RIFLE RANGE BOY

Elvis (Disney +; 2022) Director: Baz Luhrmann Elvis experts generally agree Baz Luhrmann's depiction is sprinkled generously with artistic licence and liberal truth-bending. It can be said that the movie was made to appease the woke generation and to rebrand Elvis to the newer generation who had not heard of the King of Rock and Roll. The message behind the movie was that Elvis Presley appropriated black music and the real heroes of rock and roll were the numerous black legends who never had their moments under the spotlight because of the bigoted attitude of the people then. In reality, Elvis did sound like a black singer. Growing up in the deep south, he drew inspiration from the black gospel church and helped popularise rock and roll music. The narration of the whole story is from the point of view of Elvis' notorious long-time manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Colonel Parker is a shady character who had allegedly illegally immigrated from Netherland and was not a colonel. He, ho...

© daily telegraph In 1981, the televised event was easily the most watched event of recent times. The institution called marriage was still looked upon as a beacon of hope to keep the family unit intact. When they said that it was a public declaration of private intent, they meant it. It still had respect. The one act that solemnised the union of male and female was treated with due respect. Young girls went agape looking at their idol whose hairstyle they would soon be aping. They too wished that their wedding dress would be as glamorous. Forget the fact that groom stuck out like a sore thumb; his royal status would nullify all other deformities. How they adored the horse carriages, the guest list, the guests' wardrobe and the flowers. But see how it all turned out - the two-timing, the depression, the possible contamination of bloodlines, the accident, the conspiracy theory. Much has happened since then. It is all water under the bridge now. The confluence of hearts is no l...

A Classic. Based on a real occurrence... "I am sorry, I won't be able to see in 4 weeks' time," the doctor told Ms Lee as he glanced at his calendar. "It is Agong's birthday." "We can schedule the appointment to see in 5 weeks, is that ok?" Ms Lee, an executive in a small assembly plant in the capital city, was scrolling through her smartphone, looking rather perplexed. "Why, Ms Lee?" Doctor was bewildered to see his patient's facial expression. "You won't be around? You can come and see me earlier if you have any problems." "Err... June 4th? Agong birthday? Is that a state holiday or a national public holiday?' Ms Lee said with a straight face. "You see, I work in Selangor." *** Another classic, may not be based on true occurrence... Bubba, a Texan, was excited to be have won at the raffles to tour Malaysia.  As he was being toured around in a double-decker bus with his mother, a...

Selma (2014) This movie did not garner much publicity even though it earned many accolades to its belt probably because it is a black movie made by blacks about something close to the blacks.  It tells about a tumultuous time in America which they have not come in terms with. The relationship between the slaves and the slave-owners which had gone through many rough patches, again and again, all through the civil war, black rights movement and even to date with the rampant cases of police racial profiling as in Ferguson incident. In 1964, the right to vote in the southern states was made extremely difficult by the Little Napoleons of the civil service. Without the right to vote, the blacks do not get a right to stand as jury in court, and without that, a black convict is not deemed to get a fair trial. Martin Luther King Jr, a Nobel prize winner in 1964 for Peace, argues with President LB Johnson and Governor Wallace of Louisiana towards this end. As a political statement, pe...

Hirok Rajar Deshe (Kingdom of Diamonds, Bengali, 1980) Director: Satyajit Ray You will be wondering how a tale set in the medieval times of stories of kings, magic and two main characters who are not exactly the best matches in the box going to impress you. Well, that is the magic of Ray. He even composed the music score and songs for this one. This film is actually the sequel of Ray's 1969 offering ' Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne ' where two village idiots were given magical powers by angry demons who could not stand their croaking! 10 years after that episode, they are comfortably living off their common father-in-law, the King of Shundi. The problem is that they are too comfortable that they are bored. Just then, the King summons them to sing at the courts of Hirok Rajar to honour him on his anniversary at the throne. To the outsider, Hirok Rakar's kingdom is rich with diamonds. It is all a charade as the the farmers who tow the plough has no food to eat and the diamo...

1972 13th December 2011: Today, Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah ascends the throne as the constitutional King of the nation for a second five-year term. His first term was about 41 years ago when Rifle Range Boy was getting used to living in 'high society' - staying 15 storeys above ground and the great stories to blog about quarter a century later. He is the oldest monarch to have been crowned Agong at 84 years and the only one to have sat on throne twice! Many things have changed since his last reign. He has a new consort (after the demise of the previous majestic looking scholarly one) and the feudalistic acceptance of his subjects have declined over the past two decades.  Daulat Tuanku! 

The tallest mansion of squatters! One eye Jack is king in kingdom of blind Growing up in RRF, we yearn to have regular addresses, not an address with block number, floor number and unit number. We were quite fed-up explaining to our schoolmates why there were so many dashes, hyphens and digits on our address instead of just the house number and road name. I suppose the stigma of living in a low cost high rise slump-like flats in the 70s was more the reason of the above. Even though living in the 21st century means condominium resort type of living is norm, we from RRF still find contentment living with our feet on the ground in landed properties! Why am I writing this? If you have access to people's addresses like I do, then you would have noticed that some addresses leaves no place for imagination on their social economic strata. Home addresses like 'Projek Perumahaan Rakyat', 'Projek Rumah Murah', Taman Bukit Mewah' will tell you how their home would loo...

Everybody has something they are good at. They can kings at whatever trade they chose to do. Just watch this one!