RIFLE RANGE BOY

Three of Us (2022) Director: Avinash Arun Dhaware Memory changes with time, but time is independent of memory. Time, a construct of man, moves on as our Universe expands toward entropy, with or without our existence. The memory we hold so dear to our hearts has become our badge of honour as we traverse through life. Our memories of life are our crowning glory. In our minds, as far as our life is concerned, time fits into the concept of Sasa and Zamani as described by JS Mbiti as an African concept of time.  Sasa covers a time already experienced and an extremely brief future. Our Sasa, the memory of the past, becomes more significant as we spend more time on Earth. It goes on as long as we, as an individual or a community, can remember an event or someone. After that, Sasa goes into Zamani, the graveyard of time where everything ends. The memory of loved ones and ancestors lives on in Sasa as they are reminded of them through regular rituals and anniversaries. Hence, in African phi...

Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) Director: Alankrita Shrivastava This is one of those movies which could not be screened at a film festival in India because the censors could not clear it for public screening. I was later accused of being too 'female-centric' and pornographic in its audio and visual narration. After a few cuts, it was passed for viewing. The fact of the matter is that they cannot be too kosher when the theme of the story is about female sexuality and its suppression thereof. To be frank, this 2016 film is mild compared to what people in 2023 can access on their streamed platforms in their dialogue and boldness in showing skin. On the subject matter, one cannot help but compare it to 2023'sAmazon Prime's 'Four More Shots'. Both may appear to be talking about women's empowerment or feminism. At deep scrutiny, one will realise that the emphasis is different, poles apart. It also shows how the women's movement had evolved from one demanding ...

A Summer Place (1959) Director: Dalmer Daves This must be a bold movie when it was made in the late 50s, talking about infidelity, teenage promiscuity, behaviour and sex. With all the restrictions on American movies' code of conduct, they pulled this out. The movie starts with a summer vacation mansion that has seen better days. It is run by a husband-and-wife team (Bart and Sylvia). The husband is an obvious dipsomaniac, and the wife is apparently uncontended with life. They have a soon-to-go-to-high school son (Johnny, acted by teenage heartthrob Troy Donahue). Business is barely sustainable as the husband, who inherited it from his father, is more interested in keeping himself inebriated.  In comes a millionaire with his wife (Ken and Helen) and teenage daughter (Molly, acted by Sandra Dee, typically typecasted as an ingénue, simple girl) to stay for the next three months. The juicy story behind it is that the businessman used to work as a lowly lifeguard there and had soug...

Good evening. A warm welcome to everyone here. A special welcome to Raphael and Maggie. Selamat datang to the rest and Marc’s family and friends. I guess Marc’s family and friends are no longer Marc’s alone. They are ours, too. Accept our humble salutations.   In the Indian tradition, more often than not, they  want their firstborn to be a male. Back in the 90s, when Divya was born, friends would give unsolicited advice. “It’s ok. The next one will definitely be a boy.” - as if we asked for an opinion, as if they knew, as if we cared. Then Tania was born, and they again gave a sigh.  And again, as if we asked. Rinse and repeat. That is until Keshav and Danny rolled along. 30 years on, I can stand proud and say they have done well in their own right.  Many years ago, my friend was getting married. As the main event was over, he saw his father-in-law give a sigh of relief, caressing his chest. He was heard telling his friend, “Ahh, my big headache is over!” ...

101 Albums You Need To Hear Before I Die (2023) Author: Martin Vengadesan There used to be a time, back in the 90s, when I used to wait eagerly for the weekly entertainment pullout from a mainstream newspaper. Martin Vengadesan’s fortnightly article on rock and roll music and juicy titbits behind the people and bands that hit the charts and excited music enthusiasts are a sure pull factor. Infused in the writings was his apparent political leanings towards the left. It must have had quite a following as the column went on for quite a while. Then, out of sight and out of mind. I went on to do other things in life and just remembered all about the articles when I met the author a few years ago in a reading group. Who better person to narrate the juicy little backstories behind the singers and bands of generations that passed? This must be the quintessential go-to book to remind us and travel us back to the era when music was religion, politics, freedom, empowerment and expression. Now, i...

Kathal: The Core (Malayalam; 2023) Director: Jeo Baby In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. Four couples were chosen to have their wedding broadcast on TV. One of the couples was Hèléna Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus. Like a flock of seagulls to the shoreline in summer, journalists worldwide made a bee dive for it. One interesting point that a Chilean journalist was heard telling the world was that the lesbian couple was so ordinary. He had expected them to exhibit in full glory iconography of their sexuality, smut or menageries sexual of nature. Well, I think that is the problem. Hollywood and our society always stereotype members of the LGBTQI community as sex-crazed people engaged in sex orgies all around the clock. It is forgotten that they also yearn for the same things in life as others: peace of mind, security and knowing what tomorrow may bring. Being gay is more than about sex.  This Malayalam movie is one of the rare on...

Saltburn (2023) Written & Directed: Emerald Fennel Growing up, we were engrained into our psyche as if being rich was sinful. The bedtime stories and the fables that were fed to us always put the rich guys as the bad ones. The poor guy will always come out tops with their ‘good virtues’. Stories will invariably end with the rich guys repenting or giving all their wealth to charity, which will put them on a pedestal. The miser is a villain. The King who gives all his wealth is good, and the one who is a spendthrift is bad. The vagabond who gets thrashed around will have a good life. The underdog will prevail in the end. We were taught that being poor is favourable and being ambitious is not favourable. We should have a humble and simple life. Wealth is meant to be divided. An individual should not keep too much wealth. Hey, does this not smell of communism? Now, in its own quite bizarre way, this film is telling us what we were taught is all bunkum. Of course, we knew it all the whi...