RIFLE RANGE BOY

Kummathy (Bogeyman, Malayalam; 1979) Director: G Aravindan Most viewers would not have heard of this movie maker, mainly known as a legend in the Indian alternative cinema field. Unlike the masala Bollywood kind of logic-defying escapism that excites the masses, these artsy films only fascinate people who see beyond the story and what is shown on the screen. Some label this film as the best Indian movie ever made. The movie came to the mainstream's attention after Martin Scorsese's team restored the old, lacklustre copies found in the Indian film archives in 2021. Scorcese announced this movie was one of his f avourites at its restoration premiere in Italy.  The original cinematographer , however, still preferred the analogue version, as he thought it had more texture and character. It has been popularised as a children's movie and is usually screened on International Children's Day. The first thing one notices when watching this film is that he feels like a child. Reme...

Ratsasan (ராட்சசன், Tamil, Demon; 2019) It looks like serial killers have all migrated from the US to the Indian sub-continent, specifically to South India. Lately, we have been seeing a spate of gory thrillers and they seem to highlight deranged intelligent killers who take pride in their killings. Recently (June 2020), we watched a Tamil movie named 'Penguin' with the same layout. Deep-seated unresolved childhood issues are the primary reason for all these purposeless bloodbaths. Some religious leaders assert that a child is born like a white cloth. It is up to the parents and the society to colour and draw captivating patterns on them to strike a chord with people around him. They believe that parental guidance would determine their child's religiosity and conduct. Hence, the onus is on the parents how their offspring eventually turns out to be.  On the other hand, others believe and I concur that children are inherently evil. They are born uninhibited. We all hav...

Karwaan (Hindi, Caravan, 2018) Just to recapitulate what Jordan Peterson mentioned in his book 'The 12 Rules of Life', we tend to assume all social ailments or individual problems that one faces in the process of growing up must be solved with a radical restructuring of one's culture. The call for social revolution is heard loud and clear amongst the young chicklings in every generation. The oft-quoted complain among the youth is that adults are not in tune with reality or are living in the past. Names like fossils and dinosaurs have been heard. On the part of the elders, it is pejorative as well. Their offsprings have been referred to as the generation that would bring down civilisation. What we often forget is that revolution by nature is destructive. Look back at history. Revolutions have always been of chaos, destruction and re-setting or jump-starting a failing system. If every generation feels that the generation before them had wronged them, there must be someth...

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) You grow up focussing on all the unsavoury traits in the elders around you and promise yourself never to emulate. Hold behold, you grow up and do the exact same things that you found offensive and did not want to do in the first place.  You turn out to be the same person you despise. People around you realise that, but not you. You become angry when you are reminded of the fact. You carry the anger throughout your life, burning yourself in the inside. When you realise your shortcoming, life becomes beautiful, it seems, according to the encounter between Mr Rogers (Fred Rogers of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' fame) and an Esquire journalist, Lloyd Vogel. The said interview took place in 1998 with Tom Junod and his Esquire article became the basis of the movie. The screenwriters took the liberty to spice up the story and hence renamed the reporter. At the time of the interview, Mr Rogers was already a household name. Ame...

Capernaum (Capharnaüm, Arabic    کفرناحوم ‎,  Lebanon; 2018) Story, Screenplay, Direction: Nadine Labaki I remember a family in Penang which had so many children that even the family members never knew how many siblings they had. The mother had so many miscarriages, stillbirths and twins that she gave away that if she were in Stalin Russia, she would have been conferred the 'Order of Maternal Glory' award. The last time the siblings counted, the tally was 16. Despite growing like wildflowers on a shoestring budget provided by the single breadwinner of the family, they all achieved success in their own accord by adulthood. Nobody had arrested psychological development due to a lack of parental attention.  It was a time when children were viewed as God's gift. Never mind if Man a lot to do with it to make it possible. The extended family concept of living ensured that everyone, especially the older ones, was cared.  Soon with the changes in societal ...

Image Credit: freerepublic.com Is it not funny that people who are the least experienced in a particular subject are loud in their criticisms of the said issue? They hide in the company of the same (nimble)minded and are vociferous in the call for their ideology to be accepted by the main stream. They seek the nod of approval of their herd who by then had been blinded by their rhetorics which seem to make perfect sense to the feeble minds. The flock vehemently uphold their shepherd's pointers without once invoking the faculty of reasoning. At the back of their reptilian brain, they have their doubts, but they find it easier to conjure up to their master. For fear of cognitive dissonance, they give in. Imagine a man of God who vowed to take celibacy as his aim of life advising his assembly on the best way of bringing up children. He may not be the best person to be knowledgeable of the nuances of attending to the needs of a child embroiled in the ever-changing and c...

By Devdutt Pattanaik  Konark Sun Temple One of the most disturbing stories that we find it the Puranas is the story of Krishna's son Samba, whose mother was the bear-princes, Jambavati.  He dupes his father's junior wives by disguising himself as Krishna and is cursed by Krishna that he will suffer from a skin disease that will enable his wives to distinguish father and son. Samba is cured after he builds temples to the sun. All sun temples in India, from Konark in Odisha to Modhera in Gujarat to Markand in Kashmir, are attributed to this son of Krishna. Samba also attempts to kidnap Duryodhana's daughter and this leads to war between the Kauravas and the Yadavas. Peace is restored, and the marriage is solemnised, only after Balarama, Krishna's elder brother, and Samba's uncle, in a fit of fury threatens to drag Hastinapur into the sea.  Then there is the story of Samba pretending to be a pregnant woman and duping sages who were visiting Dwar...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12073349/Its-time-to-say-No-to-our-pampered-student-emperors.html The Rhodes statue row can be blamed on a generation raised to believe that their feelings are all that matter A student wears a sticker calling for the removal of a statue of Cecil John Rhodes from the campus of the University of Cape Town   Photo: Reuters/Mike Hutchings By  Harry Mount 5:45PM GMT 29 Dec 2015 1750 Comments The little emperors have grown up. The babies of the late 90s – mollycoddled by their parents, spoon-fed by their teachers, indulged by society – have now reached university. Some of the brighter ones are now at Oxford,  demanding that the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oriel should be torn down , because of his imperialist, racist views. "Universities are reaping the whirlwind of two decades of child-centred education" We shouldn’t be so surprised. If you’ve ...

Two events that happened recently got me thinking... In the first instance, a visibly disappointed mother of a 13 year old teenager is seen crying hopelessly in front of a policeman, saying that she is at wits' end. The mum had tried all avenues to keep him home to do what normal teenagers do at that unearthly hour - sleep. Her son keeps mixing with the wrong company. In that situation, he was stopped for being involved in an illegal motorcycle race at 2 in the morning and evading a road block. The helpless mother pleaded to the cops to imprison her son just so that he would come to his senses. All her previous endeavours have come to naught! hahahayoubi.blogspot.com Well, it is not so easy. Either way, she is bound to lose her son. If he were to be sent to prison, he would not forgive his mother. Prison may not be the best place for a 13 year old, anyway. If he were not reprimanded, he would think that his mother would come to his rescue every now and then. Pretty soon, h...