I am afraid of no ghost!

Anybody there? Boo Hoo…

I have heard my share of people's experiences with the paranormal. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had never experienced any of their experiences. Fortunate because I did not get dragged into the unnecessary anxiety that it may bring. Unfortunate because I missed the opportunity to debunk their brush with the occult and possibly provide a rational, scientific explanation for their encounter.

I grew up in a multi-storey low-cost housing project in the 1970s. Malaysia was on the cusp of nation-building. Public housing was the priority. Many developed nations also contributed, likely seeking to atone for their past sins as colonial powers a generation earlier. German prefabricated concrete cast technology was used in Penang's iconic tallest public housing project, the Rifle Range Flats. 

In tandem with an increase in national prosperity, the increase in mental anguish must have been on the rise. Understandably, we, children who grew up in the flats, were oblivious to this adult stuff. What we knew was that every so often, once or twice a year, the atmosphere around the neighbourhood would turn noisy with a hive of activities. The inner courtyard of the 16-storeyed flats would play host to splatting jumpers. Jilted girlfriends, failed businessmen, and broken people would choose Rifle Range Flats to end their lives. Easy. The newly constructed living quarters with minimal safety guards and no security were an open invitation to anyone with suicidal intent. 

The Penang Bridge had not been built yet, and the suicidal had the turn to the high-rise building and the Ayer Itam reservoir to end their lives. The sandy beaches in Penang also bore witness to floating corpses. 

Everyone would tell their sudden, unusual experience after each jump. One would recollect an apparition with no legs. Another would sense the smell of jasmine or incense. Some will find a fellow occupant has suddenly disappeared. A friend of a friend would relate tales of a so-and-so who turned catatonic after such an encounter. The suspense would linger for a while, until the next jumper is reported. 

Human movement around Block E generally slowed after 9 pm. This was also the time we would finish our private tuition classes. In those days, education was becoming a highly sought-after commodity that the middle class would not want to be left behind. Even Amma, who was extremely miserly with household expenses, thought it prudent to invest in private tuition classes. 

The longest walk after the night classes, in our mind, was the wall from the flat entrance all the way to the lift. We had to skirt around the quadrangle, which was the flat's air well. It was the exact spot where jumpers would land. The bodies were long gone and probably decomposed or incinerated, but the memory of their distorted bodies sprawled on the concrete floor was imprinted permanently. 

My sisters and I would try to scare each other out of our wits. Sometimes we would tiptoe behind the other to give a deep-toned grunt to the terrified sibling. Sometimes we would just jump from around the corner. For the best effects, it was best done when the other sibling was walking alone. 

Sadly, not a single ghost came to disturb me or my other two siblings. The only thing close to that was us being irritating trolls to each other. This was happening even though our flat was overlooking a Chinese cemetery and was built on a land pregnant with tales of torture and killings. 

We, the children, were fed with stories of Japanese soldiers decapitating Malayan Chinese peasants when they occupied Malaya during World War II. Adjacent to the flats, a monumental Chinese cemetery still remained. The site was so vast that people used it daily as a shortcut to reach other parts of the city. No sightings of ghosts or paranormal activity have ever been reported. Anyway, no one in the correct state of mind would ever venture into the cemetery once it was dark. It was assumed that darkness was the domain of the netherworld. 

For the Tamil diaspora, noon can be a troubling time for restless souls. Young children, especially pubescent boys, are cautioned to stay away from areas that are believed to be teeming with spirits. Morunga, Bayan and Neem trees are notorious for harbouring spirits, especially the young, unmarried female kind, ready to pounce upon naive virgin boys. 

Banyan Tree

In the latter years, as our parents' financial demands increased to meet the children's educational needs, Amma would go into a whining frenzy. Maybe it was a cultural thing, but she used to go on an annoying tirade, blaming everything under the sun for her seemingly helpless situation, and it annoyed my siblings and me to the high heavens. 

I used to get out of the house and go for a run. The best place to do that, away from the high-decibel environment of the humdrum of flat-living and whimpering mother, was the adjacent Chinese cemetery. I used to go there without anyone's knowledge, of course. To top it up, as the major examination dates came closer and the decibel levels got annoyingly higher, I used to spend time reading the shade of a shady neem tree right in the centre of the burial ground. Just to test it out, I used to push my comfort zone to the limit. On school holidays, I used to camp out under the neem tree, at the height of midday sun, just to look out for any female apparition. 

Despite my repeated attempts to provoke any female companions into my life, it failed miserably. No one in the real or even the netherworld was interested in me. 

Time flew. Examination, results, then off to the seats of the ivory tower. My teasing of the ghosts of Rifle Range flats did not show any living daylight, neither the height of noon nor the corridors of the favourite site of jumpers.

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I'm afraid of no ghost?

Diary (Tamil; 2022)
Director: Innasi Pandiyan

The story is based on an urban legend that arose in Beijing in November 1995. A local bus, no 375, left its station late one night to a remote destination. An old lady and a young man were travelling on it. Three people in traditional garb waved it down as the bus moved on. When the old lady saw these people, she started a quarrel with the young man she had come up with. She accused him of stealing her purse. Startled, the man fought back. They were both forced to get down by the bus conductor to sort it out at the local police station.

Once they were off the bus, the old lady apologised to the young man for creating a ruckus. She told him the three characters who boarded the bus had no feet, so she thought they were ghosts. She just wanted to get away from them. They both went to tell the police about their experiences, but their story was laughed off.

The next day, it was reported that the bus never reached its destination, and two days later, the bus was submerged in a reservoir. The driver, the bus conductor together, and three badly decomposed bodies were found. The level of decomposition of the bodies was not consistent with the alleged time of the accident. Nobody could give a rational explanation for these findings.

Bus No. 375

Stories like these are found in all cultures. The Chinese believe spirits roam the streets yearly during the Hungry Ghost Month in mid-August. Stories of scary ghosts, beautiful maidens, and lactating mothers luring and haunting people are abundant in every nook and corner of the world.

This Tamil movie is based on Beijing's Bus No. 375. Still, to whet the appetites of Indian viewers, the director, who also wrote the story, tries to stretch it to two hours with unrelated stories of runaway couples running from the disgruntled bride's father and his henchmen, a connection to a sub-inspector's case study, tribals performing a wedding for the runaway couple, robber's running their loot after a murder and the angle of time travel! It brings the story to the notorious Hairpin Bend no 13 in Ooty.

The plot could be clearer. Everything is rushed through towards the end. Before viewers could understand the loose ends, it was game over. 3/5.

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Our past controls the present?

Bhoothakaalam (The Past / Ghost Time, Malayalam; 2022)

Director: Rahul Sadasivan

There is a little wordplay with the title. With the prefix ’Bhooth’, one may wonder whether it is a horror movie. When one starts watching the film, one would wonder whether it is about the ghost of the past. That is what it is all about—how the ghost of the past comes haunting if it is not exorcised head-on. The ugly demonic head of the past has a self-defeating habit of repeating itself, making one go through the malady repeatedly.

No one will take kindly to others’ advice on how one’s life should be lived. No one will be flattered when told his head should be checked. That is what it is. Individuals should take a step back, access their mental health occasionally, and take preventive measures or make amends. Be the change. Change comes with realisation and from the inside. No one can make the horse drink water. The horse must first feel thirsty. The need to change comes from within.

Viewers wonder whether it is a horror film or if there is a more prosaic explanation for all the weird happenings around the house.

Is the recently departed grandmother’s soul returning with a vengeance to express her dissatisfaction? Is the house displaying poltergeist activities? Why do tenants after tenants die in the same house? Is the mother’s overt depression or the son’s indulgence in intoxicants the culprit?

The family had gone a lot. The son lost his father at a young age. He grew up without a father figure. The mother had to struggle with her unsatisfying teaching job at a nursery and later caring for her stroke-stricken paraplegic mother.

The son carries a heavy cloud of resentment after being forced to do medicine, which he had to quit and failing to secure a job with his pharmacy degree. He smokes heavily and drinks himself drunk frequently. His relationship with his girlfriend could be much better. When funny things start happening in the house, he flips. Soon enough, even his mother sees the abnormal activities in the house.

In a very clever manner of storytelling and filmmaking, the director takes us through a roller coaster ride to keep us guessing whether the whole point of the movie is to impress the viewers on the need to treat mental illness correctly or whether there is such a thing as ghosts?!

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Whether it is Rama or Ravana...

Bramayugam (Era of Madness, Malayalam; 2024)
Story, Direction: Rahul Sadasivan

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the takeaway. No matter who holds the helm of control or the intoxicating concoction of power, life can never be a level playing field. Invariably, one tries to supersede another regarding idea, physical prowess, endowments, or wealth. For every robust individual, there is always another who is slightly better, faster, or stronger. And the eternal duel to be the supreme leader of the tribe goes on. 

Set in 16th-century India, when the  Portuguese were out hunting for Indian slaves to spur their intercontinental slave trade, two men escaped from their captive ship and hid themselves in the jungle. One of them falls to the lure of the jungle temptress spirit, Yakshi, and is killed by her. The other, Thevan, makes it to an abandoned mansion in the middle of the jungle. Hungry, he helps himself to some coconut, but he is admonished by the house's cook, who brings him to meet the boss of the manor. The boss appears like a reasonable chap and treats him as a house guest, much to the chagrin of the cook. Upon discovering that Thevan is a palace singer, the Lord of the Manor requests him to sing. 

Thevan, a person of the lowest castes, Pannar, is grateful to be given due recognition for his talent. Soon, things change. Increasingly, the homeowner goes into mood swings. When Thevan says he wants to leave, he gets a 'NO!'

Things turn eerie with strange sounds, and the cook starts acting weird. The story explores the various superstitions and beliefs in the supernatural, spirits, and demons in Kerala. This film is shot in black and white but does not fall short of suspense. The filmmakers do not depend on gore or visual extravaganzas to drive home their point but via judicious use of sounds, visuals, and good acting. 

The Lord of the Manor is not who he is supposed to be. Demon (shattan) has taken his appearance. As the cook and Thevan defeat the Demon, the Demon tries to jump ship. The body that it goes into turns evil. That, in essence, is the message behind the movie. The Demon is equated to power. Power is evil and destroys indiscriminately. 

First, the primordial people of the land tried to make sense of the world they were in. Trying to give meaning to tremendous forces of nature, they named Gods. Work was distributed based on people's skills and aptitudes to ensure the continuity of life on the planet. Somewhere along the way, people started thinking that their own jobs were more important. They tried to impose restrictions to keep the knowledge of the job to their own kind. A divisional hierarchy soon followed.

People were always suspicious of other communities; they allayed their cognitive dissonance by convincing themselves that the other party was wrong or deviant. It made sense afterwards. To spread their beliefs, they had to conquer over the other.

The conquerors started making divisions amongst their subjects to make 'divide-and-rule' the way to go. They came up with half-baked studies, supported by supposed scholars, to drive home the point of who the real boss is. Obscure occidental studies supported the theory that the Orientals were culturally backwards when, in reality, the reverse was true. Aryan Migration Theory was coined to justify the occupation of Europeans over India.

It did not matter who held the ruling position. The people at the lowest rung of the food chain will always be pushed. As the Tamil proverb goes, 'Whether Rama rules or Ravana does, our life remains in the doldrums.'

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The devil is in the details

Andhaghaaram (Darkness, Tamil; 2020)

Netflix
Story and Direction: V. Vignarajan

At first look, the storyline suggests that this film will be one with scares and screams. Midway through the movie, you think it is a remake of Hollywood's 'What Lies Beneath'  where the dead communicates with the living to uncover a murder. The thing done differently is that two dead people (spoilers) are communicating with the protagonist. The protagonist, Vinodh, appears to be going into paranoid schizophrenia ever since his best buddy died. He feels guilty as he had gifted his friend a book on the subject of occultism. He thinks his friend was pushed to suicide after delving into the book. 

Ever since a rotary phone was installed in his apartment, Vinodh feels like he is being watched. His girlfriend arranges for a therapist. 

Another plot is about a blind library clerk, Selvam trying to earn enough money for his kidney transplant. He moonshine as a medium. One of the jobs he manages to secure involves exorcising a building. Selvam also inherited a priced building in the heart of town from his father. Selvam's teacher is Vinodh's friend's sister. This is how Selvam and Vinodh get connected.

In another plot, a psychiatrist is confronted by his patient who shoots him and his family. The doctor 'survives' the shooting but his licence is suspended. He visits his patients at home instead.

As the story goes, you soon realise that both Selvam and the doctor are trying to contact Vinodh on his new phone. But the problem is their stories are both told different timelines. Both were dead many months previously and it is their spirits which is doing the job!

Refreshing storytelling makes the audiences connect the dots to get a composite picture of the whole story. The devil is in the details as a line in the movie says. After completing the story, only then you would realise why certain scenes were told in that particular way. It seems no stones were left unturned. The acting is brilliant indeed especially by the character of Selvam. I thought they had got a visually handicapped actor for the role. Googling later, I realised that he had acted in many other movies before. All the actors are new (at least to me) and did justice to their roles.

The movie is almost three hours long but the director managed to capture the suspense. The ending may be perceived as an anticlimax as viewers are used to having melodramatic ends in keeping with the Indian psyche. It is decent enough.

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The Universe does not revolve around you!

 Roh (Soul, Spirit, Malay; 2019)

A few years ago, around Kuala Lumpur, a seasoned trekker went on a solo reconnaissance look around to prepare a route for his friends to walk the following day. He wanted to make a quick recce as he could only start it at 6pm. It was still bright, not too dark but not yet twilight. It was 9pm when the family realised that he was uncontactable. A search was initiated. Many experienced hikers and firemen joined the foray. After failing to locate him that night, they deployed the help of Orang Asli master trekkers who were well-versed with the affairs of the wilderness. Scurrying up and down the path using paper markers that were left behind by the missing trekker, they were puzzled why he could not be traced. Then the Orang Asli trekkers summoned their shamans. The experienced man did some salutations to the guardians of the forest, and before they knew it, the lost trekker was found right under their noses along the very same paths that they were scrutinising all the while. The trekker was too dehydrated or dazed to remember what had happened to him. 

Though everyone was happy that the trekker was finally found, they also puzzled where did he actually go. It was like someone taken him away for a while, and then like a second thought, or cajoling, had put him back again. It sounds much like an alien abduction story, does it not? There are many things that we do not understand about Nature. Out in the wilderness, unprotected, alone and vulnerable, we make our rules as we needle our ways through the unknown. We learn the respect every living thing, and we are no longer the centre of existence. We do not tolerate but merely co-exist.

This film is Malaysia's submission to 2021 to the Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. So far, over the years, five films had been sent to compete, but sadly none had been nominated. FINAS recently announced that this Malaysian movie was chosen for this purpose. I find it intriguing as FINAS had clear cut guidelines about not approving any film which seem to go against the grain of the nation's official religion, it had endorsed this film which deals with spirituality and the occult.

'Roh' is set in an unspecified time at an isolated jungle location where life is simple, and living means working hard day-to-day depending on the elements of Nature. A mother, living with her two kids, an early teen girl and a pre-teen boy, is greeted with a wandering young girl who was picking up in the woods. Economical with her words, she slashes her neck before warning them the family would all die before the next full moon. Two other characters appear in their otherwise isolated lives asking for the dead girl. The rest of the story is a psychological affair with a lot of combustion and eerie music which would make the audience's hairs stand on end but without the lousy make-up type of gore.

The whole story is based on a verse from the Quran 7:12 & 14, where Satan claims to be superior as compared to humans as He is made of fire whilst humans of clay. And Satan asks God for time, till the day of reckoning, to influence humans!

[P.S. Can be viewed at mubi.com/sinema]

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