RIFLE RANGE BOY

Penguin Miniseries (8 episodes) Even though it was supposed to be shot in Gotham City, we do not see a single shot of Batman or any resemblance to his existence in this miniseries. After all, it is a spin-off from Batman 2022 . It tells how Penguin turns to become a wealthy mobster that he is. It also serves as a cooling period before the first sequel to the trilogy comes out in 2027. This miniseries helps to maintain the DC Comic fans' interests before the dark-caped one makes his presence again.  The series explores Penguin, aka Oswald Cobb, 's rise to power. Often ridiculed for his physical handicap, Mama's boy decides to fight his tormentors through his devious, twisted mind and planned outbursts. From a disfigured run-around nobody, he becomes a feared gangster. Along the way, he picks up a faithful, quick-thinking sidekick. His nemesis is a lady from a gangster family who Oz killed and pocketed his new designer drug. At the end of the day, when one is well-heeled, no...

Animal (Hindi; 2023) Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga The mafia controlling Bollywood used to dictate to the Indian diaspora the whole over what constituted Indian culture. For a long time, they determined what ought to be screened as art and indirectly influenced the Indian way of thinking. They said songs are a must, so be it. They handpicked heroes and heroines and defined what Indian beauty was. They ensured dynastic continuity by continually launching doyens' offspring's careers. More often than not, the juniors tanked at the box office. Nevertheless, actors with real talents lost out due to a lack of patronage. The paymasters, aka mafia, chose who would be the main star and who played second fiddle. Preferential treatment was the order of the day for heroines. OTT platforms became a shot in the arm for second-rank filmmakers and actors not under the umbrella of the mafia. Movie themes became varied and more thought-provoking to accommodate Indians, who were clearly becomi...

Who Painted My Lust Red? Book #2 Who Painted My Future Bright? Book #3 Author: Sree Iyer (2020) There must be a reason why politics is labelled the second oldest in the world, after the flesh trade. Anything goes if the price is right. At least, that is the perception these books give an impression on politicians and people in power who make decisions that could steer the country's direction. Money determines everything. It lubricates, moves and generates more wealth. There is a dire need to push as the window of opportunity only opens briefly. Wealth needs to be accumulated in the short time power is handed on a platter. In the meantime, vultures and hyenas will hang around to scavenge or perhaps initiate the kill themselves.   In this fiction, Sree Iyer tells an account of a dog-eat-dog world of Indian politics. It is not all about Indian politics either. In an environment where everyone is yearning towards that one thing in life, money, nothing really matters anymore. The end ju...

FIFA Uncovered (2022) Miniseries (Netflix; 4 episodes) Direction: Daniel Gordon. It is the same story all the time. Something starts small with noble intentions but ends up filled with filth so much that it hits the ceiling so high that its stench fills up to high heaven. We are aware of the Indian Congress Party, which the British Raj established to give the natives a false sense of control of their administration, who steered the nation towards self-rule and have, over the decades, become a self-destructive political party. In the 21st century, its place in society is suspect.  In the same vein, UMNO (United Malay National Organisation), which had a pivotal role in claiming independence from the British, is now a power-hungry, corruption-ridden tyrant out to mill the country.  Of course, naysayers would insist that these parties were connivingly handed the rein of the country purposefully. The British still wanted to hold the purse strings of their former colonies and exert ...

Kutty ♥️ Story ( Short ♥️ Story, Tamil; 2021) Maybe because our attention spans get shorter, we seem to be content with short stories rather than full-length feature films these days. With the democratisation of viewing platforms, we, the viewers, never had it so good. Not only we get new faces to act, but we also have storylines that break the traditional, predictable plot of boy meets girl, meets opposition, but love conquers all.  Securing finance for new ventures had always been difficult for moviemakers. Banks and other financial institutions were not forthcoming with loans. Hence, the association of producers and the Mumbai mafia and their associates. The Mafia dictated who could act and even approved storylines. Their network ensured only certain Moghuls could rule the silver screen. All that came to nought when OTTs paid their clients upfront and were liberal with their storylines. Herein also lie the problem, some say. They allege that breaking India forces try to portray ...

Irishman (2019) Director: Martin Scorsese This movie received brickbats even before it came to the screens (or rather Netflix). Scorsese, maybe on purpose, stirred the hornet's nest by making a statement about the genre that seems to captivate the imaginations of the Millenials - the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). He asserted that the MCU world is not cinema but mere theme parks. To quote Scorsese, " cinema is about revelation — aesthetic, emotional and spiritual revelation. It is about characters — the complexity of people and their contradictory and sometimes paradoxical natures, the way they can hurt one another and love one another and suddenly come face to face with themselves. Marvel movies don't encapsulate those criteria." To be fair, even Alfred Hitchcock's and P Ramlee's movies were criticised in their days. There were said to be gruesome or too violent (Psycho) or crossing the social norms (Ramlee's Gelora). Even though the new franchises...

Ozark (Miniseries, 2017) The art of storytelling is the primary skill that keeps our human race going ahead with the passing of time. With narration, we are able to impart values and messages that help to carry through hardship. This skill also helps the leaders keep his flock together. When the herd is convinced with a precise narrative, its members would willingly crane their neck to the slaughter when the time is ripe. Traditionally, stories are laced with ethical values, and poetic justice would always prevail. Over time, this type of set-up, somehow, seem not to excite the general public anymore. They thought they heard it all. They wanted more. That is where our current stories seem to head. The main character of our tales are no more heroes but rather anti-heroes. They come with a dark past, involved in a subversive activity, and the whole premise of the storyline is get away scot-free from whatever crime that the protagonist is up to. The excitement is all abo...

Finally finished frying my gelatinous grey cells with all six seasons 86 episodes of the Sopranos. The filthy flowery foul 'f' prefixing 4-lettered sentences still keep vibrating in my inner ears. The six seasons showed the life of a couple in their mid 40s and their two teenage kids. Their relationship go through thick and thin as they battled midlife crisis, depression, infidelity, troubles arising from raging hormones from the teenage kids who think they know better than their parents who were thrice their age. It is surprising that even though the whole saga is fictitious, it ridiculously strikes a cord with parents of teenagers even in so called less developed parts of the world like ours. With globalisation, traditional values have taken a back seat and the younger generation are looking common universal values like human rights, self centeredness, lack of respect for elders and sanctity of 'good' values. This forms an excellent platform to showcase how the...

Getting my brains fried with overdose of the 'Sopranos the TV series' after managing to download Season 1-6. Just like a box set of DVD shows, this collection TV series is simply addictive. 'Sopranos' have been hailed as the best TV series of all time with 21 Emmys and 5 Golden Globes awards to boast. It falls in a genre which is somewhere between the typical mafia flick and a comedy. To say categorically that it is a comedy would not serve justice to the laughs coming from the laughing machines. It definitely does not instill that 'off the edge' nail-biting gripping experience of 'The Godfather' trilogy. The series gives us the feel of being a parody of sorts looking at the psychological stresses that a typical Italian mafia would go through the lens of a series of psychiatrist-patient sessions between the protagonist Tony Soprano and Dr Melfi in a series of flashbacks. It also pokes fun at the typical paradoxical American family who does things which...