RIFLE RANGE BOY

FIFA Uncovered (2022) Miniseries (Netflix; 4 episodes) Direction: Daniel Gordon. It is the same story all the time. Something starts small with noble intentions but ends up filled with filth so much that it hits the ceiling so high that its stench fills up to high heaven. We are aware of the Indian Congress Party, which the British Raj established to give the natives a false sense of control of their administration, who steered the nation towards self-rule and have, over the decades, become a self-destructive political party. In the 21st century, its place in society is suspect.  In the same vein, UMNO (United Malay National Organisation), which had a pivotal role in claiming independence from the British, is now a power-hungry, corruption-ridden tyrant out to mill the country.  Of course, naysayers would insist that these parties were connivingly handed the rein of the country purposefully. The British still wanted to hold the purse strings of their former colonies and exert ...

Carey Island - Historical Island (Tamil; 2022) வரலாற்று சிறப்பு மிக்க கெரித்தீவு Author: M Govindasamy In 1988, when I was a doe-eyed newbie starting work in Klang, I was assigned to many in-patients who hailed from a peculiar place called Carey Island. I swear I knew the small islands around Malaysia, but I had never encountered any Carey Island. In Penang, where I grew up, my contemporaries and I tried to excite ourselves by quizzing each other and trying to locate islands on the atlas. Our interests were piqued by the people manning the now-defunct ferry services between Penang Island and Butterworth. The ferries were named after islands around Malaysia - Langkawi, Tioman, Pangkor, Redang, etcetera. The name that excited us most was Pulau Babi Besar. Sadly, Pulau Babi Besar is now renamed Pulau Indah, as the previous name hurt the sentiments of small hogs and those who perceived the animal as unclean. Carey Island is no island at all. It is part of the state of Selangor, which is di...

I used to be fascinated with the term 'money laundering'. At face value, it looked simple enough - to cleanse money obtained via unsavoury means and to put them in circulation whilst giving them a legitimate source of origin. Was it a coincidence that Al Capone used a laundromat to store and 'cleanse' his ill-gotten gains during Prohibition?   As the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is in progress, another word frequently mentioned is 'sports washing'. Traditionally sports have been utilised to cement friendships between nations. It has also been used to spur nationalism among its own citizens. For years despotic regimes whitewash their sins with the glamour of sports. During the 1936 Olympics, Hitler tried to paint a new image of a rejuvenated Germany after the humiliating defeat in the trench War and to prove his supremacist Aryan race theory. Sadly, Jesse Owen's achievement simply threw dirt on Hitler's face. Then it was the Argentinan junta who tried to whi...

All Quiet on the Western Front (German, 2022) Director: Edward Berger Ancient Chinese philosophers, Lao Tze in particular, used to say, 'In War, everybody loses'. But on the other hand, Sun Tzu, the author of Art of War, the military treatise of the 5th century BCE, noted that amid chaos, there is also 'opportunity'. In 1913, Henri La Fontaine obtained the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding work in peaceful internationalism. He asserted that the world, in the 20th century, had done away with wars and destruction. Believe it or not, the following year, Europe went into an essentially civil war which snowballed into a World War when the European colonisers sent their subjects to die in the greatest battle to end all wars. Clive's plunder from  Battle of Plassey (Palashi) Auctioned at £3m World War 1 never put an end to anything. Its effects are still felt today. In essence, Ukrainian War can be said to be an effort to end loose ends that were never resolved. As we ...

Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom (2022) Documentary; Netflix Humans thought living in big numbers protected them from the elements, predators and even enemies. Security concerns were taken care of by the individual community itself. It was jungle justice with no higher justice to recourse. Might decided what was right! As communities coalesced into country-states, the job of security and protection was outsourced to the State. Suddenly there was no reason for the average citizen to hold powerful weapons. The duty to apprehend and punish wrongdoers was outsourced to State-owned agencies. These agencies were supposed to protect all levels of society, the powerful and powerless alike. It looks all nice on paper, but in reality, the mission statements of these agents are mere rhetorics to pacify the vote bank. The minorities and the weak can only cry foul, fill up the newspapers and breaking news segments and spit on the system. People will bear with the imperfections of the system. ...

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) Director: Park Chan-wook Koreans seem to have a tradition of feeding on white tofu, which is symbolic of starting all over again. It is symbolic of wanting to turn over a new leaf, leaving the lousy past behind and starting anew. This is much the same as when one confesses in a Roman Catholic booth. All his sins are purged, and he begins life on a new slate. Is it really that simple? To put your past behind you and move on as if nothing happened. I suppose that is why cultural practices and religion offer an olive branch to wrongdoers, assuring them they deserve a second chance in life. Devoid of these, if Man were to carry all the burden of guilt all his life without atonement. If Man were held responsible for all his actions without reprieve, he would probably end up dragging his past mistakes as a grinding mill around his neck to end up being a raving lunatic. Suicide would be their only outlet to relieve them from this misery. As mentioned in the ...

Samsara (in Tibetian and Ladhaki languages; 2002) Directed, Written by: Pan Nalin I remember an episode when my house cat was engaged in a staring contest with a stray cat. My cat was inside the comfort of my home behind a glass door, staring intently at the other through the clear glass. In my mind, I imagined what thoughts could have crossed their nimble feline brains. The stray would probably be envious of my cat. It would imagine a cosy life, free of the cruelty of the elements, time to pampers oneself licking its fir in place and feeding time on the clock. It would have wished to swap places. My cat would probably be jealous of the stray. The stray would be the master of its own destiny. Everywhere it decides to lay its butt, it is its home - freedom. My cat may not realise that it may be minced meat one day in the world of catfights. The stray would not live one day in the sterile environment of a home feeding on pellets called cat food. It may want to hunt its prey and tear into...

Blonde (2022) Director: Andrew Dominic Films are just that - Maya, all illusions. All of us are lured to the charm of Maya. Some lose time and focus on it. Others even lose their health, future and life in the celluloid make-believe world. The Mafia that controls Hollywood (or Bollywood, for that matter) has had its hands almost since its inception. The Mafia-controlled group of moviemakers and studio owners, Walt Disney included) dictated which stories the world should consume. They started controlling the narrative on what is deemed justice, what is evil and even what is morality. The paymasters also micro-manage the lives of actors and actresses. They exert a monopoly over film production and distribution of movies by buying movie theatres.  The private lives of movie players, as they were referred to in the early years of movies, were not confidential. In the early years, viewers were not keen to know about actors. It was the stories that mattered. They were the domain of these...

Ponniyin Selvan Part 1( பொன்னியின் செல்வன் , Tamil; 2022) Director: Mani Ratnam Kalki first published these fictionalised historical stories back in the 1950s in a weekly magazine. The stories were penned by Kalki Subramaniam and printed in Kalki magazine in Chennai. These stories were hugely popular and had developed a cult following. People were fascinated with the vivid narration and witty dialogue. The publication's readership at one time was 71,366 - a formidable number in newly independent India. Kalki Subramaniam had been a freedom fighter. As early as the late 50s, attempts have been made to make a movie of Kalki's 'Ponniyin Selvan'. MG Ramachandran bought the rights to the story but failed due to financial constraints. Mani Ratnam attempted it in the 1980s and 2010s but failed again. After the delays posed by the pandemic, it finally hit the silver screens in 2022.  Now, this film is said to be the fourth highest-grossing Tamil movie of all time, and people are...