RIFLE RANGE BOY

Vinodhaya Sitham (Strange Decision, Tamil; 2021) Director, Screenplay: Samuthirakani They say Time heals skirmishers, and loggerheads get forgotten over time. At the same time, they condemn Time as a cruel curse. Time dries, shrivels, slows, ages and eventually kills for the next generation to take charge. We like to think that we are all indispensable. We assume our dependents are waiting for us to care for them. We feel that we are far from completing our pre-set ambitions. We are convinced the world, like a grandfather's clock, will stop short never to work again the moment we drop dead. There is news for us. Nope, the Universe does not revolve around us. We are a mere speckle of a minuscule of stardust in the grander scheme of things. We do not matter. Things just go on beyond, despite our absence or presence. It is what it is. Que sera sera, what will be will be. We are just passing through. The rest will live, with or without us.  It is only our ego that feeds us this sense o...

Sodom & Gomorrah (1962) Director: Robert Aldrich My understanding of the Biblical story of Sodom & Gomorrah is that God's was angry with their indulgence in homosexuality, and He brought about their destruction. The word 'Sodomy' arose from the pervasive sexual acts against nature for this exact reason.  The backstory of this tale is narrated in Genesis, chapter 19. The versions may vary between the Torah, Bible and Quran, but in essence, it goes something like this. Lot, the nephew to Abraham, is the leader of a wondering Hebrew tribe. He and his people were given a place to stay just outside Sodom. Sodom, Gomorrah and three other states were part of prosperous 'cities of the plain'. Sodom was visited by two angels in disguise. They were treated well by Lot but were harassed by citizens of Sodom who were aggressive towards them. There is a mention of the mob wanting to rape the angels. Despite Lot's offering of his two virginal daughters to the crowd, t...

What The Peeper Saw @ Night Hair Child (Diabolica Malicia, 1972) Directors: James Kelley & Andrea Bianchi This is what one calls a 2am movie. One which one watches in the still of the early morning when he has insomnia and the rest of the home occupants are snoring away. It starts off sounding like a 70s B-grade soft porn flick with the exotic location, the flaring bell-bottoms and Mediterranean weather. Then there is the intimacy between a teenage son and his stepmother, who is barely a decade older. A murder is thrown in, and then an attempted murder... When it comes to young kids acting way out of their leagues, we often say that they are merely reacting to the external stimuli that they are exposed to. We look at their parents' (or lack thereof) parenting skills. We try to place the blame squarely on either parent for what they did or did not - for being absent at school functions or failing to offer a shoulder to cry on when the situation had warranted .   Britt Eklan...

Finally, after a long time, I attended a family get-together. As expected, most of the attendees were there not because they were dying to witness the obnoxious display of affection amongst family members. They were there either for the booze or were just happy to come out of their houses after being cooped up for so long.  Of course, the event they looked forward to most was banter with friends over drinks at the corner of the hall. It was the opportune time to catch up with the rumours around Malaysian public life. These lively and animated talks are more convincing than the umpteen WhatsApp and social media messages circulating amongst friends. Nothing beats live chats. In Malaysia, coffee shop rumours are notoriously known to carry more weightage than official statements. Even though denied vehemently by the powers-that-be, these rumours will prove to be the real deal after all. This time around, the corner crowd comprise civil servants and self-made entrepreneurs. Being true b...

Rose Island (L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose ,  Italian;2015) Director: Sydney Sibilia The idea of a nation is something relatively new. Before the advent of 'print capitalism', no law prevented one person from sojourning another part of this God's wide world. People of a shared ideology or values would congregate to live according to their pre-set societal norms. These 'imagined communities' as described by Benedict Anderson, are created when a sufficient number of people share the same language, live in the same geographic space, adhere to the same religious faith or cultural tradition, decide to live together. A nation is born when enough people identify with it. The printing press legitimises the birth of nations. It is interesting to note that language was instrumental in developing nationalism at the infancy of the printing press. In the 21st century, however, political Islam seems to have transcended all borders. Brothers of Islam quiver wh...

Sleepers (1996) Director: Barry Levinson Sometimes when I see how some cases are persecuted in this country, I wonder if they are some kind of arrangements between the prosecutors and defence so that the rich and famous stay immune from conviction. One does not have to look far to know the many cases that raise suspicion. Even the executive branch of the government does not mind appearing incompetent just to fulfil specific preset political agendas. All of it reminds me of a grand freak show put up by the powers-that-be for self-aggrandisement and stupefying the citizens at their own expense. Every day is a constant reminder of the 'you reap what you saw' adage. Yet 70 years of rule by a single party has created a kind of Stockholm Syndrome that people admire the very leaders that cheat them blind! This 1996 film is based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's book. The author insists that the story is based on actual events, with the name of characters and places altered to protect the i...

Kaagaz (Paper, Hindi, 2021) Directed by Satish Kaushik We all have the frustrating experience of dealing with the 'system'. How can we forget how simple technicalities cannot be just changed because red tape prevents them? Everybody in the system can 'see' the problem, but nobody can do anything about it. With the widespread use of AI and chatbots in daily dealing, the situation is becoming more chaotic. We, the end-users, are made to deal with idiots. No amount of 'I want to talk to your manager' will move the system.  Lal Bihari of Uttar Pradesh had first-hand experience dealing with this madness. He had to prove to the Indian bureaucracy that he is alive. It all happened when Lal Bihari, a farmer in real life, was declared deceased by his relatives who swindled his share of the family inheritance. He spent a good portion of his life between 1975 and 1994 going up and down courts to prove his existence. Lal Bihari Mrithak (deceased) In the movie version, Lal B...

House of Gucci (2021) Director: Ridley Scott They say wealth within a family only lasts only for three generations. This adage is applicable for immigrant populations and also for family businesses. The maverick from the first generation with fire in his belly, zest in his heart and vision in his mind, would venture out to dream the impossible. He would not sleep till his vision of the future materialised. With his affluence, he would not want his offspring to be deprived of what he did not have.   Opportunities would just roll in like a fountain for the offspring, i.e. the second generation. They do not have to struggle to get their chances. To them, it is all a given thing, a no-brainer. "These things are human rights, no big deal!' They start to explore the finer things in life and the ember in the belly is slowly fizzling out.  The generation next would have easier growing up. Shielded from cruelties of life, street smartness would be something quite alien, unlike the...

Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham  (Marakkar: Lion of Arabian Sea, Malayalam, 2021) Screenplay / Director: Priyadarshan Of late, many movies seem to highlight and bring to the fore the many freedom fighters in India who had been lost in the annals of history. They failed to make it into the mainstream history books as the syllabi were written either by colonists or the sympathisers of their colonial masters. It seems many of the non-Muslim empires that ruled valiantly with impressive CVs like the Cholas, Pandyas and Vijayanagar just remain in the folklores and children bedtime stories. Luckily, the current generation of scholars appears to be digging deep into the dusted palm leaves and forgotten scripts to remind everyone of the nation's fallen heroes. Long before Jhansi Rani rode to fight the tyranny of the East India Company in 1857, there was Queen Velu Natchiyar from Sivagangai District, who holds the reputation of being the first Queen who fought the British. In 1780, with the ...

Don't Look Up (2021) Director: Adam McKay That is the problem with the modern world, is it not? Nothing gets moving. Everything gets hijacked along the way by self-interests, personal agendas and public image. Trivialities are rewarded, and no one gives credence to knowledge and intelligence. Social media just gives an illusory comfort to the Joe Public that he is in control of everything. This becomes a fertile ground for conspiracy theorists and fringe movements that are hellbent that there is a higher plot to annihilate our civilisation as we know it. It seems that movie stars and singers are prerequisites to get public services messages across. Slowly, these things are unravelled in how the world deals with the Wuhan pandemic. It seems that for every innovation that the scientific community comes up with, there is an equally opposite move to convince the public on the contrary. Science, which had saved mankind from major catastrophes many times before, is no longer held in high...