Whether it is Rama or Ravana...

Bramayugam (Era of Madness, Malayalam; 2024)
Story, Direction: Rahul Sadasivan

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the takeaway. No matter who holds the helm of control or the intoxicating concoction of power, life can never be a level playing field. Invariably, one tries to supersede another regarding idea, physical prowess, endowments, or wealth. For every robust individual, there is always another who is slightly better, faster, or stronger. And the eternal duel to be the supreme leader of the tribe goes on. 

Set in 16th-century India, when the  Portuguese were out hunting for Indian slaves to spur their intercontinental slave trade, two men escaped from their captive ship and hid themselves in the jungle. One of them falls to the lure of the jungle temptress spirit, Yakshi, and is killed by her. The other, Thevan, makes it to an abandoned mansion in the middle of the jungle. Hungry, he helps himself to some coconut, but he is admonished by the house's cook, who brings him to meet the boss of the manor. The boss appears like a reasonable chap and treats him as a house guest, much to the chagrin of the cook. Upon discovering that Thevan is a palace singer, the Lord of the Manor requests him to sing. 

Thevan, a person of the lowest castes, Pannar, is grateful to be given due recognition for his talent. Soon, things change. Increasingly, the homeowner goes into mood swings. When Thevan says he wants to leave, he gets a 'NO!'

Things turn eerie with strange sounds, and the cook starts acting weird. The story explores the various superstitions and beliefs in the supernatural, spirits, and demons in Kerala. This film is shot in black and white but does not fall short of suspense. The filmmakers do not depend on gore or visual extravaganzas to drive home their point but via judicious use of sounds, visuals, and good acting. 

The Lord of the Manor is not who he is supposed to be. Demon (shattan) has taken his appearance. As the cook and Thevan defeat the Demon, the Demon tries to jump ship. The body that it goes into turns evil. That, in essence, is the message behind the movie. The Demon is equated to power. Power is evil and destroys indiscriminately. 

First, the primordial people of the land tried to make sense of the world they were in. Trying to give meaning to tremendous forces of nature, they named Gods. Work was distributed based on people's skills and aptitudes to ensure the continuity of life on the planet. Somewhere along the way, people started thinking that their own jobs were more important. They tried to impose restrictions to keep the knowledge of the job to their own kind. A divisional hierarchy soon followed.

People were always suspicious of other communities; they allayed their cognitive dissonance by convincing themselves that the other party was wrong or deviant. It made sense afterwards. To spread their beliefs, they had to conquer over the other.

The conquerors started making divisions amongst their subjects to make 'divide-and-rule' the way to go. They came up with half-baked studies, supported by supposed scholars, to drive home the point of who the real boss is. Obscure occidental studies supported the theory that the Orientals were culturally backwards when, in reality, the reverse was true. Aryan Migration Theory was coined to justify the occupation of Europeans over India.

It did not matter who held the ruling position. The people at the lowest rung of the food chain will always be pushed. As the Tamil proverb goes, 'Whether Rama rules or Ravana does, our life remains in the doldrums.'

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Civilisation does not assure civility!

Civilisation does not assure civility!

So, what is it that makes someone great? Is he the one who has conquered all his animalistic desires and knows that his real needs are beyond the realm of physicality and materialism? This man seeks knowledge and is satisfied when the lock of the meaning of life and the hidden secret of the Universe is unlocked. Such a man is fiction. Nietsche described him as Ubermensch; Hindus referred to him as Rama or Krishna, as the revised 2.0 version of a complex man.

Another version of understanding how life works is to look at Hinduism's representation of the Universe - Trimurthi, the Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and their consorts. Brahma, the creator, has to work in tandem with his consort, Saraswathi. Saraswathi is the Goddess of education and creativity. The take-home message is that one must have enough knowledge and creativity to create anything.

Once the creation is done, life does not just go on unabashed. It has to be preserved and preserved well. For this comes Vishnu, the divinity assigned for this purpose, operates with his consort, Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. The point here is that to conserve any creation, we need affluence. Wealth is required to ensure the continuity of anything that we create. Maintenance takes money.

At the same time, to guard any property, one should have the power to destroy evil and negative forces. The guardian of this is Shiva, the destroyer. To assist him in his task is Goddess Sakthi or her manifestations Parvathi or Kaali, the most ferocious form of divinity. To maintain the status quo and to keep one's possessions intact, He needs to have the power to destroy. Power is necessary to stay in charge.

One cannot go on destroying everything in sight forever like what the jihadists are doing. Nothing would left to protect or protect for. Hence, the creation, preservation and destruction cycle needs to be repeated.

Military Museum Vienna

The Austrio-Hungarian Empire has the
dubious reputation of sending Napoleon
packing (to St.Elba)

Belvedere Palace, Vienna

Military Museum Vienna

Natural History Museum, Vienna.

Russian Orthodox Church in Vienna, built by prisoners. Gifted to the Coptic Christians.

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Chinese Top Gun?

Born to Fly (Chinese, 2023)

Written, Directed: Lin Xiaoshi

The ending says it all. Anyone who invades Chinese airspace will be resolutely shut down. Some will label it as China's reply to Hollywood's 'Top Gun' and 'Maverick' while others would brush this movie as another of the CCP's propaganda projects. Thanks to the USA's brilliant plan to outsource, China has leapt by leaps and bounds. Trying to save on their budget, it appeared then that getting China to handle military networks was a bright idea.

In 21st-century China, she can send a rocket to the dark side of the Moon and match the US fighter and stealth planes. Hence, the silver screen is the best avenue to showcase their prowess in the sky. Hopefully, the offspring of the one-child policy families would be impressed to lose their sons to become fighter and test pilots.

Surprisingly, after an initial screening, which drew record box office collection, CCP decided to withdraw the permit for its screening. Rumours had it the special effects and the computer-generated images were inferior to Top Gun's. If you ask me, it is probably because, in the movie, the Chinese plane ran into trouble way too many times, causing a crash twice, killing a commander and injuring another. It gave the impression that Chinese products were unreliable. What's more, when it comes to precision engineering like planes, there is no place for error, even if it is occasional, even at the test flight level.

This movie starts with a foreign (US) F35 fighter plane encroaching into Chinese airspace. Even though Chinese soldiers warned them politely, the foreign pilots sniggered at them and teased them into a dogfight. The enemies gave the Chinese a runaround with their modern 5th-generation fighter planes. The Chinese were embarrassed with their 4th-generation planes.

The rest of the story is about how an elite team is recruited to test out a new fleet of planes and devise ways to combat certain shortcomings in its design. After an emotional turn of events, the new recruits turn heroes manning their 5th-generation J20 planes and proudly intimidating and chasing away the foreign intruders.

 

China marking their territories after the new map?

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Happy Mothers' Day, not to all!

The all-embracing loving Maa

It is that time of the year when everybody publicly displays their undying love and gratitude for their mothers. No matter how strained their relationships with their mothers had been, at least now is the time to mend fences or to reignite the long put out flames of love and affection. Together with tweets and postings on social media, we are also inundated with many Tamil songs that glorify maternal love.

Ah, there are too many Indian movie songs at their disposal that put mothers high up on a pedestal, quite rightly so. It is unimaginable how much a mother sacrifices for her offspring, starting with the many discomforts of early pregnancy followed by the image alternating insults. The puerperal period is no walk in the park either. The sleepiness nights, the constant demand for attention and care of an ill child are just the beginning of many more of the unending saga of nurturing to follow.

The wrathful protective Maa

All these are fine and good, but in the course of my profession, I have frequently encountered mothers who have not conformed to the typical society mould of an ideal mother who nests, nurtures and cares till their chicks develop wings. Because of economic pressures or innumerable societal situations, they may have needed to leave their loved ones behind to be managed by someone else. Who are we to judge their inadequacies of parenting? We may be quick to pass judgement thinking that the child grows up in the bosom of everyone else but the mother? 

Then others decide to leave their bad mistakes behind to start all over on a new Slade. She does not want to know the remnants of her past life. 

Just to remind ourselves, many of the inmates of orphanages also have their mothers, in flesh and blood, walking somewhere on God's Earth. But, of course, every case is different and has a justifiable explanation for why the orphans grew up without the tactile embrace of their mothers. We simply look at them through our rose-tinted lenses and condemn them.

To put fuel on to the fire, let us not forget the wrongful interferences of the over-meddling of mothers in the matrimony of their children. Rather than cementing relationships, many have unwittingly chosen the path of destruction in dealing with marital frictions.

Still, Happy Mothers' Day, nevertheless. 

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It takes one but which one?

Untouchables (2019)

The start of the fall of something big is always the same. The journey to the top must have been an arduous and an honest one. It would have been avant-garde or revolutionary then. Everyone would have liked it. Given the herd mentality that we all subscribe to, the response would have been palpably obvious with praises and felicitations that would rocket them to high heavens.

The fame would have gone to the head of the progenitors. They would think that they are God-sent avatars beamed on Earth to change Mankind. They could do no wrong. 

Those suppressed demons suddenly spring out. The rapacious appetite which was instrumental previously in launching their earlier fledgeling career now seems to have been diverted to satisfying their own primal decadent desires. The unabated admiration showered to them now is used paradoxically against the very people who put them up on a pedestal.

Everyone can see their nefarious activities but are fearful of spilling their beans as they hold a powerful position in society. It is their tiny squeak against the mammoth establishment.

It only takes one exposè. One squeal that reverberates so long that it takes down the kingdom of the evil. 

Repeatedly we have seen such occurrences. We fail to realise but continue doing the same, burning our fingers, apologising and repeating. Look around, see it done in politics, businesses and creative industries.

Harvey Weinstein

This documentary is the narration of the life and times of Harvey Weinstein, his brother Rob, their production company, Miramax, their rise to stardom and Harvey's subsequent call from grace. This film puts the accusers in the centre stage to allow them to tell their side of the debacle. As we know, Weinstein's trial opened the similar stinking bag of worms the world over. Through the #metoo movement, victims from Hollywood all the way to Bollywood, victims started voicing about their assaults. 

But beware! The #metoo movement was also fraught with conniving individuals who maliciously used it as a victim card to mar the image of people in authority. Empowerment given by resurgence of women empowerment had been misused as a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card.

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Which is your superpower?

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The first thing that I noticed was that there were too many superheroes and I had a difficult time trying to identify them. Some of them even look somewhat similar to my eyes. To me, one who is a slow learner of this genre, Captain America and Star-Lord has the same face-cut. Black Widow and Scarlett Witch look almost alike. Even Bruce Banner without his Hulk outfit and Iron Man seem to share a similar exoskeleton. Anyway, one gets the gist of the story as the story, which could have easily been plucked out of the Indian mythology.

Thanos, the protagonist, who wants to destroy half of the world's population to put things right. To do this, he needs to have in his possession some precious stones which are implanted in some superheroes. Just as seen in Hindu mythologies when an Asura is given a boon and he terrorises, all the Devas have to join forces to set order in the Cosmos, here the Avenger and the Guardian of the Galaxy teams put their resources together. Spoiler alert, Thanos wins in the end with many of the superheroes falling apart like powder. It sets nicely the platform for a sequel and something for the diehard fans to talk about until the next instalment is out. Dr Strange, the mystic and the seer, prophesied that this ending is the best (but for what?) It just gets more interesting.
Why are we so fascinated with superpowers? Perhaps, it is because we, as human beings, feel so vulnerable against the forces of Nature that we yearn for extraordinary abilities.

Thanos at the closing scene, setting the
stage for the possible outcome of his
unlimited powers.

Just the other day, I read of an ad-hoc study on people's preference for a superpower, if ever in their wildest dream were given a boon for invincibility. People gave many options but by far, most chose the ability to fly or the gift of invisibility. Researchers postulated that there was a clear distinction between people who chose either strength. Flyers tend to be extroverts and people who like to flash their ability. Men tend to opt for flying. Invisibility is preferred by the introverts, the social misfits and perhaps conniving individuals.

In that study, none of the people researched said that they chose their powers to save mankind, but to ease it for subversive activities like stealing, cheating and dodging buying tickets. Maybe mankind is innately evil.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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Shanthi by Ashanthi?

The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives

Zbigniew Brzezinski (1997)

Everybody wants peace on Earth. The political leaders wish for peace in their land. Believers of all faiths, without fail, include in their daily prayers call for eternal peace on Earth. We all know this type of bliss, smiling from ear to ear without an iota of worry in their minds, stays only as a figment of our imaginations.

Like in the narration of Kali and the state of the world, life is a constant battle without the weak and the mighty. It is a continual flux of turn of tides of the interplay between the powerful crumbling down to become weak and the downtrodden rising from the ashes. Empires may crumble, and slaves may turn emperors.

This book is the perspective of President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor. Written in 1997, when the USA was the lone superpower, Russia and China were weak, and Islamic Jihadism was unheard of, some of the strategies that made a lot of sense then seem inappropriate now. Even Brzezinski seem to change his viewpoint.

From time immemorial, big kingdoms underwent the same fait accomplis. The Persians, Romans, Chinese, Russian all grew too big, immersed in imperial power and subsequently break apart due to internal fatigue, decay, hedonism, loss of central control and military creativity.

After the WW2, it was basically a power play between the Communist and the Capitalists. The Soviet Union was on one side, together with the Eastern Block of Europe and China, who had issues with Big Brother Russia, versus America as the leader of the free world. Strategic partnerships were built by America with countries in the so-called 'buffer zones' to curtail each others' advancement and their spread of influence. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, China, which all the while been the underdeveloped poor communist cousin of the Soviet Union had awoken from its slumber. There was a need to monitor their prowess and keep them under the US radar. Germany and France help to maintain equilibrium in Europe. The Japanese, whose wings were clipped after their WW2 fiasco, is now at the mercy of the US and the world at large. The newly liberated East European countries ranging from Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic nations make another wall of defence just in case the mighty Russians, under the leadership of Putin, who yearn for the glory days of Soviet Union decide to dominate the world. At the back of these, the main agenda is the control of oil lines across the middle of Eurasia.

Eurasia which makes up more than two-thirds of the land mass of Earth draws the attention of all world power as most of the world population, economic and natural resources are found. In the author's opinion, for the USA to stay as the lone super-power of the world, it is crucial no other challenger dominates Eurasia.

Like a Chess Master, American places all the pieces in essential places, all with vital reasons with the ultimate goal of winning the board game. In that process, necessary sacrifices had to be made.

/http://www.hangthebankers.com/zbigniew-brzezinskis-grand-chessboard-plan-failing/

Heaven on Earth?

"Don't ask too many questions, sometimes it is better to just let go and follow the pack. Follow the people who are experts and know more than us!" At the end of our intellectual discourse on religion, this is the best my friend could tell me. I think that aptly explains the current situation we are in.

There was a time in our civilisation, we were all clueless about the things around us. One blind leading another, we all used to grope around making sense of things as we moved around in an environment that never failed to awe us. Initially, simple explanations sufficed to satisfy our curiosity. Answers begot more questions and our thirst for knowledge and desire to know the Truth never got doused.

Then a group of self-appointed beholden of the race came to the fore to claim of direct communications with the Maker. They claim to have obtained fresh rolls hot out of the oven! Our answers are answered and that we have reached the zenith of our understanding. That, we should not kid our minuscule minds to comprehend the master plan set by the Agent Intellect. That we should just accept and not prod too much.

These leaders' action smattered of power and control but who are we to question? They put us the fear of eternal damnation and the horrid pain of hell fire. We cow to submission.

On the other hand, tribes who dwelled in an environment of discourse, constructive argumentation and scientific thinking, always questioning the known and experimenting the unknown, reached progress of dizzying heights. The naysayers lament that their advancement is not the one favoured by the Agent Intellect but who cares. They have their society in order and their life peaceful. After all, that is what we want. Peace on Earth and Heaven on Earth!

The more I think, the harder it gets!

The congregation all nods in unison. They hail the young preacher's view of life. It appears all too easy; that we should be contented with what we have, that there is no limit to human desires, that the world has everything to meet all our needs but not our greed, that a happy man is one who makes the best of what is available around him. A man who finds joy in the simplest of things is a happy man! The congregation go all agape with his simplistic outlook on life even though none could complete a single day without the comfort of their air-conditioning and the nimble, agile limbs of their ever-obedient servants. If only the place were right, they would raise their hands in awe as if they were at a qawwali performance. It all sounded like Epicurean teaching to me, but the sceptic part of me went overdrive.

Is it not human nature to always strive for something higher? Our ancestors, the caveman, must have yearned to explore the green strip of land across the wavy blue sea. He would have asked himself how it would be to gaze over the hill like the birds did. He must have been bewildered by the ever-changing shape and site of the glowing ball in the night skies. He must have wanted to touch the moon, literally. We would all still be cave dwellers writing this message on cave walls if not for their desire to explore, to take the first step out of their comfort zone and be restless and discontented. He built his first junk, his first flying contraption and his first telescope. All these arose out of his restlessness of wanting more.

Maybe we are just atoms in a mammoth piece of matter. We are just specks in a vast ocean. What is essential is civilisation, not just the individual. It is the forward progression of the whole life-form that matters, not the individual.

But then, a slight aberration in the sequencing of proteins on a DNA thread may actually eat up the entire host in the case of malignancies. Hence, each individual seemingly unimportant action may indeed make a difference. So, conformity makes sense?

Well, that sounds like a carte blanche to the people in power, be it in religion or politics, or are these two mutually inclusive? A scenario of plebeians moving in concert to the tunes of the religious or political leaders may sound enticing to those already in power to continue exerting their tyranny. What a home run!

Subservience and delinquency must both be necessary traits for our survival. 

Power corrupts

Ibn Khaldun

Heard about a study in psychology by a celebrated psychologist, Dr Dacher Keltnar, from UCLA recently. He stated that empathy and all the values traditionally viewed as virtuous are the things that propel a person to hold power. He is given the power to rule over them by the people who sees these noble qualities positively. Once, the leaders are perched at the top, they somehow lose the same values that brought them to the top. The humility, the patience and the empathy that made them leaders do not apply to them anymore. This, he called 'power paradox'.

This fact was shown by him by a simple social experiment. At a road crossing, smaller cars belonging to people of the lower rung of the society tend to slow down and stop for people to cross than bigger powerful cars of the rich. He proposed that the poor and the powerless look out for each other, whilst the powerful feel disdain. Well, perhaps that is why most organised religions look at the rich with scorn. Even Gandhi suggested that he sees God and Godliness in the eyes of the poor. The society looks at the wealthy with suspicion as if they could not have gained their wealth honestly but by selling their souls to the Devil!

Confucius

Power always had a bad reputation. Traditionally, leaders have followed Machiavellian mantra to usurp and retain power. Among the doctrines accepted as mandatory to retain power is to be devious, to maintain a false squeaky clean image, to put a front to real conniving intentions and to ensure that one is always in the limelight.

The Communists thought that giving too much power to an individual is dangerous, hence their idea of a Politburo and the state-controlled facility. See how that turned out in fifty years time - utter failure.

Many years ago, Confucius also said the same, that wealth (and power) in a family only last three generations.

Almost prophetically, Ibn Khaldun, the Islamic historian, philosopher, mathematician and historian among other things, echoed the same sentiments. Tribes or regimes which come to power only last three generations. The first generation which preserved the hardship to built the empire would prosper by assimilating with the subject that they conquer. The Empire would reach great heights. The second generation, the offspring, would have the pleasures of comfort given by the generation before but would be sorely lacking in the killer instinct and street-smartness to 'go for the kill'. They would pass on by with the help of others associated with the founders. Now, the third generation would be taken for a ride by vultures around him. Pampered and elevated to level beyond their capacity by their mere blue blood, they thrive as puppets to masters who would mastermind the Empire's downfall!

It is a cycle. Power is given because of the virtues. Power breeds decadence. Power destroys. And the seed of a new energy grows. Just like energy is the moving force in physics, power is the determining force in the dynamics of sociology and all types of politics, including family politics! Everyone ones to be a leader but lest not we forget, with great powers come great responsibility.

With great powers come great misery...

Sultan (Hindi, 2016)

There is really nothing ground shattering to blog about this film. Perhaps the pre-release media shenanigan by Salman Khan would be talked about longer than the memory of the movie disappears from the public mind. I reckon this memory would not be long. 

This is just another predictable flick of a guy who finds joy in loafing around playing pranks and indulging in age-inappropriate activities who steers his life around to win over the love of a girl. As in most Indian movies, the firebrand cracker of a girl just turns jello at the sentimental self-sacrifices of her Romeo. This time, the theme of the film is the good old traditional Indian sport of 'gusti' or wrestling. Together the couple goes on a medal-winning spree all around the world till tragedy strikes. Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) becomes pregnant only to be left behind for the world championships. The haughty Sultan (Salman Khan) whose fame went to his head finds out the hard way that it pays to show humility. Sultan and Aarfa lose their baby to what they think is due to his absence at the time the neonate needed him most, or rather his O-negative blood. 

They go separate ways. After years of soul searching, Sultan realises that he has to set up the resources of a blood bank in his locality to prevent a recurrence of what happened to his kid. 

In comes, a loser rich man's son with his dismal CV of repeated failed MMA (mixed martial arts) competitions. The rest of the film is predictably about his turmoils to win the matches against all odds and Sultan's reunification with his estranged wife.  

What struck me with the movie is not the storyline, the romantic chemistry, the wisecrack dialogues or the indeed scenic outdoors of Haryana. A person tries to improve himself or pull himself out of a rut for personal development once self-realisation dawns upon him. He would go the world's end to fulfil his dreams. The pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow would eventually come. Together with that would roll in new needs and commitments which he has to oblige. By then, his endeavour is no more to satisfy himself but for the bonds that he had developed along the way. By now, he is duty bound to slog, no more for himself but to fulfil his dependants or his Dharma. People who propelled him forward in the first place are no longer in the equation, just like how he is no more relevant to himself. He is just a piece of footwear that sacrifices itself to its master before the master decides to throw it to the bin.