RIFLE RANGE BOY

Have I Got Something To Tell You Author: Malachi Edwin Vethamani Listen Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell? Whoa, oh, oh Closer Let me whisper in your ear Say the words you long to hear I'm in love with you Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ooh… Not too long ago, that was how it used to be. Now it is 'on your face'. Personal liberty, self-expression, and space availability have led to this. We didn't start the fire; it was always burning… just that it has found mainstream.  Take the movies  South Pacific  and Ben Hur , which were made around the late 1950s. Movie connoisseurs would agree that those films had many not-so-subtle references to homoerotism. Nobody raised a red flag then, even though the American Motion Pictures Production Code (Hays Code) was quite clear about its guidelines regarding romance, gay issues, exposure of flesh and cleavage. The filmmakers tried to make South Pacific  a feel-good war movie. Aside from the lush jungles, sunsets and beaches...

Nyad (2023) Director: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi When do we pack everything up and call it a day? Is there a time frame within which we are expected to pursue our dreams, complete our bucket list and prepare our souls and minds to meet the Maker? Should there be limits to our wants, and is there a limit to the number of attempts one should give to an endeavour before calling it quits? Is age ever a deterrent to our effort to succeed? Should we give up and give it a go on another day when the going gets tough? Or surrender to let your descendants do it, or attempt it at the next birth? Most societies advise individuals to cool off after a certain age. Setting ambitions and fulfilling personal aspirations is left to when they are younger. Just how old is old? Things have changed drastically over the years. With increased longevity and the general well-being of the populace, we can live to push our bodies and minds beyond societal-sanctioned limits. Some expertise only comes wi...

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...

Benediction (2022) Director: Terence Davies In my formative years of childhood, I often wondered what it meant to be strong and have others follow your instructions. With my parents’ teachings, I assumed it came with age. Just as I was told to respect my elders, I assumed power and strength came automatically as I grew up. I thought maybe my deeds would carry me through. The Universe would balance off everything in the end. How naive? Bad things happen to good people and vice versa. There is no fair game. My bubble finally burst. Nobody gave me two hoots about my age. Everybody was trying to dominate the other with the power of articulation or wealth. Eskimos would be sold ice, and drinking water could be sold to unassuming naive dwellers of the tropics. As if nobody caught it when Evian spelt backwards is naive! Then I caught people selling the idea that time is cyclical and birth is repetitive. This birth is the punishment for the past and a test-bed for the future. Bunkum, I say. A...

Dahmer: Monster - The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) Netflix miniseries I was curious growing up in the mid-70s and watching all those American documentaries about serial killers. I often wondered why all serial killers came from a developed nation like the USA. According to the FBI, the USA currently has 2,000 active serial killers (325 million population @ 0.00006%). On top of all that, it has the most number of its citizens locked up in prisons. Is modernity directly correlated to mental illness? Perhaps the country's vastness makes one go cuckoo or makes it easy for them to think they can hide their trails and get scot-free. Now experts are telling us that the fact that many families who end up with single parenthood end with this problem. In keeping with rising costs, single parents have to leave their children unsupervised and work two jobs. Children have to learn things on their own. In the century of the self, prioritising individuals rather than communal or extended family li...

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Directed by Taika Waititi Soon after the March 8, 2014, disappearance of MH370, the world went into a prayer frenzy. People from various denominations were in unison in wanting to invoke their respective Gods to give a favourable outcome to the fracas. Despite all the fear of possible eternal surveillance by the powers that be, people soon realised that they could let a magnanimous Boeing plane go missing right under their noses with no recourse to recover it.   All the penance and the prayers proved futile as we have been made to believe that the vessel just disappeared into thin air. What is the response of the believers? Are you going to move on in life believing that the Divine Forces, in all their wisdom, work in mysterious ways and do what is best for mankind? Are they going to think that they had not prayed hard enough, or would they turn livid, believing that the Gods had let them down? These thoughts went through my mind as I viewed MCU's...

Badhaai Do (Congratulations Due, Hindi; 2022) Netflix Learnt a new word today, a lavender marriage.  Sure, the law has accepted the third gender and various sexual orientations. But, mind you, it is not universal and definitely not freely tolerated by many conservative communities.  To conform to societal expectations and pressures, many members of the LGBTQIA+ community get themselves involved in 'sham marriages'. Couples undergo lavender marriages to appease the family and conceal their socially stigmatised sexual orientations. This is not something new. Rock Hudson, Barbara Stanwyck, Tyrone Power and many more in Hollywood had made arrangements to save their careers. Lately, in Communist China, it has been revealed that gay men hook up with lesbian women through social media to show their 'wife' during the new year visits to prevent nagging from the family members. Same-sex unions are illegal in China.  Slowly, we can see that OTT (Over-the-top) platforms are trying ...