RIFLE RANGE BOY

Por Thozhil (2023) Director: Vignesh Raja https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/tamil/por- thozhil-trailer-sarath-kumar-ashok-selvan-starrer- action-packed-gripping-thriller-8637264/ Thanks to SD for recommending this. SD is a childhood friend with a photographic memory for anything Bollywood when Bollywood was simply known as Hindi cinema. Back in school, during recess, he would attract an audience of friends who would listen as he belted out old Hindi songs and provided detailed backgrounds on the film's actors, music composers, release dates, and even the studios that produced the movies. Even now, he can still rattle off the same information after all these years. However, his interest came to a grinding halt in the 1980s when he felt that Bollywood had lost its charm. These days, SD is into Tamil and Malayalam cinema, which, he claims, are more interesting in storytelling.   This is a Tamil film that faithfully adheres to its intended genre. It is meant to be a thril...

Ardh Satya (Half-truth, Hindi; 1983) Director:   Govind Nihalani This Indian movie is said to be a benchmark upon which other police dramas are compared. Acted beautifully by doyens of the silver screen of Bollywood then, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Smita Patel, Naseeruddin Shah and Sadashiva Amrapurkar, it paints a multidimensional view of the job of a policeman.  Our social system is flawed. The very system that had been devised to be law and order is anything but orderly. Things that go under the guise of upholding the law are anything but by the book. There is an unholy alliance between law enforcers and law breakers. The political dogs who made the gangsters their running dogs have made a lapdog of the police. The police, it seems, under the pointers of the politicians and the umbrage of the baddies. In a world where money can right a wrong, the brunt of law enforcement is only felt by the poor. The rich can literally get away with murder. They can quash evidence or buy the bes...

Nayattu (Malayalam, The Hunt; 2021) That is how the world is today. One day you are doing all the dirty job, not because you like to do it but because you are part of the system. It is not within your capacity to change the status quo but just follow through as you have been doing all along. You know that the battle is unwinnable. You oblige as there are down lines who depend on you. Your leg is so deeply entrenched in the muck there is only one way to go, to get dirty.   You perfected the system. You wanted it to work for you to serve your masters. It only strikes you to realise what a monster that you have created when the system is used against you when your masters are angered with your actions.   Most Indian movies highlight police brutality and try to put the police personnel in poor light whilst the laypeople go around with their heart on their sleeves to prove their innocence. In Nayattu, the role is somewhat reversed.  A sub-inspector and two of his subordinates ...

Happy! (Season 1; 2017) What actually makes us happy? It seems that from time immemorial, we go around looking for that unattainable wish. Happiness, Bliss, Utopia, Eudaimonia, we refer to it with different names. What we actually yearn for a state of mind oblivious to things that happen around us and one that puts us in a state not wondering what tomorrow may bring and whether we will be left out from it. We want to feel, experience, the wonder of our brain immersed in the feel-good chemicals, serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. The question why this drowning is self-limiting, numbs itself spontaneously with tolerance setting in. We need ever more of the same for the desired effect. We are still in search of true happiness if there is one. In the meantime, we divert our attention to other paths and convince ourselves that that indeed is happiness even though most do not buy it! We create stories. We tell ourselves that the Law of Nature is just. Somehow happiness is portrayed a...

Thani Oruvan (Lone Man, தணி ஒருவன்,  Tamil; 2015) This movie was highly recommended by a friend, a connoisseur of Tamil films of sorts, for its atypical storyline. So, I gave it a go. Sadly, it was nothing like how he described. I fail to understand why some films keep on using the oft-tested formula of a lone man fighting and eventually defeating a corrupt society controlled by an evil conglomerate. How many times we have seen perfectly executed outlandish plans going on with Swiss-like precision. And how many police jeeps-flying stunts, dodging the bullets scenes and pyrotechnic display can one stomach? Too many stories of shady politicians working in cahoots with corrupt law enforcement officers and unscrupulous people in business come to mind when we view this movie. The only different thing here is Arvind Swamy, the favourite moustachioed droopy-eyed heart-throb of the 90s. He is back. Instead of playing his usual lover boy role, he plays the role of a ruthless badass ...