RIFLE RANGE BOY

Hi Mom, Dad! What's Up?  Greeja De Silva The moment Elvis Presley went on stage gyrating his pelvis, belting his then-new number 'Hound Dog', the elders went white. To them, his suggestive moves were the mark of the beginning of the end, Armageddon. Nearly seventy years on, we are, however, still very much rocking. Ironically, almost all toddlers make Superman out of their fathers. This admiration slowly dwindles as puberty hits when opinions about the perspective of life clash. They grow apart with the passing years only for the toddler, now a middle-aged father of an adult child himself, to realise the 'Superman-Ubermench' capabilities of his old man.  All these are nothing new but generational gaps. The generation next looks at their predecessors as obsolete and the elders at their offspring as decadent and self-destructive. Even Socrates must have thought the same of the youngsters of his times that he thought his death by hemlock would awaken them.  Of course, ...

Laal Singh Chaddha (Hindi;2022) Bollywood version of 'Forest Gump' Director: Advait Chandan Even before Aamir Khan's latest film made it to the silver screen, a large portion of India's population, or at least those vocal on social media platforms, went on a crusade demanding its boycott. The threads #banLallSinghChaddha and #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha gave the impression that the movie was demeaning to the Indian psyche.   It all stamped from the time following the events of the Gujerat riots. Aamir Khan, an essential icon in the average day-to-day Indian's going on, as all Bollywood of is and movie stars are, made a public statement that he, a Muslim, and his then-wife felt unsafe in intolerant India. Khan later earned the public ire in 2020 when he was photographed with the First Lady of Turkey, Emine Erdogan, after filming in Turkey. President Recep Tayyib Erdogan, at that time, was quite vocal about the aberration of article 370 in Kashmir and had clearly stated h...

One of the most learned members of our clan, Uncle Shan RIP, was once working as the head of a reform school for juvenile delinquents. In his later years, long after his retirement, he used to reminisce about some of the exciting situations he encountered as a counsellor. I remember one such scenario. By and large, the school inmates were of extremely high intelligence. The only problem was that their true potential was hijacked by negativity. A teenager was admitted after being caught breaking into a home with his friends and sent to reform school. Uncle Shan used to have pep talks with him. The message that stuck with him was what the young man had told him, "if only my father had smacked me on the head the first time I came back home late, I would not have spent how much time outside and got entangled into the wrong crowd!" The children do not know what they want. Oh, what the heck? Even adults do not. That probably prompted Steve Jobs to say about mobile phones, "Peo...

Mandi (Market Place, Hindi; 1983) Directed by: Shyam Benegal It was a time when Bollywood could not go wrong. With their vast array of capable actors, there controlled the narrative. Even though initially, Bollywood catered for the masses. It tried to put forward the leftists' agenda, and the rest of the population would just feed off their hands. So when Bollywood made a movie out of a classic satirical novel with prolific and talented actors of that era, the likes of Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Om Puri and Amrish Puri, it became an instantaneous national and international hit. It has a string of accolades under its belt to boast. Things have turned 180 degrees since OTT platforms democratized movie releases. It seems that the Bollywood mafias are struggling to produce even a single hit. All their recent releases have tanked repeatedly. Conversely, unknown newcomers often shine at the top. This movie takes a sarcastic look at the unholy alliance between the madame...

The Mirror Crack'd (1980) Director: Guy Hamilton Gene Tierney was acclaimed for her great beauty in Hollywood. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 and even had a brief affair with JFK before he had political ambitions. After a performance at a World War 2 fundraiser event, she was kissed by a fan convalescing from rubella. Unbeknownst to her, she was in her early stage of pregnancy. She went on to deliver a baby with multiple birth defects due to congenital rubella syndrome. Gene Tierney spent the rest of her life emotionally disturbed caring for her baby. When Agatha Christie read about the actress in 1962, her creative juices must have worked overtime to imagine the feelings of a grieving mother. Gene Tierney Of course, there cannot be Agatha Christie's whodunnit with no murders.  Ms Marple, in 1953, is residing in a small village in the English countryside. A film crew comes to the village to do some shooting. In midst of all the excitement,...

Uski Roti (Your Bread, Punjabi; 1969) Direction: Mani Kaul A discussion came up with a friend the other day. Rama and Sita are hailed as exemplary beings who lived to the expectations of how a human should live on Earth. Take the perspective of Sita. A princess by birth, not exposed to the rumble and tumble of living in the wild, had no choice but to follow her husband, Rama, when the King decreed that he should spend 14 years of exile in the jungle. Playing the role of a good wife, she just followed without any opposition.  Through no fault of hers, she had to endure the kidnapping and incarceration in Lanka. She did not develop Stockholm Syndrome but stayed steadfast that her beau would save the day. When she was eventually rescued and finally returned to Ayodhya, she was not hailed as a good wife. She was instead used as a bad example when a dhoby refused to accept his wayward wife back to fold after being caught in a possible remorseful affair. Rama, living up to the role of a ...

von Trapp family More often than not, I have been told right on my face not to live in the past. I have been cajoled into coming out occasionally, taking a depth of fresh air and smelling the roses. They fear I may soon become an ancient relic that only deserves to be admired in the museum. They ask me to burst my comfortable bubble of the past, leave the sunrise and head towards newer horizons.  They even tell me that 'nostalgia' is a negative word. The suffix ' algia ' denotes pain for a reason. Not too long ago, the term 'nostalgia' was a medical term used interchangeably with melancholy and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  So, if I were to believe all that was told to me, nostalgia would be avoided at all costs. I think nostalgia in the modern context is more romantic, re-imagining a time if it actually did when things were hunky-dory, and the world was safe. All these are, of course, mere bunkum. We were just too naive to realise that evil was l...

Love and Loss Author: Malachi Edwin Vethamani Maybe life has an innate plan to trap individuals. In the spring of youth, when hormones are raging high, we make hormonal-linked decisions that decide our futures. Somehow, hormones control rational thinking. The prefrontal cortex that controls analytical thinking is hijacked by impulses. We take the plunge dazed like a drunk monkey, like a prancing horse with blinkers, head on like sacrificial lambs, only to realise that we are in trouble deep when the dirt (or blood) hits the ceiling. The path into this journey called love stirs all the primal suppressed emotions. It lights up so many intoxicating feel-good emotions within us that we never knew existed. We are swept off our feet, the world is a utopia, and we only see goodness in everything. Maybe nature wants us to sow our seeds far and wide; perhaps it is just its way to improve the selection of traits. We lose interest. We get bored with the same routine and want freedom. We yearn to...

Duvidha (Dilemma, Hindi; 1973) Director: Mani Kaul Watching this movie is akin to a voyeur spying upon his neighbour. The camera work is peculiar in that it sometimes takes shots of the face over a long period, sometimes only at body parts or inanimate structures. The scripts delivered are like rote reading without emotion, as one would hear a conversation at a distance. Nevertheless, these add to this presentation's exclusivity and an arty feel. In a way, it reminds me of the story of Ahalya, found in Ramayana. Ahalya, the prettiest woman, carved out by Brahma, was married to an old sage, Gautama. Gautama is more interested in fulfilling his spiritual duties rather than spending time embraced in intimacy with his young wife. So, when the lustful Indra, the God of the skies, appeared in a split image of Gautama, the sex-deprived Ahalya performed by wifely duties willingly. Gautama had a premonition of all these, cut short his prayers and returned home to catch them in the act. Ahal...

Bliss (2021) Director: Mike Cahill This is one of the movies that one will either love or hate; get it, or it just passes by! I thought it was good. It helps the rest of the population not be affected by the complexities of a confused mind.  Quite often than that, to the lucky ones unaffected by the hardship of modern living, it is sometimes how certain decisions should be made. And we cannot understand why the mentally ill repeatedly make wrong life decisions. They plunge continually into states of helplessness and hopelessness.  Greg (Owen Wilson) is a staff in a call centre-like office. Even though his superior keeps calling him to the office, Greg is immersed in his own pencil drawing of his dream holiday villa. We gather that he is divorced. Even though everybody else is huffing and puffing, busy answering calls, Greg is in bliss, adding details to his drawing.  When Greg finally meets his boss, he is shocked to find out he has been fired. Greg shoves his boss aside,...