Just a file number?

Liar's Dice (Hindi; 2013)
Netflix

A good 10 years ago, as the mass rail transit tracts were being constructed, amidst all the chaos of redirection of traffic, a restless driver overtook me as I was carefully manoeuvring my vehicle through the diversions. He barged into a blockade and collided head-on with a general worker who happened to just minding his own business, clearing some debris. I saw him being flung into mid-air, landing on his back after doing a full-body somersault. From my rear mirror, I could see the victim lie motionless as the driver alight his car to attend to the victim.

That incident left an uneasy feeling within me the next few days that followed. I often wondered what thoughts went through his mind just before he was hit. Was he thinking of his young daughter, whom he had not seen or wondered how she would react to the present that he had bought? Maybe he was just going back home for Eid? Or was he thinking of pleasant memories of his childhood?  I also wondered what things would be found in his body when he brought to the hospital; maybe his wife's portrait, his child's father, his dream house. 

Imagine, after all the debt, sacrifices, sweat and tears, he is just to return home in a body bag, with shattered dreams, broken bones and fractured bonds. Is it all worth it? Did his sacrifices alter the path of the family? Did all the penances push his family up the ladder of affluence? Or is he just another file number in the statistics of human casualties in the chase to make Malaysia a developed nation?

In a way, this film may give an account of the aggrieved family members of the above example. Kamala has not heard from her husband for the last five months. Her husband had gone off to work in town previously. Kamala lives in the interiors of India, bordering China, with her three-year-old daughter.

The daily phone calls just stopped abruptly, and her calls went into voicemail. Despite reassurances from friends and neighbours, she had a gut feeling that something was not right. One day Kamala took the bold move to go out to town to search for her husband herself. With a little money, her daughter and a kid (a young goat), she embarked on a long journey searching for her husband at the last given address. 

The trip appears to be not as straight forward as she thought. Encountering shady characters at every corner and conman at every turn, she wonders if Nawazuddin, a dice-throwing gambler, is just another fraud with tricks up his sleeves? 

A slow-moving intense low budget drama that brings out human emotions and transports the viewers into a breathtaking spectacle of the outdoors and the scrutiny of the back lanes, as well as the not so savoury glimpse of India that most visitors would give a miss.

(P.S. The running around looking for the missing husband reminds me of a Japanese cartoon that my sisters and I use to enjoy in our childhood - 3000 Leagues in search of Mother, where an Italian boy goes on a long journey to find his mother in Argentina.)

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Expressional freedom or exploitation?

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's 'WAP'

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's 'WAP'

It seems that this song is the latest one to play earworm in every Gen-Z and even millennials. It is said to have smashed many records and currently the most-streamed song. Streaming is said to be the true assessment of its popularity, uninfluenced by the interferences of the recording giants. It is also the talking point of many, saying that this song defines female-centred sexual empowerment.

To others, however, this is all just noise - a cunning way to exploit the female body to gyrate to obscene lyrics in scanty outfits. The dance moves are no work of art but mere abuse of freedom of expression to showcase pornography to the public eye in the name of democratisation of oppressed black females. The moves are not sexual innuendos but outright vulgarity.

Defenders of this type of expressions rebut that no one objected when male rappers made these type of sexually explicit videos. Not true. Even back in the 1990s, concerned with the rise in songs with dirty lyrics, a kind of classification system was introduced. This kind of lazy songwriting and exploitatory videos cannot be defended in the name of artistic licence.

Actually, this type of outburst is nothing new. Even when Elvis Presley started gyrating his pelvis to the song of 'Jailhouse Rock', the older generation thought it was an abomination. Such suggestive gestures, they say, was not in decorum with civil society. The end is nigh, they cried. People objected when 'Escape - The Piña Colada Song ' hit the airwaves; it promoted casual infidelity.

In Malaysia, Boy George's 'Karma Charmeleon' music video was banned as the singer crossdressed. Michael Sambelo's 'Maniac' went under the censors' scissors for the yoga pants that outlined the female anatomy a wee bit too vividly. The moral guardians, however, are helpless in stopping its wide-eyed citizens from feasting on Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's 'WAP' as streaming transcend their jurisdiction.

For better or worse, this is how a society evolves. Lessons from the Prohibition in the US in the 30s only teaches us that suppressing something only makes the problem go worse. The inquisitive nature of people will always arouse their inner desire to take a bite at the forbidden fruit. In time to come 'WAP' will be as tame as Brothers Grimms' fairy tales. Only that the messages are cryptic just like how the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' is not all a quick-thinking young girl but about a flirtatious girl caught between innocence and sexuality.

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's 'WAP' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 With Record First-Week Streams

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