Talking to ghost?

Source Code (2011)
Director: Duncan Jones

When you switch off a filament lamp, the light just does not go off just like that. There is a temporary time before the brightness disappears. Even life is that. If somehow we can get into the dimension when two people die, one life can mathematically be calculated to get the others and can be made to turn the tide of events. This bizarre time travel where scientists can communicate through a digital interphase to save the world is the theme of this movie.

Capt Colter Steven finds himself trapped in the body of a school teacher and on a train where a time bomb is about to be detonated. Through repeatedly moving to and fro between his old self and new, and communication through his computer, the Afghan-missioned army helicopter pilot is actually dead but is sent on a secret mission to find the culprit behind a train attack so as to avert other future attacks.

His mission was just to locate the information about the perpetrators and pass it to the people in the real world. What he was actually doing is that he is going to an alternate universe to retrieve useful information. What he actually does in this universe, he is told, would not have effects in the real world. If he communicated with his father, his father would not know in real life. If he managed to avert the train blast in the other world, it would still happen! At least that is what he are made to realise...

An interesting watch in the line of Groundhog Day.

Comic, horror, PSA all in one!

Muni 2 - Kanchana (முனி-2 - காஞ்சனா, Tamil 2011)
Written, Produced, Directed, Starred by Raghava Lawrence

In order to be a commercial success, a Tamil movie has to cater for all layers of the viewers. Hence, that is why this movie, which is supposed to be in the genre of horror comedy (like Ghostbusters), had to infuse many synchronised ala-Michael Jackson Thriller type of dances and community message like the LGBT issue to ensure promising returns of investments.

Raghava Lawrence, who started off as a dancer like Prabhu Deva, has come a long way just like him. Here, he appears as a swashbuckling youngster who beats up ruffian in the daytime but turns into a fur-ball at night, a curl up scaredy cat at night who sleeps with his mother and is afraid to pee alone! His pairing with Kovai Sarala is a great selling point. In fact, Kovai Sarala singlehandedly leaves the audience in stitches with her many antics as Raghava inadvertently brings in the spirit of the Kanchana, the ghost into the house!

Raghava and mother lives with Raghava's brother, wife and two kids in a big bungalow with Raghava's love interest (Raghava's brother's sister in law, Priya [Laxmi Rai]) coming in to spice up the screen for a holiday. It sets a scene for Raghava to showcase his slapstick comedy and dance moves in synchronised dream scenes dance manoeuvres .

Muscle man Sarathkumar
(ex Mr Madras) in transgender role

The second part of the film sees Raghava possessed by Kanchana the ghost and starts showing effeminate demure, in dressing and conduct. It takes a full form of possession when the family summons ways to exorcise the ghost - Ragahava acts as a lady, a child and a North Indian Muslim man, much like Vikram in 'Anniyan'.

The successful exorcism was done by mystic Islamic priest who traps the spirit of Kanchana into a corner and later into an urn. Then it was the ghost's turn to tell of her sad story. In comes Sarath Kumar, the Tamil film muscle man, in flashback in full glory of a woman in saree, bosomy blouse, long locks, vermilion pottu and all as a transgender beating up a guy for disturbing her transgender college going adopted kid! Kanchana relates her childhood of being ostracised by her family for her gay tendencies, her adoption by a kind Muslim man and his retarded son - who were the ghost characters that Raghava was possessed. Kanchana whose birth name was Kartikeyan grows up to adopt another transgender individual who goes to medical school. Kanchana was cheated of her land and murdered together with her family and she was back for revenge. Expectedly, the hero rights the wrong. Sweet revenge is plotted and equilibrium is maintained - a piece of cake.

Kovai Sarala

The commercial success of the film which has gone into franchise is evident from the various remakes and dubbing efforts into other languages. You know you had hit it big when there is talk of casting Shahrukh Khan in a Hindi remake! The sequel of this film is out now - 2015.

Interesting to see various cultures in India blend seamlessly into the story. The secularism of the nation is clear when you see a Hindu with all trademarks of his religion entering a mosque respecting the local culture seeking help from the holy men without much hullabaloo. Even though exorcism of evil spirit is taboo is certain sects of Islam, it is acceptable to those in the Sufi sect.

This write up would not do justice if the doyen of comedienne of Tamil comedy, after the great era of Manorama is not mentioned. Kovai Sarala, who made her presence known in the 90s plays a pivotal role in inducing laughter as Raghava's mother. Her mere voice and her antics as a over-protective mother surely brightened up this rather unusual approach in film making and leave audience rolling in stitches.

Horror

Horror Stories (2014)
Tunku Halim

Malaysians have a soft spot for things involving the other world, the unknown one lurking on the other side. Again and again this is evident form their penchant in seeking entertainment involving the supernatural, invoking them to help out out in helping out in their worldly duties and even turning up in droves to view exhibits allegedly used by practitioners of black magic.
The reception was too hot and intimidating that the powers that be had to close the exhibition in the National Gallery prematurely a few years ago.

The publishers of the book, unashamedly, admit that they print books to make money, not for literary excellence. What better way to strike the pot of gold than to write about ghosts and its avatars.
The easy to read book is a collection of 20 horrors stories which characters of which many Malaysians are familiar with - toyol, pontianak, cemetery, bomoh, etceteras.

• A love struck lowly clerk desperately tries to woo a sophisticated secretary but in vain. In desperation, he employs the help of a shaman. The consultation proved successful as this beau comes running to his apartment. The only problem is that she had been dead two days previously!
• A group of friends go on a pontianak hunt just to discover one of the friend is one.
• A young clerk experiences disturbances in her new apartment where a previous occupant had committed suicide. She survived the ordeal as her departed father stood beside her as her guardian angel.
• Two friends; one, a Hitler kind in his household whilst the other, a pacifist kind go on a short weekend holiday (just like the good old days). The holiday actually was a non event. As they were returning home, they decide to play a prank on the pacifist's domineering wife. The pacifist thought by showing a closed jar that he found at a rest station, he could take dominance in the house. She was morbidly scared of the underworld, hence he thought of telling her that it contain djinn. Little did he know that the jar did indeed held host to a trapped djinn. During the excitement, the jar fell to the floor and the devil was unleashed. The wife had a shock of her life and succumbed to a massive heart attack on the spot, leaving him to fend for his two kids and live in guilt for the rest of his life.
• Martha is a timid lady who just wastes her life being a wife to a man who raped her in her youth. Her husband has no qualms of exhibiting his extra marital tryst. She cares him through his drunkenness, his fight through cancer and endures the loneliness after his death in their matrimonial home. Even in death, the husband (in spirit) haunts her and rapes Martha's young maid!
• A legendary folk lore tale of orang minyak in which one impregnates its victim and the offspring creates a small ruckus in KL city centre.
• A high maintenance model girlfriend gets Eric to supplement his income through gambling. He is introduced to a medium in a cemetery. The only problem is that he has to produce a fresh human heart on a monthly basis! That means murder.
• A high flying traveller discovers the hard bruising way not to take medicines from strangers. 
• A senior citizen still reeling over the death of wife get a strange premonition from her to meet him at a cemetery. Unknown to him, a vengeful vampire is out for his blood as he is the only living descendant of the murderer who bludgeoned her to death. 
• An old chap goes back to his alma mater after 60 years to see the place where he transformed from a boy to a man. He remembers the time when a recurrent image of an old man used to scare the living daylight out of him. Little does he realize that the elusive old man is he himself peeking into his past as he plunged to death after a heart attack at 80.
• An art dealer goes in search of his drinking buddy, a gravedigger, who seem to be under the weather of late. Despite of the nature of his occupation, he seem to be morbidly horrified to the appearance of an apparition of a body of a drowned young girl that he had buried. It turned out to be the prank of some young girls. However, the story takes a twist when they accuse the gravedigger of killing the girl. It turns out the gravedigger is actually a vampire! He turns the scene into a blood bath. 
• A librarian, by chance, bumps into an antique shop during his lunch break. He succumbs to the shop owner's cajoling to enter the shop 'Malay Magick'. What he discovered was a devilish hermaphroditic creature who gave him a time of sexual ecstasy. The experience become his downfall. He later blew his savings and lost his job due to his addiction for a time at this joint. The librarian became a vagabond scavenging on leftovers and rummaging dustbins. 
• An aging journalist is assigned to cover an exposé on a rich businessman. When he reaches the premises, he finds that a greater task lay ahead. The businessman's wife confides that her husband was trying to kill her! With not much fanfare, the wife is killed by a stray cobra in her bathroom. 
• An ambitious insurance salesman thought he had his entrance to the Million Dollar Club when he courted a rich brother and sister couple. He was dreaming of his pot of gold when the sister falls for him. They marry. Little does he know of her devious plan to kill him off during the honeymoon for his insurance money instead!
• A company manager had a nasty vision of himself killing a lady in a washroom. Meanwhile, a young girl, who has her heart broken by her boyfriend has a terrible nightmare. Both passed it off as the games that mind plays.
  Soon the girl starts working in the man's office and pretty soon, they become a couple. They marry, have a child and things become sour. The husband kills the wife, all orchestrated by the girl's dolls!
• A devoted family man believes that his Indonesian maid is using witch craft to lure him to her bed. He does not resist the temptation and kind of enjoys it. He pays a big price for his indulges. He dies soon after he loses his whole family to poisoning.
• A kind heart girl helps another girl who was born with a weird birth defect. She was born with a big ugly tail and dysmorphic facial features that would even scare the living daylights of a witch's black cat. She builds a friendship bond. With the help a Chinese sinseh, the medically untreatable condition ameliorated. Her tail fell off and her facial features improved with plastic surgery. What do you know! The newly made beau ran off with her boyfriend. After some years, she was all ugly again with her tail growing again. She was a wreck, living all alone in a cheap hotel in town with no friends. The kind girl hearted was no longer kind. When she was contacted for help, instead of helping, she was coerced her to commit suicide. Pretty soon the once kind girl started growing horns. 
• The protagonist, through his cousin, came to discover that a toyol, trapped in a doll was stealing all the loose change around the house. He managed to catch and set it free. He cannot fathom why people in the world are so greedy and full of evil. Little does he realise that years later, he himself was sucked into this system of materialism and greed. As a man of power, he solicits the services of the toyol for his personal gains. And he feels justified, looking at the mounting commitments!
• A sister who loses her boyfriend to her vivacious sister attempts to poison her by feeding her her favorite ice cream tainted with poison. Unfortunately, the conniving sister made the most elementary mistake when she ate from the wrong cup. Gasping her last breath, the other sister realized that she had been poisoned. She avenges by not calling for EMS. The dying sister vowed to take revenge. Her ghost returns many years later when her living sister, now with big children, indulges in an extramarital affair. The ghost kills the boyfriend and the sister becomes catatonic. 
• An elderly man who came out of the closet at a late stage of his life, is jilted by his boyfriend. He is depressed when he is also inflicted with liver cancer. His only last wish was to see the dawn of the new millennium which was a month away. He survives through 31st of December 1999 only to shoot himself past stroke of midnight.

A light entertaining read to take the wearies of everyday living. These types of book - you read, you close the book, don't think much about it and carry on with life... That's all.