetic justice is served at the end of the day. Nature has a wicked sense of humour and warped amusement standards. Balance is maintained, nevertheless. This classic film noir, made in 1946 and acted by John Garfield and the vivacious and sultry Lana Turner, grasps your attention from the word go. The first-person background narration and loud b...

cgsociety.org I heard a strange comparison between cryptocurrency and religion the other day. When we look at the number of people who invest a significant amount of their hard-earned savings into multiple blockchain technology schemes, we sometimes wonder what makes people place so much trust into something so intangible. How many times in the history of man have we seen promises of easy wealth through a yet another newer and more novel way to beat the system? How predictably have the bubble repeatedly burst when people, like rats, followed Piped Piper to the caves? Even with the knowledge of previous mayhems and follies, with their great reluctance to be detached from their world material wealth, the promise of multiplying their already burgeoning opulence is too much to resist. There is no central control, hence the lure of concealment. There must be a reason the Blockchain technology is cryptic. Is going to be so mysterious that everything may just go up kaboom into thin...