RIFLE RANGE BOY

Bramayugam (Era of Madness, Malayalam; 2024) Story, Direction: Rahul Sadasivan Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the takeaway. No matter who holds the helm of control or the intoxicating concoction of power, life can never be a level playing field. Invariably, one tries to supersede another regarding idea, physical prowess, endowments, or wealth. For every robust individual, there is always another who is slightly better, faster, or stronger. And the eternal duel to be the supreme leader of the tribe goes on.   Set in 16th-century India, when the   Portuguese were out hunting for Indian slaves to spur their intercontinental slave trade, two men escaped from their captive ship and hid themselves in the jungle. One of them falls to the lure of the jungle temptress spirit, Yakshi, and is killed by her.  The other, Thevan, makes it to an abandoned mansion in the middle of the jungle. Hungry, he helps himself to some coconut, but he is admonished ...

Censor (2021) Written and directed: Prano Bailey-Bond Memory can be as much a boon or a curse to humankind. The race has progressed thus far because we can learn and put into memory what we have learnt. With that ability, we can reproduce it as and when needed.  But then, therein lies the problem. Keeping other memories, especially the unpleasant ones and those affecting the matters of the heart, can be unsettling and counterproductive. Just for how long one wants to hold a grudge for hurt caused? Does anger have an expiry date, upon which scores are cleared dry on the slate ? That is why our mind has an in-built pruning mechanism to cut off unpleasant memories that can stunt our progress. Sadly, a small group of people do not forget or forgive. They must be the most unhappiest of the people on the planet. Perhaps, the next serial killer too! Even at best, Man uses less than 10% of his brain connexions. Scientists are perplexed by the many dormant areas of the brain and wonder if t...

1950s P Ramlee The teachers thought he was mental. Living in his own world, humming to the tunes that emanate from his mind, they were sure he would end up as a nobody. Some even toyed with the idea of sending him off for a psychological assessment, and perhaps to a lesser taxing environment, unlike the grammar school that he is placed in. Collectively they thought he belonged to the loony bin. Surprise, surprise, 20 years on, he was composing music, making movies and winning international awards for his acting skills. The boy grew up to be the one and only, the legendary P Ramlee, a national treasure.   An elderly auntie once told me that she and her husband had decided to leave their first home in Lorong Seratus Tahun in Penang. They were particularly disturbed by the loitering of boys along the roadside, strumming away their guitars and crooning into the deep of the night,  crooning in their high pitched squeaky voices.  They were not thrilled by their unkempt beehive ...

Devil All the Time (2020) A t one look, it seems that the story is going all over the place. At one time, you think that one particular character is the protagonist, but wham! she is killed off. Then another also killed off, and another yet again. There are plenty of killings and dying on the whole, but then, it all builds up to make sense at the end. There are many cryptic messages embedded within the storyline that questions the perception of what evil really is. Our divinity and evil part and parcel of the same continuum, not in contradiction but a mere extension of a spectrum?  One complements the other. Just like how light is appreciated in darkness, evil is necessary for us to appreciate goodness. Like how it is a necessity that Tom never catches Jerry for the excitement to continue. Will E Coyote will never have the Road Runner for dinner for Coyote may become mad if, one day, he gets up in the morning to realise that he has nothing to do. Satan can never lose if Goodness we...

Delhi Crimes (2019) Miniseries, Netflix It is often said that there is goodness in each one of us. Correspondingly, is evil also a permanent resident within us or is there an external force that lures us into creating mayhem and entropy? Is evil an inborn trait that dwells within us, only to unleash when our guards are down? Is it a learned experience over the generations and is imprinted in our DNA to help us survive? Are we cursed with the original sin committed by our forefathers, and we, as pallbearers of their act, suffer? Are we lured by the charms of prompting by Satan and his helpers? Others would argue that good and evil are a spectrum of a continuum. One is not mutually exclusive of the other. Everything is a cycle; good and evil are part of an array of an entity. The Universe and its passage in the space of time are not human-centric or animal-centric. We are mere accidental participants in this cosmic accident and collateral damage in the passage of t...

Sacred Games (Season 1; 2018) Life is like being at the beach. Sometimes the water is cloudy or appears unsightly with floating particles. The waves may be high and dangerous to be around. It may be too windy. The beach may be too crowded for comfort. At other times, it may just be perfect. We are only supposed to enjoy the moment whatever the circumstance. Forget the flare of the sun, the heat, the sunburn, the sticky bodies, the sand and the mess the wind and sea-water do to your hair. That is life for you and me. You are supposed to get the best out of it - the ups, downs, warts and all.   This Netflix flick has an entirely Indian plot, setting, cast with a story written by an Indian author. With a background of gangsterism and communal violence, it traces through the story of a Brahmin boy who went through a tumultuous childhood to end up as a Don in Mumbai. It unravels the saga of crooked politicians, corrupted policemen, a web of dishonest businessmen, a trail of c...

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) The first thing that I noticed was that there were too many superheroes and I had a difficult time trying to identify them. Some of them even look somewhat similar to my eyes. To me, one who is a slow learner of this genre, Captain America and Star-Lord has the same face-cut. Black Widow and Scarlett Witch look almost alike. Even Bruce Banner without his Hulk outfit and Iron Man seem to share a similar exoskeleton. Anyway, one gets the gist of the story as the story, which could have easily been plucked out of the Indian mythology. Thanos, the protagonist, who wants to destroy half of the world's population to put things right. To do this, he needs to have in his possession some precious stones which are implanted in some superheroes. Just as seen in Hindu mythologies when an Asura is given a boon and he terrorises, all the Devas have to join forces to set order in the Cosmos, here the Avenger and the Guardian of the Galaxy teams put their ...

Antichrist (2009) Screenplay, Director: Lars Von Tiers One is quick to find a punching back, a casual link to all our maladies. They hurl brickbats at others, nature, animals, bad times and bad omen as a reason of their predicaments. If nothing can be definitely pinpointed, genetics and nurturing take the beating. The actual evil of the world, according to this film, is none of the above but is buried deep within all of us. Yes, the animalistic, raw, unbridled desires in us are the culprits! We can blame all the evil that happens to us upon ourselves, not our parents or our siblings. This somehow graphic and gory presentation takes us through the journey of a psychotherapist and his wife. The wife is grieved by the death of her toddler. The child fell to her death whilst she and her husband were engaged in a passionate act of love making. The guilt of neglect and joy at an emotional moment dragged her into depression. The medications do not seem to be working; it only leaves h...

Blue Velvet (1986) Story and Direction: David Lynch My impressionable young mind used to wonder when I used to read of random shootings in schools and somewhat bizarre behaviours of certain people in the so-called civilised world. I thought the deviant acts were the price one paid for development. The phenomenon of adolescent psychology was not even an entity in this part of the world till about 20 years ago. Is it a first world problem as we set different priorities as our target and different role models to follow? Perhaps this film, another David Lynch classic, is trying to tell us that the dangers were lurking inside all the while. It is just that avenues are available to express now. It had just been swept under the proverbial carpet all this while. It starts on an idyllic day in the 60s on a sunny day with everybody smiling and Bobby V's 'Blue Velvet' song in the background. A man is watering his lawn, and his family members are drawn to a TV series. The man...