RIFLE RANGE BOY

Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up (2016) Author: Rana Ayyub On one hand, she is celebrated as an exceptional journalist at the Washington Post and has received numerous awards for her courageous reporting of breaking news. On the other hand, she is labelled public enemy number one. The Indian courts accuse her of insulting Hindu deities and inciting racial discord, and there is even an ongoing trial concerning the misappropriation of public funds. For background information, the cover-up in Gujarat referenced in the book pertains to the events that followed the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. In February 2002, 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya lost their lives in a train blaze. Multiple commissions failed to ascertain the true cause of the disaster. The Mehta-Nanavati report was employed to convict 31 Muslims for the train burning. Communal riots erupted shortly after the fire. For years, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, and his party members faced al...

The Post (2017) The ongoing saga involving the former seemingly unassailable P rime Minister of Malaysia and its sovereign fund is a stark reminder that the world is ruled by an unholy union of politicians who conned the public, bankers who finance the whole fiasco, lawmakers who put a legal jargon to all these. Trailing them are a thick band of thieves, yeomen, hyenas and a slew of servants who would die or kill for their cause under the banner of nationalism. Depending on the setting, servants of God would get their hands dirty in the cookie jar to give a divine seal to all these shenanigans.  In an environment of each wanting to fend for himself, in a world where 'The Truth' does not always prevail, and victors decide justice, the losers are the general public. Repeatedly the laypeople fall prey to the 'powers' of the day's sweet promises. In pursuit of happiness, they sacrifice my sweat, blood and tears. They say we, the people, choose our leaders and the...

All the President's Men (1976) It pains to hear the trend of interviews that our reporters pursue as they are invited to a press conference. The questions posed appear so timid and lacked the incisive power to tease out the right information. Quite so often the interviewees wrap them around their fingers and control their strings. The reporters end up as stenographers, but when their reportings draw flak, the respondents would claim that they were misquoted. Now with the hustle and bustle that had hit our land with allegations of misappropriations of funds and other wrongdoings, one is compelled to think that reporters would have a field day, scooping information here and there with the plethora of information available in cyberspace. Unfortunately, it is business as usual. Just another day in paradise. This 1976 film is about the success story in the field of investigative journalism. What started as a routine reporting on a break-in into the Democratic Office by burglars ...

True Story (2015) Bumped into this story as I was checking on the second season of 'True Stories'.  Initially, the movie was getting interesting as a mass murderer is arrested with a pseudonym that of the protagonist of the film, Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill). Finkel is an award winning journalist with the New York Times who was fired from his job for being untruthful in his reporting. As he was brooding in his misery in a secret hideaway in the wilderness, he is informed of this case. He decides to visit the inmate. Hence starts a series of interview with a disturbed man, Christian Longo (James Franco) who killed his wife and three children. Finkel gets absorbed into the man's story and is convinced that he may be a victim of circumstance. After that, the story becomes draggy and uninteresting as Longo, in his soft hypnotic dialogues, makes the film a bore to watch. In his actual trial, the accused tells his feats of killing his family to the jury. It appears as if th...

Ace in the Hole (a.k.a The Big Carnival; 1951) Director: Billy Wilder This must be one of the first movies that take a swipe at the evil of the media and the way they exploit the situation with only one intention on their mind, for financial gains. That is all. The apparent concern and empathy is all just show. Even though the media helps to showcase to the world, it has its own personal agenda. Put in Kirk Douglas, a smirk journalist with an attitude problem and some punchy line and you have it- a blockbuster which is eternally carved in the annals of time as a great film. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), lands in an Albuquerque newspaper office after thrown out disgracefully of many papers back in the East. He is dreaming of a break which would put him at par with a Pulitzer winner. He dreams on. He is sent to cover a rattlesnake show. En route to the venue, at a stopover for petrol, Chuck and his rookie photographer hear about a cave-in at an Indian reservation site. The owner of...