Man's best friend!

Dog (2022)

• Directors: Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin

• 
  Many years ago, a close relative was going through a rough patch in his life. One of his family members was slogging it out with malignancy. Melancholy was the mood around the house, understandably. Even though the best treatment option available in the country was at their disposal, the anxiety was still hitting the roof. Somebody introduced them to a saffron-robed God-Man to treat their unseen demons lurking at every corner.
  
  After listening to their story, the first thing he asked them to do, after the usual prayers and appeasing the stabilising powers of the Universe, was to get a dog.
  
  A dog? Everybody thought. A dog is not known to be the cleanest of animals, as some see it with their outdoorsy propensity and drooly nature. At the end of the journey, after giving the coup de grâce to the crab, it turned out to be the best decision they ever made. The family became a dog lover and has had many dogs after that.
  
  The dog gave them comfort and happiness through their antic and diverted the owner's attention from the thrills and spills of day-to-day living. Because these furry friends do not speak back, argue, or demand, they are easier to deal with. That makes dogs better than humans. There is nothing to compare between dogs and cats. Dogs think you are God, as they show up all excited, tails-waggling, soft barks, jumping about ashamedly, showing their pleasure. However, cats are only seen if you need to feed them. Cats know the master is not God. After spending aeons with royalty like Cleopatra and having been painted on Egyptian walls, they think, maybe they know there are Gods!
• 
  
  This movie shows how two combatants from America's numerous just wars, suffering from PTSD, find themselves recovering after interacting with each other. Jackson Briggs, who had a head injury and is still on medication for headaches and seizures, is trying very hard to return to duty. His superiors are not too keen, however. He is instead given the responsibility of escorting a military dog, Lulu, who also has PSTD (it seems that dogs also suffer from PTSD!), to his handler's funeral. The long, eventful journey from Washington to Arizona proves therapeutic. After starting on the wrong footing, they soon discover common ground to heal.
  
  A dog remains Man's best friend.

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No milk today

Ma Ka Doodh (Mother's Milk)
Written, Produced and Directed: Dr Harsha Atmapuri

One of the important reasons for choosing breast milk over formula milk, which is formulated on cow's milk, is that cow's milk is for calves. Just like humans should be fed breast milk.

Calves drink milk when they are young. After a certain age, they start eating adult cow feed. And the mothers stop producing milk soon afterwards. Like calves, humans do not have to drink milk throughout their lives. But, no. We have been advised to include milk in our daily diet to ensure adequate calcium and other vitamins.

This documentary tries to convince us that the reality is far from this. The maker, a doctor turned animal activist, is trying to investigate the milk cattle industry around India on how it is run and how the cows are treated.

There is a concerted effort to criminally increase milk production manifold, much more than cows are actually able to produce in physiological situations. Profit is of paramount importance. It supersedes compassion and kindness. Everything is dollars and cents (or rupees and paise).

We tend to think that nothing can get purer than milk. Its pristine white hue gives it a special place in society that it is fit to be offered to the Gods. What the dairy industry does to cattle is more than cruel. During his lifetime, Gandhi made it a point never to consume cow milk due to the ill-treatment of cows. He only drank goat's milk throughout.

Firstly, only female calves are allowed to survive. Newborn male calves are just killed as they are useless in the cattle industry. Feeding them to adulthood for meat is just not economically viable. Nobody uses bulls for manual work. Tractors have taken over their place.

Cows grow up in restricted spaces, with no chance of roaming around to graze. They are fed in their sheds. Their sheds are poorly cleaned, and the animals live in deplorable conditions. By the way, they will never experience mating, as all procreations are via artificial insemination.

In the meantime, cattle owners sing praises of milk's nutritional and health values in cahoots with the media. As it stands now, milk plays such an essential role in our children's growth and adults' well-being that it is vital to survival. Interestingly, China has had similar benefits from soya milk. Plant milk is superior to cattle rearing from the perspective of leaving carbon footprints and greenhouse effects. Milk from soya, coconut, almond and oat are plant-based.

What happens to cows when they stop producing milk? The farmers would like to think that they are just sold off. In reality, the old cows are transported in the most inhumane manner across borders to states like Bengal and Kerala, where they are slaughtered, again in the most brutal ways, for their meat and leather. Intertwined in this imbroglio are buffaloes, their milk and meat.

There is enough legislation to curb all these issues. Unfortunately, the police and even cow vigilante groups are simply bought over by powerful cartels that control beef and leather production.

The maker of the documentary tells us that for a country that reveres cows and worships them, Indians are not doing enough. He suggests replacing cow milk with soya milk to allay cows' abuse and emotional torment. Unfortunately, the cow protection movement is intrinsically linked to Hindu-Muslim violence. People who oppose cow slaughter are erroneously assumed to be anti-Muslim. And Muslims purposely slay cows to trigger a negative response from the Hindus. 

Now we are in a predicament. We were told to refrain from consuming meat as the industry emits many noxious gases that damage the environment. Then they said, don't consume chicken and eggs as they were raised in battery coops. They had enough place to eat and shed, that's all. 

Then they told me to source organic food. Our vegetables were so tainted that if our coronary vessels do not clog up, the herbicides and pesticides sprayed liberally on the plants will kill us from cancer. 

Even if you opt for organic, we must worry about the seeds used. Generally, we are worried about GMOs, the genetically modified source. We are wary of whether these genetically modified seeds would alter our cell lines., turning us into monsters. 

They also tell us to consume less fish to keep overfishing under check. Increased demand leads to offshore fishing and the depletion of fish and sea life in our oceans. 

I have a funny feeling that all these are just Nature's way of fighting back. It wants to reclaim its territory and not surrender to the whims and fancies of mankind.  

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

It is a zoo out there!

Oh, dear, oh, dear!

First, there were the vultures, perched high up on the branch waiting patiently for their preys to fall. Their spirits rise with every heaving of the chest, hoping that that would be the last. Is the soul protected by the soaring eagles seen way up in the skies? Even as the body is failing, the spirit is clinging and refuses to go.

Even as the remains remain warm, White Rabbit is already scurrying around, muttering, "Oh dear, oh dear. I'm late for an important date!" peeking at the watch ever so often. The Mad Hatter is not needed, but he likes to think that he is indispensable.

Are the hyenas' scream decibels too loud for comfort? Mourners want a time of peace to reflect, not hear noises that evoke madness.

Minesweeper

Then came the owls with their eyes opened so vast that they scrutinise every shortcoming and scrouge source material for their next gossip session. With stereoscopic vision and 360° movement of the cervical region, they manage to recce every nook and corner like a minesweeper.

Also present are the almost unnoticeable storks that stand quietly by the corner in a deep thinker's pose. They seem invisible, practically camouflaged with the background, unflinching and disappearing as quietly as they moved in.

Buridan's Ass

The ostriches would not want to see any of these. They are content with burying their heads in the sand, convincing themselves that everything will pass. Like an albatross, the guilt of the whole preceding events is wrapped around some people's necks.

Almost forgotten are the philosopher asses who are quick to whip out philosophical pearls of wisdom. They peruse the exhibited cadaver and highlight the futility of life. They remind that the departed remain a pale shadow of her flamboyant self with all the juices of life sapped dry. They lecture on how we, the living, scream for recognition, pride and inflate our egos with hedonistic desires. 

Seeing with complex eyes?

Like a student of Camus or Nietsche, they paint a nihilistic purpose of life and plead for humility and simplicity. Even before the listeners can digest the gist of the speech, these same mules start arguing that they are right and throwing the weights around to show who is the boss! So much for walking the talk.

I just rest idly like a fly on the wall. I fancy looking at myself like a mysterious lizard who play dead and listen intently to the conversations. Sometimes I think it is quietly mocking the speakers by periodically clicking at the end of the sentences. And the humans respond as if they had received a divine nod of approval.

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It takes an animal to bring out the beast in us!

Jallikattu (Malayalam, 2019)

Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery

A simple story of a raging buffalo which escapes the slaughterhouse forms the basis of this film. Many in the village are dependent on the buffalo - for the butcher, it is money that it can fetch; for the rival group, it is free meat for their taking; for gangsters, it is a time to show their machoism; for the father whose daughter is getting engaged, he needs to feed his guests; for the ex-convict, it is time to settle a score with the butcher, and the pastor needs to feed his congregation.

Jallikattu is primarily a Tamil tradition, where brave youngsters in a celebratory mood try to tame a raging bull to clutch on to the bag of coins tied to its horn. Hence the name; Jalli @ Salli meaning coin and kattu is a tie-bag. This practice was started as a form of finding the best bull to improve the stock of cows in ancient times. Unfortunately, over the years, it has become a blood sport of sort. Bulls were drugged, and their eyes were sprinkled with chilly powder to blur their vision and agitate them. That was the reason for its recent ban. The practice was later reinstated. Detractors who opposed the prohibition cited concerted international conspiracy to ruin Tamil Nadu's dairy stock and industry and to bring in European brand of dairy cows.

The moviemakers probably decided to name this movie 'Jallikaatu' anyway because that is how the escape of the buffalo had become - everyone joining in the melee to get their hand on the prized bull.

The exciting thing about this story is that all characters are complex. Everyone comes to the scene carrying with them their baggage. Nothing is white or black. Nobody is either good or bad. There is some kind of flaw in everybody. One thing we notice is that everybody is loud, violent and animal-like, much like the beast they are hunting down. In fact, the buffalo is not posing a danger to any of them. Still, the people in the village are making it the single most important thing in their lives that they can afford to spend a couple of days on nothing but apprehending the animal on the loose.

The policeman in the story also has a back story. He has to do his duties as if he has everything under control. In reality, nothing is under wraps. In his home front, he has had it with his demanding wife who keeps harassing him every minute of the day, even when he is busy carrying out his police work. He thinks he has control at work, stumping his authority behind his uniform. He soon realises that the respect that the police receives is only there when people bow to authority. In a mob situation, there is no law and order, only chaos and exhibition of Man's primal instincts.

There is only chaos throughout the movie. Everybody is shouting, and there is pandemonium so every now and then. But within the chaos, there is order. The people still manage to devise strategies to capture the beast.

Equality, equity vs removing the barrier, but
enjoying the view from where you stand!

As the movie advances and ends, the viewers soon come to the realisation that we, as a species, have not evolved much from our days of cave dwellers and hunter-gatherers. Like primal hunters, we want to keep all our hunt to ourselves. We refuse to share even though we have more than we can chew.

Deservedly, this film is India's nomination to the 2021 Academy Award in the category of feature films. The subtle use of sounds, of a cappella music and the excellent lighting adds on the scare value to the music. The cinematography is mind-blowing, and the setting of props, as well as the angle of photo shots, are groundbreaking. 

There are no heroes here in this film; only villains. And they are the people who are worse than the amok beast that they are hunting down. Inserted between scenes are sarcastic vignettes about life. The law seems to be a farce when it appears to be more protective of animals than people. We need a permit or a court order to shoot down a raging animal even it can potentially kill a human. A pacifist calls for protection of animals, but not when his property is damaged. I guess laws are only for others - 'anywhere but not in my backyard!' 

There is subtle communist bashing too as I can see, as evidenced by the occasional flashing red-hued sickle-bearing flags. The innate greed that lurks within us cannot stomach seeing another prospering without lifting an eyelid. We demand equity only when the hurdles are stacked against us. We do not complain when they are in our favour.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.