Future as we make it or is predestined?

Macbeth (2015)


It is amazing that a writer in the 16th century can pen out such a play so intricate in its emotional interplay. This is, of course, the work of a particular man of commoner stock from Stratford-upon-Avon. Playing the main character of this play seem to the lifetime ambitions of many an actor including Orson Welles, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Lawrence Olivier. Michael Fassbender reprises the role of Macbeth in this 2015 production.

Perhaps the only people in the world who do not have a sense of guilt are the psychopath. Otherwise, most of us are drilled upon us to build a wall of guilt within us that sometimes makes us lose our balance. The guilt that we are made to feel eventually eats us up. Despite the urge to survive and need to outdo and overrun others to succeed is there, most of our upbringing makes it mandatory for us to fell guilty. Sometimes, we dig our own graves, and our actions themselves push us in. 

The evil that lurks that compels us are not necessarily imbibed within us. They sometimes come to us by association. Despite the claim of many major religions of the world, the perception that one about them is one of misogynistic. The fairer sex is always portrayed as conniving or at least appear to think by emotion rather than by volition. They are also painted to act partial, incapable of meting justice.

Victorious soldiers Macbeth and Banquo return home after defeating Nordic soldiers. In the twilight of confusion, three witches with a child and an infant appear before them. They prophesied that Macbeth would be Thador of Cawdor and future King while Banquo would be the father of Kings. They passed it off with giving much attention until he receives news that he indeed had been appointed as the new Thador after the previous one was executed for treason. Macbeth narrates the prophecy to his wife. 

When King Duncan decides to visit Macbeth, Lady Macbeth instigates her husband to grab his chance for the throne. Macbeth kills the King. The guilt of the killing and subsequent crimes drives Macbeth to paranoia. Lady Macbeth, upon seeing her husband's brutality in burning women and children at the stake drove her to suicide.

Sure enough, the predictions of witches do come true when Macbeth, who thought, had the invincibility of having the boon of not being killed by a "no man born of woman" is killed by Macduff. Macduff was probably delivered by Caesarean Section (from his mother's womb / untimely ripp'd).

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Same rules apply*

Filth (2013)

They say there is goodness in every one of us. Even the most condemned person on Earth has an ounce of kindness in him. Youtube videos and social experiments are plenty to highlight, and we probably feel good that humankind will survive despite what the doomsday philosophers and naysayers say or do not say. But then, why is so much violence, hatred and animosity in this world?

Well, the same people who profess goodness in us are the same ones who utter that goodness is subjective! What appears as good to one may seem evil to another. Feeding stray dogs may be a noble deed, but it may draw so many strays to one particular area that it may be uncomfortable for some. The fear of fights between well-fed dogs over territory or the spread of illness may be a concern.

Back to the homo sapiens instance, the evil thoughts that disturb the community's equilibrium are conveniently blamed on the dark forces, the black dog, the crows, black magic or Satan. In modern science, this inability to conform to societal demands is blamed on the imbalances of neurotransmitters. Of course, deviously planning to rock the system for personal gains is also abnormal, e.g. psychopaths.

This Scottish dark comedy set in Edinburgh is an entertaining story with a twist at the end. What starts appearing as a comedy slowly evolves into a devious tale of corrupt cops, police brutality and backbiting among colleagues to grab the coveted post of Detective Inspector.

The seemingly happily married protagonist, Det Bruce Robertson, is anything but monogamous. He is also seen drinking too much. And cops snorting cocaine too? And why is the Mrs only appearing as a narrator? Then, it dawns upon us. He actually has a severe mental disorder. His wife and child have left him, and he is left alone to deal with his non-compliance with medication, refractory illness, hallucination, unresolved guilt of a sibling's death in childhood and the race for promotion.
Bruce slowly spirals down the ladder of helplessness to decay into a mess leading to a disastrous outcome.

An underrated movie which nobody talks about—an intense but entertaining film with an excellent performance from James McAvoy.

*'Same rules apply' - a line at the movie's end that left everyone guessing its meaning in that context. This probably refers to the mantra of a self-centred person only interested in ensuring his goal is attained. No matter how much it hurts the bystanders, he does not give a damn!

Outlander, a Sessenach amongst the Highlanders

Outlander (Season 1, Miniseries; 2014)


If you believe in Dan Brown's novel, 'The Da Vinci's Code', then you may be thinking that the fairer sex once ruled the world. Men, once hunters, spent many hours away from the household while women ran the cave. They were awed upon as being the givers of life as they produced offsprings from their bodies and were given God-like status. This arrangement worked just fine. The pagan worship style incorporated this magical ability into their appreciation of the Forces beyond their comprehension. All that ended over time as Man became gatherers started living in communities and with the advent of a monotheistic way of worship. Men became the more dominant one of the sexes. Even in the Hindu mythology, dominant earlier female characters like Draupadi, Satyavathi and Madhavi disappeared over time.

This is the angle I seem to look when I watch this Highlander themed British miniseries. Outlander or a Sassenach (Saxon in Gaelic) is a kind of derogatory term used by the Northerners upon their self-proclaimed cultured conquerors from the South.

This topic of women empowerment comes about in this series after a 1945 combat nurse, Claire Randall nee Beauchamp, who had just completed a difficult time saving lives in the just concluded world war, goes for her well deserved delayed honeymoon in Inverness. Her husband, an academic, has a keen interest in genealogy and would discuss his research with her. She had developed a passion for herbal medicine. The viewers would find that this knowledge forms the crux of her adventure or misadventure later.

On the morning after a particular pagan ala Halloween celebration, Claire who goes in search of wildflowers gets sucked into a monolith and is transported back in time. When she comes around, she realises that she is trapped in 1743 at the height of the showdown between the kilt-clad brave Highlanders and the highbrow Red Coats, the English.


Claire, herself an English, uses her finesse, wit, medical knowledge and the benefit of history to manoeuvre herself around and to stay alive. She is initially hell-bent on returning to the future. Expectedly, things get complicated. Initially, she was kept as a captive by the Scots only to be suited to a hunk. She also discovers some past unsavoury history of her 1945 husband's ancestor!

It is ludicrous to swallow the idea that the storytellers are expecting us to do; that an educated and liberated woman of the 20th century would fall for an 18th-century savage who has specific visions of the place of women in society and that she could command such respect amongst a somewhat primitive society. What about the language, the choice of words, the ever-changing trend of sentence construction that would make communication with a Gaelic-speaking community a nearly impossible task? Do they expect us to believe that love would conquer all and is strong enough a motivator to stay trapped in time sacrificing all amenities of modern living like electricity and clean drinking water?

Put that all aside, and it is an eye-opener. Humankind has not changed much since antiquity. Two hundred years ago, they were fighting to exert power and to monopolise; nothing has changed since!

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What gives? What it takes?

A dejected kilt-wearing Scotsman walking back to day time
job and back to reality....

Since King James I/VI united Scotland and England under the same umbrella after his mother was abdicated, imprisoned and eventually beheaded for treason, Scots had always been feeling that they have been short changed. The impression that I got when I was there is that the Scots were just waiting to break free from the union.
The recent referendum outcome obviously proved me wrong.
Come Monday, it is back life and back to reality. The nay sayers and the yay sayers have to bury the hatchet, hold hands, walk into the sun set and be embroiled in the daily challenges of life.
That is life. No matter what differences we have harbour against each other and the outcomes that may despair us, we have to carry on with life with a straight face.
To all the people who think that we are being hypocrite by not standing our ground and rejecting all kinds of actions that contradicts our belief, I say get real. At the end of the day, the equilibrium and sanctity of the institution has to be preserved. This can also be said of a family. A family member may have certain strong beliefs on certain subjects. By comprising and adjusting his decisions to accommodate the desires of other members, it is by no means indicative of a weak leadership or sucking up to populist sentiments. Life is a game of give and take. It is a game of tug-of-war where the final outcome is determined by what gives and what it takes!

What is Scotland without whisky?

The Angels' Share (2012)
Whisky must be the single most important contribution of Scotland to the world. Forget short bread, haggis, shepherd pie, tartan and Sean Connery. But don't forget that the distillation technology was introduced by the Arabs to produce aromatic perfumes. Then of course, there is this debate whether it is 'whisky' or 'whiskey'. Generally the word 'whisky' is used by Scotland, Canada and Japan whilst 'whiskey' is used by US and Ireland.
They wanted to make a movie with Scotland in the background. What better way to showcase the country than to use whisky as the main theme? Put in a few tartans, show some picturesque view of the Highlands with a distillery to make you believe that God's land must be like this, sprinkle in some thick Glaswegian and Scottish accents, some youths with problems and viola, there you have it. A successful award nominated film! This formula works all the time. Remember '4 weddings and a funeral'?
This film brought in nostalgia of the time in autumn and winter of '94 when I spent some time in Edinburgh.
For the records, 'angel's share' is the name given to part of water and alcohol that evaporates during the ageing process of whisky in oak barrels.
Robbie, the hero of the film is a delinquent who frequently gets into the wrong side of the law. In spite of beating a guy almost blind, because of his partner who is due to deliver soon, he is given another chance. He is required to do community service. The officer in charge of the team, Harry, takes a liking to Robbie and encourages him. Soon Robbie's son is born and his wife, Leoni, makes it clear that their son should not a life as his father.
Harry invites Robbie to join him at a whisky tasting meeting in Edinburgh. Robbie's fellow members of the community service, Albert, Mo and Rhino, also invited themselves in. At the meeting, Robbie discovers that he had the nose to appreciate the intricacies of a vintage whisky.
One thing leads to another and we finally see the team of four heading to the Highlands to somehow lay their hands on a  newly discovered age old one-of-a-kind vintage whisky which is to be auctioned off. The rest of the story tells how Robbie and his crew hoodwink the distillery and the auctioneers to get a piece of the merchandise without anybody realising, just like the angel's share which goes missing and is unaccounted for.
With the money he acquired from the sale of the rare whisky, Robbie start life anew with his partner and son. The remaining of the gang decide to get stoned!