RIFLE RANGE BOY

Kaanekkaane (As you watch, Malayalam; 2021) Director: Manu Ashokan Just like how my friends put it bluntly, "there is no such thing as a free f*ck! Everything has a price tag." No one is willing to give up something so intimate to them without any attachment. Something so personal surely carries with it excessive baggage and expectations in ROIs (Return of Investments). Affairs of the heart are never rational. The thrill of tasting the forbidden fruit digs one deeper and deeper into a heap of hopelessness.  When you are not on the wrong side of the fence, it is easy to be judgemental. Sitting in the comfort of the armchair, it may sound prophetic to pass laws on what a person should and could do in a particular situation. We must remember that rules are made for others to follow. When it affects ourselves and our dear ones, we look for loopholes or, worse, shift the goal-post. This intense family drama is told and acted in a very sober way without much dramatisation, perhaps ...

Nava Rasa (Tamil, 9 Expressions) Miniseries, Netflix Quite early in my life, I have come to realise that there is nothing sacrosanct in numbers. They are just there to aid calculations and the day-to-day running of our lives. What started as a way to measure the land area for the landowners to tax their subjects has come to rule every aspect of our life. We find ways to glorify numbers as and how we deem fit. One for one God, Two for two opposing forces of Nature, Three for the three arms of divinity (either trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost or Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva combo as you wish), Four corners of space, Five fingers or the Five Elements of Nature being air, water, fire, land and sky (Pancha Bhootam) and so on. Each number is feted for its uniqueness. The number 8 signifies good fortune amongst the Chinese diaspora. Probably because of its symmetry, both along the X and Y axes, it denotes balance which is quintessential of the ying-and-yang order of things. The Number 9, on the o...

If anything happens I love you! (2020) Animated Short Film This 11-minutes short film won itself an Academy Award in the Best Short Animated film category. In a concise graphic representation, the storytellers managed to capture the essence of emotions surrounding the loss of a young child. This emotional turmoil can make or break a family unit. The gamut of blaming, what-ifs, guilt and fault finding missions would eventually lead to a brick wall among the living but definitely not bring back the dead. The death of a member of a family who has not lived his full potential, however, may invoke a myriad of responses. They say an addition to the family, especially the first-born, unites families. The sight of a newborn will make everyone all jello but strong enough to cement whatever minor frictions that may have been present in day-to-day dealings. It may make or break the bonds between the close relatives, especially parents, in the case of a young child. This short film with no dialogu...

The word 'consent' is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there are 'implied consent' and 'silence is consent', then on the other spectrum, are the murky waters of 'informed consent', as if consents are sometimes uninformed or imposed. We have also heard of 'consent under duress' which is by no means consent. In surgical practice, failure to divulge certain rare but real complications of an operation denotes carelessness and possibly negligence of the attending surgeon. As if the patient was not informed that surgery was a risky business. Recently I heard a podcast of consent of a different kind. In fact, this edition came around way before cry babies started screaming #MeToo! The latest version of approval is 'I agreed to this but not to that..."  A few years previously, in fact, a good full decade after a young lady (A) went separate ways with her best male friend (B), she decided to revisit the event that made them part ways....

Lion (2016) In the process of evolutionary neural development, lifeforms initially developed a primitive neural structure. As the transmission of neural impulses increased by leaps and bounds, the nervous system slowly evolved to develop a brain, protecting information collecting interfaces from the central processing unit. When the impulses were overwhelming in terms of quantity, some of them were suppressed. This highly complicated mechanism eventually developed 'attention schema' and eventually consciousness. Memory, which is an important component of our brain function also helps to build consciousness and conscience! This interplay has helped mankind to survive the many calamities of Nature, outlive many of their contemporaries and rule over many of the deathly beasts that roam the Earth. Unfortunately, it also acts as a double-edged sword. Memory which helps to avert danger, to repeat the same mistakes twice and to progress as a race, also gives traits like guilt, no...

The Intouchables (French; 2011) This film was highly recommended to me for its humanistic elements. It showcases the bond developed by two men of entirely different background and how they each give each other a purpose to live in their trapped life. It is a tale based on the real life story of a filthy rich quadriplegic man, Phillipe, and his hired hand. Phillipe is wheelchair bound after a paragliding mishap and had earlier lost his wife to cancer. In essence, he is a broken man who is mainly frustrated with life. All the money in the world but entirely dependent on others to move around and even for personal care. His newfound helper is from the poorer side of town. He is an adopted child from Senegal with many siblings from his adoptive and different fathers. He did not volunteer for the job but was just there to show that he had attended an interview and claim his dole. By twists of fate, his attitude, of the arrogant kind, is the very attribute that fascinates Phillipe...

http://www.boredpanda.com/must-see-powerful-photos/ Thanks KR for contribution. 1. Starving boy and missionary 2. Inside an Auschwitz gas chamber Image credits:  kligon5 3. Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner. Image credits:  James Stanfield 4. Father and son (1949 vs 2009) Image credits:  Vojage-Vojage 5. Diego Frazão Torquato, 12 year old Brazilian playing the violin at his teacher’s funeral. The teacher had helped him escape poverty and violence through music Image credits:  salvemasnossascriancas.blogspot.com 6. A Russian soldier playing an abandoned piano in Chechnya in 1994 Image credits:  drugoi.livejournal.com 7. Young man just found out his brother was killed Image credits:  Nhat V. Meyer 8. Christians protect Muslims during prayer in the midst of the 2011 uprisings in Cairo, Egypt Image credits:  Nevi...

No, your eyesight is not playing tricks on you. No, the word PDA is not misspelt. No, this is not about the dinosaur of a gizmo called PDA (personal digital assistant). Who needs PDA when you can BlackBerry, Blue Berry or even Strawberries? And it is not about p ublic d isplay of a ffections (Y-generation lingo). No, PDA is not patent ductus arteriosus, either! PDE denotes public display of emotions - an abbreviation I coined just to make heads turn. Whilst browsing through the channels of TV (it is a guy's thing that ladies would not comprehend, what would we do without remote controls?), I come across many cable news channels showing the rescue efforts at full force in Japan at an orderly and 'cultured' manner. People are struggling with thirst and hunger but have so much trust and confidence in authorities that they just do as they are told. Some of them have their houses swept away by the wave of a tsunami and some with missing relatives whose whereabouts are unkno...