RIFLE RANGE BOY

Knock Knock (2015) Director: Eli Roth [Remake of Death Game (1977)] My mother told me there was no such thing as a free lunch. When something is so good, it is probably not good.   From the movie Jurassic Park, we learnt of T-Rex's unique way of trapping its prey. With short, awkward dangling forelimbs and a bulky body but a voracious appetite for flesh, it had to devise its own way to entice potential dinner. It would send in or may in the vicinity of a benign and cuddly-looking small creature. When a more enormous creature (or human as in the movie) goes to admire the cute animal, T-Rex goes for the kill in the most brutal way.   Someone was warned in my circle when one member was quietly admiring a pretty young thing that passed on by. He was educated that humans also use this modus operandi to entice and pounce on their prey during their selective, lustful hunts.   After crying silently under the kingdom of masculine toxicity for so long, the fairer sex has turned the...

Untouchables (2019) The start of the fall of something big is always the same. The journey to the top must have been an arduous and an honest one. It would have been avant-garde or revolutionary then. Everyone would have liked it. Given the herd mentality that we all subscribe to, the response would have been palpably obvious with praises and felicitations that would rocket them to high heavens. The fame would have gone to the head of the progenitors. They would think that they are God-sent avatars beamed on Earth to change Mankind. They could do no wrong.  Those suppressed demons suddenly spring out. The rapacious appetite which was instrumental previously in launching their earlier fledgeling career now seems to have been diverted to satisfying their own primal decadent desires. The unabated admiration showered to them now is used paradoxically against the very people who put them up on a pedestal. Everyone can see their nefarious activities but are fearful of ...

The Morning Show (Miniseries; 2019) On the one hand, we want to empower the weaker one. We say do away with barriers. Let there be no fences between the bosses and subordinates. There should be no discrimination between the sexes. At the same time, we realise that hormones rage high in the spring of youth, at a time when everybody wants to set the right footing for their future. The race to perch at the higher branches has become increasingly difficult. The juicy fruits hanging at the top are so luring. Everyone wants to catch a glimpse from the coveted crown of the food chain. Everyone can give their time, dedication and knowledge towards this end. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Players have to dig deep into their bags to confer something quite primal to achieve their goals. What is wrong in a little flirting or exchanging little bodily fluids, they would justify, especially when they look at the bigger picture. Mission accomplished, and everybody is happy. Peo...

Super Deluxe (2019) Story and Direction: Thiagarajan Kumaraja Gone are the days when Tamil movie stories were rather two-dimensional. It used to be that there was a bright, distinct demarcation between characters. Everything was black or white; they were either good people or bad. And poetic justice would prevail at the end of the film, proving once again that the dharmic principles of life would be upheld. If you are one of those who is looking for a break from making daily-altering life questions to see gyrating bodies to soothing melodies nowadays, look elsewhere. I just happened to bump into this movie by chance as I was scrolling down the Netflix menu and saw one of my favourite actors, Ramya Krishnan in a leading role. I got hooked from the first scene itself. A young wife calls her ex-boyfriend college mate over for some hokey-pokey for old times' sake as her husband out on errands. Soon after passionate lovemaking, the lady discovers her lover stiff hard, out cold a...

The word 'consent' is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there are 'implied consent' and 'silence is consent', then on the other spectrum, are the murky waters of 'informed consent', as if consents are sometimes uninformed or imposed. We have also heard of 'consent under duress' which is by no means consent. In surgical practice, failure to divulge certain rare but real complications of an operation denotes carelessness and possibly negligence of the attending surgeon. As if the patient was not informed that surgery was a risky business. Recently I heard a podcast of consent of a different kind. In fact, this edition came around way before cry babies started screaming #MeToo! The latest version of approval is 'I agreed to this but not to that..."  A few years previously, in fact, a good full decade after a young lady (A) went separate ways with her best male friend (B), she decided to revisit the event that made them part ways....