RIFLE RANGE BOY

Kasaba (Circle,  കസബ ,  2016, Malayalam) Screenplay, Director: Nithin Renji Panicker It was probably after the release of this movie that many ardent Malayalam viewers and actors started voicing their concerns about the presence of misogyny in Mollywood. Despite the loud opposition and charges filed against the moviemakers, with the Malayalam Movie Association getting involved, it broke the record for the most widely viewed Malayalam movie teaser. Talk about the Streisand effect! The seed of dissatisfaction was sowed against the senior actor Mammotty by many actors, especially Parvathy Thiruvadu, who was cyberbullied by trolls and Mammotty fans. Police reports flew, but she stood her ground. She went on to be the voice against misogyny in the Kerala film industry. A collective known as Women in Cinema Collective came to the forefront, opposing misogynistic dialogues for the betterment of society. They questioned why a highly respected actor like Mammotty should be so low as to...

Cold case (Malayalam; 2021 ) Amazon Prime We thought science had an answer for all of Man's woes. The recent pandemic just put it in plain sight to us how inadequate we are. With all the latest armamentarium, statistics and cutting-edge biomedical technology at our disposal, one year into the Covid-19, we are still groping in the dark of how to sound the death knell of this near-invisible foe. Logically, science, with its systematic application of knowledge of the material world, which uses methodical and unbiased analysis, should uncover truths and fundamental laws of the world. There was a time when advances in the sciences helped squash beliefs propagated by religious men and shamans who claim to communicate with the netherworld to find solutions to our problems. We sniggered at them, labelling their sciences as pseudoscience or mumbo-jumbo. Our belief in science in the 21st century is shaken. All the statistics and data in various rhymes and reasons fail to tackle the root of t...

Trance (Malayalam, 2020) A sucker is born every minute, they say. Probably what they meant was that the rooting reflex was innate in all babies. Stroke the cheek and the baby would automatically turn its head towards the stimulus and initiate a suckling reaction. It also could imply to the many who are suckered up to racketeering and daylight robberies.  Watching this movie was a sort of a deja vu experience for me. A close relative had discovered Jesus late in life, and she made it her raison d'être to spread His word. And along she went to all four corners of the country praying for the sick and the fallen. She would personally harbour drug addicts and vagabonds in her home to nurse them back to functionality. I remember her style. To get her congregation interested in her sermon, out of the blue, she would blurt out 'Hallelujah' on top of her lungs to get approval what she was saying. And an often repeated phrase was that Jesus spoke to her in her dreams. How she would i...

Dam 999 (2011) In spite of having a band of renowned award winning film makers in the crew and many accolades to boast, the producers actually lost money making this movie. Before even hitting the silver screen, the movie industry fraternity gave threat their choice of actors and even a court injunction was out to ban its screening. Even though the movie is supposed to highlight the danger of dams and was dedicated to the 1/4 million people who perished in China dam mishap in 1975, the governments of Tamil Nadu and Kerala thought that it would ignite the age old water squabble between the two states. The 999 in the title refers to the 9th September 2009 and it was supposed to depict nine types of human emotions. Vimala Raman - a sight for sore eye Unfortunately, I failed to appreciate these 9 emotions in this film. Perhaps it was the language in which I was watching, Tamil. This film actually comes in four languages, the original Malayalam, th...