Not illegal, just skirting the truth.

Illegal (1955)
Director: Lewis Allen

https://www.blu-ray.com/Illegal/331947/

I ended up watching this film after seeing Mariska Hargitay's documentary about her mother, Jayne Mansfield. This must be one of Jayne Mansfield's earlier films, in which she played a minor role.

It is observed that Mansfield's character reflects that of Marilyn Monroe in 'Asphalt Jungle', another noir film. From the beginning, viewers are given an impression of how the law can be so flexible that it can be bent to suit the perspectives of the articulate speaker and a clever lawyer. An innocent man is sentenced to death, only for the actual perpetrator to make a dying declaration. His confession arrived too late, as it could not prevent the execution. Even though everything was done legally, the reality was that an innocent person was dead.

Then, the said lawyer, who had won the case as the prosecuting officer, after going on a drinking binge, defends another man in court illegally when someone boasts that he is a professional boxer and cannot be defeated. The lawyer punches him with rolled-up coins under his clenched hand to make his point.

Lawyers often manipulate the law to serve their own interests. When the mentioned lawyer transitions into private practice, an accountant arrives at his office with a stash of money. He had misappropriated funds from his firm. Here, we see how the clever lawyer shields his client from prosecution while protecting the accountant's employers from the embarrassment of losing the client's money. He does all this not to uphold justice but to prioritise his personal gains. Above all, he ensures he receives his professional fees first. Therefore, a lawyer works for his own benefit, bending the law and the truth to suit himself and his client, but certainly not in pursuit of universal justice.

The story shows him becoming involved with the local mob. Ironically, he ends up working for, unwittingly, the same person he once despised as a prosecutor. The film highlights his theatrical antics in a different trial. His client is accused of poisoning someone and causing their death. To demonstrate that the supposed poison was harmless, the lawyer drinks the contents of the bottle displayed during the trial as Exhibit A. This casts doubt on the chemist's report to the court, allowing his client to evade conviction. What no one else knew was that the lawyer left during an expected recess, due to the uproar caused by his antics, to undergo stomach lavage and evacuate the poison from his system. 

So, when lawyers say that having adequate legal redress is a human right, what they really mean is that we should find a way to get you out. Nothing more, nothing less! Jayne Mansfield portrays a dumb blonde musician and mistress who gets tossed around like a ragdoll but rises to the occasion when her conscience pricks. 

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The prick of the conscience?

Scarlet Street (1945)
Director: Fritz Lang

This film bears a striking resemblance to Lang's 1944 movie, 'The Woman at the Window' (1944). Not only are the lead actors identical, but the plot is also the same. Both stories depict a middle-aged married man engaging in an illicit liaison with another woman, a femme fatale. The 1944 version sought to avoid controversy through a subtle, cautionary ending—that it was all just a dream—and thus avoided the scrutiny of censors. The 1945 film attracted opposition from censorship boards in three states: New York, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. These boards believed it was their duty to censor films that were 'obscene, indecent, immoral, inhuman, sacrilegious' or whose screening 'would tend to corrupt morals or incite to crime.'

Edward G Robinson portrays the most uninteresting man in the world. Working as a cashier for 25 years with an impeccable record, Chris is trapped in a loveless marriage. Chris's wife, Adele, is a foul-mouthed woman who thinks Chris is a good-for-nothing. She lives in the memory of her first husband, a policeman who drowned trying to save someone. In reality, her first husband was a crooked policeman who was attempting to rob the drowning woman. He also faked his own death to escape his wife's loud mouth.

Chris rescues a pretty lady, Kitty, who is being harassed by a roadside thug. Chris believes the lady is in love with him and tries to start an affair with her. Chris has a hobby: he paints. Unbeknownst to him, his paintings are quite good. Long story short, Kitty and the thug are actually a couple. They try to cheat the love-struck Chris out of his paintings, and Kitty sells them as her own. After discovering he'd been duped, Chris gets into an argument and kills her. Kitty's boyfriend is framed for her death and eventually faces the gallows. Chris gets away free, but his conscience pricks him, and he soon becomes mad, wandering aimlessly without a job or a home.

The censors believed that Chris' not paying for his crime in the traditional sense was not seen as poetic justice. The fact that the police and the courts were condemning the wrong person did not cast the police in a positive light during a time when America was attempting to strengthen the police force.

An entertaining melodramatic film from the past where theatrics took precedence over natural acting, and morality codes dictated how stories were told. 

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Don't talk to strangers?

The Woman In The Window (1944)

Director: Fritz Lang

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037469/

Whilst many of Fritz Lang's films, such as 'Metropolis' (1927), 'M' (1931), and 'The Big Heat' (1953), have gained cult status, 'The Woman In The Window' remains one of Lang's most unappreciated and underrated offerings. 

At the time, when the silver screen was viewed as the root of all evils, and with the strict enforcement of the Hays Code, films had to adhere to stringent moral guidelines. Storylines had to align with societal views on sex, violence, and religion. 

This film is a noir piece featuring what could be a femme fatale character and a middle-aged professor whose family has gone out of town for the long weekend. As the good Professor strolls to his gentlemen's club, he chances upon a beautiful portrait of a woman. As luck would have it, the subject appears in person. They chat, go for a drink, and before they know it, he is at her apartment for a nightcap. 

As anticipated, an unknown individual burst into the apartment, resulting in a scuffle. The intruder is subdued and subsequently dies. Faced with a deceased body and the dread of police investigations and the associated humiliation, they attempt to dispose of the body. 

The rest of the story involves a meticulous account of the Professor hiding his trail while the police poke their inquisitive noses in. Gradually, the audience begins to realise he may have been set up. The plot thickens as the Professor attempts to poison the policeman who is hot on his trail. Things heat up when... the Professor is roused from his forty winks. He had apparently dozed off on the settee of the gentlemen's club. Everything had been a dream. 

It appears that the story's ending was a turn-off for Lang's fans. Some termed it 'lame'. The producers must have thought that crafting a narrative involving hiding the body, dodging the police, killing off a policeman and getting away with murder might provoke a standoff with Hollywood's moral authorities. Hence, they toned it down a notch. Everything occurred in the Professor's dream. At the end of the film, the Professor seems to imply that one should not talk to strangers. 

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Psychological noir thriller!

Level Cross (Malayalam; 2024)
Director: Arfaz Ayub

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27328373/

Thanks, SD, again, for the recommendation. 

This time around, it is a mind-bending psychological noir thriller quite atypical of what is often seen in most Indian movies. Minus the psychedelic multiple eye-catching costumes, ornaments and landscape, we land ourselves in a monochromatic desert-like location. It is set in a God-forsaken train crossing quite far from human civilisation. The gate at the crossing is manned by a single individual who stays in his quarters just by its side. There is no human contact for miles and miles away. His only conversation with the outside world is the phone call announcing the passing of the next train. Conversations on the telephone can only be made one way. The only excitement around there was the sound of the speeding train.

One day, he finds a pretty unconscious woman in the form of Amala Paul stranded near the crossing, apparently after falling off a moving train. So starts a human interaction for this gatekeeper in years. He carries the lady to his quarters. She comes around to narrate her sob story. She used to be a psychiatrist who fell in love with her patient. After marriage, she found him to be a cocaine-snorting abusive husband who had killed his first wife. According to her, she jumped off the train to escape her husband's tyranny.

The sympathetic guard promises to protect her. When a call announces the next train, the lady forbids him from asking someone to help her reach civilisation.

The lady then discovers, while cleaning the quarters, some newspaper clippings of a mass murderer and another railway ID card with the guard's name but a different face. The lady puts two and two together and concludes that the guard is the mass murderer and has assumed the name of the real guard that he must have killed. She suddenly starts seeing him from the angle that she could be his next victim.  

femme fatale in red hue?

The following day, as the lady sets off to fetch water from a distant well, the husband appears at the doorstep, inquiring about his missing wife. He provides a contradictory account of the earlier story. The wife is the one suffering from mental illness, exhibiting violent behaviour and battling drug addiction. He is simply taking her to another town for treatment. 

The guard tries to get rid of the husband but fails. The husband sees his wife's garment.

Next is a three-way showdown to determine who will come out on top. It was 'game theory' on full display. Who is telling the truth, and who are the mad killer(s)?

This tense, high-strung thriller is reminiscent of a western film where life is cheap, or a scene in 'The Deer Hunter’ where American prisoners are forced to play Russian roulette. A good film, sans masala, draws the audience to the edge of their seats.

P.S. The movie was shot in Tunisia, hence the desert-like background in the movie, not Rajasthan.

Best film quote:  "God doesn't care about us anymore!"

The lonely road to success?

Le Samourai (The Samurai; 1967)

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

The film title card starts with a fabricated quote from Bushido, the moral code of the samurai. It says, "There is no greater solitude than that of the samurai, unless it is that of the tiger in the jungle… perhaps". Miyamoto Musashi, probably Japan's foremost samurai swordsman of the late 16th century, is said to have said this, among other things. He describes the solitary path to success as being filled with loneliness. Solitude accompanies the path to success. He further goes on to say, in one of the books that he had written, that solitude shapes, moulds, and builds character all along our journey to success.

Does this go against the grain of what we have been taught? We had been told that we are social animals and that a man is not an island. Social interaction is essential for mental health, and a child turns out to be developmentally stunted without the tactile stimulation of his loved ones.

On the other hand, we know how lousy companies and wrong associations often derail our ambitions to attain greater heights. There is a reason why high-level athletes and sportsmen train in isolation before a major event. In the same vein, I suppose seekers of greater knowledge should focus on the quest rather than be swayed by the white noise surrounding them. Is this the detachment Buddha mentions in his teachings, with attachment being the root of all misery?

In the Samurai code, there are guidelines that they have to follow. Their allegiance and loyalty are laid out clearly. His loyalty to his Lord is paramount. But when a samurai loses his master, he drifts around aimlessly like a leaf on moving water, swaying at random to forces of nature. Yet, he is still alone but without any direction in life, clutching on straws for direction and strength. 

'Le Samourai' is a classic French noir that stood the test of time. Combining the elements of art in filmmaking while maintaining its suspense in storytelling, it narrates the tale of a paid assassin who works alone. He laboriously details his every job to perfection. His last job, even though successful, hits a snag. He had been targeted as a possible suspect by the French police. The hiring party, naturally, gets hot under their collar. 

The assassin now has to run to save his own skin, not only from the police who want to pin him down but also from his hirers, who would rather have him eliminated than squeal to the police for their involvement. The assassin, now no longer a samurai but a ronin, has to use his survival skills and judgement to be alive. The silver lining of all is that there is a pretty pianist who was an eyewitness to the murder and can identify the killer but prefers to stay mum. 

It's a good watch—4.3/5—and one of Alain Delon's best movies, which skyrocketed him to the international market.

P.S. Freud and Nietzsche found wisdom through silence found in nature walks and roaming the wilderness. Hardcore criminals are placed in solitary confinement, hoping that they will find meaning of life through self-reflection. Unfortunately, this approach of living in a silo may not be applicable to all. Men of the robe have to flaunt the gift of their gab to showcase themselves as the saviours of mankind. Politicians meet an audience to cheat them blind. Businessmen need people interaction to patronise their premises. Solitude brings these people nothing.

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It's Christmas time!

Merry Christmas (Hindi/Tamil versions; 2024)
Director: Sriram Raghavan

This film has it all: a little Hitchcockian, a tinge of noir, and a hefty dose of female fatale. Set in the urban setting of Bombay at Christmas, the storytellers thought it was all right to cast modern-thinking characters with modern values as protagonists. Otherwise, it would not be believable that a seemingly single mother would send flirting vibes and respond to the advances of a random hunk at the movie theatre. 

That is what happened in this movie. It is Christmas Eve. While everyone is in a celebratory mood, a recently released murderer, Albert, returns to his mother's home. As old memories haunt him, he goes out for a stroll. He meets Maria, who is wandering around with her young daughter, first at a restaurant and then at the cinema hall. They strike up a conversation, and she walks her home. After having a nightcap and leaving the sleeping child at home, they go for another walkabout. Upon their return, they discover Maria's husband slouched on a settee, dead, after apparently shooting himself. 

Albert, as a recently released convict, is sceptical about being involved in a death investigation. She instructs Maria to inform the police while he wipes out evidence of his presence at her apartment. 

Hours later, curious about the turns of events, Albert returns to Maria's apartment. There is no hullabaloo of a crime scene. Instead, he finds her in the company of another gentleman, going up to her place. He follows them to find no dead body there!

The rest of the movie is predictable, not because it is poorly done but because we have seen it all too many times in various combinations. The original story is from a 1962 French movie, Paris Pick-Up @ Le Monte-charge. The French version was more precise, shorter and straight to the point. In the Indian versions, however, there are additional characters. One cannot help but wonder whether other little nuggets are inserted between scenes to imply anything. I, for one, was left wondering whether the purpose of Albert's uncle naming his home-brewed moonshine 'Yadhoom' (Scandivanian for 'reason of existence'; why we love for) carried any obscure philosophical connotation to the whole story. 

Nevertheless, it is a refreshing movie with a retro 1970s feel, fuelled by a liberal display of neon lights to give it its noir background. Kudos to Vijay Sethupathi, Katrina Kaif and Sanjay Kapoor (in the Hindi version) for their commendable performances. In the authentic Hitchcockian way, it ends with a twist.

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movies

The state of a state

Kohrra (Fog, Punjabi-Hindi; 2023
Miniseries S1E1-6.

Shrouded in fog, that is how it is. It used to be the food basket of India and the provider of the country's most significant tax returns from its businesses and income earners. Punjab used to be prosperous. People of the diaspora have been instantly recognised worldwide for their resilience, entrepreneurial skills, confidence and ability to adapt and integrate. 

Sadly, the situation in their home state now is a far cry from what it used to be in its pre-independence days. The downward spiral started when a large chunk of the State was sliced away amid bloody butchering to satisfy specific political ambitions. Just as they recoiled back to health with the erection of a dam and the introduction of Green Revolution initiatives, they were the envy of many, including their poor Eastern cousins, Haryana. 

Religiosio-linguistic politics dictated that Hindi-speaking Hindu Himachal Pradesh and Haryana be cut off from the predominantly Sikh Punjabi province in a way that contributed to the tumultuous, violent sectarian politics of Akali Dal, Bindrawale and Operation Blue Star. After that, it was downhill all the way. The Punjabis missed the bus that brought various revolutions: IT, automobile manufacturing, biotechnology and retail. Haryana went places.

20th century Punjab sees an average Punjabi dying to get out of Punjab to get a green card in Canada. Hardy, hardworking Sadarjis are replaced by drug-peddling, gun-wielding gangsters who glorify female objection in their music videos. Then there is a constant external pressure to demand an independent country of Khalistan where Gurmukhi is the script, and Sikh is the national religion, which will be in harmony with their neighbour, Pakistan, so they believe. 

Interestingly, Chandigarh is the common
capital of Punjab and Haryana.

This miniseries, a compelling six-episode first season, brings the audience to the daily dealings of two small-town police officers. It paints an unsettling township where the police have too much power and too much on their plate. Police brutality is the norm, and it seems justified in wanting to mete justice to the grieving family. Opulence is the game the wealthy display to claim their societal role. Family pride takes precedence over everything else. 

Life is cheap, and people can be knocked off for a song. Truth somehow gets buried somewhere in the chaos of things, much like how the splendour of the Saraswati river and its civilisation disappeared into annal of times. 

At least, this is what I, as a non-resident of Punjab, take home after watching this miniseries. It starts with the death of a soon-to-be-married NRI groom found dead in the field with his pants down. The investigating police officer teases out in piecemeal all the undercurrents behind the death. The officer himself has a complicated back story. Losing his wife to depression, he cannot see eye to eye with his adult daughter. His daughter, married with a young child, hates her husband and has an affair. 

Meanwhile, the bride to the deceased groom has a morbidly clingy musician boyfriend who tries everything to regain his beau. But the boyfriend also has a side chick. The dead groom's boyfriend, who came from the UK, is also missing. Now, where is he?

With everyone breathing down his neck, the grieving groom's family, the anxious UK mother, and the aggressive groom's father handling his family issues and pressure from his superiors, sub-inspector Balbir Singh has to tie all the loose knots and close the case. Forgot to mention that Balbir Singh also fancies the widow of a former informant whom he killed!

With such a bizarre storyline, there is no guessing what will happen next. It all makes sense in the end, like most things in life. Nothing is really so straightforward. Nothing is black or white.

P/S. It would appear on the surface that emigration improves one's standard of living to emulate the citizens of their host, to grow and be part of the nation. Wrong! It is true what the migrants want is a peaceful existence, the ability to prove one's purpose of existence, to impart wisdom to the next generation and a final seamless transition to the Otherside with the least morbidity. The host country believes it can assist with resources; in return, the arrivals should blend into the system. Integration, the newcomers will not do for they are convinced their hosts are inferior for the arrivals brought in with them the real civilisation, which is superior and time tested. This is evident in this miniseries. Despite being an NRI, whom one would perceive to have progressive thoughts in sync with the Western world, here the father is showing none of those. Even though he left his home country because it was not good enough to nurture his family, he still brings his old ancient belief systems. 

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Dharma is doing what is necessary

Aaranya Kaandam (ஆரண்ய காண்டம், Tamil, Jungle Chapter; 2011)
Story and Direction: Thyagarajan Kumaraja

The Jungle Chapter refers to the third chapter in the epic Ramayana where Raavana deceptively uses a deer into tricking and kidnapping Sita. Here, the storyteller uses characters with animal names to symbolically represent our animal-like behaviours in a world that has jungle rules. 

It starts with a purported dialogue between Chanakya, the Mauryan master strategist, a kind of ancient Machiavelli, and a student in 400 BC.

Student: "What is dharma?"
Chanakya: "Dharma is doing what is necessary."

With that one line, I was hooked. The film is a gangster fare, but not the usual gory senseless machete-branding South Indian style. It is the characterisation and storytelling that kills. It is labelled as the first neo-noir Tamil film.

In life, we are faced with many obstacles. What is the determinant that decides the right course of action? Do we use society-determined code of conduct as the yardstick? Is it about survival and self-interest? As it is a noir movie where poetic justice takes a backseat, the story is quite revolutionary, and the ending is entirely unexpected.

People follow the rules not because it is a noble thing to do. They do it because of the shame of being caught. Given a choice, people want to be left to their own devices. Jungle law will take over. The mighty, the brave, the cunning and the heartless would prevail. This must be the hidden message behind the movie -the jungle as the title and how the character names resemble that of animals. (Singaperumal-lion, Pasupathy-cow, Gajendran-elephant, Subbu-fox, Sappai-rat, Kasturi-deer). Guilt is momentary and forgotten when they experience pleasure. The end-results justify the means.

The Lion and the Rat

The plot revolves around an insecure ageing don, Singaperumal (Jackie Shroff), whose erectile dysfunction is an open secret. His lieutenant, Pasupathy, is itching for a lucrative but dangerous cocaine deal despite the boss' disapproval. Don tries to trap him and kidnap his wife. In an error of chaos, the cocaine gets into the hand of a destitute and his precocious son. He tries to blackmail Don for the return of stash.

Don's abused young mistress has an affair with Don's helper boy whom everyone thinks is an idiot. In reality, he is bedding the mistress and plans to elope with her.

Things get really complicated with everybody killing everybody either through brute violence and through wit. There is no right or wrong. The correct thing to do seem to be one that benefits oneself at the point of reference. One cannot shed off the idea the director must be a Tarantino fan. Nobody else uses a piece of merry Spanish music as background score as two rivals rush towards each other brandishing machetes. Again in a pure noir finishing the characters engage in soliloquy and a femme fatale rides into the sunset as the final victor. In this film, Subbu turns up as the winner. She utters, "the best thing about being a woman is that it is a man's world." She had outwitted the dumb helper, killed him and was the final benefactor of the loot. The Don was shot dead by Sappai. In her last dialogue, she said, "Sappai was, after all, a man, and all men are Sapppai."

Sappai also could mean limp/impotent. Hence, denoting that Men, despite the machoism that they seem to portray, are actually weak and can be manipulated by the fairer sex with wit and their sexuality.

The film had to undergo 52 cuts for profanity and unPC jokes about Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth.

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