RIFLE RANGE BOY

The Ipcress File (1965) Director: Sidney J. Furie We always think that violence, espionage, eavesdropping, intelligence archiving, military building and sabotage are events that only happened in the past. We have confined them in the fiction row of our bookshelves and assume it does not occur in real life. We give humans way too much credence. This business of international relations began as early as the time Man picked up a weapon to knock down his neighbour. Just found out recently, of all the people, the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth I and the Ottoman Empire had a good thing going between the two. After being labelled an outcast by the Roman Catholic Church for the shenanigans of King Henry VIII, there was animosity between England and many European superpowers of that time. The Spanish, Italians, French, Russian and Portuguese were all under the thumb of the Vatican. The English naturally found friendship in 'the enemy of the enemy'. In the eyes of the Ottoman, the Angl...

The Secret Life of Uri Geller – Psychic Spy? BBC Documentary (2013) Director: Vikram Jayanti The flamboyant Mossad and CIA secret agent always liked the attention but led a mysterious life. He wants to keep his admirers guessing of his ability as he finds joy in doing his stuff under the radar, under the cloak of secrecy and the excuse of national security. Growing up in the 60s in Nicosia, he partook in the Six-Day War in 1967. After the war, he was a celebrity in the Tel Aviv entertainment circle as a performer performing spoon-bending mind tricks. He is said to possess psychokinetic powers, ability to do remote viewing and had psychic powers. His penchant for sticking around the wealthy and famous landed him in Mexico, doing a gig with a local TV and slowly building a strong bond with the first family. There, he is said to have done CIA's dirty work of erasing Russian floppy disks with remote viewing ability and psychokinetic skills. He then made his way to New York...

Bridge of Spies (2015) There are truths, half truth, manufactured truths, lies bent to appear true. The problem is knowing the whole real truth is near, if not, impossible. Some truths are buried in the tombstones of time only to show a short cameo appearance before it is forgotten for good. Some never even see the living daylight. Some non-truths instead become gospel truths as they were uttered by victors and oft repeated! One cannot be an idealist, doing only things which he considers the truth. As in most things in life, it is hidden in the shades of grey between white and black. We should do what we think is right. It does not matter what people think. What is actually right, we may never know! In this spiced up American movie,  set during the heights of the Cold War, James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance negotiator is summoned by the Justice Department to defend a suspected Russian spy. The US wanted to appear to be holding a fair trial. At the outset, the lawmaker...

Job well done smoking 'em out of their foxholes?  Wow, I just realised that my friends are getting just as twisted as me. I guess that is why they say that friends with the same mental illness flock together. When a naturalised Sikh Canadian gets elevated to the rank of Minister of Defence, normally the whole world would sing praises of equality, of globalisation and acceptance of multiculturalism. That the world is everyone's oyster and all one has to do is show allegiance to a flag, bravery and the zest to fight for the Truth against the tyranny of Evil forces. There are two forces in this world, the Good and Evil. The Evil one is hellbent on crushing something good that the rest of the world (i.e. Good) is trying to propagate. But, no! My friend looks at it as a betrayal to Sikh community. The Sikhs have always had a special place in the heart of the people of the world. Before the Partition, Sikhs were the minority in the state of Punjab, overpowered in numbers b...