RIFLE RANGE BOY

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, ass...

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 d...

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 machiner...

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 th...

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 ...

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 ...

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 h...