The test of life?

Test (Tamil, 2025)
Director, Screenplay: S. Sashikanth

https://www.indiaglitz.com/test-review-tamil-movie-36143

I am not exceptionally knowledgeable about the nuances of how a cricket match is played. This much I do know: the team scores a six when the batter hits the ball out of the field. The hitter is dismissed if the wicket falls, and a Test match is not merely a test but a genuine match, established initially to challenge the English team against its colonies. It is an endurance test running typically over five days. Moreover, Indian cinema rarely produces authentic cricket films, unlike Hollywood, which often features baseball and American football games. I believe this is the first time an Indian film has been made with cricket at the centre of the story. 

Another point: Due to security concerns, the Indian cricket team will not play in Pakistan or vice versa. Therefore, it would be wishful thinking to expect the Pakistan team to face their archrivals, India, at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai, as suggested in this film. 

The film did not have a particularly stellar outing. Reviewers complained about its exceedingly slow pace and numerous plot gaps, especially those related to the game's technical aspects. Nevertheless, the message behind the story is less about the storyline and more about the challenges the two main (and perhaps three) characters face to achieve success. 

On one side, there is Sara, a frustrated MIT graduate with an epoch-changing water-fuelled engine but no sponsors to help get it off the ground. He must contend with running a canteen with his friend while being caught in the middle-income trap. Meanwhile, his anxious wife, Kumudha, hears her biological clock ticking away and requires a large sum of money to undergo IVF. Sara has become entangled with some unscrupulous loan sharks. 

In the affluent part of town, there is an over-the-hill national cricketer named Arjun, who risks exclusion from the national team. His son thinks the world of him, but sadly, Arjun feels he is no longer a true hero.

Arjun's son attends the same school where Kumudha teaches, and Kumudha's father was once Arjun's cricket coach. Their paths cross again through the son. In a twisted turn of events, Sara abducts Arjun's son for money. Loan sharks also become involved. They run a betting ring and hope India loses their match. They persuade Sara to pressure Arjun into conceding the match to Pakistan's win.

Thus, the test referenced in the film does not relate to the test match, but rather to the trial that the three characters must endure to do what is right. For Sara, is being the provider for his wife (and soon-to-be family) the only way to prove himself as a good husband? At any cost, even if it is illegal?

Is having a child the only goal for Kumudha as a married woman? She was seen gleefully rejoicing when the money she so desperately needed for her IVF appeared in her account. Is it right to kidnap for cash?

The test for Arjun, the cricketer, is whether he should prioritise his self-interest in regaining his son by sacrificing the game or embrace his patriotic duty and focus on winning the match for India.

As anticipated, once the hornet's nest is disturbed, there is no going back. One must do what one must to prevent any repercussions. When the calm water is disturbed, the ripples will reach a crescendo before settling into a steady state, yet nothing is ever the same again. 

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.

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

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.)

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

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

Not all that glitters...

Who has the last laugh?

Everyone is responsible for himself. The world outside there is just out to make mincemeat out of you. They would entice you to tread on the wild side just to get you off balance. They would appear casual just to let you lower your shields. They would encourage you to indulge in social lubricators just so that you downgrade your security level. They would talk dirty just to get you all excited. Then you let your hair down. That would be the hay that breaks the camel’s back. And the world will have a field day. And you would dig, your grave to bury all the good things that you took a lifetime to perfect. The dream that kept you awake comes crumbling like sandcastles that get washed away just like that. People would pry with judgemental eyes. Who cares if they would not be qualified to cast the first stone.

Why do they bother? They were not put a pedestal to be praised to high heaven. You were. Nobody told you, but you were the icon that many schoolboys envy. Yours was a success story to emulate.

The media is brutal. Like vultures, they scavenge for victims, slowly see them die, wait patiently, peck how much they want and fly away to find other easy kills.

Beware of the smooth talkers. Not all those who make the most noise are empty vessels. Some may be slithering serpents luring you to take a bite at the forbidden fruit and condemn you to eternal damnation.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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

https://www.facebook.com/groups/riflerangeboy/