RIFLE RANGE BOY

Auto Focus (2002) Director: Paul Schrader Hogan's Heroes used to be a regular feature on RTM's slot for late-night comedy. It did not leave much of an impression on our minds as it dwelled with something quite uninspiring, in our minds at least. It was about a wise-cracking American General and his staff who were imprisoned in a German POW camp during WW2. They tried to outwit their captors, spy upon them and sabotage their every move. It went on for six seasons.  The main character, Robert Crane, or rather his death, appeared in one of the crime podcasts. Initially a family man and a church-going Catholic, he got the acquaintance of John Henry Carpenter. Carpenter was an electronic techie who introduced Crane to the then-nascent home videos in the 1965s or so. As the film puts it, both developed a symbiotic relationship. Crane, through his good looks and contact with showbiz, got in contact with girls, and Carpenter would set the recording devices to record their sexual acts. ...

Once upon a time in Calcutta (2021) Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta Like Mother Nature @ Bhoomadevi, who has seen it all, like the dinosaurs' passing, and various primates and species morphing into Homosapiens, great cities have seen it all too. Admittedly all cities expanded and developed to their present glorious states, not via virtuous paths but through acts of sin. Show me one still-standing city that did not benefit from actions considered unholy transactions. They all benefitted from shady nightlife activities, brothels, alcohol, smuggling, racketeering, and robbing, you name it.  Still, life goes on. Umpteen people migrate to cities daily with a chest full of hope. Many manage to improve their lives, breaking their backs, sleepless but with a restless dream with the sole intention of climbing the ladder of success. Some falter, crushed by their enormous goals, obviously too big for the shoulders to carry. The city has seen the successes, the decadence, the swindling and th...

Kapoor and Sons, since 1921 (Hindi, 2016) Maybe, like what Schopenhauer said, every life history is the history of suffering. Life has no intrinsic worth but is kept in motion loosely by desire and illusion. We hopelessly fall in love, to marry to do everything possible to become an object of disgust to each other. The 'will to live' for continuity of progeny has hijacked our will power. He further went on to say that our inborn error is to think that we exist to be happy. But at every turn, we soon realise the contradiction that the world and life have to offer. It seems that is why the face of the elderly intrinsically appear deeply frowned and depressed, realising the futility of life and death that will ensue. From the moment of the first cry, life is just a barrage of tests, tragedy and turmoil. We somehow are geniuses in creating troubles for ourselves. Rational people make rash decisions under the influence of emotion, giving intellect a rest. We think we are wi...

Room (2015) When a tragedy befalls a family, it is not just the victim who has to deal with the brunt of the misery. Everybody in the family also goes through hell and faces stresses on a daily basis. Relationships go sour and bonds break. The victims cannot be thinking that they can demand special attention for the ordeal that they went through. Everyone else goes through the pain too. This emotional drama with a string of accolades behind it narrates the story of how a kidnapped and raped young mother with her child adjust to life after escaping their captor. Jo was kidnapped, trapped and locked up in a shed seven years previously. Jack, the product of rape, grows up cooped up without ever seeing anything beyond the skylight on the ceiling. Their routine is monotonous with repetitive unstimulating activity. Their only connection to the world is a grainy TV. Jack actually grows up thinking that the universe is the shed. Beyond the wall of his room is outer space. Jack celebrates...

Thulabaram (Sacrifice, Tamil; 1968) I do not know why but I keep watching this movie over and over again over the years. Maybe because it draws me back to the time of RRF and the time that steamed with hopelessness and helplessness. At the same time, I do not agree with the melodrama and the self pity that is exhibited in full glory in this flick. So, psychoanalyse me! This was one of the first movies that Amma took me to watch back in the days. Perhaps, she needed to reminisce her trying times of early adulthood. Even after all these years, its songs, especially 'Kaathrinile Perum Kaathrinile' sang beautifully by K.J. Yesudass, still makes my hairs at the back of my neck stand. This movie skyrocketed in popularity in the South that remakes were made in Tamil, Telegu and Hindi using the same main actress, Sharadha. The original film was made in Malayalam based on stage show. Sharadha went on to receive the National Film Award for that year. Sharadha Coming from a s...

Dokumentari  : Jean Perera The Beauty Queen Murder  http://www.finas.gov.my/index.phpmod=vgallery&sub=video&category=5&album=25

Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle 24 March 1887 - 29 June 1933 m entored Charlie Chaplin, discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope, contemporary of Harold Lloyd. My wife cannot understand why I keep on watching murder movies (the spouse is the usual perpetrator) and even reading crime dramas, like the current one I am reading on 'Crimes of the Century'. I simply tell her, " You never know when it may come in handy!" I read this sad true story of a silent movie star (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle) who had a sad life from birth, achieved unenviable stardom as a comedian and got entangled in a nasty murder case which made him a pariah amongst the movie industry and drained all his earnings. He was born as a 13lbs baby raising suspicion on paternity by his father that he actually named him Roscoe Conkling, after a philandering politician whom he despised (the exact name)! His mother never recovered from the traumatic birth. She became chronically...