RIFLE RANGE BOY

Razakar:  The Silent Genocide Of Hyderabad  (Telegu, 2024) Director:  Yata Satyanarayana In her last major speech before her disposition, Sheikh Hasina accused those who opposed her rule in Bangladesh of being Razakars. The opposition took offence to this term and soon widespread mob throughout the land. Of course, it is not that that single incident brought down an elected government but a culmination of joblessness and unjust reservations for a select population group. In the Bengali psyche, Razakar is a pejorative term meaning traitor or Judas. It was first used during the 1971 Pakistan Civil War. The paramilitary group who were against the then-East Pakistani leader, Majibur Rehman, were pro-West Pakistan. After establishing independence in Bangladesh, Razakars were disbanded, and many ran off to Pakistan. Around the time of Indian independence, turmoil brewed in the princely state of Hyderabad, which had been a province deputed by the Mughals from 1794. The rule of N...

Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Clapped Star, Bengali, 1960) Screenplay & Direction: Ritwik Ghatak I saw him brought in earlier in handcuffs and was attended to by my seniors. I noticed that everyone was looking at him with judgemental looks. So as not to embarrass him further, I just immersed myself in work. Still, from the corners of my eye, I did notice that he looked too intelligent to be wearing prison attire and be shoved around like a common criminal. He must have seen me clerking the patients all through the afternoon, and there I was, still attending to patients at 10pm, as the first frontliner and the most junior of the staff. I must have looked gullible enough for him to quietly signal me to come beside him as I passed him by. . So, when he called me, I was curious. He complained he had chest pains that could be a heart attack and needed a certification letter that he had a massive myocardial infarction. I was scratching my head. At most, he could be having some musculoskele...

Sardar ka Grandson (Hindi, Sardar's Grandson; 2021) Netflix Somebody was comparing two pieces of land that were carved out of a more significant portion of land, circa 1947-48. See how the parent state reacts to the other. What a contrast!  In 1947, the Muslim state of Pakistan (1,030,000  km² ) was carved out of a large piece of land that was essentially Buddhist/Hindu for thousands of years. Despite all the bloodshed and emotional trauma that accompanied this creation, India, by and significant accepted the turn of historical events and carried on with life, trying to improve itself. In contrast, the tiny Jewish State of Israel  ( 22,000  km² ) was  reborn in 1948 after 2000 years in a place where their forefathers, thousands of years previously before, were exiled. Yet, their neighbours and their yeomen are hellbent on the state's annihilation. The problem is where to mark the beginning of history and selective bias of record to determine who was there first....

Tumbbad (Hindi; 2018) Interestingly, myths, folklores and scriptures of lands far away carry a similar line of storytelling. As a baby, we find Moses let loose on a waterproofed basket in River Nile to escape the Pharoah's clutches and how he was brought up in another family. Is it a mere coincidence that the cases of Karna whose mother, Kunti, left him in a basket in a river to escape shame and Krishna, whose mother, Devaki, did the same to escape the tyranny of an evil king strike a similar chord? Like that many similar stories are found in the Zoroastrian scriptures and even the Greek myths. One plausible explanation was given to Moses's comparable tales, Karna and Krishna is the time Jews spend in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar decimated Jerusalem and its first Holy Temple and took Jews as slaves to Babylon. Cyrus freed them and helped them to build the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Apparently, in the 60 years, the Jews spent time in Babylon they had assimilated some of the Hindu my...

Begum Jaan (2017) It seems that fire has a purifying quality. Rather than facing the wrath of the society and being their burden, death by immolation seems dignified. The flame has the innate essence of martyring someone. We saw in the tale of Padmavati, and we see it in the fictitious character named Begum Jaan.   Radcliffe's line did not only cause misery to the little people of both nations. It apparently went right through the palace owned by a self-made brothel madam, Begum Jaan. She thought she had everything under control when she rescued a few women out of misery, train them into the flesh trade to give them a footing in life. The local powers were kept happy by servicing their officials, and she got the protection of a soon to defunct royalty.  All that changed with the Partition. Overzealous in carrying out their civic duty, two of officials from both sides of the divide, Pakistan and India go to great lengths beyond their call of ...