Something wrong here!

Knock Knock (2015)

Director: Eli Roth

[Remake of Death Game (1977)]

My mother told me there was no such thing as a free lunch. When something is so good, it is probably not good. 

From the movie Jurassic Park, we learnt of T-Rex's unique way of trapping its prey. With short, awkward dangling forelimbs and a bulky body but a voracious appetite for flesh, it had to devise its own way to entice potential dinner. It would send in or may in the vicinity of a benign and cuddly-looking small creature. When a more enormous creature (or human as in the movie) goes to admire the cute animal, T-Rex goes for the kill in the most brutal way. 

Someone was warned in my circle when one member was quietly admiring a pretty young thing that passed on by. He was educated that humans also use this modus operandi to entice and pounce on their prey during their selective, lustful hunts. 

After crying silently under the kingdom of masculine toxicity for so long, the fairer sex has turned the table since the inception of the rebel yell of #Metoo. Victims have turned predators most cunningly.

Woman empowerment and feminism have gone a complete 180-degree twist. Some have learned to defeat their enemies in the most passive-aggressive way. Examples of how victims use sexuality to defame the opposite gender are too innumerable to enumerate. Things have gone so topsy-turvy that one cannot identify who the aggressor or victim is anymore.

I had seen its trailer quite so often in cinemas before but got around to watching it. It must be one movie that Keanu Reeves would like to forget. He can indeed perform better than the appalling one displayed here. The plot is so flimsy and full of holes. The original film it is based on, Death Game (1977), is not much better. Both can pass off as low-budget soft porn.

A goody two-shoes husband and father of two is home alone while the family is away. On a wet stormy night, two free-spirited young ladies knock on his door, soaking wet. They had got their friend's address all mixed up and were stranded. The good Samaritan takes them in to offer blankets and dry off their clothes. Things get complicated when they become too cosy with the host, flirt with him and refuse to leave the house the following day after a night-long steamy tryst. They make themselves at home, hold him hostage and turn the home he had built upside down.

It is not that feminism has gone awry, says my other half. The male species also needs to take part of the blame. The idea of restraint and fear of retribution seems to become an alien concept day by day. Nothing is sacrosanct anymore, and nothing is shameful anymore. It is one thing to rise from the ashes and utterly different from rubbing one's face with soot and saying, "There is nothing wrong here!"

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

Within a generation?

Zindagi inShorts (Hindi, 2020)
Netflix

This is a collection of seven short stories, just nice for light viewing and those with a short attention span. It covers a myriad of topics, with women empowerment taking centre stage. In the first episode titled 'Pinni', a housewife with exceptional culinary expertise is only appreciated for her cooking skills but not for anything else. She is just viewed as a doormat - it is there to serve a purpose, but there is no need to go fancy about it. She strikes back when her husband got no time to remember her birthday.

'Sleeping partner' narrates how a woman's role is miniaturised in a family. She rebels by expressing her sexual freedom. See how she hits back when her lover starts blackmailing her. The story touches on marital rape. 'Sunnyside Upar' cajoles us to live out the only life given to us to its fullest via the experience of a young doctor in a cancer ward. Bad things happen to good people. Just deal with it. 'Nano so phobia' brings on the plight of a lonely elderly Farsi lady who has had once too many times cried wolf to be taken seriously. 'Chhaju ke Dahi Bhalle' shows how culturally close people from Lahore and Amritsar are. Through a dating app, a Muslim girl links up with a Sikh boy. After the pleasantries, they decided to meet up at a popular eatery. After failing to meet up, they realised that they were on either side of the India-Pakistan border.

'Thappad' is a story of empowerment where an adolescent sister with her younger brother stands up against bullies. 'Swaha' is a comical rendition of an insecure husband and supposed two-timing or three-timing wife. 

It is all well and fine that more and more women are finding their places in societies. Rightly they prosper from the opportunities that were denied from them earlier due to changing societal mores. The problem is that the rebel yell for change may be happening much too rapid than it can be handled by society. It seems that the morphing of female assertations is too drastic for their counterpart and the rest of the family unit. Like a single hard slap on the face before they can realise what hit them, things have morphed within a single generation. From the demure social norms abiding mums, they have metamorphosised to groundbreaking boardroom-chairing giant figures waiting to change the world. 

Herein lies the friction. Biologically, both sexes have their respective roles in societies. They are meant to complement each other, not compete against one another. The union of the male and female forces are interdependent. The energies of Siva and Parvathi are best when working in unison. The unabated individual force would only lead to self-destruction.

Let us look at the family unit. It has become acceptable these days that it is perfectly normal for a family unit to be led by a single parent. This does not, however, concur with the findings of many social researchers. They have linked poor students' academic achievements, high incidences of delinquencies, substance abuses, teenage pregnancies and its ensuing problems to single parenthood. A proper father figure and motherly touch seem essential in wholesome parenting.

The dominant role of the male in the family system has eroded. The traditional role of a strong protector and provider has somehow evolved. They are expected to appear strong and confident only on the outside for a picture-perfect display for the public. Within the four walls, they are expected to be emotionally dependent and easily be wrapped around the strings of their apron. But then, apron neither denotes feminine nor docility. When a male does not embrace this arrangement, he is deemed to exhibit masculine toxicity. That is dealt with by cancelling!

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

You are more than what you eat!

The Great Indian Kitchen (Malayalam; 2021)

After being denied by many OTT channels, because of the Sabarimala Trials' running narration in the background, it made its presence in an obscure platform, NeeStream in Kerala.

No, this is not a cooking show showcasing the numerous mouth-watering cuisines from the Indian kitchens. Instead, it is an India bashing film to portray the slave-like conditions in which some Indian brides live as 24/7 cook, wife, servant, and gardener. Simultaneously, in this particularly orthodox Hindu household, she is locked away in a small room away from everybody view for a good one week every month. She is considered dirty and should not be allowed to prepare food, as it is regarded as a divine duty to feed the family's males. 

Coming from a family with liberal views on women empowerment (the protagonist was a traditional dancer in a previous life!), she flips one day. She was done with making adjustments to fit in every time. She called it quits and resumes her former life as a Bharat Natyam teacher.

Surprisingly, female gender had been typecast to play second fiddle in a typified patriarchal society. What happened to the likes of Ubhaya Bharati who had been given the honour of judging a philosophical discourse between Adi Shankara and her husband Mandana Mishra circa 700AD.  When her husband was outclassed by Adi Shankara, she debated with the latter.  

The Vedic society gave equal place for women in society. Pāṇini, 400BCE, the Master Sanskrit Grammarian, advocated women to study the Vedas equally with men. In his Mimamsa School of Philosophy, there were women philosophers. Mahabharata tells of polyandry and strong female characters. What gave? Did the meddling of Indian education by the British and Abrahamic religions dismantle an already functional traditional education system?

Many traditional societies view menstruation as unclean body fluid, and many restrictions are attached to it. 

Sinu Joseph, an engineer by qualification and a menstrual educator, has researched much into traditional Indian outlook and tries to give an Ayurvedic scientific explanation to the body during that time of the month.

According to the agama shastras, each temple is designed to energise a specific chakra. By extension, each temple can have a particular impact on the body, and even a different effect on the male and female body. 

This is also used to explain why menstruating women have been barred entry into temples. Traditionally, temples have been looked upon as, not as a place of worship, but as charging pods. Its location concerning magnetic forces of the Earth, its alignment, geometry and placing certain metals within its building makes it an opportune place for sojourners to rejuvenate themselves to meet the challenges of the day. A menstruating body has many internal hormonal circuits to handle, and entering such an institution may have a different impact on the internal milieu. According to the agama shastras, that the author cites several times in her book, each temple is designed to energise a specific chakra. By extension, each temple can have a distinct impact on an individual.  Different restrictions have been placed by other worship houses to a targeted group of the population, i,e, ladies in the reproductive age group and restricted entry into the Sabarimala temple. There are even temples exclusively for women! Men are disallowed here. Talk about a reverse Sabarimala, but nobody talks about it.

Follow

Follow

Follow

Follow

Follow

Follow

Follow

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

Amazons rule, ok?

Killing Eve (Mini-Series, 2018 - present)

If you imagine a world where women are in positions of power. And they make life-altering decisions in a cruel world fighting injustices. The villains are not males as we expect, but ladies themselves perform highly sophisticated and well-executed crimes. Males are just there to fill up the quotas. They are just weak characters who can be quickly wrapped around the fingers. They are the male equivalent of bimbos. They are unnecessary. Life goes on with or without them. Sex? They are at the ladies' disposal. The females hold tight the rein that controls their sexuality. Who needs men when all they provide are wild oats that sadly, the female gender has to bear the brunt of the after-effects? Women can give sex with emotional support, minus the physical baggage. Who needs men, anyway?

The miniseries is the one you are looking for. All leading roles are by women, including the directors. Men are merely supporting actors, filling up the gaps, as the story progressed somewhat haphazardly. It appears that filmmakers have no real intentions to tie up the loose ends of the story but rather ride on its popularity as long the interest of its viewers lingers.

An envelope-pushing civil servant, Eve Polastri, suddenly becomes an international high flying assassin catcher when she discovers that she may be connected to a Russian hired assassin at a celestial level. They hate each other's gut but refuse to pull the trigger against each other. 

It is a meeting of female 'James Bond' and 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

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

Passed its sell-by date?

Contestants: Vartika Singh (India), Mohana Prabha (Singapore),

Mehr Elieser (Panama), Priya Serrao (Australia), 
Shweta Sekhon (Malaysia).

The female members of the clan were ecstatic to learn that they possibly shared the same forefathers of five of finalists who have been shortlisted at the 2019 Miss Universe contest. I did not want to be a spoilsport to dampen the spirit of achievement; they had no role at all. If anything, it only shows their hypocrisy.

On one end, they want to be assessed on their mental ability and tenacity. They feel slighted when referred to as the weaker sex or given leeway for under achievements. They would like to believe that their successes in life were purely via merit, not by merely being the fairer sex. They raise their gaze when the female gender is condescended upon or depicted in a negative light.

But it is quite puzzling that the parading of scantily clad females like livestock raises no concern at all to them. Sure, intellectual capacity, wit, personality and social consciousness all are tested to pick the fairest of them all. Physical attributes must surely give the window of opportunity for other subsequent successes to follow soon.

Have we not seen enough instances of how beauty queens being puppets of businesses and government acting under the guise of being a brand ambassador for a novel cause?

Ms Reita Faria, Ms World 1966.

Offhand, the story of Asia's first Ms World contestant and the 1966 winner comes to mind. Reita Faria, then a 23-year-old medical student from Bombay, went on to win the crown. (Note: Ms World and Ms Universe are different events). Her problems started after that. As part of her contract, she had to appear for the organisers, Mecca. She had to accompany Bob Hope to entertain GIs in the Vietnam War. As India opposed the Vietnam War, her passport was impounded by her Government, and she was stuck in the UK for a year, unable to continue her medical studies. Her happy ending came about when she secured a place in King's College to continue her studies. She now resides in Ireland married to her mentor in 1971 and moved to Dublin.

Many years later, in an interview, Dr Reita Faria Powell opined that beauty pageants had probably passed their shelf life. She thinks that there is no more a fairy tale ending.

Have you noticed that over the years how the selection of finalists is overtly biased toward the turn of events in the world political arena? And more contestants from the developing countries seem to capture the limelight. Probably that is where the target audience is and where the sponsors want to tap their resources from. Maybe their counterparts in the first world are over with burning bras and have nothing more to prove. They are more than mere eye candies or trophy toys to demand recognition. Points to ponder.

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

Choices and Confusions

Fleabag (Comedy, Miniseries, 2016 -2019)
Created, Directed and Starred: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Fleabag is a dark comedy about a 30-something single lady who is trying to make it her life mission to fall in love and settle down. But it is not easy. In the background are the memories of her business partner who committed suicide (or is it an accident?), her high achieving neurotic sister, her alcoholic brother-in-law, her widowed father who is sort of arm-twisted to remarry with a conniving and eccentric painter and the plethora of suitors who are equally clueless about their purpose in life.

Society has evolved over the generations to educate the fairer sex to give an equal place in the sun. Sometimes we wonder if this empowerment makes things more difficult for them to decide what is best for them. Entitlement, not wanting to be shortchanged in their choices of life partners, brings them to the brink of insanity. The options are too many, and nothing satisfies them any more. So why bother with the formalities when the sweet nectar of the fruit can be savoured without purchasing?

People are so lost on the purpose of life that they meander aimlessly oblivious of their intentions, just looking around for the unattainable using pleasure as their yardstick to success. That is why generations before us thought that it would be prudent to invest in the cookbook of life, which would make it easy for the unthinking Man to manoeuvre the boat of life. 

Long ago, chastity was given a sacred status. It was protected with the women's life until a responsible suitor is found. It, however, also subjugated women to submission to laws of society.

A better understanding of human biology and equality to both sexes turned the table. Sex is no longer looked upon as a mysterious divine gift but a mere social contact, much like a handshake or a bear hug. Women, now in better financial conditions, able to stand independently, sometimes in better bargaining positions, hold the chips and call the shots. They are in a position to pick and choose their partners and decide when they wish to be a gravid container for continuity of their progeny. Can this be the right way to do things? 

Making decisions listening to the heart and using happiness as a gauge had never been found to be the right way.

Masam Masam Manis (1965)

The main character regularly breaks the fourth wall (the imaginary wall that separates the actors and the audience) to explain her decision to the audience and in a way to get approval to her mischiefs. It reminded me of 'Garry Shandling Show' and P Ramlee in 'Masam-Masam Manis'. Interestingly, in this show, the Catholic priest who is the protagonist's love interest realises her interactions through the fourth wall. It is as though the pastor has the ability to look into another dimension- much like how the miracles and acts of divinity happen in another plane.

(thanks SK for introduction and input)

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