RIFLE RANGE BOY

A Hidden Life (English/German;2019) Director: Terence Malick This is one of the movies that kept my eyes locked on the screen even after the credits rolled. It presents a long-lasting quandary about divinity and our purpose on Earth. Most movies that we see usually depict Germans as a whole of homogeneous block that unequivocally supports Hitler and what he was doing to uplift Germany from the clutches of hopelessness. For a change, the main character in this film actually stood against German nationalism in the Hitler style. A devout Christian and a conscientious objector to conscription into the Army, Franz Jägerstätter opposes Hitler's rhetoric of a superior race. In his everyday life, Franz is a simple farmer living happily on the hillside of Austrian country, minding his wife, three little daughters, and the unending farm work. So when he is called to serve the Army and state his allegiance to Hitler by instituting the Nazi Salute, he naturally refuses. Franz is arrested and i...

Meiyazhagan ( மெய்யழகன் , Tamil; 2024) Written & Directed by: C Prem Kumar How often have you been caught in a situation where someone catches you at a party and goes on a rant? They seem to know everything about you. They would tell you about your parents and obscure personal details of your childhood. The trouble is that you don't know him from Adam. You would not have the slightest clue who he is but too embarrassed to ask him. You would not want to offend the other person and appear haughty. More so when you return to your hometown, doing better than where you came from whilst the other person is still stuck in your hometown.  You slowly try to pick a cue from his sentences. You try to look deep into his eyes, perhaps to pick up any identifying features. Negative. You try politely asking people behind his back, but it proves difficult as everyone assumes both seem engaged in a conversation so deep that we are blood brothers.  You become desperate as the other person st...

You think you have your life under control. You know what you want to achieve and get your path mapped out. You have a Plan B and a Plan C just in case the inevitable happens. You work your butt out, knowing the way laden ahead is no walk in the park but one paved with shrapnels and gravel. But you persevere. Just when you look at yourself and think you have made a somebody out of yourself and think life cannot be any better, that is when life gives a devious smile and shows you who is boss. By then, you decided that life must be more 'complete'. You bow to societal pressure to be complete for the continuity of progeny. You import your significant other into it, and the other accompanying condiments ensue afterwards. Progressively you feel you have hit a dead-end. Nothing seems to progress at the individual level or as a collective unit. And it becomes gradually more difficult to amend the course or steer the ship. Things that were once in our control are no more. Sadly, you a...