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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Desires last 60 days; lust 30.

Bangalore Days (Malayalam, 2014)

The stories of the silver screen and fairy tales make us believe that it is worthwhile to grasp that one chance at love. They convince us that it the single most crucial fight that one has to win. Overcoming that would translate to eternal bliss. It is happiness afterwards, forever and ever. Err... wrong answer.

In a very entertaining way, combining the scenic backgrounds of Kerala and Bangaluru, as well as the pleasing youthful features of the good looking actors, the story tries to tell us in a subtle way that it is not all hunky-dory when and especially after one finds love. It is an eternal struggle to keep the flames alive. Even if the ember stays aglow, there are too many interferences that threatened its harmony. In modern living, with the relaxation of rigid social restrictions that used to prevail and the scream of empowerment, no one can be pinned down anymore. Everybody is free to do what he (or she) wants. Is that daring to be different, to empower oneself, defiance to status or plain lazy to uphold the age-old agreed norms that rock the whole fabric of marital bliss? Or is it that the desire to defend the holy institution of marriage that makes one overlook or tolerate the many imperfections of the other?

Prince Charming turned out to be a loafer?
Like the Tamil proverb goes
'Desires are for 60 days, and lust is for 30 days'.
ஆசை 60 நாள் மோகம் 30 நாள் 

The story revolves around three cousins (Kuttan, Arjun and Divya) who are close as thick as thieves sharing an unforgettable childhood and the same sense of humour. 

Arjun, a son of an army man, went wayward after his parents divorced. We get the sense that he attributes his failure in life to his parents' separation. From a top student, he ended up being a dirt-bike racer and an occasional mechanic. His love interest turns out to be wheelchair-bound paraplegic. The positive thing about the film is the paraplegic character actually had a positive. Unlike a typical India movie where a far from 'perfect' person will usually sacrifice her life, here she is paved the way for a possible happy experience. 

Happy forever and ever?

Kuttan is a goody-two-shoes who followed all the pointers given by his parents and is a software engineer. One day, Kuttan's father disappeared from their home. He left a note citing his desire to find peace and purpose in life. A subsequent letter clarifies that he actually must be enjoying himself in the laid back beaches of Goa, away from the smothering of his wife, Kuttan's mother. Kuttan also realises that his mother, though meaning well, could be quite a pain in the neck when she moved in with him.
Meanwhile, Kuttan is also finding love, naively thinking that a nice traditional Kerala girl would be ideal. His first love, a stewardess, proved disappointing. She used him to get back to her ex-boyfriend!

Paris Laxmi
A French Malayalee
started dancing
Bharat Natyam at 3.

Divya, the only female of the trio, undergoes an arranged marriage to Shiva. After the wedding, Shiva and Divya move to Bangalore. By a twist of fate, her cousins land up in Bangalore. Divya soon discovers that her husband is far from intimate. Their marriage goes through a tailspin. Soon it is found that Shiva keeps a dark secret from his past.

The rest of the story is in trying to tie up everybody's life to a resolution and a happy ending. Inserted subtly into scenes are cryptic messages which tend to answer itself. One visible message is how Indians tend to parrot Western's way of dressing and embracing their culture while the Westerners look highly at the Indian way of living and cannot wait to immerse into them. 

At the end of the film, Kuttan, who was looking out for a typical Bharat Natyam dancing Malayalee with long pleats for matrimony, found one in Michelle, a Caucasian girl fitting the above description!

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Yes or No, Right or Left, You are correct!

Vikram Vedha (2017)

Source: Wiki

Whenever one goes back to his wayward ways, I remember Amma would say, "See, Vethalam has gone up murunga tree!" The story of Vedhalam (Vetal) goes back to the tales of King Vikramaditya and the fables of moral dilemmas. In one instance, the mighty King had to capture Vetal, a demon, from a cemetery. He was supposed to keep a code of silence and not utter a single word, or the creature would retreat back to the tree it was hanging. The King followed suit. The imp was such chatty chap who kept telling stories upon stories and demanding answers. He asserted that if the King knew the answer and did not reply, his head would explode. If the answer were correct, the devil would jump back to the tree. The devil would stay if the answer were wrong. Like that the devil escaped captivity as the wise King could his tales that ended with riddles. 25 stories were told. The King could answer all 24. The demon dodged and the sorcerer caught him, and the cycle went on. The last one proved too complicated even for the wise king. Vikram brought Vetal back.

This is the basis of this film; Vikram, a hotblooded police officer and Vedha, the dangerous criminal he is trying to nab who attempts to justify the path that his life turned out to be.

Gangland fights in North Chennai are becoming nasty. Abandoning their traditional steely knives, the gangsters find guns more damaging. The bodies are piling, and the police had set up a special force of cops to keep the situation under wraps. Everybody in the team was specially handpicked for their dedication. Despite all the obstacles, they persevere. The team members all have their own sorrows to wallow; the chief was injured in an encounter, Vikram's buddy, Simon, has a child with a chronic debilitating disease, another with sex addiction, another who wants to give the best education to his child and yet one with a gambling addiction.

The team gets the opportunity to seize the gang leader, Vedha, but he gets out on bail. Thanks to Vikram's wife who happens to be a junior lawyer. Then a cat-and-mouse game starts as Vikram gets near to apprehending  Vedha. Vedha, in the meantime, engages in a 'catch-me-if-you can' routine whilst telling him stories of moral dilemma and his own justification for the predicament that he (Vedha) is in. Being born in the unfortunate side of the society with scant of opportunities, he had to do what he had to do to survive.

We all talk about one's own dharma*, the reason he is sent to Earth; the correct path that he is supposed to follow as it is what he is supposed to do.  But who is to know - that this is the path and that is the destination. We are all thrown into the deep end of the pool, some of us in cesspools, others in a seemingly nectar-filled rose scented pool. We are made to made to grope in the dark and make sense of what we are supposed to do. Irrespective of muck or rose petals, keeping afloat is a struggle, nonetheless. As we go on with the journey of life, we absorb guidance and knowledge from those around us and convince ourselves that that is our dharma, our reason for our existence. But who knows whether we made the right decision. We make up our minds as we wobble along. 

People in positions of power also go through the very same quandary.  A leader has to take the tough call to steer his downlines towards the right track. Decisions are not mere flowcharts guided by arrows, but different approach needed for different situations. There is no right or wrong decision; only bad choice in retrospect! In case our decisions proved less favourable, we convince ourselves that our conscience is clear. We did what we thought was best at that time and space.

Credit: devdutt.com
Vikramaditya and Vetal

# A king was performing the funeral rites for his father. As he was about to drop the funeral offering in the river, as ritual demanded, three hands rose from the water to receive it. The first hand belonged to a weaver, to whom the king’s mother had been forcibly given in marriage. The second hand was of a priest who loved the king’s mother and had made her pregnant. The third was of a warrior who had found the king abandoned on the riverbank and had adopted him and raised him on his own. “Now tell me Vikramaditya,” said the Vetal, “On which hand should the king place the funeral offering? On the hand of his mother’s husband, his biological father or his foster father? On the palm of the weaver, the priest or the warrior? 

#25. The unanswerable question. If a father and son conquerers seize a kingdom and marry the princess and the queen in captivity respectively, what would be the relationship between their children? (Hey it reminds of P Ramlee's 'Keluarga 69' and K. Balachander's 'Apoorva Raagangal'.)

* Dharma has multiple meanings in different religions. It is said that there is no one single-word that translates dharma in Western languages. It was in use in the Vedas and had evolved over the millennia.  In Hinduism, dharma signifies behaviours that are in accordance with the natural order of the Universe. It encompasses duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and "right way of living". In Buddhism, dharma is the "cosmic law and order" and is also applied to the teachings of the Buddha. In Jainism, it is the teachings of Tirthankara (spiritual teacher) and the body of doctrine about the purification and moral transformation of human beings. For the Sikhs, dharm is the path of righteousness and proper religious practice.

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

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Too old for this!

Frozen 2013


With so much of hype singing praises of the animated film, I thought I would give it a go. Unlike 'The Lion King' that I thoroughly enjoyed, I found this a bit of a drag.

I guess I am not cut out for fairy tales. Based on Hans Christian Anderson's 'Snow Queen', this tale is a visual galore due to advancements in 3D animation. The characters are manga-like with large eyes and tiny limbs. Unlike Lion King, the side characters are annoying and lack depth in character. The reindeer and the snowman do not provide any added credence to the otherwise predictable plot.

In a tundra kingdom, the elder of the two princesses (Elsa) is endowed with an ability to create ice crystals from the tip of her finger at will and with emotion. Even though initially it was quite fun to play with, she soon realised that it was a curse as it almost killed her sister, Anna. The troll king managed to resuscitate Anna but with caution that her ability must be curtailed.

Anna grows up having lost her memory of her sister's gift, and Elsa grows as a recluse, imprisoned in her own room. The parents soon die in a boat accident, and the girls grew up by themselves in isolation, with the castle door closed shut against the citizens.

The first-ever royal ball is held in ages on the event of the inauguration of Elsa as the Queen when she comes of age. The precocious Anna wants to get engaged with the first guy that she meets, angering the new Queen. In a fit of rage, she inadvertently unravelled her cursed ability. It turned the summer into a freezing freak winter, and the attendees accused her of being a witch. In embarrassment, Elsa goes into a self-imposed exile. The rest of the story tries to tell how Anna goes in pursuit of her sulking sister with the help of uninspiring man like the iceman, Kristoff, his emotionless reindeer, a Jar Jar Binks-que character in a snowman.

I was waiting for the show to be over so that I could just write it off as something that would excite my 7-year-old niece. She would probably lose interest in Elsa and Anna come summer when Pixar or Disney churns out yet another blockbuster. Boring...

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