RIFLE RANGE BOY

Hustlers (2019) Look around you. It is no brainer that the divisions between the haves and the have nots are increasing as we speak. The price of essential goods only goes one way - up. There will be many justifications to raise the price of a commodity. It could be the weather, artificial shortage, the hike in petrol price, the value of our currency, you name it. Interestingly, when the offending factor is relieved, the price stays the same. Minimum wage barely changes but the lure to buy, purchase and spend never ends.  The members at the lower end of the economic spectrum always seem the target of these baits via subliminal advertisements in the media or movies. In this cruel world of punishing the poor for being poor, it appears like the wealthy have it all too easy. We get to keep their cake and eat it. A case in point is the 2008 and the many similar economic meltdowns that the world frequently experiences. The poor need to tighten their belts and pull themselves...

Once upon a time in Hollywood (2019) Screenplay and Director: Quentin Tarantino It is funny that every young generation feels that they have been taken for a ride by the generation before them and that there is a dire need to put things in order. Invariably, they all fail miserably. Look at the timeline at which this film is based. It is the late 1960s. The world is in chaos, yet again. After getting the world crippled with two world wars, the baby boomers got the world upon its feet again. But that was not to last. Within a decade, the world nestled back into two camps yet - the 'good' and the 'bad', and the whole imbroglio of violence and killing is to repeat. The youngsters see this as the failure on the part of the adults to set a just world. They venture into the realm of the unknown to set into motion a new world order.  Just like Greta Thunberg and the angry kids around the world in the 21st century, the 60s had their share of anti-establishment. The anti-V...

What colour reminds you of Christmas? Some smart alec would attribute the colours green, brown, silver and gold combinations found on a Christmas tree as quintessentially the spirit of Yuletide. But what is the season without the red hue of the tunic of Saint Nicholas, you say. There is a long-standing conspiracy theory that it is no mere coincidence that Santa’s ‘Father Christmas’ costume has the same hue as that of Cola-Cola advertisements.  Coca-Cola did start using Santa in advertising in 1933. Santa had been portrayed almost exclusively in red from the early 19th century, and most of his modern image was put together by the famous American caricaturist, Thomas Nast, in the 1870s. Thomas Nest is well known to have drawn the Elephant for the Republican Party. He popularised the Democratic donkey, Uncle Sam and Columbia, the female personification of American values. This man, dubbed as the American father of cartoons, is honoured for portraying the modern Santa Claus with a...

The Game Changers (Documentary, 2019) I grew up trying to ward off suggestions from animal-loving vegans who tried their level best to convince me that structurally humans are supposed to be herbivores. They justified their assertions, with seemingly scientific support about our dentition. I would tell them that if we were born to eat just plants, our facial structures would look a goat's. And that I loved my animals too much that I eat them every day.  In the late 19th century British India, Sikh and Muslim soldiers were favoured over the Hindus to serve the Crown. Apparently, the Hindu soldiers, being mostly vegetarians, lack the prowess that made a bloody thirsty sepoy. Meat consumption had always been linked to muscle power, athletism and aggression. Now what this documentary is saying is that we have got it all wrong. All the things that we thought about being vegan are actually just the opposite. Consuming plant-based products and avoiding meat, fish and eggs are the sur...

Merku Thodarchi Malai (Westward Continuing Hills, Tamil-Malayalam; 2018) மேற்க்கு தொடர்ச்சி மலை  Vedantha teachings told us we are all the same, part of a bigger consciousness that is the Universe itself. We were told to treat each other as brothers as indeed our Athma (souls) are all part of the Paramathma which is Brahman itself, the Creator and the Created. We have all been sold a broken dream. We were told that the path to happiness is through economic improvement. Like in Martin Luther King's cheque in 'I am a dream' speech, we were all given a bounced cheque. A cheque took naively at face value only to discover a little too late the stamp 'Return to drawer'! When we improve our socioeconomic standing amidst a life long struggle of sacrifice, we realise that the goal post has been lifted. We find that the separation between the haves and have nots had widened many folds over. We are to be, still, the mouth-agape child that once was yearning to be like his...

Aaranya Kaandam (ஆரண்ய காண்டம், Tamil, Jungle Chapter; 2011) Story and Direction: Thyagarajan Kumaraja The Jungle Chapter refers to the third chapter in the epic Ramayana where Raavana deceptively uses a deer into tricking and kidnapping Sita. Here, the storyteller uses characters with animal names to symbolically represent our animal-like behaviours in a world that has jungle rules.  It starts with a purported dialogue between Chanakya, the Mauryan master strategist, a kind of ancient Machiavelli, and a student in 400 BC. Student: "What is dharma?" Chanakya: "Dharma is doing what is necessary." With that one line, I was hooked. The film is a gangster fare, but not the usual gory senseless machete-branding South Indian style. It is the characterisation and storytelling that kills. It is labelled as the first neo-noir Tamil film. In life, we are faced with many obstacles. What is the determinant that decides the right course of action? Do we use...

Marriage Story (2019) You start a family appointing yourselves as the nucleus and the other appendages as equal partners and essential requirements of the cells. You do your part thinking that they would do the same. You assume that even though the nucleus is the first pre-requisite, the others would take their place and do their part for a balanced multifunctional cell.   You think that everything is fine until it hits you one day. The nucleolus, which is an integral part of you starts telling you that you are evil. That you are gaslighting her. That you think that you are the only one that matters.   Before you can realise what hit you, you are bamboozled with examples of your so-called ‘misdemeanours’ as if you did it for your own selfish reasons. You thought it was for a harmonious internal milieu, but it did not appear so. You thought every organelle was in concert with that - to maintain zen. Suddenly your every action is against you like you are some kind of...