'Main character syndrome'?

Baby Reindeer (Miniseries, E1-7; 2024)
Director: Weronika Tofilska & Josephine Bornebusch

(Based on the autobiography of Richard Ladd) 

I learned a new term today: main character syndrome. In a world where only I, me and myself, which people really care about, it is logical for people to think that they are indeed at the centre of the Universe. The sun and all the planets revolve around them. They naturally become the main characters in a story they narrate. Even though the story is their point of view, it looks like the other characters are just there to fill up space without giving any substance to the story.

This is what the other characters in this true story are saying.

This story is about a shy Scottish lad, Donny, who wants to be a comedian. It is an autobiography, actually. To sustain himself, he works as a bartender. In the course of his work, he meets a friendly lawyer whom he finds interesting.

He is not much of a comedian, really. He is not funny. Nobody laughs at his gigs. A TV scriptwriter takes Donny under his wing and promises to make him a star. The scriptwriter turns out to be a pervert who drugs him and rapes him.

Meanwhile, the lawyer he met at the bar turns out to be a stalker who goes to great lengths to make Donny's life a living hell. Donny has a transexual person for his girlfriend. The whole story is about how Donny emerges from the shadow of his past and handles his stalker to try to make something of his life. The trouble is that Donny appears drawn back to his past as if he enjoys the pain and lives to dwell in negativity.

Even though the storyteller tries to empathise with the stalker and the abuser, in biopics like these, the aggrieved party will have his own account of the whole event. So now, the stalker and the said abuser, which netizens can easily find out with all their wisdom, are thinking of taking legal action against Netflix for screening such a film. Unable to tell her version of what actually transpired during the whole fiasco, she accuses that writer of suffering from 'main character syndrome'.

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Justice delayed is justice denied!

Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom (2022)

Documentary; Netflix

Humans thought living in big numbers protected them from the elements, predators and even enemies. Security concerns were taken care of by the individual community itself. It was jungle justice with no higher justice to recourse. Might decided what was right!

As communities coalesced into country-states, the job of security and protection was outsourced to the State. Suddenly there was no reason for the average citizen to hold powerful weapons. The duty to apprehend and punish wrongdoers was outsourced to State-owned agencies. These agencies were supposed to protect all levels of society, the powerful and powerless alike. It looks all nice on paper, but in reality, the mission statements of these agents are mere rhetorics to pacify the vote bank. The minorities and the weak can only cry foul, fill up the newspapers and breaking news segments and spit on the system.

People will bear with the imperfections of the system. Despite its follies, they believe that God and leaders will soon realise their shortcomings to rectify their errors. At a particular point of no return, the bow will break, and there will be no turning back. Justice must be seen to be done. Justice delayed is justice denied.

This must be what happened to Kasturba Nagar's dwellers in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Since 1999, a group of rowdies had been terrorising the inhabitants. They were brazenly beating up people and molesting girls there. Reports to local police did not achieve much. They became bolder. Akku Yadav is the de-facto leader of the pack. After a brawl, he killed one of his friends. Akku was imprisoned but was released after 10 months, bolder and blunter in his attacks on his victims. He terrorised the women, molesting, harassing and even raping them in the open. The people of Nagar were just too frightened to retaliate.

One brave lady, Asha Bhagat, went against Akku only to be stabbed to death. Another young student was almost killed by Akku but was saved by her quick thinking and when all her neighbours came to her rescue. This act empowered them. When Akku was produced in court, all the ladies of the colony planned an ambush on him. On August 13th 2004, over 200 people from Kasturba Nagar made their way to the Nagpur courts. They locked him up in the courthouse, sprinkled chilli powder into his eyes and mutilated every part of his body, including his ears and genitalia.

This took a big dent in the integrity and competence of the policing and justice systems of the country. When people take the law into their own hands, and the State has no control over protecting its own officers, how can it protect the country? The authorities arrested five random ladies for the murder of Akku. This prompted 200 over ladies from the colony to turn up at the local police station, all confessing to murdering Akku. 50 ladies were later arrested, but the justice system's slow wheel took ten long years to acquit them of all crimes.

The action of the members to ambush the court show and kill an accused in broad daylight exposed the impotence of the police and the courts. They could help but charge the authorities of caring less for them because of their depressed class status and perhaps their generally lower castes too. The purists insist that their actions could not be condoned and the State machinery must be respected. Detractors question the relevance of government servants who are only there to serve the upper echelon of society. Somewhere along the way, the Naxalites are accused of instigating the public to create anar
chy.

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Blood is thicker than water?

Gargi (கார்கி, Tamil; 2022)

Direction: Gautham Ramachandran

SonyLiv

This Tamil movie, which was simultaneously dubbed in many Indian languages at its release, is creating waves and boasts of being one of recent most interesting legal dramas. It has a gripping story, a believable storyline with down-to-earth court scenes, excellent acting and veiled social messages to match.

When someone close to us gets entangled with the wrong end of the law, we tend to side with our loved ones. At no time would we waver from our stance but to stand behind them and assert that they have been wronged. Our blinkers refuse to make us see beyond what we want to see. We know what we want to believe. We refuse to see the bigger picture. Just how far would we go with that? A case in point that comes to mind is repeated negative messages from a particular convicted ex-PM's daughter's social media handles.

A love-smitten primary school teacher, Gargi, is full of smiles. Her life is set. Her beau is so much in love with her, and wedding bells are in the air. Everything came crashing down when a 10-year-old girl was raped. Besides four other ruffians, Gargi's aged father, who works as a security officer in the apartment complex, is the fifth suspect. Very soon, she realises that she is out alone in a world that is not only so cold but violently hostile. 

The vulture-like attitude of the press becomes clear. In their ferocious appetite to tease the news, nothing seems sacrosanct. The neighbours and the rest of the general public are quick to cast their judgmental eyes and are not so civil with their caustic comments. The full trial by the media determines that the suspect is guilty even before the charge is filed. Gargi is advised to flee town with her mother and pre-teen sister. Even her fiancé is suggesting she run away from all these kerfuffles. 

Gargi Vachaknavi in the Veda. She is one of the

epitomai of the high stature of women in ancient 

India. She was Brahma Rishi, a celibate debater 

in the court of King Janaka, circa 700BCE. She 

remains the world's oldest feminine icon in 

ancient Hinduism. 

Gargi's mother's dosa flour home business comes to a grinding halt. The sister cannot go to school, and Gargi is soon sacked. No lawyer wants to defend her father due to public pressure; san a mature shy newbie lawyer with a stuttering problem and no experience defending anyone before.

Now Gargi has to take charge. She knows that her father cannot be guilty of the crime. After all, he saved her from near molestation by a teacher. It was also he who told her to stand tall to fight for herself.

The rest of the story is about Gargi and her not-so-experienced lawyer trying to get the father out on bail and doing their own investigations to unravel some ugly truths. 

Inserted with the storyline are many social easter eggs waiting for film geeks to pick up. Kudos to the many powerful inserted every now and then. Women empowerment is given prominence here. Again and again, the female characters are reminded to assert themselves. Victory seems to be seen when the pre-teen sister attains menarche, and Gargi need not tell her the dos and don'ts as a girl. 

The judge presiding over this rape case is a transgender. When the Public Prosecutor heckles the judge on the side of her gender when her ruling is not in his favour, she retorted, "I know the arrogance of men and the pain of a woman!"

The story is not lopsided, painting characters neither black nor white. Everybody has his flawed side and his weak moments. Overall, highly recommended. 4.5/5.

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Secrets, I have a few!

Anatomy of a Scandal (2022)
Netflix, Miniseries.

There are essentially three types of truths (or secrets if the situation arises). The first is the one which is common knowledge that is no secret. It is the one you do not mind sharing with the rest of the world. Information on your background, ethnicity, place of childhood and education background will encompass this category. With the easy availability of personal data online, the demarcation between private information and the public domain becomes increasingly blurred.

In the second category, it could include something done not at the proudest moment. This truth may be only shared amongst individuals who would not spill the beans no matter what. There is some kind of unwritten rule - bro code, tribal honour, mafia or gang loyalty and business secret - which will fall into the category. God forbid, access to these truths by individuals with ill-intent would be disastrous and make someone fall from grace. However, every type of secret has its price in the real world. It could be used as a bargaining chip when the cookie crumbles.

Then there is the third secret you need to carry to the grave. This secret may be so detrimental that it may damage your reputation, career or family relationship. Others may use their yardsticks or wilfully create a ruckus to paint a heinous picture of you and your acts, an unforgivable one. Some may be forgiving as Man are fallible, especially if you are family. Different yardsticks are assigned to other people.

Just how far this third secret can be protected? Is it necessary to stay to your word when you raise your hand in court and promise to tell the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth? The aftermath when they bare your insides can be pretty devastating. In essence, this is the premise of this movie, among other things.

With the breakdown of community feelings and familial piety, every man or woman is an island. A modern person finds it more fulfilling to explore personal development by hopping from one community or family to another. With the tweaking of familial bonds, exposing the third secret to your family (or your other half) may prove disastrous too.

As the ugly court trial of Depp and Heard reveals, nothing is sacrosanct or stays within the confines of the bedroom's four walls. A bond so tough can sometimes crumble like dominos. A sweet affair can turn sour overnight. Every putrifying detail is laid bare for scrutiny. Recording devices just add more zing to this carving ritual. With their holier-than-thou speak, armchair critics will take their time to slow cook, dissect, expose, crucify, and exsanguinate you. Honesty is not always the best policy.

The miniseries tell about a Cabinet minister accused of rape by his researcher-cum-fling. They had a small affair which they mutually ended but then this. All these come as a total blow to the minister personally and his family. There is actually more than meets the eyes. The minister shares a dark secret with the Prime Minister, which goes way back to their shared alma mater. The prosecuting officer also has a personal score to settle with the minister.

What is rape, and what is consensual sex between two mature adults? What is implied consent, and at what point does this end? How far would a spouse support the significant other's shenanigans? These are some of the dilemmas this story tries to explore.

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Seeds of doubt and hope!

Unbelievable (Miniseries, Season 1. Netflix, 2019)

The epilogue in a Twilight Zone episode in its first season titled 'The Monsters are Due in Maple Street' goes like this...

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices – to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill – and suspicion can destroy – and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children – and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is – that these things cannot be confined – to the Twilight Zone.

It tells of a Martian experiment where a junior alien officer explains a scheme to create chaos on Earth to his superior. He suggests planting the seed of doubt to weaken and win over Earthlings.

Planting a seed of doubt is a dangerous thing. This uncertainty breeds suspicion of conspiracy. Putting two and two unrelated events suddenly appears crystal clear of the threat from the other. Even though this is a potentially self-defeating defence mechanism, it is nevertheless a survival instinct that may help a herd.

I heard this real-life story through a podcast. It told the story of a teenager, Marie Adler, with a troubled childhood. She had been living with many foster homes previously and had recently started living on her own when, in 2008, she reported that someone had broken into her Seattle hostel home and raped her.

The rapist had allegedly entered her home, tied her up with her shoelace, blindfolded her, threatened her with a knife, raped her and meticulously left without a trace of evidence, DNA or fingerprints. 

Police did their official investigation. Along the course of the inquiry, her former foster parent, whom Marie is still close to, raised suspicion that her behaviour was unbecoming of someone who had undergone a traumatic event. Slowly, everyone agreed that Marie had always been an attention seeker. They wondered whether she could have faked the whole thing. The police also started investigating along this line.

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street TZ S1E22

A perplexed Marie, who was still fizzled by the whole event, started doubting her own complaint. She pondered whether it was all just a dream. Sure enough, she later a declaration that she could have falsely reported the whole thing and was even fined for it. The entire event left her traumatised very profoundly.

Three years later, in another state, Colorado, the police were out on a manhunt for a possible serial rapist. By a twist of fate, the wrangling of formalities, inside information and her near-obsessive nature as two policewomen, a link was made between Marie's cold case and that one. 

Crimes were becoming more complicated to be solved, thanks to TV series like CSI and access to the public reading material of police procedural manuals. Secrecy among police departments, not wanting to share information, makes it easy for perpetrators to uproot their base to another locale and start incognito activity all over again.

It is not only fairytales that have happy endings. Occasionally it happens in real life, and a big fat chunk of damages paid by the State to the victim makes it even sweeter. Marie sued the City Police and got $150,000 in compensation. An intense drama. 4.5/5

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Sit, Booboo, sit. Good dog!

The word 'consent' is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there are 'implied consent' and 'silence is consent', then on the other spectrum, are the murky waters of 'informed consent', as if consents are sometimes uninformed or imposed. We have also heard of 'consent under duress' which is by no means consent. In surgical practice, failure to divulge certain rare but real complications of an operation denotes carelessness and possibly negligence of the attending surgeon. As if the patient was not informed that surgery was a risky business.

Recently I heard a podcast of consent of a different kind. In fact, this edition came around way before cry babies started screaming #MeToo! The latest version of approval is 'I agreed to this but not to that..." 

A few years previously, in fact, a good full decade after a young lady (A) went separate ways with her best male friend (B), she decided to revisit the event that made them part ways. She resolved to delve head-on with her assailant (B) to try to determine when and how she put herself in a situation until she was sexually violated.

A and B had, when they were in their early twenties, a platonic relationship. They used to hang out together in each other's room together, talking about intimate things and sharing private thoughts. There was an agreed unwritten rule that lustful love and romance was not in the equation. Towards the end of their university studies, under the influence of intoxicants, they crossed their line. She was alright with the initial petting and cuddling but...

Looking back, A feels that she was wronged. She did not mind the initial part of their intimacy, but she felt assaulted after crossing certain self-made boundaries. B, being the male component of the liaison, thought, at that juncture, he needed to be the aggressor; to do what was expected of him. Perhaps, nature dictates such an arrangement. The innumerable male gametes attempting desperately to fertilise a single ovum is the testimony to this.

There is no issue at all there. Putting spark and cotton side by side and not to expect the cotton to be ignited is pure foolhardy. Of course, opposites attract. In the spring of youth and the raging of hormones fuelled by the inhibitory effects of intoxicants, the animalistic reptile brain is bound to supercede rational thinking. Rules and regulations go out of the window. Even on the female side who inherently tend to be the reluctant party, it is difficult to be brakes on emotions when the flickering ember of passion is fanned.

I think that is the problem with us. We believe we have controls on everything. Like ordering our lunch at the drive-in, we think we can dictate what want. The last person that we can trust is our own dear self! Do not put yourself in a vulnerable position. You do not need someone else to disappoint you. The person who would do that could be you.

Life is becoming more difficult with cultural conditioning, need to assert gender roles, individual responsibility for his actions, empathy, mindfulness and individual right. Nobody can do anything of his volition anymore. He is expected to act and react in certain ways only. 

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

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/riflerangeboy/

'No' means no!

Pink (Hindi, 2016)


That is the reality. On one side, we have the fairer sex fairing better by leaps and bounds in all areas; equality, education, knowledge, even in games that require endurance, as leaders in society and assertiveness. We concede that we are modern and do not impose the chains of control over them. On the other hand, we are still feudalistic in our mindset. We still look at them as lesser beings. We expect them to behave in a particular manner and wait for them to curl up to meet our primal, animalistic needs. We make our own impressions about their needs. We assume their seeming ordinary acts of culture, intelligent behaviour as an invitation to casual sex. We say they asked for it. Their way of dressing, friendly demure and friendly gestures are misconstrued. The society has the view that when she says 'no', she means 'yes'. We have different rules for different genders. Men are not ready to lose their patriarchal role to give the female gender equal footing in society.

Three girls decide to continue their celebrations with three guys, who are friends of their common friend, after attending a rock concert, with alcoholic beverages. Their seemingly cultured act is judged negatively on their morals and is taken as an open invitation to illegal carnal gratifications. Their refusal to sexual liaisons is conversely understood as a 'yes'. That is the aggressors' perception that the telltale sign were all there and their conduct was a testimony of it. Hence, when their 'willing partners' said no, they meant yes! In defence, one of the victims swung an empty liquor bottle to her assailant, almost blinding him.

When the girls turned to the long arms of the arm, the supposed protectors of the oppressed turned the table on them. The girls instead were charged with soliciting clients and attempted murder.

In comes an old-timer, a once reputable lawyer who got disillusioned with the whole legal system to their defence.

What follows is a moving depiction of the mental impression and stereotyping of the public on working girls and girls in general. One of the actors who took the main character actually broke down a few times as the role was quite demanding. Perhaps with the luxury of poetic licence and to spice up the movie, the filmmaker must have decided to show the Indian courts to appear like shouting matches in a fish market.

We are now probably at a crossroad where the ladies are regaining the rightful place in society that they once held when we were all cavemen. Men used to be wanderers who were out hunting and were only an occasional guest at their own caves and community. The women ran the whole show then.

India's daughter

BBC releases India’s Daughter on YouTube!

After much speculation, the highly controversial documentary, India’s Daughter, makes its way to the World Wide Web. Banned in India, the documentary focuses on the rape case of Jyoti Singh who was brutally beaten and raped in Delhi in 2012.

The documentary highlights the aftermath of the event as well as a one on one interview with assailant Mukesh Singh. While BBC was in high hopes of releasing the video on television for Women’s Day (March 8th), heavy protests against Mukesh Singh’s lack of remorse and despicable comments lead the the ban of the documentary in India.

Directed by Leslee Udwin, the film has now been made available on YouTube.

india's daughter bbc documentary
http://urbanasian.com/whats-happenin/2015/03/bbc-releases-indias-daughter-on-youtube/

Hey, I don't have all the answers!

From one corner of the world, people are justifying gang rapes to teach the victim a lesson and to put her in her place. In some places, the complaint of rape is thrown out of the courts as she invariably cannot produce 4 able-bodied men to vouch to have witnessed the rape (as if they would stand idle and watch the whole fiasco, or maybe in the digital world reach for smartphones to record the melee). So, in the developed nations (or at least in places which try to or claim to be one), the last thing you would expect is to blame rapes squarely on ladies and the way they dress as if they were begging to be violated. The scene below are comments of netizen of the way some young girls were dressed on the city mass transit trains in Singapore.

Now, that the girls know what the generally thinking of an average Singapore is, what are they going to do about it? Are they going to say it is all null and void as the comments were written under the cloak of anonymity? Are they going to say that it is their human right to dress (or undress) as they please, so shoot me? Dresses do not cause rape, men do!
Are they still going to continue to simulate their idols on fictitious TV 'reality' shows? Are they going to risk the possible harm by some devious maniac and to appear on local newspapers with super big dark glasses and face partially covered by her hair to air her misadventure and garner sympathy from the ever sympathetic public?      

It finally happened...

So it finally happened. The guests on a radio talk show today went on a rampage bashing the legal eagles who were instrumental in the settlement of the case of a statutory rape of a 13 year old girl by a 40 year old married man with 4 children, 1 younger than the victim. The assailant was not even given a slap on the wrist. As he had made her his second wife, and both were in love each other, the case was made to rest.
We have moved away from the time when we really respected the people of the bench and those in power. Gone are the days, when judges and leaders were respected for the wisdom and virtues. With easy accessibility of information and perhaps because of our educational improvement, we are able to make our own assessments and judgements on situations.
Anyway part of the reason of the decline of respect to them is general decline in the standards in every field in this country.


http://www.trust.org/item/20130521123932-o09qu

What is the difference?

So no private lawyer in the whole of India want to defend the six who stand accused in the recent infamous rape and murder of a physiotherapy student, Jyoti Pandey, (christened as “Nirbhaya” @ Braveheart)  in the capital city. Probably they are fearful of the public backlash on their career. The public response towards the sad incident has been anything but civil. Rape which used to be accepted as part of life in many remote areas of the sub-continent with no recourse, is not going to taken lightly any more after the recent turn of events. Gone are the days where the hassle of complain and judgemental attitude of those in power were a deterrent. The new change in social outlook is going to expose the 9/10 of the base of the iceberg (actually 1/6 of iceberg is visible) which had been hidden all this while. A social revolution is set to happen in a country where ladies all this while have been only placed on a pedestal in the temple altars and their mythological literature but not in real life.

On the other side of the world, not necessarily in the Western world, even in our backyard, another kind of humiliation of the female anatomy had been going on in the form of the oldest profession known to mankind and pornography. BBC in 2005 did a 9-episode documentary of the effect of the porn industry and the sad victims and sick people associated with it.

Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, porn city of the world, has many sob stories of young girls from broken families and disturbed personality flocking here for fame and fortune. There was once a HIV epidemic which infected a young aspirant. After an intial scare and damage control, it was soon business as usual. What do you expect from a place where 60 gallons of male ejaculants are wasted in front of the camera annually and a record of 4000 sexual encounters occur daily!

Nobody knows what happened of 

Bambi Woods after the film. She may

have started life anew with a new

identify, putting her past behind.

Another theory is that her body is 

slouched somewhere hidden in

the USA! No one knows her

real name anyway.

What was supposed to be something private between two consenting adults, sometimes after the approval of the Gods, powers that be and the elders is out in the open. This craze to join the bandwagon of exhibitionism had spurred many amateur voyageurs. Partners who want to immortalize their sexual escapades on film call in the ever willing film-makers. Problems come a-knocking when they end their relationship but the reel is still available for viewing by everyone at the click of a button and the World Wide Web! All these impulsive actions will haunt them forever.
Then there are plastic surgeons would abandon their oath to do more harm on dysfunctional unstable individuals with dysmorphic view of their bodies. Lolo Ferarri, a porn star, an obviously disturbed lady had graduated to 54-J status and subsequently succumbed to loss of public attention as her popularity waned.

In spite of porn being a bad word, San Fernando Valley's industry is strictly legal. On one hand, they talk about equal rights but on the other hand, it is abuse and disrespect of the fairer sex too! So, what is the difference?