The battle with the bottle!

Sorgam (சொர்க்கம், Heaven, 1970, Tamil)

Don't understand why it is
'சொர்க்கம்' and not 'சொர்கம்'

I remember entering the hall late when the first song was on-going and Sivaji was immersed in a day dream. In his dream, there was a chubby girl with coarse features and thick limbs (Vijayalalitha) gyrating to an electric guitar infused hot music clad in scanty parchment named clothes stuck with rupee bills. Some how, I remember the hall as the same one as the one where Psy wowed Penangites. As usual it was a last minute plan by Amma's regular movie buff, Rajamah. Rajamah, whose monthly grocery bill would include cartons of Ipoh's Chap Kwan Loong dragon brand 'minyak angin' (medicated oil), could easily be a glue sniffer -only difference was her glue was medicated oil. It was from her condition that I learnt about the diagnosis of 'Rhinitis Medicamentosa' - of a lady with chronic congestion of her nose whilst continuing with her sniffing of her medicated oil!
This must be easily one of the last few movies that I was summoned as a chaperon. I suppose after that the Tamil films which were released dwelt more on adult subjects (Aval Oru Thodar Kathai) and the unpleasant double-meaninged dialogues that later came of vogue. Even young village boys started talking dirty in the late 70s!
A few things that stay fresh in my mind about this flick. Besides the dream scene under  the money tree, I remember the drunken hero singing a philosophical song beside an Austin Morris 1100cc. A recurring theme which fascinated me then was the quicksand. In a few scenes, the villain showed his prowess by pushing his victims there. It also happened to the hero but (surprise, surprise) he escaped.
the story starts with 3 university friends, Shankar (a 42year old Sivaji Ganeson), Balaji and Nagesh celebrating Shankar's conferment of his B.A. degree over a piece of sandwich in the park. In their conversation, we are told that Shankar, the honest hardworking one had plans of being reach through sheer hard work and intelligence. Balaji feels that one should grab whatever chance that come along, whether legal or otherwise. Nagesh, who repeated exams again and again believes in fate. With that introduction, they part different ways.

Dream sequence

Shankar, after many failed attempts at getting sponsors to back his mega plan to build a mammoth factory, he settles down to be a clerk. (B.A. and engineering plan does not compute, does it? - don't ask, just watch! Shh!) He meets the love of his life, K.R. Vijaya, marries and is a happy father of a young child.
In comes a new partner from Main Branch to his office, guess who? Balaji. He manages to win some rich man's heart (R.B.Manohar) and became his confidante and partner in business!
Shankar bypass all the other hopefuls and becomes the manager of his office. He climbs up the corporate ladder. His boss agrees to finance his big factory plan with Balaji's recommendation (Talk about cronyism).
As the volume of his abode increases, so does his consumption of alcohol. He battles alcoholism, almost loses his family and is reunited in the end.
All this are told are told in a long winded way to encompass all the aspects of entertainment to make it a wholesome family entertainment worth every paise for an average Indian viewer. For technology, the film makers showed their skill in capturing double act scenes. The rich tycoon in the story has an evil brother who impersonate him for the money. Then there is MRR Vasu, the chief clerk who has seven kids. Three of the kids, boys are identical in appearance to him in physique and built and the four daughters who look like a pea of a pod with his wife all appear in the same frame! Comedy relief is given by Nagesh in his failed ventures in fortune telling scenes, as a taxi driver and his courting of MRR Vasu's eldest daughter.
I heard some rumours which said that Sivaji himself was fighting the bottle around that time. I would not be surprised as I thought that even though he looked sleek and sharp in his tight fitting jacket and drain pipe suit, I swear there was a persistent tinge of jaundice in his conjunctiva and an occasional blood shot eyes during close ups.
The take home message was that one should not chase for happiness through wealth but rather, family should be given importance.
A feel good nostalgic and entertaining flick bringing us to a time when things were simpler, either black or white and lesser shades of grey!

The thin line which separates....

Through a Glass Darkly* (Såsom i en spegel, 1961; Swedish)
Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman
This is one of the three movies made by Bergman on spiritualism. The mark of this great director is seen in the make of the film which involves 4 characters and a film which spans only a single day. It goes on to suggest (at least in my mind) that there is a very thin line which separates insanity and religious fanaticism!

It starts with the main characters swimming - Karin, her husband Martin, her 17 year old brother Minus and her father David. We slowly realize that Karin is suffering from schizophrenia whose prognosis appears guarded and incurable. Minus has some teenage issues of his own, unable to find a girlfriend. Martin is the only one who seem to be strong. David,  writer, has just returned from Switzerland to be with the family before leaving again. 

We are also told that Karin's mother had died earlier due to the same illness that struck Karin, and the one that drove a grieving David into self imposed exile, neglecting his children. He almost drove himself to suicide but failed only to mechanical reasons. His love for the remaining members of the family is the only thing that drove him to live.

In the meantime, Karin is hallucinating of hearing God through the crack of the torn wall-paper. In spite her struggle, the force is overwhelming driving her to do things beyond her control.

In the morning when both Martin and David were out in sea, fishing, Karin goes into one of her exacerbation of her illness. She runs and hides in a damaged yacht stranded by the shore. Her brother, Minus, goes in search of her. One thing lead to another and the two indulge in an incestuous relationship. When she comes around, she realizes that she cannot be living in two worlds but be in one and must be institutionalized. 

Minus, the other guilty party finds it hard to come in terms with his action. He fears the wrath of God.

Finally, in the final scene, David has a heart to heart talk with his son. Just as his previous experience when he hit a brick wall, he told his son that the God is love and love is God, we live for and with the love of the people we love.

An interesting movie with with rather subtle connotations and messages. Most of the story is left to our imagination. Even though the story may touch on some touchy subjects, all actors are fully clothed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_a_Glass_Darkly_(film)
* The title is from a biblical passage (1 Corinthians 13) in which seeing through a glass darkly refers to our understanding of God when we are alive; the view will only be clear when we die. [Wikipedia]

Life with the black dog!*

Silver Lining Playbook 2012
Another Hollywood movie with a predictably happy ending like the title suggests. It depicts a bipolar patient who is removed by his mother from a mental institution and how his family and his friend's wife sister, a depressive patient, try to go against all the negativity and hostilities around them to focus on a dance competition and indirectly fight the black dog together. Of course, in the process, they fall in love, bla,bla,bla... Haven't we heard this story before?
The other subplots in the movie makes it different, though. After checking out the mental facilty, Pat (Bradley Cooper) plans to turn over a new leaf, focus on his life and try to win back his wife's heart. She had a restraining order against Pat after he bashed and morbidly wounded his wife's lover when he made an unscheduled entrance before his incarceration.
Pat has a hot tempered baseball bookie father and a mother who tries to ease the tension in the house. Anupam Kher is the therapist who shows up periodically in the movie. Pat's best friend, Roonie, appears happily married but he is actually biting the bullet to save his family with work, expenses and a demanding wife. His sister-in-law, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), is a depressive widow who had built a reputation as a nymphomaniac who is trying to get her life straight.
Pat and Tiffany pair up in a tumultuous up and down yoyo type of a 'platonic' relationship midst the clash of each others' uncontrollable unresolved anger. With this background, Pat agrees to partner her in a dance contest to win his wife's heart back. What Pat gets instead is Tiffany, his cordial relationship with father, mother and brother as well as a chance to fight his inner demons.
Not really outstanding story wise but the acting capability by the main stars and the veterans like De Niro and Kher are commendable.
The black dog is a curse and dealing with family members who have afflicted with this ailment is nerve wrecking. People around them just mean well but the patients fail to see that but instead pour their anger of their other frustrations on their loved ones. Family relationship is strained and hence more new problems creep in....

Black dog

 (

noun) Informal. 

melancholy; despondency; the blues 

Winston Churchill a sufferer of depression described his ailment as the 'black dog' in his memoirs.

3 Negatives and Might make a Right?

The Power of Nightmare (2004)
The rise of politics of fear
#03. The Shadows in the Cave
With the appointment of Bill Clinton as the President and the fail of various uprisings to establish Muslim governments in the Islamic countries, it looked both the neoconservatives and the jihadists movements were doomed to fail. They appear to be marginalized, losing the flavour of the times. The turning point came with the 2001 destruction of the New York Twin Towers.
After failing to receive people's support in Algeria and Egypt, in 1998, Zawahari and Osama retreated to the barren land of Afghanistan. They then changed the strategy. Instead of creating mayhem in Islamic countries, they creating ruckus in concerns of the enemies of the Muslims (in their eyes).Attacks were targeted at embassies, hotels and outlets frequented by their enemy's citizens (read Americans) in Kenya, Tanzania. Volunteers from various countries who came to Afghanistan to serve in the name of religion were recruited as suicide bombers who died in the name of religion, not for hatred of Americans!
Osama was a financier for many anti American activities. He himself did not own any army to boast. For media publicity, he used to hire rag-tag soldier for PR!
Just like that, Khalid Sheikh Muhamad approached BinLaden for funds to bomb American. This event sprang the neoconservatives into action. They quickly cooked up a myth, portraying Osama as an all powerful General monitoring his army from the fortress high up in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. They even gave a name to the non existent movement - Al Qaeda. The jihadist on the other side were thrilled by such recognition!
 The familiar faces in the Reagan administration who created an enviable all powerful enemy in a collapsing Soviet came to the forefront - Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
US allied with the Northern Alliance, the warlords who were fighting with the Talibans (ultra conservative group) and started paying them by the count of head of death soldiers that they killed.

Even though there was no evidence of such a sophisticated network, the neoconservative created such a fantasy, a frenzy with terms like sleeper cells and dirty bombs which could spray lethal doses of radiation to the general public!
Slowly, the web of deceit began to implicate Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attack and justified an attack on sovereign country.
Politicians now have a different role as a protector from fear of an imagined bleak future. Just like the Green Movement in the 80s who advocated that the Governments of the day had the moral obligation to protect the world from environmental degradation even though they could not prove the decay then, the politicians embarked on the Precautionary Principle. It says that 'not having the evidence that something might be a problem is not a reason for not taking action as if were a problem'. Hence, action without evidence seem justified!
In the beginning, two thinkers (Kutb and Strauss) were disillusioned with the world we lived in. In pursuit of a better world, it appears that they have both failed. The world, as it is today, is as confused and chaotic, if not, worse than it was in the 50s.

I can see clearly now!

The Power of Nightmare (2004)
The rise of politics of fear
#2. The Phantom Victory

The neoconservatives and Islamic jihadists have one common goal- to elevate their community. In the mid 70s and 80s, USSR was also their common enemy. Their playground then was Afghanistan. When Afghanistan was attacked, Ronald Reagan and his band of neoconservatives took it upon themselves to arm the Mujahideens with latest technology and weapons as well as plaster them with tons of money to crush the Soviet power.
Pretty soon, the Muslim clergymen around the Muslim passed a fatwa (decree) calling it a religious duty to help their Muslim brothers to protect their motherland. This just drew support in many forms. Through Abdullah Azam's enterprising efforts, help came from Arabs, members of Muslim Brotherhood and other more radical Islamic groups. Some prisons were more than willing to relieve their radical inmates for this jihad. These people wanted to use Afghanistan as a model to make Islam as a nucleus to flush out corrupt regimes in the Middle East.

 Ayman Zawahari (influenced by Sayid Kutb) recruited the rich Osama Binladen to plan for a post war Afghanistan. Soon there were two groups of freedom fighters emerged - the moderate ones under Azam and the radical Islamists who were non-Afghanis, most Arabic jihadists. These jihadists feel that democracy was unIslamic as it gave politicians power to make laws. Only laws of God and Koran can be used on Earth, hence politicians or people condoning politicians should be killed!
The Afghani war was taking its toll on USSR. Body count was increasing and the economy took a nose dive. Gorbachev tried to break a deal with Reagan to negotiate peace and allay his fear on the probable direction of a radical Islamic government in Afghanistan but it was plainly refused. The Soviets left wounded.
Both the US and the Mujahideen thought that they had both won the war all by themselves. The neoconservatives thought their weaponry and planning of fighting violence with violence did the trick. The Islamists thought their dedication and quest for the Truth won the war!
In reality, the unconvincing and brittle Soviet system of governance collapsed like a pack of cards. The collapse of the Berlin Wall further convinced the neoconservatives that their way of violence freed people and spread democracy. In reality also, it was a phantom victory, nobody actually won the war.
Azam died suspiciously in a car bomb blast, giving Zawahari and Osama to out power the struggle. The fire of Islamic revolutionism spread to countries like Algeria and Egypt. Local election favoured radical groups who planned to abolish democratic elections after they had won. The army then moved in to enforce martial law. 

Fall of Iron Curtain

 Again people are seen as zombies, just following the masses with no mind of their own and no foresight.
In the 80s, Saddam Hussein was an American ally. That changed when he attacked Kuwait. It prompted the stability and peace loving Bush Sr, a non neoconservative (like Kissinger) to interfere and send Saddam's army back to Iraq. This disappointed the neoconservatives.
They returned with a vengeance. They campaigned to create religion as a basis of society, even though they do not believe in religion. A noble lie for the greater benefit of the nation is acceptable in their dictionary. They infiltrate the Republican Party, advocating moralism and opposing multiculturalism. This turned off the people who voted the Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton.
After failed attempts at establishing an Islamic institutions  in the Islamic countries, the jihadists retreated into the hostile terrains of Afghanistan. Osama and Zawahari with their warped sense of justification went on spree of killing politicians and all who supported politicians, i.e. general public. Their perception is that all politicians are corrupt and all those who supported them need to be punished. They, as the vanguards of the decree of God, had to do what they have to do.
Across the Atlantic, the spread evangelicalism and moral advocacy did not go well with the American public and the Republican party was booted out. In a way, the ideology of Straussian was similar to Marxism! In comes Bill Clinton, the subject of witch-hunt . Barrage of accusations were hurled to discredit the Clintons via Arkansas project - White Water shady land deal (enen though the Clintons lost money), drug smuggling, sexual predatory and even murder (it turned out to be suicide). After many failures, the linchpin was Monica Lewinsky's dress and the affair which managed to try and impeach the president, but in vain! Kenneth Starr and his fellow neoconservatives found a phantom enemy in Bill Clinton.

Nothing beats the pleasure of reading

Dressed to Kill (1946)
Sherlock Holmes can be said to be the first private investigator that the world came to know about. As we read more about him in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's compositions, we discover that he has indeed a dark shady past behind him. This small juicy bits about him and how he deduces the theories to solve his cases cannot be enjoyed merely by seeing some characters acting out what he or the directors thinks happened in the Victorian times and the foggy streets of London and Baker's Street.
Clueless on what to expect to see, our imagination is an excellent composer of our own mythical and mystical platform on how we wish our elitist hero to be portrayed. In this way, our imagination is rekindled again and again to became imaginative and innovative. The idiot box dulls our brain to be a recipient of information which does not leave much to imagination. This is what went through my mind as I watched this old 1946 depiction of our pipe chomping mentalist.
Three identical music boxes are sold off in an auction in London. After the auction is complete, a gentleman barges into the auction office to obtain the whereabouts of the buyers of the music boxes.

Holmes & Dr Watson

Next scene, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson usher in a rather distraught client, Stinky, who is an acquaintance of Watson. He had been hit by a common thief who scooted off with a cheap music box that he had bought at the auction. Even though there were other pricier music boxes in his personal collection, the thief specifically went for the cheap one.
Holmes with a lot of accidental help from Watson, he cracks the case, as usual. It turns out that the three musical boxes were made by inmates of a prison. The prisoner who was instrumental in the box was a convict who went in for stealing a printing mold of Bank of England's pound note. He had hidden his loot before apprehension and had kept mum about it. The musical notes of the music from the box, when written as the number of key on a piano which correspond to the alphabet and read out a message which would reveal the hiding place of the mold.
The crooks after the box managed to lay their hands on two of the boxes, after a series of mischief, murder and a lovely femme fatale Mrs Courtney to spin the guys around.

Both fighting to same end?

The Power of Nightmare (2004)
The rise of politics of fear
#01. "Baby, it's cold outside!"

Another good BBC documentary produced and directed by Adam Curtis. This time around, he is trying to make sense of the world around us by trying to analyse the genesis of Islamic jihadist and the American neoconservatives. He tells us that the seed of their origin is America itself.

Politicians used to give hope to their people, promising them to bring them to a better world. With the big wars, I suppose, people lost trust in their leaders. They became 'anti-establishment', but now the tide has changed. People have once again given their leader a role to protect them from an increasingly hostile world -so the leaders claim, is the threat over-exaggerated or is it real?

Sayid Qutb

Both the American neoconservatives and the Muslim ultra-conservatives both wish for a better world but instead what they get is a nightmare.
It all started around 1949...

In Colorado, an Egyptian school inspector, Sayid Qutb was sent to the US to learn the school system. The opinion he formed after watching an innocent school dance involving teens slow dancing to the song "Baby, it's cold outside!" changed his opinion about America altogether! He thought that the society was decaying, corrupt, crass, vulgar, materialistic, selfish and self-centred. Even though the community was free, or they thought they were, were actually lost souls. The culture of individualism was actually taking them backwards in civilisation.

Leo Strauss

In Chicago, a political philosopher in the University of Chicago, Leo Strauss stated his fear of the destructive nature of individualism that would lead to nihilism (anarchy). At an era when Man was behaving like herds of animals when everything is possible, and boundaries of morality are blurred, he felt that to give confidence to people, the politicians ought to create necessary myth and delusions to move forward as a nation. Strauss' favourite TV shows, 'Gunsmoke' and 'Perry Mason' epitomises his train of thought - where a group of elite, at least in public life, irrespective of what they thought privately, used whatever method and trick possible to maintain law and order.

After his stint in the USA, Kutb returned home to see a nation already immersed in American culture. He suggested religion as a basis to squash individualism, using vanguards to lead people to be saved from corruption and bring them back to the path of truth. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood movement. In 1952, the movement helped General Nasser to oust the British. After securing power, Nasser forged an alliance with the Americans. CIA was given the task of organising security services. Kutb and his fellow same minded individuals were arrested and tortured via CIA techniques - electrocuted, mauled by savage animals etcetera. He survived incarceration and heart attack. His opinion about humanity regressed. People were regressing, being infected, without realising into barbarism (jahiliyyah). In 1966, he was executed, not without having a mark in the life of people like Ayman Zawahiri who later became the right-hand man of Osama Bin-Laden.

In the USA, 1967 saw the optimistic liberal dominant order crumble with riot and violence. Irving Kristol explored Strauss' theory. People like Paul Wolfowitz, Francis Fukuyama and William Kristol started this neoconservative movement. They tried to destroy the destruction of society by giving a shared purpose in life. They promoted US' unique way of life with a mission against the enemy of the world, i.e. USSR.

In opposition to their suggestion, Kissinger (1972) signed a peace accord with USSR admitting mutual interdependence in a globalised world. With the Watergate scandal and the loss in Vietnam War, neoconservatives infiltrate Washington to assist President Gerald Ford - Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cherney. They created fear against the Soviets even though independent panel never found any evidence of disproportionate weapons. The neoconservatives responded that the Soviets have such a high technology that the armaments and submarines remained undetectable. In reality, however, the Kremlin was crumbling economically and military wise! The war between the good and the bad had begun.

Ayman Zawahiri

In Egypt, by the 70s, it had prospered, and the middle class had expanded. The American ally in Anwar Sadat tried to have peace talks with Israel. The vanguards from the Muslim Brotherhood looked at it as an insult to Islam and plotted Sadat's assassination. Qutb's dream of liberating people via religion materialised through the Iranian Revolution. Islamist jihadist who also pursued the same vision.

On the other side, the neoconservatives were creating new fantasies to support democratic revolutions by supporting groups that support democracy and are under the threat of tyranny.