RIFLE RANGE BOY

La Haine (Hatred, French, 1995) Screenplay, Direction:  Mathieu Kassovitz This hint has been present throughout our history. Contended people make peaceful nations. Peaceful regions bring prosperity, meaning wealth. When people have money jingling in their pockets, they can fill their stomachs and are happy. They are kind to each other and respect each other. I still remember my history teacher, Mr LKK, in his theatrical manner, describing the scene in France in 1789 before the Bastille invasion. The peasants were hungry, while King Louis XVI and Mary Antonette were busy enjoying their cakes. This resentment eventually, as we know it, changed world history. This film tries to highlight the same point: Resentment among the people brings hate, and hate begets more hate. The people in the lower socioeconomic strata will always get the raw end of the bargain. Any new legislation or taxation will affect the poor more than the affluent. Understandably, they are the community with the low...

Grahan (Eclipse, Miniseries E1-8, Hindi, 2021) Director: Ranjan Chandel,  based on the book 'Chaurasi' by Satya Vyas. I remember some workmates who were in India studying in 1984 during PM Indira Gandhi's assassination. They described it as scary times when many Sikh students took refuge in their non-Sikh friends' homes. Some have them actually had to crop their mane very reluctantly just to stay alive. A turban sticking out in a mob situation where Sikhs were targeted must be a chilling affair.  It was at a time following Operation Blue Star when Mrs Gandhi ordered the Army to march into Amritsar's Harmandhir Golden Temple complex to neutralise Bhindranwale, who stocked weapons there. His faction wanted to fight for a separate state called Khalistan. His endeavours were supported wholeheartedly by Pakistan Government. For desecrating the august temple with military boots, many members of the Sikh community were apparently hurt. So, when Mrs Gandhi's personal bo...

Scorpion Orchid (2001) Lloyd Fernando Everybody has their perception of what is right and what is wrong. People feel that their point of view is correct and they cannot fathom why the other cannot appreciate what is as simple as night and day. Why are they so dumb? Why do they do what they do? This book which is set in the 1950s Singapore in the midst of social unrest. The country, which started as a confluence of races had prospered significantly. Every race had their idea of what success is. As long as each other had the liberty to do their thing, everyone was happy. The precarious balance just needs a slight jolt for the status quo to be tilted. This tipping is what happened in this historical tale. Four young men, Santhi, Guan Kheng, Sabran and Peter, friends from Sixth Form find themselves in the middle of a riot. There is widespread turmoil in the city-state. Singaporeans state their dissatisfactions to the colonial masters, the British, for their control of the econo...

Penang's untold story: Hartal 1967 By  Koay Su Lyn  |  The Edge Malaysia  –  Wed, Sep 11, 2013 TO SIMPLY begin with, the word 'hartal' refers to a cessation of work/businesses in protest against a political decision. Malaya, before her independence in 1957 once observed a one day hartal way back in October 1947, organised by the Pan-Malayan Council of Joint Action against the constitution of the Federation of Malaya. While the 1947 hartal is widely quoted on paper today, there is little mention of a hartal that once swept across the island of Penang in 1967. Originally intended as a peaceful protest, this hartal escalated into a bloody atmosphere of heightened racial tension. Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee, the island's first Chief Minister even related the said protest as one of the incidences which might have possibly led to the 1969 racial riots. However, a closer look at the mood and circumstances surrounding the 1967 Hartal explains the con...