Retelling of Ramayana?

The Monkey Man (2024)

Director: Dev Patel

At first look, one is forgiven for thinking it was going to be a non-cerebral offering with senseless violence, gore, pyrotechnics and stunts that defy science principles. On further viewing, one would assume there would be lots of Indian bashing, Hindu culture ridiculing and Modi shaming. It cannot be so wrong.

Far from it, this is also an attempt to retell the Ramayana story. In the Ramayana narration of events around 5000 BCE, King Rama was exiled for 14 years into the forest after political arm-twisting led by his stepmother. Raavan became the villain when Rama turned down Ravana's sister, Shurpanakha's sexual advancement. Her antics got her nose slashed off. Raavan kidnapped Rama's wife, Sita. Rama, in search of his missing wife, Sita, befriended Hanuman, and the rest is history, as written by Valmiki and others.

In the Ramayana, Rama and Hanuman are on the side of the truth, whereas Raavan, with his 10 branches of wisdom, assumes the protagonist role. However, this film version deliberately mixes up the roles of the hero and villain.

Monkey Man is a streetfighter who appears regularly at an underground no-holds-barred mixed martial arts fight scene for a measly stash of cash. He has a dark secret from his past for which a score must be settled.

In that town, there is a heartless businesswoman who basically controls all the vices around. The men in power support her activities—the police chief and his yeomen, the strongmen in town, the politicians, and the saffron-robed man of God.

The fighter, @ Bobby, @Kid, grew up as a tribal kid with his loving mother at the edge of the forest, but greedy businessmen ruthlessly burned their house to take over their land. His mother was lit alive by the police chief right in front of his eyes in his childhood - hence the need to avenge.

To build up the climax to the eventual destruction of the corrupt system, the audience is feasted to (or has to sit through, depending on your taste) minutes of swashbuckling and pumping of adrenaline done in the veins of 'Kill Bill', 'War of the Dogs' or any of the Hong Kong fast-paced kungfu movie fast-moving cameras. Actually, the action sequences are of high standards.

The way I see this movie is told is that of a modern tale of Ramayana. A leftist embroiled in anti-Hindu sentiments always looked at modern Rama as an intruder. He intruded on the forest, initially occupied by the Adivasis, to upset their equilibrium by invading their space and hunting their food. In a screwed-up way, in modern-day Ramayana, Ravana is not the lone villain but has joined forces with Rama. Symbolically, Rama is referred to as the safron-clad religious man. He is in cahoots with other branches of power. Allegorically, they are represented in the ten heads of Ravana.

So, Hanuman, as the last man standing, has to go rogue to defend his people. He is Bobby @ Kid, trying to right the wrong, undoing the sins of the religious leaders, tycoons, political leaders, the police and the whole cabal of oppressors of the marginalised.

At the end of the day, even though it was filmed in Batam, Indonesia, the whole show primarily aims to paint India as a lawless country. By repeatedly showing Hindu iconography in many of its frames, it tries to showcase Hindu culture as twisted. Everyone is corrupt, and there can be no redemption.

Is it a mere coincidence that its release is eerily in the year when India, the biggest democracy, is about to re-elect Modi for an unprecedented third time? Still, the movie has a high entertainment quotient and high-value production. It is highly recommended for the curious-minded who do not mind the occasional head-butting. (Or is it butthurt?)

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Parliament, Unexpected; Government Interrupted!

Parliament, Unexpected

Tan Sri Ariff Yusof

This book is more like a report card on the activities of the Speaker who was appointed to the helm when the new Pakatan Harapan coalition government was elected. The government was short-lived with its own appointment premier sabotaging his own partners in what came to be known as the Sheraton move. Mahathir Mohammad was never happy with the unsettlingly high participation of opposition members in the new government. A bigoted racist by mindset, from the get-go, he had been devising a way to get his former party UMNO back to power without Najib and his band of thieves. Maybe by design or double-crossing, Mahathir got ousted instead. What remains now is a sleuth of incompetent clowns who dance around in their self aggrandising Emperor's New Clothes. Hyenas and jackals have all come out to play in a system that borders on lawlessness day by day.

He gives a brief account of his childhood days, his alma mater, his family, and his career and delves right into his sudden appointment as the Speaker in the august house of the Parliament. He took it as a national service as he already had a fulfilling daytime job in the legal circles. As the author puts it, nobody in his right mind would have a lifelong ambition to be the Speaker of the Parliament!

It is disheartening to read about how a respected man of scholarship and a former judge has to condescend to the schoolboy hooligans-like antics of grown men who were elected to ensure the smooth running of the country. These buffoons seem to be high on some kind of intoxicant that they have no qualms about using profanity in the House, that too in front of visitors, including schoolchildren. Coincidentally, the author seems to have drawn his fascination with politics from a similar visit during his school days. Oh yes, parliamentarians were more civil and proficient in their articulation then. In the short 22 months of the Pakatan rule, we witnessed mayhem and devious plot within and without the coalition to derail their administration.

Doing the right or moral thing does not come into the equation. It is all about the party line or some other dog whistle elsewhere. There must surely be some invisible hands above that survived all atrocities from the fall of the Malacca Empire all through the European and Japanese occupation to come out smelling of roses who control the narratives. They must have found the formula to stay relevant all these years.

They say that the Speaker is the person in charge of the Parliament, but is he really? With so many protocols and precedence set, it takes a whole department to ensure the institution's running. Any deviation from the norm would be construed as dishonouring the esteemed House. Many detractors are ever willing, with hawk-eyed tenacity, to pinpoint his deficiencies.

That is all in a day's work. In between slogging it out in the dogfight in the arena of Parliamentary sessions, the author managed to perform his other official duties. Then came Covid that the hidden hands probably used it for their convenience. In the sly, the Sheraton Move was brewing, which finally collapsed a democratically elected government to be replaced clandestinely with a 'back-door' government. The political uncertainty, however, continues. Many by-elections and state elections have shown trends of voters giving up on an alternative to the one they have known since Independence.

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The wheel of democracy moves on...

Newton (Hindi; 2017)

This movie is interesting because it is set in Chattisgarh, a state not usually featured in mainstream films.  Chattisgarh is located in the East-Central part of India and is a place with a very long history. It is mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata and has seen many kingdoms rise and fall. The film's area is supposed to have been shot is Dakshina Kosala, the very jungle where Rama, Laxmana and Sita had undergone 14 years of exile in the wilderness.

Now that jungle is said to be filled with various minerals,  everyone wants to lay their dirty hands. The Naxalites are roaming around with rifles while the ruling government want to appear to be doing the democratic thing. Come elections, all political candidates promise a new dawn of affluence and prosperity. In reality, what the politicians are really eyeing is the deal to get businessmen to mine the fortune in their land and get their cut of the whole transaction.

Towards this end, the whole machinery is oiled; the local clerk to the armed forces to the local chief and the occasional election officers who drop by. The world gets a very conflicting view of what happens on the ground - a polished version from the ruling party and a picture of anarchy from the defeated. The final losers are the local dwellers. Whoever comes to power, their position, for the people of this story, poverty and melancholy remains the flavour of their day.

India's entry to Oscar's foreign film category in 2017 is a light drama depicting Nutan Kumar, a conscientious government clerk, who is sent to a communist-insurgent infested region to oversee a balloting station. Nutan who is embarrassed by his given name christians himself Newton. He tries as far as he can to be an honest servant. Faced with a disgruntled army officer who is assigned to protect him and his team of ballot officers, he tries, against all odds, to oversee an election centre in the middle of nowhere where the last political leader was assassinated by communist terrorists. The electorate list comprises Adavaasis (aborigines) who are least bothered of voting.

All these for just 76 voters? Everyone says that every vote matters. Can a single vote actually make a difference? Apparently, it does. In 2008 Rajasthan Assembly elections, the Union Minister, CP Joshi was defeated by a single vote by opponent Kalyan Singh Chouhan (62,215 vs 62,216). Chouhan's wife later was found to have cast her vote twice. It was a disappointing blow to Joshi as he was a candidate for the Chief Minister's post. A petition was filed, but the verdict in favour of Joshi only came four years later; almost time for the next election.

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Nobody likes a smart Alec!

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: 2020
Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Yes, that is the final name to Borat's 2006 follow-up mockumentary. The title went through many name changes; the previous ones were equally ridiculous and ridiculously long. It also has the dubious reputation of incurring the wrath of many Americans (and Kazhaks) and attracting many legal suits. The Kazaks were just as pissed for depicting them as a bunch of village fools ruled by a despotic regime.

If one is looking for a Wodehousian type of humour in this offering, look elsewhere. It is a lowbrow comedy through and through with toilet humour, genitals, menstruation and all.

It was strategically released before the US Presidential elections and contains some not so savoury depiction of Trump's lawyer and former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, in a hotel room kerfuffle with a young journalist. It is all a prank, and the film is full of it. Borat holds a mirror to the Americans right on their face to showcase their latest embarrassing side. He prods the gullible public in the manner of a naive East European native who is struggling with his English to ask current questions like whether one should vote for the Democrats. Their hypocrisy is laid bare for us to scrutinise.

In a scene, Borat's 16-year-old daughter had swallowed a toy baby figurine on a cupcake. This is obviously referring to the Pizzagate scandal where allegedly prominent figures are involved in Satanic practices like eating babies. She is then brought to a Woman's Clinic for treatment run by a pastor. Borat with his bumbling English telling the pastor, "My daughter got baby in stomach, I want to take out. I give her baby. (referring to the cupcake he had fed her or is it incest he is indicating?)" is just too funny.

The film has another court case against the estate of a recently deceased Holocaust survivor who was apparently tricked into an interview which was subsequently included in the film. Many of the 'participants' in the movie are mere passers-by.
On one side, the viewers will go off thinking that it is a Democrat bashing movie. Then we realise that Trump, his party members and the Republican supporters are also not spared of his caustic sarcasm.

https://fb.watch/1l4jxH57Uw/

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The new norm?

That a look at these two Presidential debates, the first one was in 1960 between JFK and Nixon, whilst the second one happened recently in the year 2020. See the vibes surrounding the two debates. Without a shadow of a doubt, there is much professionalism and decency in the former whereas in the latter we only see crass behaviour and lack of common decency.

In our formative years, we were taught that to listen and to let another to speak are common decencies. Only the immature and ill-mannered interferes one's conversation we were told. We also trained to fight facts with facts, to argue it out like gentlemen in decorum, without being personal or hitting below the belt.

Somewhere along the way, while we were napping, a lot of things changed.

The '90s brought in the internet culture and work ethics of the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Workers were expected to dress down to work. Work time needs to be flexible, they said. Jobs is famously known to walk around bare feet and is said to stretch out his naked feet on the office tables whilst discussing work matters with his contemporaries. Seniority went out of the window when open office concept came to being.

Smartphones did not make people smarter. It only built them a personalised echo chamber for them to wallow around in the sweetness of their pixelated self. The 'self-generation' that did not give two hoots about the feelings of the about the other morphed. Under the cloak of anonymity, they would swashbuckler their thoughts with the sorcery of keyboards which are not their views actually but mere parroting of the hidden hands of the cabal.

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Flash of miracle or just a natural phenomenon!

It all started with a digital election glitch in a locale in Brussels in 2003. The officials realised that an unpopular local candidate secured more than the vote she should. The number 4096 struck a chord with the IT personnel but passed it off as teething problems of digital voting. That is the number of votes that the computers accidentally added to her tally.

A further assessment suggested that 4096 is 2 to the power of 12 (2¹²). As input into the computers is in multiples of 2 (2⁰, 2¹, 2²....2¹¹,2¹²...), somehow the part (bit) which controlled (2¹²) got lit. Hence, this flip caused the addition of 4096 to the tally. 

Now, the challenge was to ascertain where the surge to this flip came about. Investigators were soon made aware of similar unexplainable occurrences in the airline and automobile industries. There were instances where autopilot settings had to see re-set as it had gone berserk. There was even a plane that suddenly plunged into the ocean. Aircraft, as they were up in the sky, are exposed to cosmic rays. That was thought to have caused computer malfunctions, and necessary preventive measures were put in place.

When Toyota car owners were braking for their lives as computerisation started setting in into their cars at the turn of the century. Faulty electronics perpetuated by single bit flip caused by cosmic rays was suggested as a possible cause for the sudden unintended acceleration of vehicles. Toyota settled out of court and improved its computer system. They started more inputs to control a particular function.

Scientists extrapolated that these rogue 'rays' which arise from the Sun or possibly outside the Solar system (supernovas) were the aetiology for these glitches. These energy-carrying galactic cosmic rays have the capacity to work miracles. With more and more minute components in our digital devices, more puzzling events may soon become the norm. 

Now, just a thought. Since everyone believes the beginning of life heralds the handiwork of the entity of 'God' as some know it or 'Big Bang' as others refer to it and everything that happens as the effect of this, Biggs-Boson particle and all, are these cosmic rays akin to the miracle of 'God'? Are the rays like angels, djinns, daemons or fairies that are sent as messengers to Earth to save or create mayhem? Are these fragments of energy from the beginning of time arriving at sporadic intervals pure 'divine interventions' as they are the closest to what we call as 'The Maker'?

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We did it our way - Malaysian Tsunami!

Probably the most iconic picture of the times. 
The hands that were to protect the people 
are used to prevent the rights of the member 
of the public to exercise his democratic rights. 
Dr Streram Sinnasamy being prevented from 
submitting his nomination papers for failing to 
display the commission's identity tag (which 
was not given to him in the first place). 
This image and many like this must have 
evoked emotions so compelling to move 61 
years of a single rule party. 

Credit: Free Malaysia

A commonly uttered colloquial Tamil proverb goes, "you cannot hide a whole wax gourd under your serving of rice!" Once you start eating your rice, your deliciously spiced gourd will undoubtedly reveal itself. A lie cannot be hidden from public knowledge forever. Eventually, the truth will tell itself, sooner or later.

When the whole world was hurling abuses and accusation against the leaders of the country, the people stayed quiet. When nations ridiculed us, they kept mum. When day to day living became difficult, they persevered. When new taxes stared their ugly head under the pretext of saving the nation, they sacrificed. When the taxmen came knocking and demanding, they relented. When the stories were spun again and again to make them look like fools, they must have wised up. But they had a funny of showing it or rather hiding it.

Or maybe, the party which claims to have received the Decree of Independence on a silver platter are using their colonial master's tactic of 'divide and rule'. Instigating hatred and fear amongst each other, everyone is left to their own devices in their safe cocoons. 

The heat and the long wait are just moments in time.
The results, the future of generation next, are history
in the making. © FG

When the standard response in any part of the world where public opinion meant something would be the widespread demonstrations of displeasure and violence, they did not go along that line. The ghost of racial riots in their infancy of independence remained vivid in their minds. They knew unrest did not augur well for businesses and they knew money moved mountains.

On the outside, the general public appeared aloof. A few incidents here and there showed the might of the ruling power. Perhaps, they were afraid. Maybe they did not care. Hyenas surviving on kills of the guardians of the lion's share came out on a prowl. The whole might of the executive, judiciary and legislative forces were mobilised to protect these vermins.

They also say 'still water runs deep' or 'don't expect the calm waters not to have crocodiles' and 'the potato grows in spite of the silence'. Beneath the surface, in homes, in cyberspace, despite the propaganda that the powers that be spruced, resentment actually ran deep. Social media lit with visuals of the tyranny of injustice and volumes of literature of wrongdoings.

Not the middle finger © FG

The sleeping giant of the silent public finally awoke from its seeming slumber of impassivity. In drones, they swarmed, from near and far, to their polling stations on that historic day 9th of May 2018. 

Malaysians finally spoke. They reject injustice. In a bittersweet moment, it seems that public has forgiven the 'dictator' who could be blamed for mending the rules to start the rot and elect their 93-year-young ex-PM as their new premier. The 93-year-young had earlier made his peace with his enemies and the people whom he had witch hunted during his tenure, and vice-versa the victims, for the common cause of saving a nation. 

Back in 2015 during an international marathon meet in Chiengmai, an Indonesian participant asked my friend, upon discovering that he is a Malaysian. "What is wrong with you people? Putting up with a kleptocratic authoritarian. In Indonesia, we would have just shot him!"

Now, I know the answer. We in Malaysia know the supreme power of the people. We believe in the democratic system. We did it our way, no bloodshed, no anarchy, no storming into palaces or the use of vigilantes. We used the ballot box. We are not apathetic to our surroundings after all. We are Malaysians. 

Credit: Lat

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

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