Showing posts with label Mafia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mafia. Show all posts

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

The end justifies the means?

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, nobody is bothered by how one acquires wealth. He simply slides into high society. Money sanitises everything. Evidence can be manufactured, security can be bought, and one can obtain the best justice money can buy. The end determines the outcome, not the means to reach it. 

Colin Farrell delivers an incredible performance as The Penguin. His prosthetics, receding hairline, and distinctive tilt in his walk make him virtually unrecognisable. 


Monday, 5 February 2024

It's good to be bad?

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 becoming more erudite and exposed to world affairs.

Watching 'Animal' reminded me of the Bollywood doyens who are still stuck in their own ways. Though outwardly Bollywood seems to promote literacy, women empowerment and liberty, they feel it is perfectly alright to shove thrash down the throats of those who still live smitten by the glitz and razzmatazz of the nostalgia of the yesteryears, when indeed the silver screen was in its golden era.

Being contradictory is an understatement. As India evolves to become the soon-to-be third biggest economy in the world, Bollywood stereotypes India as a basket base where law and order are non-existent. Ladies have improved their educational and economic standards over the years. Yet the filmmakers feel it is okay for a female character to lick the protagonist's boot to prove her love. Can anyone justify having an affair by quoting that that was the only way to save his father from assassins?

The main message I got from the movie is that everyone needs to be an alpha male and pick their mate. If they lack the prowess of alpha, they can be a poet or musician, tell sweet lies, and pin down their mates anyway! That was the law of the jungle, but since humans are animals but left their cavemen lifestyles long ago, the rule still stands.

The filmmakers thought if 'Kill Bill' and 'Pulp Fiction', with all the senseless killing and gore, could do well, why not 'Animal'? The things they forgot are, firstly, they are not quite Quentin Tarantino. Secondly, the audience came to watch a mainstream Indian movie, which is generally family-friendly, not a fringe ‘artsy’ restricted offering. The fact that this film still sizzled at the box office baffles me.


Tuesday, 6 June 2023

Painting reality in words?

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 justifies the means. All values held in high esteem in previous generations just go out of the window. Those who managed to scale the wall of wealth have it all. Once the Rubicon is crossed, everything else can go to hell - friendship, honesty, compassion, loyalty and humanity.


Hindus have an apt explanation for all of these. The great god-kings who appeared on Earth long ago were merely akin to what Plato would describe as philosopher kings. They were mortals elevated to demigods' status because they did what was right and just for the greater good. 

Iyer tells of an unholy alliance between Indian bigwig politicians, cricket officials and players, Bollywood, entrepreneurs, the mafia and a significant number of shady characters who bring tremendous value to the association by fixing all loose ends from setting hotel suits to appointments with big-shots to discrete hawala money transactions with a minimal service charge. Money begets money. Money as a social lubricant beings on power. The mind wanders to yearn for other bodily pleasures when zeros on the currency do not really matter. People are so gullible. Put some pretty face with hunky cricketers with God-like followings; people are bound to be interested. In a cricket-crazed country like India, the cricket league is big money. Running the Indian league from a God-forsaken place like Dubai means away from the scrutiny of Indian enforcement. Dubai is only interested in your money.


Against this grain, some will still believe in righting the wrong. Traditionally, law and order is maintained by the various arms of the administration. The press forms the Fourth Estate to do further checks and balances. Unfortunately, when the whole machinery is corrupt, and self-interest supersedes national aspirations, more creative ways must be derived.

In the meantime, the goalpost of what is right is constantly shifted to suit the flavours of the times. Conversely, seven-century wisdom is spewed as the legitimate decree for humankind to follow.

India boasts of being a Visvaguru (global teacher) to the world, as it was before the 15th century. It was then the wealthiest country in the world, controlling more than half of its wealth while the rest of the world was in darkness. India, in its previous avatar, was a cultural icon. Everyone in the modern world then wanted to emulate Indians. Its culture transcended its borders to adjacent lands and beyond its shores via its extensive shipping lines.

If India is not just reminiscing its glorious past but instead to re-establish its former status before it was flattened by colonising powers, it has a long way to go. It should keep in check with its own backyard. The civil service is wanting of a long deserving facelift. There is an urgent need to erase corruption as an accepted practice. The courts need to get their acts to mete swift justice.

The book narrates a fictional account of everything the author has been broadcasting over his channel all these years.

Money makes the world go around. Money even makes a corpse move, it seems.

Book #2 @ 'Lust Red' takes readers to the world of cricket match-fixing, honey trapping. money-laundering, hiwara services to ease transborder money transactions, blackmails and a lot of horse-trading. Political leaders, Bollywood bigwigs, high-ranking government officials, the mafia and ill-defined creatures who fix anything called middlemen make their presence felt amidst all the dealings. They determine the outcome of matches and make a killing from the results.

Book #3, 'Future Bright' reveals the confusing web of Indian politics. Taking a swipe at current and past leaders, it also presents Pakistan as the villain whose sole existence is to destroy India. Like Will E Coyote's repeated failed antics to trap Road Runner, Pakistan again and again has muck on its face as the endeavours fail miserably.


The setting of the book is strikingly similar to contemporary events. There is no denying that the characters here are no different to current national leaders and figures. The greatest fool among all these is the average citizen who fails to see beyond what is shown. They remain clueless about all the backdoor arrangements and arm-twisting manoeuvres behind the scene by people entrusted by the people to lead the nation to a brighter future.


(P.S. It seems Kings of yesteryears were so good. Perhaps people looked at them as God's representation on Earth, hence, are infallible. Maybe they were the true philosopher kings that Plato advocated so much. From a Hindu cosmology point of view, we are in Kali Yuga, the decadent times. People are supposed to be degenerate and materialistic. The last time the world had good kings was Rama in Trata Yuga and Krishna in Dvapara Yuga.)


!--Go to www.addthis.com/dashbo

Wednesday, 30 November 2022

Money changes everything!

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 a stronghold on how their economies should be steered whilst ensuring their own interest.


In the same way, FIFA started as a genuinely non-profit entity with the noble intention of wanting to improve football standards around Europe. Over the years, when money got intertwined in the equation, it grew too big for its boots. Soon everything had a price, from advertising to sponsorship to hosting to even a vote for a seat in the executive committee.


The path to hell is paved with good intentions. In 1974, a Brazilian industrialist, João Havelange, decided to incorporate business into this body. Their bank accounts became fatter and fatter. Other governing bodies (CONCACAF, AFC, OFC, CONMEBOL) from different parts of the world soon joined suit. With an obedient general, Sepp Platter, promoting the game to the remotest part of the world, their coffers grew. Contribution from the sponsors did not reach their intended targets but allegedly lined the FIFA officials. 

In their zest to stay in power in FIFA, officials were bribed to buy votes. Over the years, investigative journalists exposed their shenanigans in the open. The coup de grace came to light with the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 hosting of the World Cup by Russia and Qatar, respectively. One by one, the ugly crimes of the heads of various soccer bodies were uncovered. FBI came into the picture. James Warner of the Carribeans, Charles Blazer of the USA and 14 executive committee members of FIFA were implicated in vote buying and widespread corruption within organised games. 

FIFA is run like a Mafia-like establishment. Sepp Platter is portrayed as the godfather of what is supposed to be a charitable body to genuinely promote the game of soccer. At one point, Platter is even accused of having narcissistic tendencies, harbouring the intention of wanting to receive the Nobel Peace Prize!



Sunday, 28 March 2021

Modern love

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 only negative images of India (ala Slumdog Millionaire).

This collection of four short stories looks at love, what else, and its problems in four different scenarios. 

In the first story, எதிர் பார முத்தம் (Unexpected kiss), the age-old topic of platonic love is discussed. Is it possible for a male to build a friendship with another person of the fairer sex without having romance interfering in the bond? In their forties, a group of old friends reminisce about the protagonist's fling in college over a round of drinks. Now, married to a different girl, he denies any romantic link then or ever. The girl, after migrating, now returns and sets a meeting with the protagonist.

The next one, அவனும் நானும் (He and Me), talks about unplanned pregnancy in a college girl and the mountain of decisions she has to make to deal with it, whether to terminate, to give for adoption or modify her life ambitions. This, she has to decide amidst the fear of disappointing the parents and the society's hawkeyed look.

லோகம் (Universe) is a slightly different presentation. Two gamers, both with different avatars and anonymous identities, meet in a game. The male gamer falls in love with the girl in cyberspace but loses her contact when her avatar dies during a crucial moment. The lovestruck gamer reveals his feelings during a radio interview, and they are reunited. Most of the story is told in animation. The take message is that the world can be pretty depressing for some people, and they have to create false personas to find happiness. We hide our cracked interior by applying a thick mask of makeup to put up a happy front.

ஆடல்-பாடல் (Dance-Songs) explores the lopsided societal viewing of infidelity. A man's occasional fling is forgiven but not a woman's. A husband and wife, with a young child, have to deal with this problem. The wife lures her husband to respond to a flirtatious phone call and catches him read redhanded. He apologises, only to tell the wife that she had a short fling with her ex-boyfriend after her marriage. This riles up the husband. He uses his resources to uncover the identity of her boyfriend. After sleepless nights of research, he realises his double standard. They were no such person. Why does society expect the female community members to portray a perfect picture of chastity, but the bar is significantly lowered for the patriarchy?

It is an excellent and refreshing set of short stories, even for the not so lovey-dovey type. 


Monday, 9 December 2019

Daddy loves you! It is what it is.

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 are said to be final products of market-researched and audience-tested, as well as a matter of supply and demand and giving people what they want, there is still place for good old storytelling set in reality.

'Irishman' is based on by Charles Brandt's book 'I heard you paint houses'. It is supposed to be a confession by the protagonist of the tale, Frank Sheeran. He admitted having killed Jimmy Hoffa, a unionist and a mobster. In real life, Hoffa is said to have disappeared since 1975 without a trace. Since then, many have come forward to vouch that they had killed Hoffa and had their versions too. Sceptics have accused Sheeran of making the last kill (money wise) for the family as he struggled in the nursing home counting his end of days.



It said to be a presentation of septuagenarians trying the reminisce the good old times of the genre they are familiar with - Scorsese, De Niro and Joe Pesci and mob movies like 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino'. For good measure, they roped in Al Pacino, Don Corleone himself. 

As the story spans over almost 30 years, and they were utilising aged actors, the filmmakers had to use digitally de-ageing technology on them. MCU fans had a field day attacking Scorsese as it was in one of MCU films that this science was initially introduced - Michael Douglas in 'Ant-Man'.




This three-and-a-half offering tells about Sheeran, a WW2 veteran, who gets entangled with the mafia. He finds it rewarding to support his family. In the course and subsequent to this line of duty, he has to make many life-altering decisions. There is only so much of Mafia-related movies one can watch, the loyalty, the killing and all the coded talk. But still, there are some valuable points to ponder while watching the movie.

People can make a living or make a killing for a living. Ultimately we all work hard to ensure that the generation after us is not deprived of the things that we yearned and never got. We do not want them to go through the similar 'hardships' that we went through. But no, the offsprings will never appreciate this. They would look at the actions of their elders through a different prism quite contradictory to what the adults value. They (the youngsters) fail to appreciate the environment upon which their elders made the decisions they made.

Morality and kindness do not matter in desperate situations. When your next meal is not a given thing, your yardstick of what is right and what is not is malleable. This type of innovation can be seen in slumps and refugee camps. People become imaginative on how to survive, to fulfil their primal desires and acquire money. Somehow, money still remains the panacea of all woes.

This must probably be what Sheeran must have been thinking when he was sending his last few days in a home. All his friends and mentors were dead. He was the only person who would probably carry all his secrets to the grave. He was alone. His wife was dead, and his daughters shunned him for his association with the mafioso.

The question remains. Did he concoct the whole story for his children to savour the fruit of the returns of the royalty of his story? Even though Sheeran admitted in the book to have made the difficult decision of putting a bullet in the head of his mentor Jimmy Hoffa, many others claim to have done the same. Sheeran's story, it seems, did not collaborate with police records. Was the tale spiced up to show Sheeran making the difficult decision of following the orders of Russel Buffolini, his guru, versus killing Hoffa who was a thorn for the mafia? Haffa was possibly going to leak the secret of unionists monies being used to finance Mafia’s Las Vegas casinos.

The movie also suggests that JFK's assassination may have been arranged by the Mafia.






Wednesday, 8 November 2017

The dark shadows beneath

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 about evading apprehension.

Purists may say that these guilty pleasures are actually stirrings of our primal desires that we have suppressed so long. For most of the time in our lives, we were expected to live our lives to the moral codes set by the society. Our every action was supposed to be exemplary for the generation next to emulate. Every member of the community had the sovereign right to criticise each others' seemingly wayward action. Now, every man is for himself. In the century of self, it all about self-gratification, self-exploration, self-discovery and self-development. Nobody lives for anybody else anymore. We are talking about individual rights, not doing the 'right' thing. In this post-truth era, there is more the 'right' thing to do. For every action which looks noble, we can just come up with a thousand and one reasons, why it can be damaging instead.

'Ozark' is a miniseries which just triggers these thoughts in its viewers. Marty Byrde, a financial advisor, has to sanitise a Mexican drug lord's laundered money in a record time to avoid repercussions. The excitement of seeing Marty using his wit, quick thinking and rhetorics to save his life and his family. Also hot on his trail are FBI agents who can sense that he is up to something no good.


Thursday, 5 July 2012

Hypocrisy of man

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 these sugar craving short-attentioned, instant gratified teenage punks' inertia and laid back attitude to challenges of life. Whilst their parents would embrace life head on for survival, their offspring tend to take things lying down, enjoying the finer things if life.
The adults' hypocrisy is highlighted in their overtly sinfully bad lives. The same hand that the guys use to cross their heart in the shape of the Holy Cross is the same one that pulls the trigger of the gun that is pointed to his foe's heart. After doing their clandestine criminal and extramarital acts, they religiously present themselves at church events. With all these going on, the adults expected their kids to be disciplined and God fearing.
The show takes a swipe at the our modern life's preoccupation with psychiatry rather than rationalise our stress to it. At the end of the day, the psychiatrist stopped seeing the protagonist after her contemporary's research which suggested that sociopaths use their sessions to justify their criminal activities. In spite of all the psychological pains in the family, all of it disappeared over time as the kids grew older and more mature spontaneously with passage of time.
The cast of the Sopranos has given an oral history of the show to the new Vanity Fair. Even star James Gandolfini admits the final scene, in which his family goes out to eat and the screen went dark, left him baffled
Tony Soprano justifies his actions as he provides for the family. The wife prefers to wear the blinkers as long as the money is there. The children feels their life 'sucks'. They lack the fighting spirit and coping mechanisms that their parents  had. The glaring difference between the two generations is poverty.

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

The twisted tale of a stressed out mobster!

Sopranos titlescreen.pngGetting 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 are generally accepted as wrong but still try to instill 'good' values in their kids! The failures and under-achievements are all blamed to their family line!
So far I have finished watching the first season of 9 episodes.
It starts with Tony Soliano having a panic attack. After exhausting medical investigations to ascertain the cause of his apparent loss of consciousness, he is referred to a shrink. Reluctantly and incognito, ensuring none of his circle of men are aware that he is psychologically unbalanced, he sees a lady psychiatrist (whom he also has erotic dreams about)!
Legitimately he is in waste disposal business in New Jersey but in real life, he disposes people who does not toe the line. He is frantically trying to find an answer to his medical condition at the same time dealing with stresses around him. Stresses come to him in many forms - a domineering and demanding mother who is forced to stay in a retirement home after she accidentally almost burnt her house down but she is still calling the shots; the run the mob with some many backstabbing subordinates; his 'incapable' uncle Junior whom he made boss but Tony has to make all his decisions; his hot-blooded assistant who thinks he is 'Scarface'; the wife who disproves his line of work but does not mind the remunerations; a smart teenage daughter who knows his activities with her own set of growing pains; a laid back teenage son whom Tony finds desperately to bond; fear that his children might know his job - as if they did not know; with his Russian young almost-teenage mistress and the authorities, of course! And there is a whole gamut unresolved issues of a young Tony growing up in a household where his father was always in and out of prison, sibling rivalry, seeing his father getting arrested by the cops and growing up with an overworked frustrated mother.
Living up to the reputation of being a mob film, there is a lot profanity hurled at each other even in something which appear like a friendly banter between friends or family members! (only rivalling 'Raging Bull' in the number and most creative usage in the four lettered word which starts with an 'F'!). I can understand why it did not make it our shores, especially when Tony Soprano's daily hang out joint being a topless pole dancing bar with graphic view of the near full Monty performers flaunting their well endowed medically enhanced assets gyrating around a pole ! With all our censors' butchering, it would have been a silent movie with jerky shots of a running cameraman!
The take home message that I got was that the Italian Americans depicted here ate, drank and behaved like hell. You can only blame so much to your genetic, upbringing, unresolved childhood issues. It may look like an escapist route to rationalisation and brooding but we all have to just grasp the situation at hand and make amends. If you are in the mob, however, it is easier said than done!
If you don't hit for them, they will hit you!


N.B. After the 2001 Twin Tower  mishap, most American shows do not depict this icon in their presentations. Some studios even cut older scenes with the icon in the background so as not rekindle bad memories. In the Sopranos' opening credit, it is shown in Tony rear view mirror.


P.S. Why is it that there must be an psychological explanation for everything we do? 

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”*