RIFLE RANGE BOY

Nature does not give favours. It just spins on its wheel as the Universe goes on moving forward and expanding outwards. It does not care for the weak, the rich or the powerful. It whitewashed the nation in one swing, denuding the land and flattening enormous erections. A pup is born in a freak accident of Nature, combined with the estrus cycle of an ovulating bitch and the mating season. It is not a season of joy but a mere duty ingrained in the female canines to care for the pup. The Nature that brought the puppy is playing its tricks again. Nature unleashes its vigour yet again. At every level, elements strike him. The pup grows because of and despite the forces of Nature. In a way, Nature is strengthening and preparing the dog as it meets the hurdles that will befall it in its future. The weaklings will be cancelled. Its presence would not be missed or recorded in the annals of dog history. Sometimes you wonder what the purpose of all these is? The same force that creates also destr...

RRR (Telugu; 2022) Director: S.S. Rajamouli Week after week, this film seems to be roaring to greater heights at the box office. And the reviewers are going gaga over the offering from Tollywood and giving the Bollywood mafia and their chamchas  a run for their money. The recent spate of blockbusters from the South cinema has evoked has started a Twitter war that may be related to the rekindling of the national language debate. RRR also reaffirmed the fact that the Baahubali duology was no flash in the pan. In keeping with Baahubali's drift, RRR also threads along with big bucks on CGI and historical slunt. In RRR, the storytellers decided to create a fictional account loosely based on the lives and times of two freedom fighters from India. Alluri Sita Rama Raju Alluri Sitaram Raju (1897-1924) opposed the 1882 British Forest Act, which restricted movement in forests. It interfered with the tribals' practice of the 'slash and burn' style of farming ( podu ). The reason f...

Eva Mireles (victim) 4th-grade teacher We all know the drill. Regular broadcasting will be rudely interrupted with news flashes of yet another senseless killing in public. All cable news network cameramen will run to the site hoping to catch a glimpse of yet another gore porn over prime time. They will appear empathetic, trying to blank out the faces of victims and underaged but secretly wish they could exhibit violence in its full glory. Then for the next few hours will be reels over reels of footage of witnesses and victims relating their dastardly experiences. The police chief will come forward with a press release that they have identified the perpetrator. The chief will be flabbergasted how the aggressor managed to possess his firepower. A revealing loophole in the system would manifest - he is underaged, that he purchased his assault weapon at a mall, that he has mental issues, that he bought it in another state, yadda yadda. Then his social media would expose his screwed up ideo...

The Parasitic Mind:  How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Author: Gad Saad When the Cold War ended and the Berlin Wall came crumbling down, the world thought the leftists and their ideas were buried in the rubble of what was once considered the panacea of all of Man's woes. They were wrong. The concept of unhappy people blaming all their woes on the system continued. The leftists just went into universities and infiltrated the world media. With neologisms and complicated, contradictory coined phrases, they managed to create a world of similar thinking individuals. It would have been fine if these new ideas were just another armamentarium to research for the ultimate truth.  It instead was meant to create a herd of an unthinking population whose way of thinking permeated all layers of society. Radical militant feminists insist that being born male means toxicity oozing from all his orifices. The cancel culture practitioners literally shoot down people if their narrativ...

The Kashmir Files (Hindi; 2022) Writer & Director: Vivek Agnihotri This post would probably draw a lot of flak, especially after Singapore's censors recently banned this film. Singapore's justification for its ban is that it is provocative and gives a one-sided portrayal of Muslims in a horrible light that can potentially cause enmity between communities. According to the affected community depicted in this movie, the Kashmiri Pandits, it is precisely the reason why the film 'Kashmir Files' was made. It claims to be the voice of the descendants of what could simply be put as the original inhabitants of the Cradle of Civilisation. Back in the days, aeons ago, Kashmir was the centre of knowledge; of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, theology, you name it. It was the place thinkers worldwide used to congregate to unravel the Universe's secrets.  From the 14th century onwards, their peaceful existence went into turmoil with the infiltration of Islamic invaders fro...

Melody (1971) Director: Waris Hussein I watched this movie just because the Bee Gees made its original soundtrack, and two of their hit singles graced it. The songs 'To Love Somebody' and 'First of May' seem appropriate to showcase puppy love, the main subject. It tells the story of a co-ed British school in which a young teenage boy falls in love with his schoolmate and wants to get married, not in the near future, but ASAP. The story is told from the point of view of children. The child actors are the main stars, whilst the adults play mere supporting roles. The adults (i.e., parents and teachers) are painted as flawed, ugly, unimpressive, brash, boring, and disassociated from reality. The children are painted as full of life, mischievous, and imaginative in how they want to live their lives. This is the exact reason why the lovebirds want to get married there and then, not when they are old and boring like the adults around them. Besides creating a whirlwind among th...

Encanto (2021) Director: Jared Bush and Byron Howard Something is unsettling about this Disney animated musical. Sure the animation, the colour, and the music are spellbinding; it is the story that makes me think. When I overanalyse the story, the more I feel it must surely be a wet dream for the proponents of the woke culture (or nightmare, depending on how you look at it). Colombians running from their motherland from atrocities (which they think were perpetrated by the US) were ushered in almost magically into a land of magic. In this magical land (the US, maybe), they were all given special powers (read special preference) to help each other in a Colombian only community. Perhaps others (non-Colombians) do not matter. The next generation all grow up expecting to have special treatment - all the siblings and their siblings. They feel entitled to be treated differently. They deserve the magic that their predecessors received, even though their circumstances were different. When these...

Death on the Nile (1978, 2022) Director, Actor: Kenneth Branagh. Almost 85 years after its publication, readers and moviegoers are still discussing Agatha Christie's novel, 'Death on the Nile'. Her recurring character, the eccentric Belgian detective Hercules Poirot still excites writers and readers alike. After watching almost the whole season of Poirot's TV series, I thought it would be pertinent to compare David Suchet's role as Poirot to the two other actors who tried to create this character - Peter Ustinov and Kenneth Branagh. In reality, maybe 10 over actors tried their hand at giving life to this moustachioed fictional character. David Suchet as Poirot Personally, I vote David Suchet as the best Poirot actor. Maybe I had too much time indulging in the complete Poirot TV series. The TV series, episodes over episodes, builds a more composite image of the detective and exposes more and more of his personality as he delves deep into his cases. Suchet's portr...