Nothing like being free!

Kummathy (Bogeyman, Malayalam; 1979)

Director: G Aravindan

Most viewers would not have heard of this movie maker, mainly known as a legend in the Indian alternative cinema field. Unlike the masala Bollywood kind of logic-defying escapism that excites the masses, these artsy films only fascinate people who see beyond the story and what is shown on the screen. Some label this film as the best Indian movie ever made.

The movie came to the mainstream's attention after Martin Scorsese's team restored the old, lacklustre copies found in the Indian film archives in 2021. Scorcese announced this movie was one of his favourites at its restoration premiere in Italy. The original cinematographer, however, still preferred the analogue version, as he thought it had more texture and character.

It has been popularised as a children's movie and is usually screened on International Children's Day.

The first thing one notices when watching this film is that he feels like a child. Remember the time in our childhood when we were mere observers, watching and learning, seen but not heard? There is hardly any dialogue, but there is never a dull moment. Scene after scene, we are overwhelmed with the fantastic landscape of Kerala's countryside (God's own country). It draws us to a time when life was simple, running to school was fun, playing with friends was exhilarating, and days were long. Every new discovery is a new adventure. It was not so much our own antics that thrilled us; we were fascinated by the peculiarities that adults exhibited.

Chindan and his similarly aged preteen friends have a gala time. They play, run, prank, and observe the world go by. They are particularly drawn to an eccentric shaman who periodically comes to the village, singing and dancing along the way. They suspect the shaman has magic powers. They befriend him. During one of their play sessions, the shaman playfully changes them into animals, such as a monkey, dog, monkey, etcetera. Chindan becomes a dog. Before the shaman can change them back to their usual selves, Chindan is chased by another dog and goes missing.

Chindan's family goes looking for him, but in vain. By that time, the shaman had moved to another village. Chindan's family only brings back the dog; unbeknownst to them, it is actually Chindan.

A year later, the shaman returns to the village. Chindan, the dog, runs to him for an emotional meeting. The shaman recognises the dog and changes him back. Chindan returns home. Understanding the torture of being trapped, he releases his caged pet parakeet to freedom. 

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A tinderbox waiting to be ignited, the world over!

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Based on David Grann's book (2017)
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

The narration is always the same. Again and again, history has repeatedly shown the same narration. The local population would live in harmony, in sync with their environment. The rambunctious mavericks from outside, with both eyes fixed on the wealth, would trickle in, peddle their snake oil elixirs and promise the moons and the stars. They would bulldoze their thinking into the local populace. The host would be cordial enough to accommodate the newcomers' wisdom, too. Once the shields are lowered, when the host treats the visitors as equals and gives them due recognition, they would zap. 

The bottom line is all about wealth, money and control. 

The Native Indians were nicely tugged into the New World, as 'discovered' by Europeans. The areas around Missouri and Kansas were occupied by a group that later became known as the Osage (Middle River) people. As the 13 original states of the USA expanded westwards, winning over the West, the Osage people were relocated to present-day Oklahoma. Even though their new land was hilly and barren, devoid of hunting grounds, they took it as they told themselves that at least they got the White men off their backs. 

Life works in mysterious tangents. Behind every prosperous find, there lies a catch. The discovery of black gold, aka petroleum, aka devil's excrement* is no different. 

Petroleum wells started welling up in their backyards, and their family coffers started bulging. The Osage proudly displayed their newfound wealth, buying the latest edition of the early 1920s post-WW1 prosperity automobiles, shopping the latest designs of luxurious Parisian outfits and basically living the life. Many were living the white men's lives, embracing the high life and the white men's religion. The Osage Elders realised the tide change would not last forever and decided that the deed of the Osage land would be collectively held as communal head rights. Leasing of land for oil earned them much royalty. It could not be sold to outsiders. 

Meanwhile, the US government decreed (Burke Act, 1906) that the Osage were not smart enough to manage their money. An act was passed to make them appoint a white guardian to manage their finances. This led to much exploitation. It became a legitimate means to cheat the Osage blind. The Osage had to obtain approval for their expenditure and were often over-billed through the roof by their guardians. Soon, there was a trend for white men to marry wealthy Osage women to manage their affairs. Pretty soon, a spade of deaths emerged amongst the Osage Indians in Oklahoma.

David Grann did his own research to write about the 20 Osage people murdered probably because of their ties to oil. The newly formed precursor to the FBI, the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), was assigned to investigate. The local rancher, politician and philanthropist was charged with murder. This book shows the ugly side of the self-proclaimed defender of the Truth, one who introduced culture to the Natives and a Christian to stoop so low as to wilfully bully, cheat and kill the people who invited them to their homes. The local white leader, who was seen as a do-gooder and a philanthropist with his nephew, had masterminded the killing of many Osage people. The nephew had even married an Osage lady but had conspired in her death and, probably, her sisters and mother, too. 

This episode is just an example of the numerous atrocities that white Americans have inflicted upon their brethren. In 1897, 300-400 unarmed immigrant miners at the Lattimer Mines, who marched peacefully for better wages and better living conditions, were gunned down by the Deputies. The Deputies would not acted like that if the miners were English-speaking Anglo-Saxons. 

Around the time of the Osage murders, in another part of Oklahoma, which was dubbed as one of the wealthiest black communities in the USA, colloquially known as 'Black Wall Street', the worst racial massacre in US history took place. A 19-year-old black man was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white woman. Rumours spread that whites were going to lynch the accused. The blacks gathered around the jail to protect the accused. In that tense situation, a gunshot went off, and mayhem ensued.

There had been many Native American-related movies from Hollywood before. 'The Last Mohican' and 'Dances of Wolves' are some shining examples. Unlike the earlier films that stand guilty of having been 'whitewashed' to suit the narrative of the day, this movie tells the story from the Osage's point of view. The 3.5-hour-long film is worth the indulgence. 

*Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, a Venezuelan diplomat and one of the two founders of OPEC was the first to use this phrase in 1975: "I call petroleum the devil's excrement. It brings trouble. Look at this locura (madness in Spanish), waste, corruption, consumption, and our public services falling apart. And debt, debt we shall have for years. We are all drowning in devil's excrement!"

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Daddy loves you! It is what it is.

Irishman (2019)
Director: Martin Scorsese

This movie received brickbats even before it came to the screens (or rather Netflix). Scorsese, maybe on purpose, stirred the hornet's nest by making a statement about the genre that seems to captivate the imaginations of the Millenials - the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). He asserted that the MCU world is not cinema but mere theme parks. To quote Scorsese, "cinema is about revelation — aesthetic, emotional and spiritual revelation. It is about characters — the complexity of people and their contradictory and sometimes paradoxical natures, the way they can hurt one another and love one another and suddenly come face to face with themselves. Marvel movies don't encapsulate those criteria."

To be fair, even Alfred Hitchcock's and P Ramlee's movies were criticised in their days. There were said to be gruesome or too violent (Psycho) or crossing the social norms (Ramlee's Gelora). Even though the new franchises are said to be final products of market-researched and audience-tested, as well as a matter of supply and demand and giving people what they want, there is still place for good old storytelling set in reality.

'Irishman' is based on by Charles Brandt's book 'I heard you paint houses'. It is supposed to be a confession by the protagonist of the tale, Frank Sheeran. He admitted having killed Jimmy Hoffa, a unionist and a mobster. In real life, Hoffa is said to have disappeared since 1975 without a trace. Since then, many have come forward to vouch that they had killed Hoffa and had their versions too. Sceptics have accused Sheeran of making the last kill (money wise) for the family as he struggled in the nursing home counting his end of days.

It said to be a presentation of septuagenarians trying the reminisce the good old times of the genre they are familiar with - Scorsese, De Niro and Joe Pesci and mob movies like 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino'. For good measure, they roped in Al Pacino, Don Corleone himself. 

As the story spans over almost 30 years, and they were utilising aged actors, the filmmakers had to use digitally de-ageing technology on them. MCU fans had a field day attacking Scorsese as it was in one of MCU films that this science was initially introduced - Michael Douglas in 'Ant-Man'.

This three-and-a-half offering tells about Sheeran, a WW2 veteran, who gets entangled with the mafia. He finds it rewarding to support his family. In the course and subsequent to this line of duty, he has to make many life-altering decisions. There is only so much of Mafia-related movies one can watch, the loyalty, the killing and all the coded talk. But still, there are some valuable points to ponder while watching the movie.

People can make a living or make a killing for a living. Ultimately we all work hard to ensure that the generation after us is not deprived of the things that we yearned and never got. We do not want them to go through the similar 'hardships' that we went through. But no, the offsprings will never appreciate this. They would look at the actions of their elders through a different prism quite contradictory to what the adults value. They (the youngsters) fail to appreciate the environment upon which their elders made the decisions they made.

Morality and kindness do not matter in desperate situations. When your next meal is not a given thing, your yardstick of what is right and what is not is malleable. This type of innovation can be seen in slumps and refugee camps. People become imaginative on how to survive, to fulfil their primal desires and acquire money. Somehow, money still remains the panacea of all woes.

This must probably be what Sheeran must have been thinking when he was sending his last few days in a home. All his friends and mentors were dead. He was the only person who would probably carry all his secrets to the grave. He was alone. His wife was dead, and his daughters shunned him for his association with the mafioso.

The question remains. Did he concoct the whole story for his children to savour the fruit of the returns of the royalty of his story? Even though Sheeran admitted in the book to have made the difficult decision of putting a bullet in the head of his mentor Jimmy Hoffa, many others claim to have done the same. Sheeran's story, it seems, did not collaborate with police records. Was the tale spiced up to show Sheeran making the difficult decision of following the orders of Russel Buffolini, his guru, versus killing Hoffa who was a thorn for the mafia? Haffa was possibly going to leak the secret of unionists monies being used to finance Mafia’s Las Vegas casinos.

The movie also suggests that JFK's assassination may have been arranged by the Mafia.

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Why all this filth?

Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

I could not help it but to compare this offering to Martin Scorsese's 1980 classic 'Raging Bull'. The same director with the same record number of 'f-words' in the script. One could,  in fact, learn all through the various functions of the flowery f-word (as a noun, pronoun, descriptive term, verb, adjective etcetera) in this movie.
The viewers appreciate the decadent life-style that the 'The Wolf' - Jordan Belfort led but to be graphic and to show bevies of ladies in various states of undress and compromising positions in all frames all through is not really necessary belying the greatness of the director. The director's name itself is enough to create a storm at the box-office. Hence, there is not no need to turn this biography to a pornographic presentation. Perhaps, the view of sugar candy must have taken away the acting talents of some of the characters.

The film, a 2 hour feature, tells of a stock broker, Jordan Belfort, who made it filthy rich through sheer gift of the gab and salesmanship. The hard selling salesman also partied hard with booze, crack and chicks. The decadent wild life eventually drew unpleasant attention from the FBI and finally landed in jail for money laundering.
Perhaps if the film had concentrated less on showing less flesh than they should, the audience would have come back appreciating the excellent star presence and performance of Leonardo de Caprio.
I was drawn to this movie after it drew controversy of using ill-gotten gains obtained from certain Malaysian individuals! All the
Verdict: Nah!! Maybe I'll watch 'Raging Bull' again.

Obviously most of the movie critiques do not share my sentiments. They are praising this entry to high heaven like it is Da Vinci's Monalisa and has been lined up to receive many accolades. With all bad publicity about 1% of the world population controlling 99% of the world economy, this film is just going create more hatred to capitalistic ventures that has landed us in messy mess!

Danny Porush and Jordan Belfort
(can sell ice to Eskimo)

Life goes on...

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1974
I wonder why the past few films have women themes in them, pure coincidence, I suppose. This 1974 flick was directed by the Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese. Unlike his usual cup of tea which involves a lot of violence and killings, this one is a family drama with a lot of emotions involved.
It did create some noise groups for portrayal of an abused docile wife.
Alice Wyatt (Ellen Burstyn) had big ambitions of being a singer. Came a man in her life, blinded by love, marriage and pop came a son, he ended up as a housewife to a hot tempered Cola Cola employee and a mother to a slightly bad mannered 11 year old boy. In spite of the strained relationship, life went on till husband was killed in an accident. Facing financial difficulties, she sells her meagre belongings in New Mexico and decide to drive back to her home town of Monterey, California with her son to continue where she stopped of what was supposed to be the beginning of her music career.
Due to dire straits, she made a pit stop at Phoenix, Arizona. She manages to get a singing job at a small bar. She gets romantically involved, unknowingly, to an abusive married man. When his wife comes to see Alice and the mad (both mood and predisposition) man goes violent on both of them, she scoots the scene.
Things becomes tougher for Alice, made not easy by her constantly whining son.

Singer to waitress

Another stop, this time at Tucson to earn more money. She landed up as a waitress in a regular restaurant. After some dissatisfaction, she comes in terms with her job and her co-workers.
Alice meets up with David (Kris Kristofferson), a divorcee, a regular patron to the restaurant and slowly through his good bonding with her son, Tommy, gets romantically linked.
On his twelfth birthday, the brat grossly misbehaved and David gave him a spanking. Upset, they have a tiff. Tom goes missing. He gets drunk with his weird friend Audrey (a young Jodie Foster) and had to picked up at the police station.
As in all happy endings, everybody apologizes and compromises.
Alice stays in Tucson to pursue her stalled singing career, Tommy starts schooling and David and Alice kiss and make up.

Mmm... Just another Hallmark like movie which did not leave a profound impression. Obviously, the Academy awards panel member thought it was worthy of many nominations and in fact it won a couple.

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You talking to me?*

Taxi Driver (1976)
After watching Satyajit Ray's 1962 Abhijan about a cynical taxi driver, the only natural thing to is watch another cynical taxi driver. This time in the form of Martin Scorsese's depiction of a mentally disturbed Yellow Cab driver in New York.
If Ray's protagonist was trying to find the answer to life and morality, Scorsese's character, Travis Bickle (a young Robert De Niro) takes his own moral judgement on the wrongdoers.
A honourably discharged ex-Marine Travis, takes the job of night cab driver to make some money and as he is as awake as an owl at a time when most sane people are sleeping. He cannot stand the filth and vice that goes on in the streets and wishes that something could be done to clean it up.
We can see that he is having some kind of post traumatic stress disorder as he narrates his life in his journal.
He is infatuated with a Presidential candidate campaigner, Betsy (a young Cybill Shepherd). He finally plucks some courage to ask her out on a date after some hesitation. The later outings became uncomfortable and Betsy just stays away.
In the meantime, Travis bumps into a teenage prostitute, Iris (a young Jodie Foster), who is roughed out by her pimp but he just moves on with his work. Every now and then Travis bumps into Iris as she carries on with her work.

*This is a classic scene of a monologue

by Travis talking to himself at the mirror

whilst posing menacingly with his gun.

The rejection by Betsy proved to be a turning point in his life. He starts exercising, buys himself some guns and starts practising in the shooting range. On day, whilst shopping at his usual grocer, he witnesses a robbery. With his new found skill, he guns down the robber. The owner of the grocery is grateful and plants the gun on the thief!
Travis finally meets up with Iris and discovers her side of the story. She seems quite happy and grateful to her pimp for what he is doing. Somehow, now Travis feels that he needs to help her. He arranges for his savings to be sent to Iris, arms himself with guns (to the teeth!) and leaves his room to attempt to assassinate the Presidential candidate! - Don't ask me why? Probably, he felt that the candidate was not promising much to clean the filth off the city!.
After his attempt was foiled by the Secret Service, he goes on a shooting rampage at Iris' pimp and her bodyguard. Travis is seriously injured in the process but as the events turned out, as churned by the media, Travis is hailed as hero for saving a teenage prostitute.
After a protracted hospital stay, Travis is discharged from hospital to read a letter of appreciation from Iris' parents. Iris had continued her studies.
Travis goes back to his usual night cab job. Guess who takes his ride? Betsy. After some pleasantries on the turn of events in his life, they smile. He leaves her at her destination, sees at rear mirror, Betsy going up her apartment and the film abruptly ends!
In both films about taxi drivers (Satyajit's 1962 Abhijan and this one), you ask yourself what they are going to do next as the storyline is not so predictable. But then, with Hollywood, with the advantage of technical resources and the fetish for gore, Taxi Driver leaves a disturbing after taste with the gun, violence and blood splatter.
Whoever who said, "Guns don't people, people do!" must be wrong. With some many seemingly normal people scaling our streets and our lives daily, the damage done at the height of unabated emotion is definitely less fatal with a wooden stick or our bare hands than with a gun. The film is another in the long list of movies which show the damaging effect of war to soldiers and how difficult it is for them to assimilate into society after undergoing a rather psyche scarring, electro-potential overdrive effect of war!