Against the grain

Sister Midnight (Hindi; 2024)

Written & Directed: Karan Kandhari

This is a peculiar film. Peculiar in a way that feels intriguing. It is a dark comedy, but it keeps viewers unsure about where the story will go. With minimal dialogue in most scenes, we often see the actors simply staring at each other in many shots. These awkward moments heighten the comedy. Then, suddenly, a rock song blares in the background—not in Hindi, the film's spoken language, but a psychedelic Cambodian tune.

A mismatched couple, married through arranged means, moved into the not-so-affluent, or rather, slum area of Mumbai. The groom, a painfully timid man, failed to fulfil his conjugal desires for his newlywed bride. In fact, he does not even come close to her. He even leaves the room when she is changing clothes. Being a good wife, the bride just waits for her husband to do what is needed. On her part, she is clueless about what to do at home. She neither knows how to cook nor manage the household. Her neighbours do not seem so unapproachable either. The husband leaves early in the morning, takes care of his meals, and returns late, often drunk. His reason for not telling her before leaving is that he is afraid of waking her.

The story continues with the bored housewife taking a job as a cleaner, experiencing fainting spells, developing a taste for eating live birds, and having vivid hallucinations. When the couple finally makes love, the husband suffers a heart attack and dies during the act. Interestingly, the wife simply keeps the husband in the house without arranging a funeral.

While watching this film, I was reminded of quirky classic comedies like Stephen Chow's 'Kung Fu Hustle' - nonsensical yet entertaining. This debutante director suddenly decided to include a clip from Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai', where a ronin (a masterless samurai) roams aimlessly, trying to do the right thing. In 'Sister Midnight', the protagonist is trapped in a similar situation—in her case, a marriage—and must explore the correct path with a future lying ahead. Symbolically, this reflects the story of life. We are parachuted into this existence, given some survival tools, and expected to forge a future—rightly or wrongly. We must discover ourselves, chart a course, and rebel against the currents to make it work.

That, my friend, is the profound take-home message from this strange movie.

Good show, 4.5/5.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Peel open the eye of ignorance

Doctor Strange (2016)

They say Dr Strange dabbles with magic in his crusade to fight the destructive forces that attack Earth. An intelligent but arrogant neurosurgeon in the real world, he is floored by a nasty accident that damaged his hands so severely that all the modern medicine could offer could not put his hands in working order again. No amount of aggressive physiotherapy or experimental avant-garde modality of treatment could resurrect his limp hands. They continued tremoring like leaves.

At this juncture, he heard of a patient with a transacted spinal cord who attained 100% recovery with alternative therapy when modern science failed him. Dr Steven Strange's subsequent journey for a cure led him to Kathmandu to things beyond his imagination. He got sucked into a world of 'magic', harvesting inner energies, dark forces and alternate dimensions. Things became so complicated that he found himself defending the Universe's right side against the Dark Forces.

I could not help but saw parallelism in how the story went to what is perceived in Vedantic teachings. Similarly, the mathematician Ramanujam saw his formulas spilt out of his mind as he sat and gazed at his devata, Namagiri. Hindus believe that the various Gods and Goddesses are a personification of conduits in pursuit of specific vibrations. Tune in a particular wavelength and see a sea of knowledge deep and too immense for the human mind. Seek Saraswati for an educational path, Durga for athletic endeavours, Lakshmi for a road of prosperity, Ganesha to remove obstacles, etcetera. 

Another exciting part of the story is the concept of time in a loop form. Unlike modern man's idea of time being linear, the Vedic teachings suggest that it could be cyclical. What takes place now had probably happened many times before and bound to happen again and again.

Among the many that get thrown in along the movie's course, one philosophical question is whether it is alright to be dishonest to win over your opponent? Is it acceptable for a leader to do the very thing that the rest of the subjugated are forbidden from? When life is simple, the rules of life must be followed to the tilt. As life becomes complex, rules are not so straightforward and can be bend.

We can draw our conclusions from the events in Ramayana and Mahabharata. Ramayana, depicting simpler times, portrayed Rama's life decision that was cut and dry. Do this and that. Simple. During Mahabharata, things become complicated. "They are your relatives, but you Arjuna still have to defeat them in battle. That is your dharma, the correct thing to do." In another scenario, it is perfectly expectable for Yudishtra to 'lie' that Drona's son Aswatthama 'died' when in fact, Yudishtra meant Astwatthama the elephant died. It was justified as Drona was almost undefeatable in war with his unfair usage of the celestial weapon. Drona's subsequent slaying was excused. These days we call these half-truths white lies.

Watch out for its sequel in 2022.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Strange bedfellows? Politics and Religion

Of late, there have been talks of the need for sermons to be apolitical. Just like civil servants, they should just ease day to day living, not to have any political inclinations, so they say. Scripted Fridays khutbah and Sunday morning sermons are a no no.
Just the other day, one of the buddies in the gang of 5 was proposing the idea that religion is indeed a big political party by itself. It toes the line of how one should think and behave in society. It outlines the high priests / scriptures ordained socially acceptable way of living. When man reaches crossroads or is at a dead-end, unable to continue their next plan of action or their 'Plan B', religion provides solace to the heart wrenching broken heart moment. People just get awed by the bigger than life powers of Divinity.

For the social outcasts, they are received with open arms with no obligation (so it seems), giving them dignity and strength until they can fly again or be an eternal humble servant of God or the 'holier than thou' holy high priests who seem to hold the key to the secrets of life but they sometimes fall prey to pleasure of the flesh. (That is not their fault! Satan lurks everywhere to ignite the spark of negativity in the good work of the servants of the Lord).
At the outset, they appear ever understanding to your plight. They go out of their way bending backwards to help you, then they impose their ideology and regulations.
Of course, to continue all these humanitarian work, money is of essence. A fish net will passed around to collect more catches. And the catch would feed more than is needed. What the heck, more dough means more cloud on Earth to continue divine work and bulldoze their ideas in subtle ways. After all more people will hang on to strong branch when they about to fall. More money, more authority in this God created world.
So, religion is politics and politics is religion.
http://religion.lilithezine.com/The-Politics-of-Religion.html