A time for redemption?

 Capone (2020)

Many movies about 'Scarface' has been made about his nefarious activities. This one, however, deals with its aftermath. All the evil deeds that you did at the heights of youth will definitely come haunting you back, all within your lifetime. You need not have re-birth as one is oblivious of past evil karma. You would not have the urge to repent in your next birth as you would be clueless of your previous misdeeds anyway. The 'learning'  and 'punishment' are directed at the consciousness, not to the seeds of life or cells as they get replaced many times over in a lifetime. And cells keep on doing their own specialised work without changing anything, I think.

After about eight years of serving time for tax evasion, Al Capone, the man who probably coined the word 'money laundering' was freed for medical reasons. He had been diagnosed to have neurological complications due to tertiary syphilis.

The term 'money laundering' is said to have originated when the Italian Mafias like Al Capone run laundromats to sanitise their ill-gotten spoils from bootlegged liquor and prostitution. They commingled their illegal profits with that of the laundromat to 'launder' the cash. 

Capone's last years were spent in a luxury mansion in Florida. We do not if it is true or not, but, due to his organic brain condition, he allegedly spent his time in a dazed state with constant hallucinations and vivid dreams. He reportedly had abandoned his illegitimate person. The memory of this young boy kept hunting him. There was apparently a big stash of money that was hidden from the knowledge of the authorities, his family members or subordinates. The trouble is that even Capone's mind is too muddled to make out what is reality and what is not, what more to think other bigger things like plunder. To make things more complicated, the FBI is spying into his compound and tapping his telephone line; making people around him think that Capone is turning into a raving lunatic. And putting a Thompson submachine gun in his hands is just lethal.

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Life's a beach

Sacred Games (Season 1; 2018)

Life is like being at the beach. Sometimes the water is cloudy or appears unsightly with floating particles. The waves may be high and dangerous to be around. It may be too windy. The beach may be too crowded for comfort. At other times, it may just be perfect. We are only supposed to enjoy the moment whatever the circumstance. Forget the flare of the sun, the heat, the sunburn, the sticky bodies, the sand and the mess the wind and sea-water do to your hair. That is life for you and me. You are supposed to get the best out of it - the ups, downs, warts and all.  

This Netflix flick has an entirely Indian plot, setting, cast with a story written by an Indian author. With a background of gangsterism and communal violence, it traces through the story of a Brahmin boy who went through a tumultuous childhood to end up as a Don in Mumbai. It unravels the saga of crooked politicians, corrupted policemen, a web of dishonest businessmen, a trail of counterfeit, transborder deflection and a world of sex and vice.

One may say that this is the typical plot in most blockbuster Hollywood movie anyway, but the storyteller managed to keep his audience at the edge of their seat second-guessing what the event that would happen in 25 days was all about. And the first season ended with a cliffhanger. The mystery still remains to be discovered.

Another thing captivating about the series is the title of each episode. It each carries with it an Indian tale, folklore and myth waiting to be told.

Aswatthama, son of Drona, the great teacher of both sides, fighting on the side of the Kauravas, killed the last remaining heir of the Pandavas. For that, he was cursed by Krishna with immortality and festering physical appearance. In the series, the protagonist, after his death, narrates his life story and hopes that his sins would be washed by preventing further catastrophes. In modern India, there are many reported sightings of an unsightly appearance of an apparition in the death of the night in temples, trying to clean its compound. Village folks insist it is Aswatthama himself.

Halahala is the poisonous fumes culminating from the serpent head as the Asuras and Devas were using it to churn the Ocean of Milk. Shiva inhaled the fumed as turned blue in that episode. The protagonist was holding the truth and was feeding the police bit by bit.

Atapi and Vatapi are folklore demonic cannibalistic characters who entice hunger travellers for a meal. Atapi will masquerade as a Brahmin and would call for Vatapi when food is ready who would feast them (the travellers). This is a metaphorical reference to religion. Like opium, it relieves the pain but then turns you into an addict. Religions prepare your soul for the slaughter. The episode tries to expose the devious nature of religions in provoking chaos and bloodshed among brothers.

Brahmahatya is commonly referred of the killing of a Brahmin, which is a big crime in Hinduism. Pandits, however, concur that it is not the life of a Brahmin that is valuable but any life, especially of a wise one. It also goes back to the Kurukshetra wars, when Drona, the great teacher of both Pandavas and Kauravas was beheaded for a just cause, for dharma, for equilibrium. Incidentally, Drona is also the father of Aswatthama, the one with the curse of immortality. Aswatthama has a reason for his anger. An elephant was named Aswatthama just to confuse Drona and send him off-guard before the slaying. The ever-truthful eldest of the Pandava brothers told a white lie to affirm Aswatthama's death (not to the human Aswatthama)! Truth is neither black or white, it is multilayered.

Sarama means dog. All of us are just metaphorical dogs being pulled around on a leash to the whims and fancies of the self-appointed peddlers of truth. We are not interested in doing the right thing but just conforming to the majority. Even the motto of Mumbai Police is 'Protect the law, destroy evil'. It is not to protect justice or dharma; just defend the decree deemed sacrosanct by the majority or the powerful.

Pretakalpa refers to cremation ritual. Every now and then, we need to rebrand ourselves. Kill the negatives and bring out the positivities. Still, you need both to spark. 

Rudra is the personification of the most vicious form of Shiva. He is sometimes necessary to re-calibrate a broken system. 

Yayati is cursed with premature ageing but manages to swap it with his son. After his long life, he returns the boon to his son to say, "indulge in something that does not decline with age. All the sensory pleasures cannot satisfy the lust of a single man,"

The makers of the show are unapologetically pro-BJP as many of the narrations, and historical footages put Congress leaders in a horrible light.

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One who lives by the sword, dies by one!

Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (Tamil, 2018)

This film is supposed to have elements of Akira Kurosawa's 'Ran' in its storyline. And Kurosawa's 'Ran' is supposed to have similarities to King Lear. Unfortunately, the similarities end at the level of a man of power and the power struggle between his three sons over his ruling empire. Here, the struggle is for the position of 'Don' between three sons. Each suspects each other of sabotage and try to outdo each other with wit and the might of gunpowder. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, after much killing, the sufferings of their loved ones, the death of the few and the double-crossing of their most trusted ones, the thugs realise that one who lives by the gun dies by one. 

Not much of a film. Just another movie that depicts India as a land of lawlessness with a corrupt police force where everything and everyone has a price. Sadly, they try to sell the idea that even the immigration is under the thumb of thugs! 

Not worth spending your precious Sunday afternoon watching this. Spend it in something more worthwhile; forget trying to promote Tamil culture to the diaspora. There are other ways of doing this.

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In the grander scheme of things!

Kaala (2018)

Sure, it is another fighting movie; one of the oppressed slum dwellers against the powerfully corrupt system of the ruling elites and a one-man gangster leader's selfless attempt at correcting the injustice. And the violence and sorrow to justify the resistance.

One has to see beyond the things that seem to be glaring in the eyes to learn one or two. This movie thought me that Mumbai  (Dharavi) houses the third biggest slum in the world; after Mexico City and Karachi. The slum came about as early as late 19th century when Bombay was developed by the British, and the city drew residents from near and far. Waves of migrations brought people of poverty from Gujerat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh among others. Annual economic turnover is said to be up to $1 billion. Occupants there involve in many familial cottage industries including tanning, pottery (by Gujaratis), embroidery (by UPites) and tailoring. By and large, residents of Dharavi are looked down. Many of them are from the lower caste- Dalits, Tamils or Muslims. The film clearly shows us that the inhabitants there have no qualms with living in harmony with others with different beliefs but it the leaders with specific agendas are hellbent on splitting them for votes. Major clean-up and redevelopment look easy on paper, but it plagued with mutual suspicion between NGOs acting on the slum-dwellers' behalf and the unholy association of politicians and business magnates.

Another point that I learnt is that the society needs the toiling of the poor to maintain its upkeep. The supply of the subjugated must be maintained so as the well-to-do can flaunt their richness and sustain their lifestyles. The rich must be looked up as the endpoint that a pauper wants to reach. If everybody is satisfied with the position, people will have nothing to work for. Greed is good, is it not?

Here comes Kaala... The equilibrium of the Universe 

is levered upon the balance of Good and Bad; 

between White and Black; between Us and the Other!

Black has always been given the bad image by most societies. Black is associated with sin, evil, wrong, deficient, dirty and everything inherently perceived as wrong. White, on the other hand, is the epitome of purity; everything good, virtuous and divine. 'Kaala', the protagonist, is given such a nickname not only due to the hue of skin but to his strata in society. Hence, correspondingly all his deeds viewed from a negative angle. The politicians and the people in power, who have the luxury of appearing in pristine white attires, are seen as the do-gooders. Lest people forget that the whiteness of their tunic is the result of the back-breaking hard work of the lowly washermen. 

At a moment, I thought the dialogue could have suggested that 'Kaala', will rise again and again like mushroom after a downpour. Mushroom is also called 'Kaala' in Tamil although with a slightly different intonation. The oppressed will always return stronger with more vigour. When your options hang precariously on a thread, all you lose is your body. What you gain gives soul and life to the rest!

Along the way, we are served with the idea that modernity is consumerism. The seemingly well-intended schemes put to us are mere fronts of the businessmen to make money out of our ignorances. They are the learned ones, Their pockets are deep, and we are easily lured by the promise of prosperity and the illusory end-point called happiness.

The last lesson that one learns from the movie is the relooking of good and evil as depicted in the holy scriptures of Ramayana. Leaders in South India had always sung their speeches to the tune that the epic had been a false representation of the image of the losers. They have always emphasised that the South under the rule of Raavan had been anything but tyrannical. He was a wise and just ruler whose subjects lived in bliss.

Watching the tail end of the film, the speech by Nathuram Godse before his incarceration comes to mind. As we hear, the antagonist, the politician who wants to whitewash the slums with his development programmes, listen to the sermon of the temple priest, we realise how believers rejoice at the mention of the destruction of Raavan and his army. With the chanting 'Jai Jai Ram' (Hail Victory of Ram), we see the slum-dwellers get massacred on the orders of the politician. Surely, violence is the mainstay of any civilisation and to make forward leaps in humanity, people are sacrificed, and we are minor collateral damages in the grander scheme of things.

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It is about how you earn them!

Public Enemy (1931)

The first time I watched James Cagney was when RTM screened 1942 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. It narrated the biography of George M. Cohen, an American musical composer who in his later part of his life remained unknown. I vividly remember a scene where he stood incognito amongst the crowd looking at the band march by to the ecstatic youngsters singing to the tune. Little did the crowd know who was standing among them - the composer of the song, until he tells them his life story! That was another movie...

Well, this 1931 action movie is one of the early action movies which talks about the glamorous life of gangland and the downside too. From the outset, the director had warned viewers that the film does not glamorise hoodlums. Even though proclaiming to be of the contrary, the story was supposedly based on lifetimes of many baddies of that era.

James Cagney

The story starts in 1909 with the tale of two young boys grow up doing pranks and soon graduating to bigger crimes in life. Being in the Prohibition Era and all, they get drafted into smuggling booze and enjoying the high life. Everything has a price and it costs dearly. In between comes a family, a doting mother and a righteous brother who follows the virtuous road.

An interesting trivia that developed during the course of filming is that they director decided to switch the main two lead actors. The child actors who represent them were not switched, so you have the young actors with mannerisms and physique of the other at childhood. Another trivia is the famous grapefruit scene. It is supposed to mimic a gangster who threw an omelette at his girlfriend at breakfast table. In this film, the scene was unrehearsed and gave the actress a shock. It was meant to be that way!

The Grapefruit scene!

A memorable line from the flick, when two brothers are arguing on the money that Tom (the gangster brother, James Cagney) that he gives their mother. Mike, the elder one is a war veteran of WW1, is sceptical of the origin of Tom's wealth which is not from politics as he claimed but from bootleg. His success is from beer and blood. Tom, ridiculing his soldier brother says, "Your hands ain't so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans."