The reality of addiction

Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Director: Darren Aronofsky

The President of India, a rocket scientist and an overall good soul, once told his audience, "Dream is not that which you see while you sleep, but is that something that does not allow you to sleep." Don't jump about it; put it in action!

They also discuss the American dream, which states everyone has equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.

Yes, we can convince ourselves that we can do it. We should go for it, putting our minds and souls into it. However, the fact is that people win and people lose. Only some people are cut for it. A thin line exists between having the mojo to do it and not. One should recognise their shortcomings and jump on to Plan B, not forever flogging a dead horse.

Worse still, when one fails to pick up the telltale signs, one buries oneself deeper and deeper into a cesspool of self-defeating habits, hoping for a miracle to happen. When the going gets tough, one should know when it is time to get the tough going, when to retreat and live to fight another day. Failure to discern will spell disaster.

But how do we know our capability if we do not know ourselves to the limit? How do we know our breaking point unless we are stretched to the limit? The telltale sign must be when pharmacological agents get involved. Where does the concoction of ayahuasca with active ingredients like DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) and MAOIs (Monoamine oxidase inhibitors) fit in? Ayahuasca is a potent hallucinogen used to open portals inaccessible to human minds to explore one's true potential. Many ultra-marathoners in the desert of Mexico consume it to push their bodies to the possible human limits. 

Some have labelled this movie as one of the most disturbing films ever produced. It is not so much of the gore factor at play here; it is much the depiction of hopelessness one experiences when one is trapped in an addiction.

Loneliness, depersonalisation and self-prescribing are the greatest bane of modern living. Human interaction is so superficial. 

A widow, Sara, lives alone in her apartment. Her young adult son, a drug addict, occasionally goes AWOL, only to sell off his mother's goods for a bit of cash and a quick fix. The mother's constant companion is a TV, and her fixation with a particular game show keeps her going. Her only other human contact is when her neighbours sunbathe along the walkway.

One day, Sara receives a call that she will be a guest in a game show. She and her friends are all so excited. Sara plans to appear in a dashing red dress that she appeared in during her prom. For that, she goes on a diet spree and later gets prescription drugs. Sara loses weight, albeit slowly. So, she increases her dosage on her own, causing hallucinations and insomnia. She is finally institutionalised. 

Sara's son, Harry, tries to make money by reselling heroin at an inflated cost. He and his girlfriend have big plans of starting a boutique. Things do not go as planned. Harry, his girlfriend and his business partner are all heroin addicts. They decided to test out the merchandise that they sell. Things go spiralling down from then on. Harry even pimps his girlfriend to make ends meet.

A compelling story on the reality of addiction. 

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The lonely road to success?

Le Samourai (The Samurai; 1967)

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

The film title card starts with a fabricated quote from Bushido, the moral code of the samurai. It says, "There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai, unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle… perhaps". Miyamoto Musashi, probably Japan's foremost samurai swordsman of the late 16th century, is said to have said this, among other things. He describes the solitary path to success as being filled with loneliness. Solitude accompanies the path to success. He further goes on to say, in one of the books that he had written, that solitude shapes, moulds, and builds character all along our journey to success.

Does this go against the grain of what we have been taught? We had been told that we are social animals and that a man is not an island. Social interaction is essential for mental health, and a child turns out to be developmentally stunted without the tactile stimulation of his loved ones.

On the other hand, we know how lousy companies and wrong associations often derail our ambitions to attain greater heights. There is a reason why high-level athletes and sportsmen train in isolation before a major event. In the same vein, I suppose seekers of greater knowledge should focus on the quest rather than be swayed by the white noise surrounding them. Is this the detachment Buddha mentions in his teachings, with attachment being the root of all misery?

In the Samurai code, there are guidelines that they have to follow. Their allegiance and loyalty are laid out clearly. His loyalty to his Lord is paramount. But when a samurai loses his master, he drifts around aimlessly like a leaf on moving water, swaying at random to forces of nature. Yet, he is still alone but without any direction in life, clutching on straws for direction and strength. 

'Le Samourai' is a classic French noir that stood the test of time. Combining the elements of art in filmmaking while maintaining its suspense in storytelling, it narrates the tale of a paid assassin who works alone. He laboriously details his every job to perfection. His last job, even though successful, hits a snag. He had been targeted as a possible suspect by the French police. The hiring party, naturally, gets hot under their collar. 

The assassin now has to run to save his own skin, not only from the police who want to pin him down but also from his hirers, who would rather have him eliminated than squeal to the police for their involvement. The assassin, now no longer a samurai but a ronin, has to use his survival skills and judgement to be alive. The silver lining of all is that there is a pretty pianist who was an eyewitness to the murder and can identify the killer but prefers to stay mum. 

It's a good watch—4.3/5—and one of Alain Delon's best movies, which skyrocketed him to the international market.

P.S. Freud and Nietzsche found wisdom through silence found in nature walks and roaming the wilderness. Hardcore criminals are placed in solitary confinement, hoping that they will find meaning of life through self-reflection. Unfortunately, this approach of living in a silo may not be applicable to all. Men of the robe have to flaunt the gift of their gab to showcase themselves as the saviours of mankind. Politicians meet an audience to cheat them blind. Businessmen need people interaction to patronise their premises. Solitude brings these people nothing.

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End of the line...

Le Cercle Rouge (French, The Red Circle; 1970)
Written & Directed by: Jean-Pierre Melville

The 'Red Circle' referenced in the title is from a fabricated quotation allegedly uttered by Siddhartha Gautama. The Buddha had apparently drawn a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle." 

That red circle is where we will all converge to be judged after all our shenanigans here on Earth. We can aggrandise ourselves all we want, follow the path that we think is true, pray to the God we believe is the true God, and label others as lost causes. When we reach the end of the line, it will all be the same.

This French heist film is set in Paris and boasts an intense, suspense-filled, nearly 30-minute silent heist sequence that is the climax. Silence and intense focus create a riveting experience. 

Most people revisited this film after its leading actor, Alain Delon, passed away recently. Delon was a prolific French actor who acted in over 100 films. He became the symbol of the French New Wave movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Director John Woo was inspired by this film.

It is the story of a petty thief who is tipped off of a jewellery shop he could rob after his release from prison. At the same time, a prisoner escapes police custody and joins the thief. Together with a crooked cop, they plan the jewel theft. Hot on their trail is a dedicated police officer. A good cat-and-mouse movie. We know what will happen in the end - all will sprawl in the red circle.

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The spirit of the black cat...

Kuroneko (@ Black Cat, Japanese; 1968)

Director: Kaneto Shindō

Thinking about it, primitive societies of yesteryears were run mainly by female tribe members. The male members were mostly out of the scene most of the time. Some may have been out hunting for food during their caveman days. In more civil societies, when aristocracy ruled the day, the male members needed to do their national services. Many left for months or even years together to fight wars. Children mostly grow up with absent fathers. Wives led the pack in their day-to-day running of the family unit. Men were left to make many life-changing decisions like defence, security, foreign relations and food security.

Guarding the household is no small feat. Nature is very unwelcoming and hostile. Torrential rains, storms, extreme temperatures and wild beasts frequently harass their abode. So, the female species was not as fragile as modern man had made them out to be. They are actually more robust than the world credits them to be.

Both sexes had their respective roles laid out. Both factions must diligently carry out their roles for a society to continue. No one's role was superior to the other. 

When specific communities encourage men to wed more than one partner, it is not so much for carnal pleasures as for the continuity of species. Infant mortality was high, and people had short life spans. At a time when might is strength by the numbers, an extra pair of hands meant better defence and help running the household chores. 

Much like in Onibaba (1964), the villages are left to be manned by the women, as the men have all gone off to fight in local wars. After all, it was the pre-Meiji restoration of the Samurai era. Men all to bring home loot from the wars or at least bask in the glory of attaining 'samurai-hood'. Samurais carry a particular holding in society. 

A mother and daughter-in-law duo are seen eating their meal. Their dinner is ceremonially trespassed by a group of renegade samurai. They eat their dinner, rape the women, kill them and burn down the raggedy hut. A black cat licks their bodies. The spirits of the dead women come in the form of black cats to avenge every samurai that comes their way. Long story short, the husband/son of the deceased returns after the war, ordained as a samurai. He is sent to hunt down the ghost of the duo, unbeknownst to him their identity.

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Another Martyr...

Amaran (Immortal; Tamil, 2024)

Director: Rajkumar Periasamy

A Tamil movie of the same name was made in 1992. It was a full-scale gangster movie that was initially banned from Malaysian theatres but finally screened after the censors went on a snipping spree. It was deemed too violent. The film ended suddenly as the final showdown between the hero (Karthik) and the baddies had too much gore. The Malaysian Censor Board butchered it so much that I watched a movie that was left hanging with an abrupt end, and the hall lights turned on, much to the audience's confusion about whether there was an emergency of sorts.

This time around, there was violence, gore and death, but it is a legitimate form of ending one's life; that is the government's sanction war against ideologies which are hellbent on destroying peace. We call this patriotism, not turf war.

I think one particular scene in the movie highlights the whole business of war and the use of religion in justifying war. An Indian soldier of the Muslim faith is captured by Islamic terrorists in the stone-pelting areas of Kashmir. The soldier is kneeling, with hands tied behind and head bent, waiting to be beheaded. He is chanting Holy Quranic verses. Holding a sword above the soldier's neck is a young jihadi who is cheered by a mob reciting the Islamic verses too. Which God are they fighting for anyway? If there is one up there, God will have a hard time choosing sides.

Maj Mukund Varadarajan

As a movie, it is produced in a very high-quality way. It narrates the life and times of now deceased Major Mukund Varadarajan of the Indian Army's Rajput Regiment. He fell during a counterterrorism operation in Jammu-Kashmir in April 2014. He posthumously received the Ashok Chakra award. His widow, Indhu Rebecca Varghese, tells the story, depicting their initial meeting at college, marriage, and long-distance relationship through his services in the Indian Army. It is a compelling movie which would definitely raise the spirit of any Indian worth his salt. 

There was nothing terrible about the movie. The chemistry between the actors Sivakarthikeyaan and Sai Pallavi, who portray Mukund and Indhu, is spot on. Watching the film without subtitles, one realises that the message gets clear and crisp, even when speaking Tamil and the other Malayalam. It is a truly Indian film, as Hindi, English, Tamil, and Malayalam are spoken within the same verse without causing any confusion. 

Detractors found nothing to complain about the movie. So they stooped so slow to complain that the film went beyond the call of duty to portray Muslims as the bad guys. Hello, the Kashmir issue has been initiated by a country that carved itself out of India on religious terms. Then, they complained that Major Mukund's caste did not get any prominence in the story as the filmmakers showed his family and the wedding celebration. It was an understanding between the family and the producers not to highlight their Brahmin caste.

This good Diwali movie will wet the eyes of those with sensitive souls. It is based on the book series India's Most Fearless: True Stories of Modern Military Heroes by Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh.

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Truth is a state of mind?

Conspiracy Theory (1997)
Director: Richard Donner

In the pre-internet era, Malaysian coffee shops were fertile grounds for conspiracy theories. At a time when all news was coming out in print and the airwaves were tightly controlled, information was a priced commodity. Everyone had their version of what was going on beyond the iron curtain of bureaucracy, of what was reported and what was not. 

Surprisingly, at least in Malaysia, all the coffee shop banter that would initially be denied by the powers that be will turn out to be true. Investigational journalism is better done by the single cup of coffee purchaser sitting in the shop the whole day than by people trained and paid to do the reporting job. 

In the infancy age of the internet, in the early 1990s, internet buffs scrambled to be on the mailing list of MGG Pillai's discussion forum, Sang Kancil. His brand of hard-hitting fire brand exposè journalism excited young minds who were quite fed up with paternalistic information dispersal. Some of his reports were so unbelievably accurate, as if he had peeked into all governmental secret documents. A great vacuum was left after his demise in 2006. It was indeed a sad day for journalism. The hole was soon filled by Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK), who, probably with his lineage with the royalties, may be privy to much-privileged information. 

RPK did such a good job that he landed on the wrong side of the law several times. Over time, he became so controversial that people wondered whose side he was on. 

Sadly, with so much digital exposure these days, we are still trying to figure out what is real news and what is fake. Those who do not conform to the mainstream narrative are quickly labelled conspiracy theorists. Despite everything being at our disposal, we are still left as confused as ever. Alternative news still turns out to be accurate, as it was before. Nothing has really changed. 

This 1997 obscure film tells the tale of a taxi driver who is termed a lunatic who goes on broadcasting about a grand governmental plan to kill and destroy. In between, he is also apprehended by psychologists or government agents who feed him hallucinogens and try to extract information from him. To a certain extent, we, the viewers, are also confused about what is real and what the cab driver's imagination is. In that city, he is trying to contact a lawyer with the Justice Department. Long story short, the cab driver is correct. He is part of the US mind-control team of the State, which is programmed to carry out secret missions for the government. 

Truth is a state of mind?

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Above all, think!

 Maharaj (Hindi; 2024)
Director: Siddharth P. Malhotra

There was no big hoopla to announce the arrival of one of Bollywood star's son, Aamir Khan's Junaid Khan, to the silver screen. The film, however, had to be cleared by the courts for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments before making a quiet screening on Netflix. From the get-go, people started demonstrating in front of Netflix HQ in the USA, accusing them of defaming Lord Krishna. Many of the demonstrators had not even viewed the show. Still, they demonstrated anyway, seeing the OTT platform, as in previous instances, had repeatedly been releasing movies that tend to ridicule or put Sanatha Dharma in a bad light. In their eyes, Hindus were like dodos, easy prey for target practice. For instance, no one would dare make a movie that even gives a hint of ridicule or as much questions Islamic figures or practices using modern-day yardstick. It is an unwritten rule that Islamic bodies had to give their nod before such a story hits the filming process. 

The whole story is based on an 1862 Bombay High Court case. In this case, a social reformer and journalist, Karsandas Mulji, and Nanabhai Rustomji Ranina, a newspaperman, were served a libel suit by Jadunathjer Barjratanjee Maharaj. The Maharaj alleges that the duo defamed himself and his religious practice and brought shame to the age-old religious practices of his Hindu sect, the Pushimarg of Vallabha Sampradaya. 

Vallabha set up the sect in the 1600s when he had a vision he was a reincarnation of Krishna. He set up a centre that grew big thanks to the contributions of various business communities and Vaishvanite Hindus. After Vallabha's demise, his descendants took over. The heir would be known as Maharaj. Karnadas' assertion was that the sect had deviated from traditional Vedic teaching. Its leader had abused his position by getting sexual favours from his devotees. 

The court case exposed the ignorance of his devotees. Many could not tell whether Maharaj was a guru (guide) or God himself. They blindly followed the herd in the name of devotion and service to the Almighty. This included sending their wives and teenage daughters for Maharaj's sexual gratification. It was also revealed that the guru was afflicted with syphilis. 

The case was presided over by two judges. Chief Justice Matthew Sausse, the senior of the two, overruled the other's decision to find Karsandas guilty of libel as private matters need not be publicised in public space and fined him 5 rupees. On the other hand, he affirmed that the sect was heterodox and deviant. Its songs in praise of Krishna, sung by young girls, were construed as amorous and sung by 16,000 gopis. Karsandas Mulji was awarded cost. 

This trial was a watershed case for India's social reforms and press freedom. 

Karsandas Mulji

The movie takes the liberty to masalafy the background of Karsandas, giving him a youthful look with a modern haircut. The level of drama is hyped with a dance number, a holi celebration with Karsandas love interest herself falling prey to the list of Maharaj. Melodrama reaches a point of no return when his lover subsequently commits suicide after Karsandas annulled their engagement after her seemingly wilful act of sex with the Maharaj in the name of divine service. 

This is not a documentary film. Hence, there was a need to spice up the characters and glamourise the narrative here and there. 

Yes, Modi had been reported to have sung praises of Mulji for his work in his newspaper, Satya Prakash, and his advocacy of women's rights and social reforms, particularly widow remarriage and the rights of the oppressed. So, people were surprised when a movie about him landed the producers in the courts. 

More than one and a half centuries after the trial, we find ourselves in the same boat as the members of the Pustimarg sect. We are easily cowed into submission when the name of the Divine is mentioned. It has become a dog whistle for the believers to toe the line. Questions cannot be raised as they are considered heretical. Just following, not asking questions, is the way to go. Like the children of Hamelin, we seem to be intoxicated to the tune of the Piped Piper's flute. 

https://enfolding.org/krishna-in-the-dock-the-1862-maharaja-libel-case-and-its-consequences-i/

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