RIFLE RANGE BOY

Level Cross (Malayalam; 2024) Director: Arfaz Ayub https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27328373/ Thanks, SD, again, for the recommendation.  This time around, it is a mind-bending psychological noir thriller quite atypical of what is often seen in most Indian movies. Minus the psychedelic multiple eye-catching costumes, ornaments and landscape, we land ourselves in a monochromatic desert-like location. It is set in a God-forsaken train crossing quite far from human civilisation. The gate at the crossing is manned by a single individual who stays in his quarters just by its side. There is no human contact for miles and miles away. His only conversation with the outside world is the phone call announcing the passing of the next train. Conversations on the telephone can only be made one way. The only excitement around there was the sound of the speeding train. One day, he finds a pretty unconscious woman in the form of Amala Paul stranded near the crossing, apparently after falling off a mov...

Swathanthryam Ardharathriyil (Malayalam, Freedom at Night; 2018) In terms of world cinema, this movie not score high on the scale of creativity. As far as Indian cinema is concerned, at least one given to minute details to the storyline, this would be number one. Like Papillon and Shawshank Redemption, this film centres around the planning and the execution of a jailbreak.  The first quarter of the movie shows the circumstances upon which the hero gets imprisoned. In prison, he plots his prison break after recruiting his accomplices. There is not a dull moment as the storyteller managed to fill up the story with characters with compelling backstories. The props look real, and the actors are made scruffy and muscular enough to fit the bill of hardcore criminals. The fights look authentic and short enough to get the message. The music suits the situation, and the escape plan appears believable enough. There are a few failures and sudden changes of plan to hold the suspense.  The...

Usual suspects (1995) In this time and age, many conspiracy theorists are having a field day. They come up with so many mind-bending and mind-boggling explanations to drive home their point of why a particular event happened the way it did. Their story may sound incredulous, but they sure have an appropriate answer for the turn of events.  Take the example of the genesis of Covid-19. One camp will insist that it was a Chinese bioweapon that went wrong. To support their assertion, they would show 'proof' of the Chinese Communist Party's secret laboratory in Wuhan and how a diseased bat landed in their market-place.  Then the opposing party will say that the virus is actually US-made. To arrest China's seemingly unstoppable ascent for emerging as the world's largest economy, the US had to resort to such dirty tactics. A third party would then appear to insist that the virus was just a natural mutation, a sort of Nature's fight back to reclaim its territories....

Dora (Tamil, 2017) Most Hindus believe that our physical bodies are just vessels for the Atma (soul). The Atma is eternal. It moves from births to births to finish unfinished business and to re-pay unsettled dues. Everything happens for a reason, and the reason is this. Nothing happens by mere chance or at random for nothing. Every flutter of a butterfly wing and every whiff of the wind that regenerates takes place in a pre-determined fashion. But then that would nullify the role of free will in deciding the course of our lives or it our free will also pre-determined. I think Avicenna incurred the ire of his contemporaries when he posited that God is too great to be worried about the nitty-gritty details of things that happen but decides on things seen at a higher level. This must be the basis of this movie. The soul of a dog (Dora) goes into a car to avenge the death of its owner. Nayanthara is the kick-ass protagonist which unknowingly becomes the...

Nadu Iravil (Tamil, In the middle of the night;1965) Director: S Balachander Another obscure film from the annals of the not-so-popular list of old Tamil movies is Nadu Iravil, directed by a multi-talented director, S Balachander, a talented veena player who also acts in this thriller drama. This flick is based on Agatha Christie's 1939 novel 'And then there were none' (a.k.a Ten Little Niggers). Initially shunned by distributors for its unique storyline and the dearth of melodious songs, which was typical of blockbusters those days, the reels were in cold storage for about five years before Balachander financed and distributed it himself to astounding success! In the typical whodunnit fashion, the story's setting is in a big isolated bungalow on a remote island, entirely cut-off from civilisation. On the island lived an old couple, Dayanandham and his mentally challenged wife (probably PTSD), Pandari Bai, in recluse, with his comical butler (Cho) and a reliable...

Papanasam (2015) After dabbling in many larger than life multiple roles to international appeal, Kamalhaasan has decided to quieten things a little and settle down to earth with this new film. It carries a strong story plot and points to ponder about familial bonds. After over 20 years, we see Kamalhaasan (Suyambulingam) and Gauthami (Rani) acting together again. Of course, this time, with passage of age and agility, they are more sedate in acting as loving husband and wife with two daughters in a small village town in Tirunelveli. Suyambulingam is self made cable operator, a primary school dropout and a movie buff. He self educates himself from the things he see on his movies - legal, mystery, murder dramas and in many languages too. He is proud of his achievement and has no qualms of showing it to his more 'educated' wife and the crowd at the local eatery that he frequents. Suyambulingam, an orphan, had made a killing for himself, owning a thriving business, a house, a h...

Hanyo (Housemaid, Korean; 1960) Back in RRF, my sister and I used to enjoy Hong Kong drama black and white films of the 1960s with modern story-line of suspense, crime and murder. Well, this one reminded me of one of those, with its characters donning 1960s Western attire and hairstyles, loud background music infused with electric guitar and percussion and a whiff of melodramatic overacting. This 1960s Korean classic was recently rediscovered, and a remake was made in 2010 , although the storyline is somehow altered. Here, the suspense component is kept very much alive throughout the movie without overtly being gory. The characters kept their attire intact but still allured their appeal! Kim is a happily married family man who is conducting a singing class for factory girls. He is quite a hit with the girls despite his serious external appearance. A young girl, Kwak, actually went into depression and subsequently died when she was humiliated for writing a love letter to him. ...

Sexy Beast (2000) This film is not your usual heist movie where the character spend a lifetime to pull it through. Even though the plot is thin, it makes up by the ability to maintain and keeping you on your toes trying to figure out how the movie would progress. Being a Spanish-English joint venture, there is a lot of sunbathing and cockney accent to lace the show. Gal is a ex-bank robber who is retired from his trade and nicely leading a quiet life in his Spanish hacienda with his ex-porn star wife, Deedee, friend and his wife, Jackie. The seemingly idyllic life is shattered by the arrival of a sociopath ex-colleague, Logan (Ben Kingsley). Logan recruits and he want Gal for a massive heist in London. Logan, being the sociopath that he is, just does not want to take no for an answer. He uses his devious methods and blackmails to this end. Jackie, the friend's wife, apparently had had a fling with Logan. This forms the crux of the story rather than  t...

Prestige 2006 This is a very interesting Christopher Nolan movie set at the end of the 20th century with his trademark twisting story-telling which goes freely into the future and back as well as dabbles with a bit of history of the epic rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Alva Edison over AC current. It tells a story of two rival illusionists from London who would go to great lengths to outdo the other. Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) starts together as apprentices not in best cordial of relationships. They become arch rivals when Angier's wife dies during an escapist's trick and  Borden is blamed for tying the wrong knot.  David Bowie as Tesla Actually the film is told in a non linear narration form and the viewer can make sense of the story as the story progresses. The story starts with Bolden in jail accused of killing Angier and is to be hung.  Both remain bitter rivals. When Borden  perform an...