Can't change everything!

About Time

Director: Richard Curtis

You start life telling yourselves you must try to make everything perfect. You think and overthink where anything can go wrong anywhere and make precautionary changes. Still, there will be some black swan events beyond your control that you must overcome. What would you think at the end of it all, at the end of days, that you would have it any better? 

What if you have a special gift where you can time travel? Would your life then be perfect, with the ability to travel back and forth to twit events and prevent mishaps when deemed fit?

A millionaire who has made millions would dispense unsolicited advice that earning money is not everything. He will say that one has to enjoy life with all its spills and thrills, not go after money at all costs. Of course, all these make no sense to a struggling youngster working hard to make something out of his life. In the youngster's mind, he needs the blessings of the Monkey God, not life lessons. 

The same thing applies to time travel, I suppose. At one look, it looks like something to die for. But then, everything loses its glamour. Suddenly one realises the uncertainty of life is the one that makes life worth living. Nothing can happen in isolation and has a corresponding spillover effect. As we learn more about time travel, we realise it has many caveats. 

This romcom is a light viewing, not for sci-fi enthusiasts familiar with the intricacies of going back and forth in time. A 21-year-old is told the males in the family can time travel. Initially taking it as a prank, he uses it to correct certain awkward moments and later major family mishaps. During one of his travels, he discovers that it is restricted to a family member's birth as the randomness of the gametes of conception may alter the baby altogether, including its gender. Not all life events have a single moment at their inception. It takes a lifetime to materialise. Often it is multifactorial, for example, the aetiology of a fatal event.

Life is a funny thing. Things can work in your favour or against you. You are not in the driving seat. 35 years ago today, I reported for work. What would I have done then that would have landed me in a better situation than I am today? Or would the alternative have been worse? The version I have today may have been the version of what I could my life to be. Like someone told me, life is like the branches of a tree. If an ant were to start from the tree's stem, it is pure luck that, after taking so many turns at the crossroad of tree branches, it reaches the tree's juiciest fruit. 

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Life and the stories it yarns.

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry 2022

Director: Hans Canosa

(based on Gabrielle Zevin's novel)

So often, we have heard that truth is stranger than fiction; stranger things happen in real life compared to what happens in our imagination. On the other hand, we were told to be competent to sieve fact from fiction, what is possible, plausible or probable and what is not.

Occasionally we are advised not to live in Lalaland but to descend to reality, not to yearn for that Prince Charming or Snow White to sweep us off our feet. The fact is that the biological clock is ticking away, and opportunities are flying by. They tell us 'carpe diem', seize the moment, not wait for the perfect ending and not expect to live a happy life forever and ever. Life is so full of twists and turns, more convoluted than spaghetti if one reflects on it in his twilight stage of life. 

This film will excite an eternal bibliophile. A gadget-savvy person would not understand the excitement about the physical book, as ebooks and Kindles do the same. But then, we all know how books flock together, like silverfish flock to old books. Like silverfish, too, books will survive the assault of modern technology pretty much like how silverfishes, one of the most ancient insects, have been around for maybe 400 million years. 

I made it to this movie to see a speaking Kunal Nayyar, who had spent a few seasons of 'Big Bang Theory' tongue-tied in front of his female co-stars. And I wanted to see how he, a 'brown' man, would have performed in a rom-com. He did pretty well, except there were too many things to chew in the two-hour presentation that so many things flew by that acting is compromised for storytelling.

An alcoholic bookshop owner and a widower go on with life in his dingy bookshop on an island, brooding over his wife's demise and generally pessimistic about life. All these changes when a young child is left in his shop. Her mother is found dead. And a book salesperson stops by to promote her books. Love blossoms, and the bookshop owner, AJ Fikry, finds purpose in life until the uncertainties of life throw another spanner in the works.

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W

Beatles always fly!

Yesterday (2019)
Director: Danny Boyle

Growing up in the late 70s and 80s, popular music formed like soundtrack music of our lives. It was always in the background as we, my schoolmates and I, went on living and doing stuff we needed to as we ventured into adulthood. Of course, there was a time and place to listen to music. Technology had not developed for us to enjoy it on the go. Listening to neighbours blaring their cassette player is not counted. 

Then there was the excitement of listening to new songs on the radio and recording them on cassette tapes as the music played. Once a week, the newspapers would display the Top 10 songs and albums in different cities. The slightly affluent ones amongst us would get their fix of the latest songs recorded at record shops for a fee. Of course, it was not legal, but what the heck, we were and still are in a third world country. 

Bee Gees and Saturday Night Fever essentially filled up most of our pubescent lives. Sporadic input came from the Second British Invasion Bands and the New Wave music. The country was excited in 1983 when RTM decided to be liberal by choosing to screen music videos nominated for the MTV awards that year. That was probably when the terrestrial station had the most viewers glued to the idiot box, excluding the live sports telecasts, of course. I remember watching 'Karma Chameleon', 'Sweet Dreams (are made of this)', 'Let's Dance', 'Every breath you take, 'Uptown Girl', 'What a feeling' and 'Maniac' by Michael Sembello. After an initial screening, the moral guardians of the station decreed that the music video of 'Maniac' was too raunchy for public viewing. A lady training in her yoga doing stretching, ballet-like dancing, doing the splits and running in her leotard was X-rated.

The Beatles was not part of our coming of age process, it was for a generation before us, but they did appear in our consciousness after Lennon's assassination in 1980.

Imagine that that one day, you get up and realise that the legendary bands and their music that formed part of your character suddenly get wiped out. What would you do if you are an aspiring musician and all your attempts at getting your first break has all gone down the tubes?

In 'Yesterday', a light British rom-com, Jack Malik, a struggling artist, finds himself in such a predicament after a minor accident following a brief global power outage. Jack realises that in his post-outage alternate reality, 'The Beatles' music does not exist. Neither do other things like Coca Cola, the band Oasis and Harry Potter franchise. Even Google search repeatedly brings him to beetle the bug or Beetle VW!

In his rapacious desire to reach greater heights in his deadpan musical career, Jack presents the Beatles' songs as his. He almost becomes rich and famous when Ed Sheeran introduces him to bigwig producers in the US of A. Jack feels guilty of his plagiarising ways and is about to lose the love of his love when common sense prevails. He won over his girl, gives up his nearly international stardom to be a music teacher and lives happily forever and ever.

This movie is like a treasure trove for diehard Beatles' fans to identify their song lyrics in the dialogue. There are many insider jokes about the Beatles' background here and there. A little knowledge about how a particular song came to be written would help, e.g. the story behind Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. So when somebody put out a yellow oblong toy, a Beatles fan would quickly know it is not a rubber ducky but a yellow toy submarine! It is an excellent guessing game to which of their song they would include next.

Perusing online, one would notice that this film is not highly rated. Reviewers lamented that the writer did not explore many loose ends associated with the sudden missing of specific icons from the world record. Everybody just accepted it matter-of-factly. Many also felt that the storyline is so predictable, a copy of generic rom-com. Maybe these people were expected a biopic.

There is a reason why it is called rom-com or romantic comedy. And it is an oxymoron. Romance is not about being funny unless one has a warped sense of humour. A wise man once said, "At the end of the day, romance is just a Greek tragedy with plenty of melodrama with a few rings entangled with it, engagement ring, wedding ring and suffer-ring!

(P.S. The proponents of critical race theory and woke culture sympathisers seem ecstatic with the ample representation of the minority group in this picture. The main character is of Indian descent, and his love interest is white!)

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Memories are made of these?

Sardar ka Grandson (Hindi, Sardar's Grandson; 2021)
Netflix

Somebody was comparing two pieces of land that were carved out of a more significant portion of land, circa 1947-48. See how the parent state reacts to the other. What a contrast!  In 1947, the Muslim state of Pakistan (1,030,000 km²) was carved out of a large piece of land that was essentially Buddhist/Hindu for thousands of years. Despite all the bloodshed and emotional trauma that accompanied this creation, India, by and significant accepted the turn of historical events and carried on with life, trying to improve itself.

In contrast, the tiny Jewish State of Israel  (22,000 km²) was reborn in 1948 after 2000 years in a place where their forefathers, thousands of years previously before, were exiled. Yet, their neighbours and their yeomen are hellbent on the state's annihilation. The problem is where to mark the beginning of history and selective bias of record to determine who was there first. 

Since its inception, Israel has been defending itself from hostile neighbours. It had turned a deaf ear to curses from many of their proxies. Collectively, the enemies of Israel have made it a crusade to fight the land held sacred by other believers as well, Christians and Baha'is included. Still, there can be no place for intellectual discourse. Instead of living in harmony with its neighbours as the great scriptures advocate and improving their living standards, they chose anarchy. There has been no peace for the past 70 years.

When someone loses a place that they call home, what do they actually lose? Is it the physical space occupied by the person, or is it the memories associated with the place? Can the experiences and feelings be quantifiable? Is it justified to live brooding over lost land, living in melancholy reminiscing on how things were? Or should we accept it as the ever-changing tide of history and move on? Cambodia was once a race of master builders. Greece was where people of Europe started thinking beyond their primal, animalistic needs. But look at them now. Wind of change does not escape anyone.

Maybe it is trans-generational trauma of sorts, or perhaps it will be forgotten as the older generation, which was there in flesh and blood during the 1947 Partition. The event has affected the Punjabi community tremendously. 

This 2021 light comedy tells the tale of a Punjabi American immigrant (Amreek) who has to return urgently to Amritsar to visit his 90-year-old ailing grandmother, Sardar Kaur. In the USA, he runs a moving business with his fiancée, Radha. Due to his lackadaisical attitude and bumbling demeanour, they part ways.

Back in India, his grandmother's dying wish is to visit her former home in Lahore. Before the Partition, she and her husband had built a home. She had to leave it in desperation when Pakistanis moved in and killed her husband. So get a visa and go, right? The problem is that the grandmother is denied entry to Pakistan. On record, she has assaulted a Pakistani official many years before, as a spectator, before during a friendly cricket match. 

By then, Radha has moved on to other things. Amreek once witnesses her advertisement of her translocating a whole tree. Amreek decides to do the same for Sardar's house. As fate would have it, the official whom Sardar had assaulted is now Lahore's mayor, and he is not going to give the permit for translocation so easily. As expected, Amreek is successful, he and Radha are united, Sardar is happy, and the film managed to portray an image of buffoonery on the people of Pakistan and their officials. Perhaps that is the reason why the film fared so poorly on IMDB and Rotten Apples' scales.  The leftist media have to stand in support of their brethren. An enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The movie is average, but there are a lot of loopholes in the storyline. Imagine navigating a double-storey townhouse through the narrow and diabolical streets of Lahore on a trailer. If the viewers were to look beyond all these faux pas, they might enjoy this romcom.

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Somebody to ape?

Friends (1994-2004; Season 1-10)

People need role models to guide them through the uncertainties of life. Every living day is a new experience. Hence, newbies who step into different stages of their lives necessitate the presence of someone with authority to emulate. Parents and teachers are sparse representations of adulthood. Their paths are dull, unexciting and merely outdated. Juniors need to follow routes that are 'compelling' and approved by their contemporaries. They aspire for someone or some icon to tell them what normality is.

For teenagers who peeled their inner eyes of awareness at the turn of the century, the Gen-Y's, the TV rom-com 'Friends' could have influenced their perception of what relationship is all about. 

Come to think of it, a generation before them formed their opinions on more significant life issues from Oprah. Oprah Winfrey set the standards on women empowerment, relationship issues, and accepting body image issues. It was as though the whole world had one set of values and it was dictated by the divas in the superficially glamorous city of Tinseltown.

The Gen-Ys (a.k.a. Millennials, born 1981-96), the middle-class English speaking urbanites, moulded their lives around the characters of 'Friends'. It was the norm to have close friends of either gender who may be intimate friends of any kind, with no holds barred, including those considered taboo by the generation before them to go to in time of crises. The social and cultural norms deemed 'normal' are as determined by their favourite characters or collectively by the cast of 'Friends'.

For those who have been living in hibernation, the sit-com 'Friends' is about a group of six friends, two apartments and a coffee shop that they hang out as well as the people as they meet in their lives. They were in their 20s when they started the show. Ross and Monica are siblings. Chandler attended the same high school as Ross. Rachel was Monica's high school mate while Joey joined the group when he became Chandler's roommate. The sixth member of the group is Phoebe, the free-spirited 'hippie', who once lived off the streets and now works as a masseuse. 

Ross is a palaeontologist in a museum. Chandler is a statistic analyst while Joey is a struggling actor. Monica is trying to make it big as a chef. Rachel started as a waitress at the cafe they hang out, Central Perk, but later found a job in the fashion industry.

The earlier seasons were refreshing, but as more episodes get churned, one cannot help but notice that the scriptwriters were running out of ideas. I guess one cannot ask too many questions like how some cash-strapped struggling young adult could afford to live in Manhattan and spent most days chilling at their favourite cafeteria. And why a palaeontologist and an academic would find the company of blue-collar workers more appealing. As their funny bone shrunk, their canned laughter seemed to reach higher decibels, and their threshold for laughter fell to almost zero. The writers dragged airtime by creating lazy jokes with sexual innuendos and sometimes in-your-face tasteless language labelled as a comedy. Another time-buying manoeuvring was replaying clip shows and operating on sentiments of nostalgia. The show failed to show a growing maturity in the characters. They seem to be excited by the same jokes all throughout the seasons.

It is ridiculous when in one season Joey and Rachel are lovestruck and the next, they are finding dates and discussing ways to bed their respective dates. Sure, it is all supposed to be taken lightly, it is after all showbiz, I find it comical when a couple who has fallen out of love with each other can look at each other in the face like nothing happened. And live in the same apartment, on top of that! Or is that modern love or something called moving on?

After being in the limelight for ten seasons, the producers finally pulled the plug on the show after episode #236, leaving a string of broken hearts and rudderless souls. They await a reunion of the cast in a single unscripted comeback show which was supposed to out in March 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19.


It is not for me to say, but maybe it is for social scientists to explore. The male characters are not given prominence in the series, much like many of the shows that are churned out from Hollywood. The male personas appear the not so intelligent ones, jokers, laid back, indecisive and be wrapped around the fingers of their female counterparts. It would be interesting to see how social dynamics in other parts of the world get moulded by the American Dream and the American perspective of women empowerment. It is good to know just how much the teaching of the art of flirting and promiscuous lifestyle that is sold to the general public actually modify our social mores?

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