RIFLE RANGE BOY

Capricorn One (1977) Director: Peter Hyams With the confidence of singlehandedly defending the motherland against the German soldiers in Operation Barbarossa in 1941 and essentially stalemating Hitler in the Führerbunker, Russians knew they were no pushovers. Stalin's forced post-war industrialisation efforts skyrocketed the Soviet Union into space exploration. The Americans, coming out of World War 2 smelling of roses, after being able to turn the war around after their participation, felt they had to be numero uno. After all, after the Second World War, the US of A was the wealthiest nation around. On top of it, the war forced the migration of top scientists from Europe to America. The 1960s saw rabid competition between leaders of the free world and the communist bloc to outdo the other in space exploration. The race intensified when the Soviets sent their first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, to orbit the Earth in 1961. That spurred JFK to declare that America, the leader of the free ...

3 Body Problem (Miniseries; Season 1, 8 episodes ) Adapted from the Hugo Award-winning novel by Liu Cixin There is an episode in the original Twilight Zone series titled "Where is Everybody?" in which a person wanders around a township with no soul in sight. Enveloped in 'The Great Silence,' he runs around like a headless chicken, looking for any sign of life. That must surely be a veiled reference to Fermi's paradox. With so much wasted space around us and after so many years of searching, why can't we contact any lifeform elsewhere in this widespread Universe? With time, the possibility of the presence of more and more solar systems is being suggested. Surely, someone somewhere must have picked up our radio signals by now. What if they are advanced enough to pick up gestures of friendship. Or maybe they have already made visitations before if one believes the ideas mooted by Erich von Däniken about ancient aliens. Conversely, if a civilisation is indeed more...

More than enough people are quick to sneer at India after Vikram's successful soft landing at the Southern Pole of the Moon. On one end, people were quick to say that the whole exercise was a hoax. It is an illusion. Then, others blurted that a country that cannot provide toilets to its citizens and whose population mostly live below the poverty line should not be sending rockets to the Moon (and playing with nuclear bombs). One even threatened to stop monetary 'aid' to India, conveniently forgetting any discussion on repatriation monies after years of looting from India.  Firstly, everyone knows there is no way for everybody to prosper in sync before society moves up one notch higher. Things happen in tandem. There will be people who will have to do catching up, and there will be those who will lose out in the race for prosperity anyway. The only people who believe that the world needs equity are communists. Again and again, it has been proven that human greed surpasses an...

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa To see Praggnanandhaa, an 18-year-old chess whiz from Tamil Nadu, proudly posing in front of the international press with a big white ash stripe spread across his forehead as a symbol of his faith for a photo shoot reminded me of the numerous times I felt ashamed of wearing vibuthi in public during my childhood.   Coming from a country where my ancestors were bought in as bonded labourers, I did not have many role models to follow, I was ashamed to be an Indian. The fact that many fellow Indians in my neighbourhood were loud and boisterous and had many rows with the laws did not help my perception of the race of my parents. The sing-song undulating tone of my mother tongue was a point of mocking and sneering by many. The behaviour of the few who make it a point to be noticed with their loud colour, unmistakable scents, and high-decibel speeches in buses made me want to disappear.   Mother's eyes say it all! The elaborate display of my religiosity was ...

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022) Acted and Directed: R Madhavan I heard about the Isro Spy Case a few years ago. I did not think much about it then, but my interest was piqued when R Madhavan announced and promoted Nambi Narayanan's story; at the same time, he announced his intention to make a movie about him.  Then came the 'Rocket Boys', a miniseries showcasing India's intention to apply for membership to the exclusive club of having nuclear facilities and rocket technology. It further stirred everyone's anticipation of Madhavan's movie. Then came Covid-related closures and the delays in production and post-production work.  With the Real McCoy We have all heard of Kalam, the satellite launches and even India's Mars exploration. Mangalyaan in 2014. Mangalyaan was initially made to last six months, but it is still functional more than seven years (three Martian years) after its launch. The man who made all these possible is Dr Nambi Narayanan. He was wrong...

The Rocket Boys (Season 1, Ep 1-8; 2022) Director: Abhay Panu Network: SonyLIV The Jataka Tales tells of a kingdom named Vishaili, hailed as the first republic in the world. This was in circa 400 BCE. It is said that there was no one king, but every subject had a say in the running of the state. It seems that everybody had an opinion of how to rule, but nobody took the mantle to take the lead. It was all somebody else's problem, and it ended with nobody doing anything. Pretty soon, the kingdom lost its lustre. Lord Buddha is said to have visited Vishaili thrice in his lifetime. Vishaili's neighbour was the Magadh Kingdom. It was ruled by a monarchy with a big army. One day the Magadh King attacked Vishaili. The chaotic Vishaili, with no one taking charge, falls down with a whimper. It seems Lord Buddha, who was there meditating (the timeline is questionable, though), frowned when Vishaili was annihilated. As all stories from the Jataka Tales carry a message, the lesson here is ...

Mandalorian (2019) Miniseries (S1-S2) A confession is in order here. When my classmates in 1977 were ranting on and on about a new movie in town, my curiosity was aroused. What was all the fuss about, I wondered. Every free moment, during school recess and between the change of subjects, all they could talk about was 'Star Wars'. Some were even holding fat paperbacks of 'Star Wars' related books as their badge of honour like their lives depended on them. All the hubbub piqued my interest; I decided to pick a ticket at the local cinema to see what the brouhaha was all about. I was mesmerised by make-belief vast outer space, the space ships and the various alien forms that form the storyline. And I loved the stormtrooper costume but was baffled by their bumbling incompetence and terrible soldiering skills. Unfortunately, the plot was too complicated for me to comprehend—Alderaan, Death Star, Republic, Resistance, Ewok and such were too much for me. Over the years, the seq...