Rosebud! Our needs are simple.

Can you imagine? Seventy years after its release (1941), Citizen Kane, hailed by the movie industry as the best American movie of all time, is still appealing.

Citizen Kane is an epic movie narrating the life and times of a 'fictitious' (some critics say it is not) flamboyant debonair of an individual who was uprooted as a boy from a God-forsaken place to be given the comfort of wealth by a guardian. He grew up to be a playful megalomaniac of a character who jumps from boarding school to boarding school with no university certificate to show!
His turning point was when he turned 25, took over a newspaper, and started his legacy.

The movie was written, acted, directed, and produced by Orson Welles, one of Hollywood's equally eccentric characters. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1941, though it was nominated for 9 and did not break even at the box office then.
The movie starts with the introduction of Charles Foster Kane's death with a snowflake-filled crystal ball rolling down his hand, uttering "Rosebud' before his last gasp. This forms the basis of the movie. A group of journalists, eager to find out the true meaning of his last words, embark on a journey of discovery by interviewing people close to Charles F. Kane - his confidante, his editor, his second wife and finally, his butler. Kane's story is told in flashback through these interviews and must have been a breakthrough in movie-making back then.

After reaching great heights, he finally coops himself into his self-made exile in a multimillion-dollar estate of luxurious loneliness called Xanadu. The investigating reporter, after exhausting all his avenues, decides that the dying man's parting words may have referred to some fancy thing unachievable in the old man's lifetime and decides to call it a day.

Only later, before the closing credit, do we realise that "Rosebud" is actually the name of the sledge he used to play on in his childhood days in Colorado. This gives the impression to us, the viewers, that this lonely, sad, wheelchair-bound man was reminiscing about his only joyful time in his life—in his carefree childhood, on the sled in the winter in his village!

At the end of the journey of life, we look at our lives and realise that the best time is indeed our childhood—no question about it! We are always looking for the wrong things in life, barking at the wrong tree. Our needs are simple, actually! The memories are the ones that last forever.

As in old movies, where dialogue and acting were of paramount importance, rather than flashing of flesh and megalomaniac special effects and pyrotechnics, Citizen Kane is no exception. Here are a few to cherish...

Kane: You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.

Kane: I always gagged on the silver spoon.

Leland: I can remember everything. That's my curse, young man. It's the greatest curse that's ever been inflicted on the human race - memory.

Alexander: The not so great! 356 - 323 BCE*

The good thing about the History Channel is that it unfolds history as it is, minus the cloud of propaganda and bias in need to satisfy certain quarters. In that vein, I would like to share an episode in the about 'Our Uncultured Civilisations of the Past'.
It was on the story of the Macedonian warrior who brought Greek culture to the world and had no qualms in embracing the cultures that he conquered not to the liking of his subordinates. After his father, King Philip II united the peninsular of Greece; all he had to do was to continue conquering all the way to the East. If not for the tired dispirited soldiers who wanted to return home after reaching India, you could have reached the Far East!
The show highlighted a few scoops that were not common knowledge to a history buff novice like me....
Apparently Alexander was the child of one of his father's fourth wife, Olympia, a conniving snake worshipping cult member who claimed Alexander's father was not Philip II but Zeus (Greek father of Gods and men)! Hoping that he would one day Alexander be king, his mother nurtured him putting in thoughts in his mind that he was somebody special, like Achilles in the Greek mythology. There is undocumented proof that with the Olympus may have a hand in the conspiracy of his father's slaying as well as the killing of Alexander's half brother to ensure ascend to throne!
In spite being a warrior of his stature, he stood at a petite height of 5'7" devoid of facial hair (small for a warrior, unless you are a hero acted by Tom Cruise). His mother's constant reminder of his being special (Son of Zeus) made him develop narcissistic tendencies. To exert his authority and immortalise his greatness, he erected statues of him all over the places he conquered, his face donned many coins and many cities were named after him. Besides, Alexandria in Egypt, there were many more cities bearing that name. There was a revolt from the army as his grandiosity required his subordinates to prostrate in front of him, an act abhorred by the superstitious Greek culture as it was reserved for the Gods only.
Despite his two wives and heir (anyway the heir is posthumous), he is said to have same sex relationships with his favourite General (Hephaestion). He is supposed to have a drinking problem and anger management issues. During one of his drunken rage, he had stabbed his friend with ensuing remorse afterwards. He did burn a city because only because he could after a drunken stupor.
He blended himself well into the society of the subject he conquered by practising their culture and way of life but this practice was disliked by his men as they felt superior to the conquered.
One does not become great by being a nice guy. He indeed was a slave driver who had no qualms in making his army march through  a desert for a trivial course (for us but for him it was important - he marched to an Egyptian temple to ascertain whether he was indeed the son of Zeus) and worked the army to pulp to achieve his personal quest to apprehend King Darius dead or alive.
After his battle in Punjab, his greatness took a tumble. Hephaestion died of a unknown disease making Alexander morbidly depressed after his friend's loss. He then generally lost the will to live and fell sick after that and never regained his usual self. He died at a tender age of 33 due to a smorgasbord of reasons - malaria, injuries inflicted upon him by the mighty Punjabi warriors, poisoning by disgruntled enemies, alcoholism, over-exertion, self mutilation or depression. A great  invincible warrior not bowing to any man alive went horizontal in a casket possibly due to mosquitoes or microscopic bugs.
He was Great because of being a good general able to singlehandedly lead an army all over the place, bridge cultural communications between the east and west and achieved so much in a such a short span of time, unachievable by most in their lifetimes.
*BCE = Before Common Era, politically acceptable c.f. Before Christ (B.C.)

Compliments of National Geographic #2

That's what friends are for?

Timon - Pumba 'BFF'

Olden scriptures like Ramayana and Greek mythology have revealed to us many tear evoking stories of sacrifices by friends for each other. In Ramayana, Laxana gave up his princely life to live with Rama and Sita just to suffer the deficiencies in the woods. Of course, cynics construe this gesture as an act of forbidden love between two males.
Why go far? Off hand, I can remember of so many sacrifices done by hero or supporting actors in many Hindi and Tamil movies. The formula of the poor down trotted friend sacrificing his love for his buddy as seen in 'Sangam' and 'Saajan' seem to have worked well at the box office and have made many a producer a happy man!
I find this type of true friendship not feasible in real life. Just like they say in Tamil, even if you are brothers (or friends), your mouths and stomachs are different!
So how do you go to protect and vouch for a friend against all eventualities? Do you give a blank cheque and free hand to be at his mercy just to regret you are stuck in a heap of manure and the lawyers have a field day pretending to feel your pain? Snap out of it, get real!

RRF to PPSP: Ep. 5: The syllabi - CFCS

Another foundation upon which the concrete was poured during the establishment of PPSP is the concept of developing community-based physicians. It was fondly referred to by its acronym CFCS - much to the imagination of the young minds whenever the word 'F' comes around, with the help of the 'S' - go figure! This is beginning to sound like the TV series 'The Electric Company'. Now, I cannot even remember what CFCS stands for now (Community and Family Case Studies?).

In every phase of the medical studies (Phase1-Yr1, Phase2-Yrs2-3, Phase3-Yrs4-5), students were required to follow a patient whom they had seen in the hospital and write about them. It is primarily to highlight how the disease affects the family and to impress to young doctors that a patient is not just a disease bearer, but instead he also carries a myriad of baggage of responsibilities and duties which he has to still perform in spite of his afflictions. Very noble thoughts indeed but what actually happens on the ground can be different. On the one hand, we had students who took great pride to go the extra mile, something coughing out money from not-so-hard-earned scholarship money to buy things for their 'adopted family' and present a beautiful photo-filled presentation in front of the class before Power-Point came to the picture! On the other hand, a colleague of mine did not bother to find out the whereabouts of her patient. A week before the deadline of the presentation, she discovered that he had succumbed to his disease long before her visit. They say necessity is the mother all inventions - she cooked a steamy hot story garnished with appropriate flavours to score very high marks indeed! (Nobody found out!)

Mine (in Phase 3) was a vagabond-like immigrant, a loafer, who was admitted with neck pain. As patients picked for CFCS were treated in the hospital for free, he used to bug me for slightest of ailment. Boy, was he a pain in the neck! I later discovered that he was a malingerer who wanted to get away from his duties of a restaurant helper. Unfortunately, he could do so as he had borrowed heavily from his employers and neither could he go back to his motherland India. See, there is more than meets the eye!
CFCS programme was especially an eye opener for the well-heeled medical student who had been brought up pampered and shielded from the reality of life. What better place to see this than in Kelantan Darul Naim. In some households in the periphery of Kuala Krai and Gua Musang, in the late 80s, a family of 10 would survive on a measly income of RM150 per month, but they were happy!

For them too, the sun also rises...

Archangel

In my books, Daniel Craig is the best James Bond, the one that Ian Fleming had in his mind when he started writing about the agent with the license to kill.

Unfortunately in this BBC bilingual (Russian-English) outing, he is not cast in his typical boxy-chested fighter cock posture. Here he is academician out to discover the whereabouts of Josef Stalin's secret black book and alleged love child who is about to make an appearance with the support of people who are still nostalgic of the Bolshevik's great past!
This movie was initially to be made into a feature film, but unfortunately, it was released as a 4 episode TV film due to insufficient funds. It gives an insight into the now oft-forgotten dark history of the Soviet Union and Stalin in particular. Stalin supposedly finds joy in putting people to execution and had killed more people than Hitler and Pol Pot put together. (6/10)

Josef Stalin: "To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plans minutely, to slate an implacable vengeance, then go to bed - there is nothing sweeter in the world." 

Blessed by fire

Iluminados Por El Fuego (Blessed by Fire, 2005; Argentina)

Fattening my arsenal of the DVD collection, the latest addition is multiple awards winning Argentinian movie titled 'Blessed by Fire' or 'Iluminados por el Fuego'. I know Fuego means fire in Spanish as I learnt in Geography of Tierra del Fuego which is the southernmost tip of Southern America. Apparently, Magellan's visit to this part of the world was met with a hostile unwelcome welcome in the form of mammoth bonfires, hence the name 'Land of Fire'. Fascinated by its 22 nominations and wins in 14 of them, I grabbed a copy. As the spoken language was Spanish, all the wins were in unfamiliar Latin American Film festivals like in Havana, Argentina and Lima. I have never heard of Argentina having a film industry, what more awards! The closest I heard of performing arts and Argentina is Eva Peron and 'Don't Cry for me Argentina'!

'Blessed by fire' is an anti-war movie depicting the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by the soldiers of the Falkland (Malvinas for Argentinians) war in 1982.

The story starts with an ex-serviceman of the Falklands War, Vargas, almost 20 years after the battle, attempting suicide. His wife, calls upon his comrade in arms, fellow pawn (now a journalist), Esteban, to the hospital. In a series of flashbacks and present, the atrocities, cruelty and the torment of actually being on the battlefield is unfolded. The human fear, sufferings, torture amongst fellow human beings and the sad story behind every soldier is narrated. They lost the war, get words of encouragement of being great heroes that their motherland is proud of them from the Generals and was made to go back to suffer the agony of war as recurrent nightmares for them and their love ones for the rest of their remaining lives! The ex-soldier (Vargas) finally succumbs to his ailment after many days under ventilator and intensive care. The film ends with the journalist returning to Falklands to visit the fox-hole he and his comrades used to hide, just to find some artefacts they had suppressed for a time of reflection.

Personally, I found the movie worthy of praises but may not earth-shattering. We all have seen war movies with anti-war sentiments over and over again in many forms - Saving Private Ryan, Letters from Iwo Jima and the myriad of Anti Vietnam movies. So, it is nothing new, really. But, I suppose the jury did not see it that way. The movie people are mainly pacifist, and the fact that a first world country is depicted as an aggressor on Latin American soil just made them all excited. Unlike most war movie that shows unnecessary gore and death (as if war is without these), this show emphasises more on the human effect of war. I suppose that is what movie making is all about, not all pyrotechnics and stunts.