A rescue mission that almost never happened!

Manjummel Boys (Malayalam/ Tamil; 2024)

Director: Chidambaram

I was intrigued by this movie after reading two articles. The first detailed a legal dispute between Ilaiyaraaja's side and the producer. The dispute arose when the producer used Ilaiyaraaja's song composition as a background without obtaining permission. This incident added an exciting layer to the movie's production. The second article discussed the Tamil Nadu Home Secretary's directive to the Kodaikanal Police to investigate police brutality against complainants, which also played a role in the movie's plot.

This is a gripping tale of a rescue mission that took place in 2006. A group of young men from Majummel, Kochi, embarked on a trip to Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu, a popular tourist destination. While exploring, the men made a fateful decision to venture into a restricted area. Tragically, one of them fell into a seemingly bottomless pit. The story unfolds as the remaining men, faced with a group of apathetic officials who had essentially given up on their friend, embark on a daring mission to rescue him. 

This survival thriller is based on actual events. The cave the young men entered has a long and checked history. It was first described in 1821 by a British officer who christened it 'Devil Kitchen'. It caught people's attention when it was featured in 1991 Kamalhaasan's hit movie, 'Guna'. Since Guna, a mental patient in the film, used this cave as his hideout, it came to be referred to as 'Guna's Cave'. A catchy song from the movie, 'Kanmani Anbodan,' is used liberally in this movie and has become a bone of contention with Illayaraaja's camp.

As many as 16 victims have plunged into the pit in Guna's Cave, but none have been rescued. Even a Central Minister's relative had fallen into this hole. All the available resources could not rescue or not so much excavate his remains.

Roots of Guna Caves ©Shutterstock 

So, when the Majummel Boys ran to the Kodaikanal Police for help, the police were not too enthusiastic in carrying out rescue missions, looking at the cave's track record. In fact, they were beaten up, accusing them of trying to cover up a murder. The fire and forest departments were not helpful either. No officials dared to go in hoisted on ropes with so many urban legends floating around. Long story short, the boys and the local people hawked on the police and rescue teams. One of the Manjummel Boys, Kuttan (Suji David), volunteered to go in. After many tense moments, the victim (Subhash) was found alive and rescued. Kuttan went on to receive a State award for bravery. Subhash remains the only person rescued after plunging into the hole in Guna Caves.

This movie is a visual treat, with stunning cinematography that captures the beauty and danger of the cave. The camera work effectively conveys the tension and fear experienced by the characters, adding to the overall suspense of the film.

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Is love jihad even a thing?

The Kerala Story (Hindi, 2023)

Written & Directed by Sudipto Sen

 This movie is kicking a storm in India right now. It is outrightly banned in West Bengal by the ruling party. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the courts have allowed screening for the time being, but the case is due to be reviewed in the Supreme Court soon. 

Some cinema hall operators have voluntarily decided not to screen the film for fear of reprisal from angry mobs. They cite not wanting to offend Muslim sentiments and the possibility of property damage. This only shows the schizophrenic nature of society. On the one hand, people talk about freedom of expression; simultaneously, there is a need to control the narrative.

The controversy stems from the story's theme - love jihad and forced conversion. A Malayalee Hindu nursing student tells her life story. A bubbly student dabbles with Islam and is lured into marrying a Muslim man after inadvertently getting pregnant. She is brainwashed to hate her roots and family, is forcibly converted, given a new identity and packed off to ISIS-controlled areas to be a sex slave. The film suggests a concerted plan by Muslim groups to identify pretty Christian and Hindu girls and lure them into Islam. The protagonist lives to tell her ordeal after she escapes one of these ISIS hell holes. 

So what is the controversy all about?

Muslims have repeatedly asserted that jihad in Islam refers to the internal striving to improve oneself and fight inner demons, not a crusade to convert the world or assert dominance over others. They insist that ISIS' brand of Islam does not follow the teachings of the mainstream Islamic schools of thought. It represents a warped understanding of the religion. Unfortunately, practising Muslims are wary of outrightly condemning their antics to protect the sanctity of Islam. They feel it is not their position to judge and condemn for fear of being labelled a heretic. The punishment for apostasy is quite unnerving. This gives the religion a bad reputation among non-believers and widens the fissure between the ummah and kaffirs. 

Does love jihad exist? Is there a concerted effort to proselytise non-Muslims? In certain tribal societies in Central Asia, a man proves his virility by kidnapping his bride. This practice was prevalent with Turks about the time of the inception of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks found the blonde, blue-eyed Caucasian girls easy targets. Within a few generations, the Turks, once with Mongoloid features, became indistinguishable from Europeans. This practice worked perfectly well for the Empire to spread its influence and faith, as the conversion was assumed to be a one-way ticket. One can check out anytime but can never leave. 

Reports of girls leaving the comfort of their cushy lives to don purdahs and carry rifles heading for ISIS suicide missions in the name of love of religion (and beau) are not unheard of. The story of Shamima Begum and her application to reinstate her British citizenship comes to mind. 

This love jihad business is often portrayed as an RSS and BJP's political propaganda and an Islamophobic Trobe to polarise society for political gains. Interestingly, this phenomenon was first highlighted by a Bishop in Kerala way back in 2009. The presiding High Court judge in a forced conversion case that ensued later agreed that there was a well-known movement known as Love Jihad or Romeo Jihad. The official figures for this are elusive, but one finding put 1,400 from diverse ethnic backgrounds in India as victims.

In many so-called 'right-wing' YouTube channels, there is much coverage of Hindu groups supposedly rescuing Hindu and Christian girls from such ordeals. 

Even though accusations of sexual grooming of societies have been making their rounds for some time now, it is only of late that people in power have woken up to the idea that many communities in the U.K. and Sweden, particularly of Pakistani descent, have been slowly building a web of emotional and hierarchical connections with their young to intentionally manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Investigations into this gained momentum after the 2010 Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal in the U.K. The Prime Minister of the U.K. even admitted threats imposed by such groups and is under their scrutiny.

Finally, all the parties that hurl accusations and counter-accusations at each other have only one agenda. It is a numbers game. The endpoint is usurping power and control. Using victim card to garner sympathy and invoking God's name in their actions, the ultimate aim is to win elections. It is not about doing the right thing or being fair. The end justifies the means.

Meanwhile, the film's financiers are laughing all the way to the bank as the film smashes the box office and grosses unprecedented returns on investment. So far, in such a short duration since its release, it is said to be the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film of 2023.  

(P.S. The events portrayed in the film were reportedly inspired by the accounts of four women from Kerala who converted to Islam and travelled with their husbands to Afghanistan to join ISIS between 2016 and 2018. They were interviewed by a news website in 2019. They were part of a 21-member group from Kerala to join ISIS in 2016 and have remained incarcerated in Afghanistan since surrendering in 2019. The figure of 32,000 victims of love jihad mentioned in their trailer (later withdrawn) may have been exaggerated.)

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An early freedom fighter!

Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham (Marakkar: Lion of Arabian Sea, Malayalam, 2021)

Screenplay / Director: Priyadarshan

Of late, many movies seem to highlight and bring to the fore the many freedom fighters in India who had been lost in the annals of history. They failed to make it into the mainstream history books as the syllabi were written either by colonists or the sympathisers of their colonial masters. It seems many of the non-Muslim empires that ruled valiantly with impressive CVs like the Cholas, Pandyas and Vijayanagar just remain in the folklores and children bedtime stories. Luckily, the current generation of scholars appears to be digging deep into the dusted palm leaves and forgotten scripts to remind everyone of the nation's fallen heroes.

Long before Jhansi Rani rode to fight the tyranny of the East India Company in 1857, there was Queen Velu Natchiyar from Sivagangai District, who holds the reputation of being the first Queen who fought the British. In 1780, with the allegiance she built with Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore, she reclaimed her land from the British invaders. She formed the first all-women regiment named Udaiyal Army. Her aide/adopted daughter, Kuyili, is said to be the first suicide bomber. She had doused in ghee and oil, immolated herself and walked into the English ammunition depot.

Then there are Bhagat Singh, Veerapandia Kattabomman, V O Sithambaram, Chandra Bose, the INA and many more who hardly gets mentioned in the mainstream narratives. Thanks to the new generation of moviemakers, the general public is able to view these oft-forgotten icons of yesteryears on the silver screen. 

The current tone in India portrays Muslim marauders as looters and destroyers of India's past wealth and glory. They bear the single burden of destroying the whole web of scientific wisdom that existed there before their invasion.

 

Not wanting to be left out in the sea of the revival of the long-lost Hindu warriors, Muslims of India probably dug deep into their armamentarium to unveil this 16th-century defender of the motherland. This film is perhaps the result of that.

Kunjali Marakkar
Memorial
©Nmkuttiady

In the 16th century, when pirates were hailed as national heroes, naval power was king. We remember a time in British history when the British Crown rewarded pirates for stealing off the Spanish ships that carried gold and silver from South America.

By the early 16th century, the Portuguese had reached the Malabar coast. Many European nations were eager to find an alternative route to the spice trade controlled by Arab traders. Slowly and indeed, the Portuguese befriended local warring chieftains. Trouble brewed when a new law dictated that spice could only be traded through the Portuguese, upsetting their age-old traditions. 

The Marakkars are said to be seafaring people who have their origin in the Arab peninsula. They had settled in Kochi and were involved in the King navy and shipbuilding. The Marakkars had been helping to fight the Portuguese in many wars. 

This movie is a biopic of the fourth Kanjali Marakkar, Kozhikode's ruler's fleet Admiral. After his family was doublecrossed, the Marakkars go underground, performing minor thefts. Their help is summoned when the local chieftains feel that a combined effort is necessary. One of the slaves aboard a Portuguese ship, Chinnali, joined the Marakkars to give the Portuguese a run for their money. 

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You are more than what you eat!

The Great Indian Kitchen (Malayalam; 2021)

After being denied by many OTT channels, because of the Sabarimala Trials' running narration in the background, it made its presence in an obscure platform, NeeStream in Kerala.

No, this is not a cooking show showcasing the numerous mouth-watering cuisines from the Indian kitchens. Instead, it is an India bashing film to portray the slave-like conditions in which some Indian brides live as 24/7 cook, wife, servant, and gardener. Simultaneously, in this particularly orthodox Hindu household, she is locked away in a small room away from everybody view for a good one week every month. She is considered dirty and should not be allowed to prepare food, as it is regarded as a divine duty to feed the family's males. 

Coming from a family with liberal views on women empowerment (the protagonist was a traditional dancer in a previous life!), she flips one day. She was done with making adjustments to fit in every time. She called it quits and resumes her former life as a Bharat Natyam teacher.

Surprisingly, female gender had been typecast to play second fiddle in a typified patriarchal society. What happened to the likes of Ubhaya Bharati who had been given the honour of judging a philosophical discourse between Adi Shankara and her husband Mandana Mishra circa 700AD.  When her husband was outclassed by Adi Shankara, she debated with the latter.  

The Vedic society gave equal place for women in society. Pāṇini, 400BCE, the Master Sanskrit Grammarian, advocated women to study the Vedas equally with men. In his Mimamsa School of Philosophy, there were women philosophers. Mahabharata tells of polyandry and strong female characters. What gave? Did the meddling of Indian education by the British and Abrahamic religions dismantle an already functional traditional education system?

Many traditional societies view menstruation as unclean body fluid, and many restrictions are attached to it. 

Sinu Joseph, an engineer by qualification and a menstrual educator, has researched much into traditional Indian outlook and tries to give an Ayurvedic scientific explanation to the body during that time of the month.

According to the agama shastras, each temple is designed to energise a specific chakra. By extension, each temple can have a particular impact on the body, and even a different effect on the male and female body. 

This is also used to explain why menstruating women have been barred entry into temples. Traditionally, temples have been looked upon as, not as a place of worship, but as charging pods. Its location concerning magnetic forces of the Earth, its alignment, geometry and placing certain metals within its building makes it an opportune place for sojourners to rejuvenate themselves to meet the challenges of the day. A menstruating body has many internal hormonal circuits to handle, and entering such an institution may have a different impact on the internal milieu. According to the agama shastras, that the author cites several times in her book, each temple is designed to energise a specific chakra. By extension, each temple can have a distinct impact on an individual.  Different restrictions have been placed by other worship houses to a targeted group of the population, i,e, ladies in the reproductive age group and restricted entry into the Sabarimala temple. There are even temples exclusively for women! Men are disallowed here. Talk about a reverse Sabarimala, but nobody talks about it.

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Affairs of heart are irrational

Sufiyum Sujathayum (Sufi and Sujatha, Malayalam; 2020)

It started with a slow but discernable sporadic increase in reported cases of Hindu girls eloping with Muslim boys. Then came in the honour killings. The media picked it up. Everyone else then came out with their experiences of so-and-so female members of their families ex-communicating from the rest in pursuit of true love. To these girls, it finally meant embracing a new religion, new name, erasing themselves of their past lives and age-old traditions.

People started calling this phenomenon as 'love jihad' - a supposed form of religious warfare by Muslim boys to entice Hindu girls into conversion through marriage. It was a numbers game. They allege that that was another modality to increase their representation in the community. In 2009, it garnered national attention with claims of widespread conversions in Kerala and Karnataka. There were also similar accusations by British Sikhs and minorities in Pakistan. Even though the National Investigative Agency (NIA) in India found common instigators in 'love jihad' cases, the police and the court dismissed them as pure fabrications with no substance. As there was a hypothesis that these brides were prepared to be made ISIS bride, it became a terror issue, hence, NIA came to the picture. 

Another point not mentioned in any of these arguments is the lack of young boys in many of the places where 'love jihad' takes place. There were no economic opportunities in these states and the young men had to go off to work in the Gulf States or Singapore. Young girls with raging hormones and Muslim boys, in the spring of youth, left behind to mind religious and theological duties were the best ingredients for a perfect storm. And suave hunks with Bollywood movie-star look as many of these Sufi practitioners have, as some are from the Middle East, sparks are bound to fly.

As these girls who are alleged victims of forced conversion were major in the legal sense and were intelligent and educated, the courts could not nullify such unions. Anyway, affairs of the heart are never logical and cannot be argued in a sensible manner. Blinded by romance, the world is a wonderful place and pigs can fly.

Even though movie pundits on the social media hailed it as another must-see movie of 2020, I seriously think one can give this one a miss. It tells the story of a vocally-challenged Hindu Karthak dancer whose only job seems to be to cycle around the village and play with children in the madrassah. In the small town where the only member of the male gender is an uncle or from the geriatric population, a tall bearded young man is a sight for sore eyes. She is fascinated with him and his way of life - his mystical dances and songs. She falls flat for him despite the arrangements made by her parents for her to be married to a groom working in Dubai.

Long story short, she is emotionally blackmailed by the parents to get married.

Ten years on, she returns to India with her husband, after the Sufi lover dies. The rest of the story is about her letting go of her boyfriend and coming in terms with her status as a wife and mother, leaving her juvenile puppy love behind.

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We are here!

Gowri (2016)
Author: V G Kumar Das


As our leaders frantically try their level best to rewrite history as they seem fit, to satisfy their personal agendas, there is no better time than now for books like this one to come out. In fact, books of this kind are long overdue. 

Family narrations of this nature must surely be a regular feature in most Malaysian Indian family circles. In fact, it is the story of economic immigrants the world over. The push factor drives a brave group of fortune seekers to go beyond their shores to explore greener pastures. Accommodating to the demands of their new found lands, with the trust in God Almighty, these new sojourners persevere. 

Losing everything and gaining nothing by becoming sluggards, they know that hard work is the only way to unshackle themselves from the clutches of poverty. Inadvertently, their labour pays back in their and their offspring's standard of living. The incidental beneficiary of all these is the development of the nation-state.

'Gowri' is a dedication of love from a doting son to his mother. The author had to grow overnight to adulthood to be the de facto 'head' of the family after the demise of his father when he was mere seventeen. He, in great details, tries to trace his immediate relatives and puts the records straight for the descendants of Madam Gowri Panicker to know where they came from, the labour of the family in establishing themselves and exerting themselves vigorously as lawful citizens of this country. 

Treading through thick and thin, from 1939, along with the history of the country, through World War 2, the communist insurgency and the dizzying era after Malayan Independence, the family, can proudly say, "they were there!"; from the inception of Malaysia to its current state.

Another recurring theme in most Malaysian Indian family's success story is education. Its importance cannot be overemphasised here too. Gowri, who had the misfortune of being deprived of higher level education because of some family issues, understood its importance. She ensured that her children had the opportunities for what she had missed. She herself was a role model for her kids as she self-taught English and Tamil and was a voracious reader.

It is enlightening to see how siblings of the bygone era sacrificed for the wellbeing of their siblings. In this fast-changing world of self-centeredness, I wonder if this virtue would still hold in time to come.

The generation before us was definitely a resilient lot. They encountered adversities headlong with calculated risk and with the trust in God. It is incredible how the belief in the divine forces can make one stronger beyond their own expectations. Rather than thinking and overthinking, sometimes putting the responsibility on the celestial bodies and entering combat wholeheartedly allays uncertainties in life. If you win, you thank God; if you fail, you accept that it was not meant to be.

Life is an unpredictable journey. There are no distinct paths to follow. The road least followed could open new frontiers, but conversely, it could be your coup de grâce! Accepting that the Gods are silent, Man looks for other telltale signs. Astrology and signs of Nature are taken as guides; chirping of lizards, fluttering of eyes, sneezing and chiming of clocks all denote hidden messages for us to consider!

The story of Gowri is the story of her new Motherland. Just like how Gowri and her family grew their roots deep into Malaysia, Malaysia also prospered in tandem. Like her children who spread their wings to the four corners of the world, the pride of the country flew majestically over the globe via the hard work of the immigrant population like Gowri who decided to call this country home and of their descendants who were willing to toil, sweat and bleed for this nation.

Running through this biography, one gets the feeling as though the ultimate question about our existence may be answered. The dilemma whether our presence here on Earth is to savour the fruit of our previous favourable karmas or to be a testbed for future births. The answer is neither; it is to propel our kith and kins forward, one notch higher than the generation before them. Period. 

 https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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