RIFLE RANGE BOY

financialexpress.com Society wants us to believe that it is progressive. It gives the impression of being open to new ideas and radical changes. It uplifts us when we think outside the box and are bold enough to express the unthinkable. It encourages us to break unspoken societal barriers. In the modern era, where clicks and likes determine financial returns and the popularity of a social media channel, subscribers cheer and indirectly push the boundaries of what can be spoken and done.  The presenter on the other end will be enveloped in the illusion that he is the most significant discovery since Columbus found the New World. This is what fame offers us: an inflated, infallible feeling that nothing can go awry. We believe that our entire fan base has our backs covered. Sadly, the opposite is true. This, Ranbeer Allahwadia discovered the hard way. After ascending the ladder of fame through his informative podcasts and YouTube videos, he went as far as to receive national awards fo...

BBC on Trial (Documentary; 2024) Produced by: Global Hindu Federation Remember when Malaysians depended on Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) for our news fix? If one remembers well, the headlines on each vernacular channel emphasised different topics to keep each ethnicity happy and give the illusion that their needs were being considered. They would have picked this up from their colonial masters, who perfected the art of diplomacy and ruling with the doctrine of 'divide and rule'. Goebbels is not the person who invented the propaganda. It was the British and their propaganda machine, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In fact, the Germans learnt it from BBC, which was incorporated into its current form in 1927. In the 1930s, the BBC management was singing praises of the Nazi's attempt to clear off its enemies. BBC perfected the art of choosing the perfect word to sugarcoat a potential disaster. They broadcast 24/7 in 25 languages and three bandwidths to tell th...

Conspiracy Theory (1997) Director: Richard Donner In the pre-internet era, Malaysian coffee shops were fertile grounds for conspiracy theories. At a time when all news was coming out in print and the airwaves were tightly controlled, information was a priced commodity. Everyone had their version of what was going on beyond the iron curtain of bureaucracy, of what was reported and what was not.  Surprisingly, at least in Malaysia, all the coffee shop banter that would initially be denied by the powers that be will turn out to be true. Investigational journalism is better done by the single cup of coffee purchaser sitting in the shop the whole day than by people trained and paid to do the reporting job.  In the infancy age of the internet, in the early 1990s, internet buffs scrambled to be on the mailing list of MGG Pillai's discussion forum, Sang Kancil. His brand of hard-hitting fire brand exposè journalism excited young minds who were quite fed up with paternalistic informati...

Indrani Mukerjea: Buried Truth (2024) Docu-series, 4 episodes. From the land of the Veda and the Arthashashtra comes an intriguing case of a missing person, which has remained unresolved to date. In the land that believes that every nasty action has a compelling reaction with the belief that no evil deed will not go unpunished in this birth or next, perhaps punishment could only be meted out in the next life. In 2008, The Wall Street Journal hailed Indrani Mukerjea as one of the 50 ladies to watch, and India conferred her with the award 'Uttar Ratna' for her outstanding work in the art, media, and broadcasting sector. By 2015, she had her hands full fending off money laundering charges and fighting a murder charge. Her past is blurry for a start. Born Pori Dora, her actual birthdate is queried. In her early teenage years in Guwahati, Assam, she accused her father of sexually molesting her. She went off to Shillong, Meghalaya, for studies, where she met her first husband, Siddh...

The Stranger (Miniseries, S1,E1-8; 2020) A cleric politician in the Malaysian Parliament once called for the ruling country to impose stricter control on what children can access on their digital devices. He said that he currently kept on receiving X-rated messages on his phone and went on to rant about how easy it is to access porn online. He went on to say he shuddered to think what the inquisitive minds be up to. Another politician from the opposite side saw this as a low-hanging fruit and decided to capitalise on it for brownie points. He seized the moment. The second politician tried to educate the first one that what appears on our digital devices is determined by our usage. The algorithm suggests what we should watch based on our previous consumption. In other words, the first politician must be an avid consumer of smut to be inundated with so many invitations to adult sites. That is it. We think we know everything about the person sitting beside us or under the same roof. Wait ...

Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie (Rumours; 2022) Writer & Director: Andrew Louis Everybody talks about wanting to know the truth. That the truth should prevail. That the truth will punish the wrongdoer. That the truth will eventually come out, sooner or later. There is a pressing need to discover the truth so that things can be put right so that man-made law can mete justice. Really? Firstly, truth is a double-edged sword. One man's perspective of the truth can be another's blatant lie. Seeing is not believing. How often our senses have played tricks on us. So often, we have been convinced by suggestion. The police can tell that eyewitness accounts can only be believed so much. We are prejudiced by appearance, race, background and stereotyping. Then some are so cocksure about something. Perhaps they have a vested interest or want to be in the limelight, to feel important. Maybe they like to steer the investigation the wrong way because they are involved somehow.  Remember th...

Trial by Media (6-episodes, Documentary; 2020) Netflix There was a time when jury members were told to abstain from consuming news from the newspaper, radio or TV to not influence their decisions. These days, however, this is no longer possible. One does not consume news; news consumes you. One can run, but he cannot hide; information finds you through every crack of the system; smart devices being the easiest. Just look at how everyone has an opinion on how Covid should be managed. Everybody is cocksure where it came from, which drugs are effective and how effective vaccinations are.  In the post-truth world, it seems that every individual forms an opinion on everything based on the validation they get online. Birds of the same feather flock together to steamroll their agenda. We can see how particular narratives are just gate-crashed, no matter the actual situation at the ground level. The confusing situation in Afghanistan that the country is left in is testimony to this. Then t...