Nothing really matters!

Old (2021)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

This may not be the best of his movies to watch. After The Sixth Sense (1999) and Unbreakable (2000), his films have been unremarkable. The dialogue is much to be desired, and the plot may have a few holes here and there. Nevertheless, it stays true to most of Shyamalan's movies that explore the paranormal. It even makes one think. In this offering, one is made aware of the dangers of freebies, the subversive nature of Big Pharma and the triviality of our holding of ill feelings and grudges. 

The main protagonists, Guy and Prisca Cappa, are going through a separation. To break the news to their two preteen children, they thought the family could have one final memorable outing together. Prisca is delighted to have found a fantastic bargain for a beach vacation online. Interestingly, as the movie involves Time and ageing, the couple has contrasting occupations - Prisca is a curator in a museum (purveyor of ancient relics), and Guy is an actuary (predictor of future events). 

Surprise, surprise. The whole beach resort is a front for Big Pharma to identify clients with specific medical conditions and put them up for human experimentation with new medications, without their consent, of course. That particular resort had access to a secluded beach with its unique rock formation markedly accelerated the ageing process. Thirty minutes of the passage of Time is equivalent to a year of ageing. Hence, Big Pharma could determine the efficacy and dangers of newfound drugs in record times. 

With or without the drugs experimented on them, the cruel effect shows their sad transformation from their springy gung-ho self, brimming with confidence, to one where minor skirmishes and shortcomings do not matter anymore. Somehow, all the minor dissatisfactions and disappointments in life do not matter. The brutal assault of Time on our ego is blatant. We reverse roles. From an all-knowing adult who juggles wearing multiple hats, our senses fail us miserably. We are clueless about what Time has in store for us - a tumour, mental disorder, debilitating illness or whatever.

In our desperate search for the elixir of youth and immortality, we have sold our souls to Big Pharma. In return for their uninhibited access to our medical information and other unspecified data, we have become sitting ducks to their snake oil and mumbo jumbos.

P.S. The idea that rock formations profoundly affect Man's growth reminds me of the concept behind constructing a Hindu temple. It could be built as and where lands are available. It had to be aligned to the magnetic pole of the Earth. The erection of the main structure is specific and involves the usage of various metals. The conditions needed to be followed for its intended use. A temple was meant to act as a cradle for charging the 'human battery'. People were expected to drop in to 'charge' themselves to meet their daily challenges. Over Time, as monotheistic religions became vogue, to stay relevant, their functions changed. They had to steer their believers away from Ahura Mazda and the desert gods. In essence, rocks, with their mineral contents, affect humans.

8 mysterious ancient temples which lie more or less on the exact geographic longitude of 79° E 41'54" and these famous temples are Kedarnath Temple (Uttarakhand), Kaleshwara Mukteeshwara Swamy Temple (Telangana), Srikalahasti Temple (Andhra Pradesh), Ekambareswarar Temple, Jambukeswara Temple, Annamalaiyar Temple, Nataraja Temple and finally Ramanathaswamy Temple (Tamil Nadu).

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The devil is in the details

Andhaghaaram (Darkness, Tamil; 2020)

Netflix
Story and Direction: V. Vignarajan

At first look, the storyline suggests that this film will be one with scares and screams. Midway through the movie, you think it is a remake of Hollywood's 'What Lies Beneath'  where the dead communicates with the living to uncover a murder. The thing done differently is that two dead people (spoilers) are communicating with the protagonist. The protagonist, Vinodh, appears to be going into paranoid schizophrenia ever since his best buddy died. He feels guilty as he had gifted his friend a book on the subject of occultism. He thinks his friend was pushed to suicide after delving into the book. 

Ever since a rotary phone was installed in his apartment, Vinodh feels like he is being watched. His girlfriend arranges for a therapist. 

Another plot is about a blind library clerk, Selvam trying to earn enough money for his kidney transplant. He moonshine as a medium. One of the jobs he manages to secure involves exorcising a building. Selvam also inherited a priced building in the heart of town from his father. Selvam's teacher is Vinodh's friend's sister. This is how Selvam and Vinodh get connected.

In another plot, a psychiatrist is confronted by his patient who shoots him and his family. The doctor 'survives' the shooting but his licence is suspended. He visits his patients at home instead.

As the story goes, you soon realise that both Selvam and the doctor are trying to contact Vinodh on his new phone. But the problem is their stories are both told different timelines. Both were dead many months previously and it is their spirits which is doing the job!

Refreshing storytelling makes the audiences connect the dots to get a composite picture of the whole story. The devil is in the details as a line in the movie says. After completing the story, only then you would realise why certain scenes were told in that particular way. It seems no stones were left unturned. The acting is brilliant indeed especially by the character of Selvam. I thought they had got a visually handicapped actor for the role. Googling later, I realised that he had acted in many other movies before. All the actors are new (at least to me) and did justice to their roles.

The movie is almost three hours long but the director managed to capture the suspense. The ending may be perceived as an anticlimax as viewers are used to having melodramatic ends in keeping with the Indian psyche. It is decent enough.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Universe does not revolve around you!

 Roh (Soul, Spirit, Malay; 2019)

A few years ago, around Kuala Lumpur, a seasoned trekker went on a solo reconnaissance look around to prepare a route for his friends to walk the following day. He wanted to make a quick recce as he could only start it at 6pm. It was still bright, not too dark but not yet twilight. It was 9pm when the family realised that he was uncontactable. A search was initiated. Many experienced hikers and firemen joined the foray. After failing to locate him that night, they deployed the help of Orang Asli master trekkers who were well-versed with the affairs of the wilderness. Scurrying up and down the path using paper markers that were left behind by the missing trekker, they were puzzled why he could not be traced. Then the Orang Asli trekkers summoned their shamans. The experienced man did some salutations to the guardians of the forest, and before they knew it, the lost trekker was found right under their noses along the very same paths that they were scrutinising all the while. The trekker was too dehydrated or dazed to remember what had happened to him. 

Though everyone was happy that the trekker was finally found, they also puzzled where did he actually go. It was like someone taken him away for a while, and then like a second thought, or cajoling, had put him back again. It sounds much like an alien abduction story, does it not? There are many things that we do not understand about Nature. Out in the wilderness, unprotected, alone and vulnerable, we make our rules as we needle our ways through the unknown. We learn the respect every living thing, and we are no longer the centre of existence. We do not tolerate but merely co-exist.

This film is Malaysia's submission to 2021 to the Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film. So far, over the years, five films had been sent to compete, but sadly none had been nominated. FINAS recently announced that this Malaysian movie was chosen for this purpose. I find it intriguing as FINAS had clear cut guidelines about not approving any film which seem to go against the grain of the nation's official religion, it had endorsed this film which deals with spirituality and the occult.

'Roh' is set in an unspecified time at an isolated jungle location where life is simple, and living means working hard day-to-day depending on the elements of Nature. A mother, living with her two kids, an early teen girl and a pre-teen boy, is greeted with a wandering young girl who was picking up in the woods. Economical with her words, she slashes her neck before warning them the family would all die before the next full moon. Two other characters appear in their otherwise isolated lives asking for the dead girl. The rest of the story is a psychological affair with a lot of combustion and eerie music which would make the audience's hairs stand on end but without the lousy make-up type of gore.

The whole story is based on a verse from the Quran 7:12 & 14, where Satan claims to be superior as compared to humans as He is made of fire whilst humans of clay. And Satan asks God for time, till the day of reckoning, to influence humans!

[P.S. Can be viewed at mubi.com/sinema]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Help wanted: Step inside!

Sixth Sense (1999)
Written, Directed and Acted by M. Night Shyamalan

During the Mothers' Day celebrations, messages with cheesy words like, "God couldn't be everywhere, so He sent Mums!" are rife. The Divine forces work in mysterious ways they say. Many seemingly impossible incidences happen on a regular basis in our daily lives. People with strong religious convictions are content to assume these are holy interventions sanctioned by The Forces that are carried out by his serfs, godly angels. On the contrary, when the outcome is not quite expected or favourable, the blame is passed on to the ungodly demons and djinns. These energies are said to work on different astral planes than the ones mortal Man are familiar. Clairvoyants are able to harness their perception into this dimension to perceive things which normal humanly sensations cannot appreciate.

Medical sciences, however, would label it hallucinations and its practitioner of having delusions.

Proponents of these beliefs are steadfast that these 'pseudosciences' are not false but instead are alternatives. Carl Jung thought that two things that happen simultaneously are not mere meaningless coincidences. They are part of a dynamic process governed by an unknown force. Perhaps, these work at the unconscious level. Or are we able to control these events through our consciousness? Can we delve into our consciousness through meditation techniques or even through DMT (The Spirit Molecule) or LSD? Maybe we should increase neural connexions to the higher centres in the amygdala, pineal gland and hippocampus via targeted brain plasticity exercises! Surprisingly one of the non-invasive ways to increasing brain connectivity is through repetitive actions (mmm... chanting and recitals).

Instead of looking at external sources for remedy, perhaps we should look inwards and introspect.

Believe it or not, I only managed to catch up with this movie 18 years after its release. It tells the tale of a mentally disturbed adolescent boy and his dedicated psychologist and how they finally end up solving each others' problems.