RIFLE RANGE BOY

Madras Café (Hindi, 2013) Director: Shoojit Sircar It all started with the British and the Christian missionaries. The colonial masters decided to modernise their colonies. The British evangelists took charge of the South of Ceylon while the Americans built schools in the northern half. The American preachers, who were assigned a predominantly Tamil population, emphasised Science and Mathematics teaching. The schism started there. The people from the North were more well prepared to meet the challenges of the new world. After independence, the ruling majority from the South imposed affirmative actions to balance the scale. In came Solomon Bandaranaike, a Singhalese with an illustrious family background which even included a knighted father and a British godfather. Solomon, an Anglophile, an Oxford graduate, was more white than Snow White. He could not speak the local lingo and did not practice Buddhism. He served in the Ceylon legal administration after his return from the UK in the m...

Ajeeb Dustaans (2020) Netflix This anthology of four stories is based on the topic of discrimination. With its rich civilisation that had stood the test of time against repeated foreign powers who are hellbent on destroying their culture and looting their wealth, India is again under the scrutiny of modern people to find faults in its societal makeup. Well, the colonised can go on ranting about how the invaders destroyed their rich tapestry way of life and life sciences that were light-years ahead of their barbaric invaders. They can complain of how the British and their ingenious strategies of 'divide and rule' derailed the natives' societies even now, long after leaving their shores. But for how long? Shouldn't the post-colonial countries wise up already? Like Japan, which was beaten to a pulp and bombed to smithereens after the Second World War. Rather than being sore with their aggressors, did they not embrace the victors' technological advancement to rise from ...

The all-embracing loving Maa It is that time of the year when everybody publicly displays their undying love and gratitude for their mothers. No matter how strained their relationships with their mothers had been, at least now is the time to mend fences or to reignite the long put out flames of love and affection. Together with tweets and postings on social media, we are also inundated with many Tamil songs that glorify maternal love. Ah, there are too many Indian movie songs at their disposal that put mothers high up on a pedestal, quite rightly so. It is unimaginable how much a mother sacrifices for her offspring, starting with the many discomforts of early pregnancy followed by the image alternating insults. The puerperal period is no walk in the park either. The sleepiness nights, the constant demand for attention and care of an ill child are just the beginning of many more of the unending saga of nurturing to follow. The wrathful protective Maa All these are fine and good, but in ...

Metamorphosis (Verwandlung; 1915) Author: Frank Kafka A Tamil saying goes like this -  செய்யும் தொழிலே தெய்வம்  - your job is your divinity. Therefore, one is expected to perform his work to perfection as it is as if he is serving God, as it is divinity to serve. It may be his reason for existence.   This is probably what Appa held close to his heart. Without taking a single leave from his bank job, which he worked for 40 years over, the same place of work after leaving school, he must have been an exemplary worker. But, with the ease of mobility and money jingling in his pockets, it must have been the freedom he missed so much in the latter part of his life when his eyesight failed, and body broke down after repeated strokes. After reading Kafka's 'Metamorphosis, I realise that narrating a story is not just telling an event and shocking the readers with bizarre storylines and twisted endings. Instead, it matters that many untold nuances and symbolisms lie buried som...

Mandalorian (2019) Miniseries (S1-S2) A confession is in order here. When my classmates in 1977 were ranting on and on about a new movie in town, my curiosity was aroused. What was all the fuss about, I wondered. Every free moment, during school recess and between the change of subjects, all they could talk about was 'Star Wars'. Some were even holding fat paperbacks of 'Star Wars' related books as their badge of honour like their lives depended on them. All the hubbub piqued my interest; I decided to pick a ticket at the local cinema to see what the brouhaha was all about. I was mesmerised by make-belief vast outer space, the space ships and the various alien forms that form the storyline. And I loved the stormtrooper costume but was baffled by their bumbling incompetence and terrible soldiering skills. Unfortunately, the plot was too complicated for me to comprehend—Alderaan, Death Star, Republic, Resistance, Ewok and such were too much for me. Over the years, the seq...

Searching for Sheela (2021) Netflix, Documentary. After forming a generally negative impression about Ma Anand Sheela from the documentary 'Wild Wild Country', it was only natural that a show focused on Sheela would excite everyone. To recapitulate, Ma Anand Sheela was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's (@Osho) personal assistant when he set up a commune in Wasco County in Oregon. Even though the commune members changed a wasteland into the sprawling modern township, the earlier settlers were not amused with their seemingly bizarre lifestyle.  One thing led to another, and finally, Ma Anand Sheela was convicted for attempted murder when the commune was accused of starting a bioterror attack to win the local elections. She is said to have masterminded salmonella contamination of salads at a local eatery. She was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. After finishing 39 months of her sentence, she fled to Switzerland before she could be splashed with other surmounting charges. Osho @ Bhag...

I can hear her words still reverberating in my ears like she said it yesterday. To catch a  big fish, always put a small fry on the hook. All through my childhood, this is the mantra that Amma preached upon us. She was unapologetic about her views about the nuns in the convent school that my sisters went to. Even though she was the one who insisted that my sisters should go to a missionary school, she was always sceptical about their true intentions. She told my sisters to learn what the teachers taught but not what the nuns preached. She was clear about that. In her mind, the school gave good education, for the other stuff, thank you very much. Whenever someone offers you a handout, be wary. Amma would always remind us that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything carries a piece of baggage. In simple terms, we grew up distrusting altruistic intention, minding only for ourselves. Maybe, these teachings helped us to pull ourselves by our bootstraps to greater heights. As ...

Nomadland (2020) Director, Screenplay, Co-producer: Chloè Zhao Maybe we never forgot our roots. Even though we decided to become farmers, stay put in one place and hope to gain strength through numbers (i.e. living in communities), we simply could not shake off our desires to wander and be close to Nature. As cavemen and hunter-gatherers, we were doing the same thing. We were awed by the things around us. We wanted to experience them and to know all about the fantastic things that we saw and felt. Who built them? When were these made?  Like an excited child, we yearned for answers. And we are still doing them today.  At one time, we were told it is what it is. Do not ask too many questions of which answers you will not understand. It is beyond your comprehension, they would say. Nah, read these scriptures; everything is there. With science, it appears that this mindset is changing. People started asking questions and more question. Apparently, there were more questions than an...