RIFLE RANGE BOY

Vina - Sebelum 7 Hari. (Indonesian, 2024) Director:  Anggy Umbara Thanks to Saravanan Decodes , my latest indulgence, for highlighting many solved and unsolved mysteries worldwide. He has 700-over YouTube presentations of some of the most puzzling and heinous murders and tries to decode them. Two exciting cases piqued my interest. It was in how these seemingly dead-ended cases saw living daylight through unconventional methods. The first case happened in Cirebon, West Java. A 16-year-old Vina Dewi Arsita, a student, was reported to have died after getting involved in a road traffic accident while travelling with her boyfriend, Edy, in the thick of the night in 2016. The death certificate was released as death due to Motor Vehicle Accident. There were some uncertainties about whether police did not come forward with more information about the ongoing investigations or whether their investigation was shoddy. Her boyfriend, too, perished in the accident. Burial was done. On the sevent...

The Indian Detective (Canadian Miniseries, in Hindi and English; 2017) Netflix (Season 1, E1-E4) The 1950s were important in world politics. The Second World War was over, but the world, never learning from its past mistakes, was building another. The world was divided into two, those subscribing to capitalism or communism. The Cold War was brewing. The newly independent nations, the Third World, was up for grabs. In that environment, in 1955, a few countries got together in Bandung, to assert that they were not aligned to either side of the fence. The Americans, however, viewed it as the ranting of the newly-independent third world states with a slight socialistic stance as they were not invited but China was. One of the prescient thing that the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had said was that the Chinese residing in different countries should show their allegiance, not to China, but to the countries they are residing.  That too must be applicable to the Indian diaspora...

True Detective (Season 2; 2015) After the successful first season, the producers decided to come out with the second season. Even though it did not live up to the celebrated former, nevertheless it did leave an impact. It recreated a nihilistic world which lies ahead of us which we can already see. A society where truth and natural justice takes a back seat whilst power, authority, money and our animal instincts dictates our life. Human relationships fail miserably. Commitment to the institution of marriage is farcical. Occasional casual relief of human carnal desires is the norm. Sexual preference is optional, and people are confused about they actually want in life, personal glory or acting in a just manner. Divinity is nowhere in the equation. The second season, in keeping with the mood of its predecessor, creates a broody environment with equally depressing characters all with the problems of their own. First, there is Ray Valcoro (Colin Farrell), a cop with a chequered caree...