The bottomline of a fall!

Garudan (Vishnu's mythical bird, Tamil; 2024)
Director: R.S. Durai Senthilkumar

We all start life from the bottom of the shelf. We hope to one day be among the window displays and the envy of others. Invariably, he suddenly becomes philosophical once one reaches the top shelf or the window panel. He downplays his initial avarice as materialism, saying that real success is service to mankind and such. He goes on a rant that one can buy a mattress but cannot buy sleep, and he can build a house but not a home. 

Do not be surprised to learn that, behind the scenes, his rapaciousness to usurp wealth still lingers. To this end, he may use his influence, his followers' aloofness, and blind faithfulness to his advantage. Just like how the East India Company and ancient Indian Merchants held the government of the day at ransom, these successful individuals may choose the path of greed.

Just when he thinks he just got everything under his thumb, has his 'i's dotted and 't's crossed, invariably, three things will lead to his fall. That would be land, women and wealth (Mann, Penn, Pon). Sometimes, religion would initiate his downfall, especially when he uses religion to deify himself. With the advent of modern media, before long, his bluff may have been bared open. The hawk of time will be marauding high above us to keep track of our deeds and misdeeds to balance the chit in this life or the next. 

This film is a typical Tamil village drama in which lawlessness and abuse of power are the order of the day. A corrupt minister makes an elaborate plan to usurp a large chunk of land, a family ancestral land donated to a temple. The minister tries to kill the trustee and bribe the closest relative to get the land transferred clandestinely. 

The trustee, an elderly grandma, adopts three boys who grow up tooth and nail, supporting each other. Little trouble starts brewing within the family, and the baddies take the opportunity to fan the embers until it turns into a bloodbath.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

google.com, pub-8936739298367050, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

As you see it!

Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d'une chute, French; 2023)
Director: Justine Triet

We reassure ourselves by telling lies. We are so cock sure that truth will win. It would somehow emerge from the crack to balance the equilibrium of the Universe. One of the half-truths we convince ourselves is that there is a balance of two opposing but sometimes complementary forces; the good and bad, the truth and the lie, the masculine and feminine forces, chaos and order and so forth. The 'truth' wins every time, we con ourselves.

It is all a perspective of the now and the glaring presence of the evidence of the present. No caped sorcerer will ride the high horse of justice to right the wrong. 

That, in my opinion, is the essence of this story. A husband is found dead in his frosted front yard, presumably after a fall from his balcony three storeys up. He was discovered by his blind son, returning from a walk with his guide dog. The wife was alone in the house with blaring music playing on the speaker. Their relationship had seen better times.

The physical fall brings out the metaphorical fall out of love, the fall of status for the husband, and the possible fall into depression of the husband. 

Initial police investigations suggest it could be a suicide, but a recording of the couple's conversation throws a spanner into the works. The wife, an established author, is arrested as the possible suspect of the murderer of her husband. 

The court trials tease out the family dynamics. What starts as the couple falling in love, having a child, and juggling their careers turns murky. In an accident possibly caused by the husband's lackadaisical delay, the son is caught in an accident that causes him to lose his eyesight. The guilt-stricken writer-husband, compounded by the mother's veiled accusations, becomes a wreck. His writing juices dry up, and love falls off the cliff.

The wife is questioned as a possible perpetrator of the crime or maybe accidental death on a possible domestic tussle. Her previous blemishes are exposed. The animosity that arose as she prospered as a prolific writer at the expense of her husband's creative impotence is laid bare. 

The son takes the heaviest brunt of it all. His testimony at the stand may determine how the case turns out for the mother. He is unsure how to look at all of the events. Did his father kill himself? Did his mother kill his husband? These conundrums seem to put a lot of burden on the shoulders of a young early teenager. Everything is confusing. He is pressured to do the right thing, but what is right anymore? 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.