RIFLE RANGE BOY

Bhoothakaalam (The Past / Ghost Time, Malayalam; 2022) Director:   Rahul Sadasivan There is a little wordplay with the title. With the prefix ’Bhooth’, one may wonder whether it is a horror movie. When one starts watching the film, one would wonder whether it is about the ghost of the past. That is what it is all about—how the ghost of the past comes haunting if it is not exorcised head-on. The ugly demonic head of the past has a self-defeating habit of repeating itself, making one go through the malady repeatedly. No one will take kindly to others’ advice on how one’s life should be lived. No one will be flattered when told his head should be checked. That is what it is. Individuals should take a step back, access their mental health occasionally, and take preventive measures or make amends. Be the change. Change comes with realisation and from the inside. No one can make the horse drink water. The horse must first feel thirsty. The need to change comes from within. Viewers wonder...

Past Lives (Korean/English; 2023) Director: Celine Song One thing that created the rift between two men who dared to venture into the crypt of our mind and try to explain why we act and react the way we do remains unresolved.  Sigmund Freud posited, in simpler terms, that our learnt experiences, together with unresolved pervasive sexual desires, are the main reasons for actions, inaction and maladies. His mentee, Karl Jung, thought some external events and forces might manifest as meaningful coincidences. The question is whether we have only one life, just here and now and then we die, or we come here again and again. The film is selling the Korean Buddhist idea of 'In Yun'. We are all somehow connected cosmologically through reincarnation. When we meet people and feel we know them, we may do. There may be some unsettled business that needed to be settled, left from our previous encounters, god knows when. This could be our umpteenth trans-birth meet. Or it could be a ruse to g...

Last Night in Soho (2021) Director: Edgar Wright We always like to think of the 'good old days' and how life was simpler then and people were honest. Were they really so? Artefacts from our pasts stir so much serotonin that nostalgia sells. Like Pavlov's dog, we drool at sephia photos of yesteryear. Would we really give up everything we have right now and recoil into the past and do it all again if those days were indeed so simple? If we were to delve into our lives, we should consider ourselves lucky to have survived the negativities that could have brought us down at every single turn of our lives. We should thank our lucky stars that the turns we took at the crossroads of our decision-making moments turned out to be a-OK. Not perfect, could have been better than could have been worse off. What made us take the right turn? Is it some kind of guardian angel, guiding light, our sheer intellect or the deeds of our past karma? I guess it is a topic for the sophists to argue a...

Malay Magic Walter William Skeat (1900) There was a time many years ago when the Malaysian National Museum in Kuala Lumpur decided to go all out to make their exhibits draw more viewers. They curated an exhibition themed along the lines of 'Magic in Malay Land'. Just a few days into its starting, it had to be discontinued. The powers that be were not too comfortable as the reception was too overwhelming. Before this exhibition, the National Museum building was like Siberia; everybody knew where it was, but nobody wanted to go there. Rows and rows of hired outstations express buses were seen parking around the vicinity of the museum on a daily basis. The religious bodies did not realise that the interest amongst our community in knowing our ancient animistic past believes ran that deep.  So, as what a true-blue beholden of belief would do, to avoid confusions among its confessors, the religious authorities decided that the best thing to do would be to cancel the whole ...

They say that the key to the future is in the past. Really? Many do not agree with this statement.  Dodo bird - from the past! Sure, how would one know that fire scalds if he is not given the opportunity to feel the brunt of heat traversing on the tips of the finger? Once burnt twice shy, they say. The mere thought of the pain of being scorched is enough to keep one on his toes to avoid the same experience.  The memory of the misery of a checkered past continually playing in mind is a sure way the same mistake and even be a stepping stone for higher achievement. A regular reminder of the past may spur to strive harder and remind one of the missions in hand. On the other hand, we are accused of clinging on to the past, living in the past, drawing in a shell and residing in the self-pity or nostalgia. As if nostalgia was a bad word! In environment concerns, records of the past are needed to predict the future. Our knowledge about extinct species may prevent fur...

The Big Chill (1983) It is nice to see how some of the actors who we have seen through the years use to look in their younger days. This early romedy (romantic comedy) film is supported by a group of actors who went on to greater heights on their own accord - Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Tom Berenger and Jeff Goldblum. 4 guys and 3 girls who were childhood friends gather together for the funeral of friend who had committed suicide. All of them compare notes of the successes, their failures and their lost dreams in this poignant tale of self discovery. They soon realise that they are all different after battling the hard knocks and cruelty of life. After the short stint at the village of the deceased, they discover that they would never find out why the friend committed suicide but they found new zest to carry on with life. The best part of the movie is the soundtrack of many marvellous songs of the yesteryears. Bad Moon Rising - CCR Heard it on the grapevine...

Just the other day, I came to know of a guy who actually grew up around where my parents are currently residing. Being the sentimental fool that I am, my first instinct was to dig in to enquire about his younger days. As a typical Indian Malaysian would do, the impulse is to find a common friend or relative and then seal the bond, call him for dinner and see how things develop on. But then, something said, "WAIT!".... Not everyone likes to live in the past. Some may have unnecessary baggage that they just like to leave behind and start life anew. This seems relevant as this guy had embraced another religion and dons a new name. Not every guy is like Alex Haley who went through great pains to trace his ancestry and lineage all the way to his first ancestors from Liberia who lay foot in America. Of course, we all know the end product as the best seller and smashing TV series 'Roots'. If curiosity could kill the cat, I, being a cat lover of late, took the plunge to br...