RIFLE RANGE BOY

Por Thozhil (2023) Director: Vignesh Raja https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/tamil/por- thozhil-trailer-sarath-kumar-ashok-selvan-starrer- action-packed-gripping-thriller-8637264/ Thanks to SD for recommending this. SD is a childhood friend with a photographic memory for anything Bollywood when Bollywood was simply known as Hindi cinema. Back in school, during recess, he would attract an audience of friends who would listen as he belted out old Hindi songs and provided detailed backgrounds on the film's actors, music composers, release dates, and even the studios that produced the movies. Even now, he can still rattle off the same information after all these years. However, his interest came to a grinding halt in the 1980s when he felt that Bollywood had lost its charm. These days, SD is into Tamil and Malayalam cinema, which, he claims, are more interesting in storytelling.   This is a Tamil film that faithfully adheres to its intended genre. It is meant to be a thril...

Thadam (தடம், Track, Tamil; 2019) One often wonders about the fascination of Indian movies with identical twins and the commotion, confusion and melodrama that the swapping of roles brings to the screen. Well, it does not only happen on the silver screen. Living up to the adage that 'life is a stage and we are all actors', art mimics only what takes place in life. In the police archives, one can find many of such shenanigans created by such identical twins. Occasionally, the legal system gets confused. Sometimes the perpetrators get away scot-free.  This 2019 police procedural Tamil drama highlights such one case. For the records, this story is based on an actual crime in Malaysia, with a little spicing up using artistic liberty.   In the original case in 2003, a suspect abandoned his car at a police roadblock and scooted off on foot. The police gave chase. The vehicle's trunk was later shown to have held one of the police's most prominent drug haul. The police ...

Nayattu (Malayalam, The Hunt; 2021) That is how the world is today. One day you are doing all the dirty job, not because you like to do it but because you are part of the system. It is not within your capacity to change the status quo but just follow through as you have been doing all along. You know that the battle is unwinnable. You oblige as there are down lines who depend on you. Your leg is so deeply entrenched in the muck there is only one way to go, to get dirty.   You perfected the system. You wanted it to work for you to serve your masters. It only strikes you to realise what a monster that you have created when the system is used against you when your masters are angered with your actions.   Most Indian movies highlight police brutality and try to put the police personnel in poor light whilst the laypeople go around with their heart on their sleeves to prove their innocence. In Nayattu, the role is somewhat reversed.  A sub-inspector and two of his subordinates ...

Line of Duty Seasons 5 and 6. (2019-2021) Since writing  about the TV series in 2017, two other series had been released. Continuing from the previous series, Anti Corruption No.12 (AC#12), continue in their endeavour to wipe out corruption in the police department. On the one hand, the police department wants to be seen as carrying out their duties above the board, without fear or favour and one-minded in seeking the truth to mete justice. At the same time, the department does not want to appear overtly corrupt but gives an image of having integrity. It is an interplay between maintaining the appearance and preserving integrity. The funny thing about this whole exercise is that both arms of the regulators are from the same parent body. For any enforcement to function, it had to garner the trust of the general public. So how can it shoot itself in its foot and be able to run? But who would want an outsider to sieve through their household laundry and embarrass them of their soiled ...

Memories of Murder (2003) We look at things around us, and we get awed. We observe, scrutinise, see a pattern, try to connect the dots and suddenly be cocksure about something. We brag and gloat that we have cracked it like we had unveiled the secrets of the Universe. Then it would hit you right smack in your face - that something did not turn out as we thought it would. We are shocked. We deny it. Cognitive dissonance would set in. Our ego would not accept our failure. We would blame error in experimentation, that somebody had slept on the job, that it just cannot be. What we do next may make or break our civilisation. We can just deny that the whole thing did not happen and move on with life, content with our prior knowledge. We can tell ourselves that we have learnt everything already and that there is nothing more to earn. Or be a sceptic and retrace our every step and try to outline where and when and how things can go wrong. The former is the easy way out that maintai...