What if...

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

This is usually categorised as the first of many movies which were shot in a particular techniques involving a lot of shadows, narrating stories which are dark with a low budget production copying German and French cinematography. In hindsight, it was called 'film noir' and boasts of many groundbreaking new cinematography then. RKO Radio Pictures has the bragging rights of producing many such films.

The irony of this movie is that the main actor associated it only speaks in the last 10 minutes of the show! It is Peter Lorre, the guy who gained international recognition through Fritz Lang's 1931 movie 'M'. He, like the many Jews who were victims of witch hunt of the Nazi regime in the late 30s migrated lock, stock and barrel to flourish Hollywood's Tinseltown.
Reporter Michael Ward has his future all set. He has a lovely girl, Jane, who is all excited that he has a promotion and is a star witness in a murder trial. He cannot wait to tie the knot once all this is over.
At the trial, Michael becomes the key and only witness that can potentially send a man to the electric chair. The mostly lethargic judge and bored jury are convinced as the accused has a history of delinquency as a child and was seen at the scene of the crime. It all sounds eerily too easy. Both Michael and Jane (especially) start to have their doubts about the turn of events as the accused vehemently denies the charges. It soon strains their relationship. Pretty soon, Michael has doubts on his own testimony.

Peter Lorre

Back in his dingy apartment, he sees a suspicious character (Peter Lorre) leaving his neighbour, Albert Meng's apartment. Now, this Meng character is an annoying character who admonishes Michael for making too much noise on his typewriter, for bringing Jane to the apartment and even comments on his choice of consumption of beverage. In between sleep, dream and wakefulness, Michael finds Meng to have been murdered. The pattern of murder is just like the murder case he was testifying earlier. Suddenly, it is clear to him. The stranger must be the killer of both murders!
Michael find himself being the suspect due to circumstantial evidence and goes under custody as he had been seen threatening Meng during their arguments.
This 1 hour drama ends with Jane finally tracking down the stranger and saving the day.
I think that is what everybody in the modern world is fear of. Even if we have the most creative ways of punishing the wrong-doers, man as fallible as we can be, we may inadvertently pass a death sentence on an innocent victim. Is that the justice we are looking for? It is no more justice but more of revenge on loss lives/property/ dignity/etcetera or a witch hunt to put the fear of God (pun not intended) in refraining people from committing crimes, Sadly, punitive actions have never been shown to deter any form of crime.

The forbidden fruit of knowledge?

What Your Teacher Didn't Tell You

The Annexe Lectures (Volume 1) by Farish A Noor

You would become depressed after reading this book. Sad because it shows the doom and gloom that we are heading to. All the grooming after the independence by the legacy left by the colonialist masters, though they were no angels and are partly to be blamed for the rut, the head start that that we were heading for have slowly taken a nosedive. The author of the book joined the drove of band of intelligentsia who decided to migrate down south where the grey matter mattered. Looks like we have to contend with our motley crew of runaway maids, conniving dual citizenship 'one foot here and one foot there' flight by night bogus citizens and mediocre yeomen to make up the numbers in the country.

This book is also a gloomy reminder of our wonderful teachers whom we had before who could cajole us to drown in the sea of knowledge with their excellent mode of storytelling.
The lectures, 5 of them, covers matters of present relevance. He tries to look at these matters from a historical perspective and put forward his argument of history that had been brutally butchered by the powers that be to push their own personal agenda. There has also been selective erasure of facts to alter the origin of our cultures and practices.

Kris with its Hindu-Buddhist influence

The first lecture narrates the origin of our revered national pride, the Kris. The Kris has been portrayed as an emblem of Malayness and has been donning flags and coat of armour of organisations to show off their Malayness. Ironically, Kris is the beholden of past history of the region of a time where multiculturalism and harmony was the order of the day. Kris had its origin at a time when Hindu-Buddhist empires were ruling this region. It was actually part of what historians would call 'Greater India'. Kris is even found in Cambodia. India exerted its influence, religion and cultures to this area. Kris had probably originated in Java. Even Hang Tuah had obtained his legendary Taming Sari after pacifying an amok Javanese. At different times, input was given by various empires. The Hindu-Buddhist motifs were carved. Chinese and Japanese craftsmen had also put in their input when kris was given as souvenirs to other kingdoms. At the end day, the kris is actually an emblem of a time when our region was a melting pot of cultures and tolerance. Somehow, the conniving politicians have hijacked the kris to denote the heights of Malay supremacy!

The second lecture reminds us of the racial baggage that our colonial masters have left for us to wrestle. Even though ethnic variations were there all through history in Malaya, the indiscriminate migration of labourers by the colonists made ethnic differences more apparent. We are also talking about a time when the world was toying the idea of superiority of the Caucasian race over the others. The lesser races were considered inferior and were thought to eventually die off once the European influence sweep through the world (like the Red Indians)! Segregation of the races and creating animosity amongst themselves and pacifying them gave the visitors a convoluted way to garner profit to the Empire. This trend continued when the helm of government was handed over to the elitists friendly to the British and the tested formula of 'divide and rule' continues to date.

Next, he tackles the culture of 'ampu bodek' which is ingrained in our DNA. It actually goes back way back to time of Majapahit and beyond. The kings who ruled the land invoked the fear of God in their subject. The ruling elite had special privileges and were thought to be envoys of God on Earth. Example of this type of King would King Suryavarman II for whom the people would die to build his mammoth erection so that his soul would forever lie in peace while they shred themselves into pulp doing it. This type of God complex way of administration prevailed through the Sultanates and now the Government hierarchy. Anyway, the mould of our Government today was made by another representative of the local Monarchy, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Apparently, this method of administration which is still the prototype today has no demarcation between the Government and party coffers. The ruling elite feels that they are the 'chosen ones' and has the birthright to rule the country.

The fourth lecture laughs at our present day policing and capping of our sexual desires, orientation and preferences. He goes to a time in our history at the turn of 1st century when this part of the region was influenced by the Tantric and Shivaites' beliefs in sexual energy and harmony with nature. At a time when Man was awed by happenings around him, he correlated sex, orgasm and procreation to a universal energy which was precursor of life. An Italian writer (Pigafetta) who accompanied Magellan in his round the world trip, documented natives' fixation with eroticism and the thought of attaining protracted eroticism as a means to control their energy. The had mutilated their genital organs to this end.

From the various scriptures, stories and dance found in this area, our society appreciated and accepted the presence of LGBT in the community. Hikayat Panji Semirang Asmarantaka is our tale of transgendered cross dressing hero/ine who developed sexual feelings for same gender directly or indirectly! From a sexually matured society, we have somehow transgressed in our thinking. We tend to blame LGBT and sexual liberty as some kind of corruption of from the West. In a sense, at a time when this region was Bohemian in their outlook in life, the Western world was rather conservatively Victorian!

Next, a bonus lecture on the oldest Malaysian political party which had its origin as a 'people's party'. Even though outwardly appearing as a hardcore ultra religious conservative far-right party now, its green flag has smudges of red paint splashed in its history. Starting as small party working within the confines of the law, unlike its counterpart in the Arab world where Islamist parties were firebrand and combative in nature. The principles that they seem to speaking in this century like human rights, democracy and equality are echoes of their early struggle. They were 'people party' with links with the members of resistance force against the Japanese and the colonial rule. With socially awkward sounding names like PIMP and PIS, Partai Islam SeMalaysia decided on the abbreviation PAS. Its destiny took a turn when a forward thinking homeopathic doctor and philosopher took the helm of President, Dr Baharuddin Helmy. In fact, after the exodus of Japanese from Malaya in 1945, if the British had not returned, Dr Baharuddin would have been the Prime Minister.

Unlike the present brand of leaders in PAS, leaders then were receptive to advancement of the country collectively rather than harping on establishing an Islamic state. They had people on their mind. Even though their ideology was not in sync with that of Communist Party, they cooperated with them for the sake of the welfare of the common people. Dr Baharuddin and his friends in the resistance force had unification of individuals on their mind even as talks of Malayan Independence was ongoing. Their liaison with CPM and the establishment of Nusantara placed them in the bad light in the eyes of the British controlled and the elitist pro-British apple polishers who eventually became the ruling party put them in a bad light. They had their media and all the wealth of information under their thumb to come out smelling of roses every time.

Dr Baharuddin was the first Malay leader to be incarcerated under ISA. Confrontation and the escape of some of his contemporaries to Indonesia and the ensuing Sokerno's desire to usurp Malaya during this time further established UMNO and the Alliance as saviours of the nation.
PAS under the leadership of Dr Burhanuddin can reminisce a time of intellect discourse between religious and philosophical figures of the region of highest standard. Everything was not skewed from the narrow angle of religion but from a humanistic angle. They had shed the image of village holy-men to be progressive and democratic. He and many of the leaders of the Third World that time who were fighting against the tyranny of the imperialist incurred the wrath of the powers that be and all met the same path into oblivion.

His support of anti imperialist stance of Sukarno and the ugly Confrontation managed to paint a negative picture of the party with a lot of help from the ruling party's (dubbed imperialist's stooge) control of the media.

In the final chapter, the author gives a refreshing new
perspective of the all-Malay hero, Hang Tuah. The history that was taught to us and the feeding of the media to us had convinced us that HT is the epitome of Malayness. With statues and portraits of him, clutching on the hilt of his Taming Sari with the captions 'Tak kan hilang Melayu di dunia', one can be forgiven for not thinking otherwise.
The author suggests the epic of HT compiled under the title of 'Hikayat Hang Tuah' is a collection of stories written by different authors and different times. Roughly the story that we are exposed to is the first part where HT is depicted as a law abiding king worshipping warrior who would have no qualms of killing his dear friend without thinking, like a Robocop. On this most films and history lessons are based.
However, the second part of 'Hikayat Hang Tuah' paints a totally different picture of this admiral. Here, he is an ambassador of the Malacca Sultan to Negara Keling (South India) because he is well conversant in 'bahasa keling'.
He impresses the Indian Emperor with his finesse and keenness to learn the language, religion and cultures. In fact, the Indian Emperor appoints him as Negara Keling's ambassador to China!

In the narration of HT's experience in China, we are told that HT was well versed with Chinese culture as his stepfather was Chinese! During the visits to both countries, he was friendly to all except to the ferringhis (white travellers). HT and his entourage had no reservations about representing either country and did not feel disloyal to Malacca.

It is interesting how a historical figure who was ever embracing of all cultures is painted by people with a vested interest as a firebrand warrior representing a particular race and their defender.
After his successful tours of duty to India and China, HT was sent to the Kingdom of Ayyuthia to procure elephants and to Constantinople of the Ottoman Empire to obtain gunpowder. En route to Constantinople/Istanbul/Setambul, he is said to have performed his pilgrimage in Mecca.
Again with his wit and charm, HT captivated all quarters.

Upon his return, HT took retirement by retreating to the foothills for meditation as he aged. It is said that he gave up violence to explore the real meaning of life.
Incidentally the legacy of draws parallelism to a Farsi poem, Iskandarnameh, wrote by a Nizami Ganjavi about a fabled Farsi conquerer named Iskandar Dzulkarnain, the son of King Darius II. (But I always thought Iskandar Dzulkarnain was Alexander the Great) The hero in the poem too had a two parts to his life history. The first where he is a fearsome conqueror and the second where he renounced violence to find the real meaning of life.

The author ends his lecture by suggesting that perhaps the phrase 'Tak kan hilang Melayu di dunia' should infer to the meaning that Malays would not be lost (hilang) in the world as the they world-savvy, so to speak. Just look at HT who could go places, mingle with the royalties of various kingdom and come back victorious in his missions.

Sound a bit like MGR's 'Ulagam Sutrum Vaaliban' where MGR is an undercover cop working in tandem with Interpol, going places to nab international smuggler. With so much ease, MGR will get a girl at each post to sing his duet!!!
(Dedicated to Mr Lee Kok Keng, my favourite history teacher)

All the hype of going back to nature!

Naked and Afraid: S2E5 (Malaysia)

Purists are still jumping mad over this Discovery Channel reality TV show. The crew was given permission to do shooting in Malaysia but little did the authorities know that this survival show would be done with the contestants in their birthday suit using the unforgivingly harsh Malaysian tropical jungle as its backdrop. The conservatives are fuming mad because they do not want to be seen as condoning these type of exhibition of flesh. And they are still scratching their heads wondering how that one slipped through while the rest of the world does not give much thought this unstimulating show which I would not have bothered to view if not for the mania stirred by holier-than-thou vanguards of moral code of my society!
For all fairness, the necessity of the contestants to go full monty is purely an economic strategy (ka chinggg...). The donning of single drape to cover their modesty is not in any way going to alter their survival in the cruel tropical jungles.
In this episode, a couple, unknown to each other before the show, are left in the Belum Forest in Perak to spend 21 days in the virgin jungle without any external help. To set the mood for the danger the contestants were stepping into, the commentator introduced some of the deadly beasts found here. These include the venomous 100-step blue and red coral snake (that is how far the victim walks before his death), wild boars, tigers, disease carrying mozzies and insects, leeches and territorial monitor lizards.
Samatha Pearson, a 38 year old single mum of two and Fernando Cauldron, a 33 year old fire fighter were the guests in that episode. Each contestant was allowed a single item- Samantha chose fire starter and Fernando, a machete. A handheld camera was available for them to record themselves and a small filming crew with strict instructions not to intervene hover around them to record their daily activity.
After building a suspense, the rest of the show did not prove as interesting. It was raining all the first 6 days of their expedition. With limited resources and skills, they built a small shed with bamboo and leaves. Their sensitive areas were not bear for viewers to view as they were pixelated throughout, if you do not count the posterior bit.
Getting edible food was a challenge and Fernando almost died from wild mushroom consumption. Somehow, they survived the challenge and managed to swim out to the meeting point, hungry, weak, thin with their bodies mutilated by the elements of nature and losing 20 and 30lbs respectively.
Not worth the half an hour spending on this show.

‘Naked and Afraid’: How did it slip through?

The uncanny similarity?

The Magician (Ansiktet, a.k.a. The Face, Swedish; 1958)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
At first you wonder what the heck is happening. A group of travelling magicians are seen moving in a caravan back in the late 19th century Sweden. The leader of the team, Dr Vogler, an apparently mute magician has in his entourage, an assistant (an obviously lady masquerading as a man who later turned out to be his wife), a mysterious 200year old nanny, a stage coach driver, a helper named Tubal who actually just wants to settle down as a house husband are all mixed up in this hodge-podge of conmen who appear to be running from something.
As they go through a small town, they are stopped by police to be interviewed by a group of cynics. These cynics, The Police Superintendent, a doctor - an atheist and a man of science and a nobleman all interview them on the authenticity of their 'magic' acts.
The nobleman's wife is still mourning over the death of her son and was hoping to 'meet' her lost son through the magic man.
One by one the magician's antics was unravelled and the troop was humiliated.
The brooding Dr Vogler is also discovered not to be mute after all. The coach driver is hypnotised to kill Dr Vogler, so is everybody is made to think! The deceptive magician get the last laugh when he manages to frighten the living daylight of his detractors. He uses the body of another death man's body when the doctor decides to perform a post mortem! Can you imagine when he appears in flesh and blood?
In the end, events turn to a heady start. The magician is feted and glorified by the Swedish courts. They leave for the palace to be glorified.
You go on wondering... Who are these people, what are their relationship to each other? Then it strikes you! A person revered for his seemingly miraculous acts, awes many, is put to the test by sceptics, is killed and seen to arise from his death. He gives hope to others to anchor their trusts upon. He himself is sceptical of his capacities and thinks that everything is an illusion but gets glorified in the end. Does it not ring a bell?

Folk music galore

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Written and Directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen

The Coen brothers are known to have made many quirky movies with plenty of toilet humour which may satisfy the need of most movie buffs. This particular offering seem to stray from their usual fare but ended up as a dark biography of a folk singer.
It takes a certain kind of madness to be able to repeatedly withstand the frequent hard knocks of life and still hold steadfast to your belief that you may indeed change the world one day. Most would follow the path of least resistance and the path frequently travelled on, especially when you next meal is a question mark.
I suppose that is the difference between a socialist state than one that does not compensate for their jobless citizens. In a social state, the country at least takes care of their basic needs whilst the individual can dwell into non-rewarding careers like developing the arts, music and talent. In a country like us, artistes have to kowtow to capitalistic businessmen who will showcase them under their CSR or be lapdogs to conniving politicians who would promise the moon and the stars only until their own interest is fulfilled.
'Inside Llewyn Davies' is the story of a chapter in the life of a struggling folk musician who is putting the pieces of his life together after the loss of singing partner who committed suicide and the poor reception to his music. It is set in 1961 in Greenwich Village, New York.
He gets by playing sporadically at small gigs without little money to go around. He bunks in with acquaintances and friends. The sales of his only record is dismal and the small record label manager that is managing seems not interested in expanding the sales and his career.
Meanwhile, Davies' friend's wife is pregnant by him and he has to sort that out. That is when he discovered that his previous girlfriend did not terminate her pregnancy as they had planned and decided to keep his baby. Than there is a cat of a friend who is stuck with him.
He decided to take a ride to Chicago to see a record label there only to be told that he is not good. Our hero also thinks too highly of himself, refusing to be part of a trio or duo.
He also issues with his father and his sister. In summary, he is a big mess and live does not seem to change for the better. An interesting scene towards the end of the film sees an apparently young unknown Bob Dylan trying a gig at the place he sings, Gaslight Cafe.
The music is quite mesmerising and the story is pretty absorbing. 4/5.

To carry out law or justice?

Judgement at Nuremberg (1961)
As our country comes to a crossroad, and many uncertainties have to be thrashed out so that history would not judge us in a bad light, it is always good to look back at history. Even though inevitable, we do not to want history to repeat itself.
Many of the dialogues in this film cut through incisively like a knife. The topics argued here about race and masterly inactivity by the people in authority are relevant today as it were 80 years ago. It is worth a watch, albeit its 3 hour speech filled presentation.
This film narrates the military trial in Nuremberg of 4 civilians who served in Nazi Germany. The accused are Emil Hahn (prosecutor), Frederich Hoffstetter, Warren Lemmpe and Ernst Janning (a reputable authority in law and Minister of Law, acted brilliantly by Burt Lancaster.)
The trial is presided by a tribunal panel of 3 where the head is Judge Harewood (Spencer Tracy). He is actually given the job as nobody else wanted it and was just a small time District Court Judge from Maine.
Basically the trial covered three angles - forced sterilisation, racial pollution as decreed by Nazi Germany  and Holocaust.
The 4 accused, through the powers that they had had either decided to follow the ruling Government's decree or did nothing to mete justice. They carried out the law but not justice!
In the forced sterilisation case,  a mentally deficient individual, Peterson (Montgomery Clift) tells of how because of his family's political affiliations, was sterilised as the family had a hereditary genetic disorder.
In another case, an elderly Jew was executed as he was accused of having an affair with a young German (Aryan) girl, Irene Hoffmann (Judy Garland). Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) was the presiding judge then.
In between the trial, Judge Harewood also tries to understand the sentiments of the average German through the eyes of his servants and a former wealthy wife of a Nuremberg executed General, Mrs Bertholdt (Marlene Dietrich). The Americans actually admire the German's culture, civilisation, countryside and music. They could not fathom why they allowed such an atrocity to happen in the first place.
In the meantime, outside the courtroom, pressure is mounting for the court to give a favourable verdict to woo the German people's heart as the Cold War was building up. Russian troops were advancing and for the love of democracy, the Americans have to garner support of the Germans to prevent fall of Germany to the Eastern Bloc.
The prosecutor then screens a film in the courthouse of the events of executions in the concentration camps. By the inactions of the accused, they have been privy to Hitler's cruelty.
Most people claim that the general public were not made aware of the killings. The people in higher place knew the killing but not gravity of the problem, that the execution involved 6 million people!
In a touching speech by Janning, he explained that like many things in life, the Nazi would just be a passing phase. He did not expect it to be a way of life. At that juncture, he thought he could change things by staying within the system.
The defence lawyer, Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell who got an Oscar for his role), justified that the accused alone cannot be guilty of their crimes. The whole world should be guilty of it - the Russian for signing a pact to justify Nazi's march to Poland, the Vatican for approving their government, Churchill for praising the leadership in Hitler. Despite his shortcomings, Hitler did give a sense of national pride to its citizen at a time it was devastated from the effects of the world war. Anyway, the Americans have their hands dirty via the human devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The 8 months trail ended with all 4 given life imprisonment but were released soon after.
So, the discussion point is that whether we are doing justice to the nation by our inaction. What is the role of a judge? Is it to carry out what the law says or it to carry out justice? Should they be independent true to the profession or should they be subservient to their paymasters or pass judgements to satisfy populist sentiments?

A rare socio-political satire

Mohammed Bin Tughlaq (1971)
Story, Director, Actor: Cho Ramaswamy
 For the records, there indeed was a king in flesh and blood in the line of Delhi Sultanate by this name. He is reputed to have moved his capital from the North to the Deccan. He is said to be a liberal king who introduced some new coins and spread Urdu to the Deccans.
No, this is not a historical offering but rather a politico-social satire and a full length comedy that pokes fun at the ridiculousness of the behaviour of the politicians and the gullibility of the citizens who vote them to power. As it is Cho's comedy, the jokes are clean. He pokes fun through cleverly word play and on the animalistic social behaviour of people.
My first exposure to this film was through the song 'Allah Allah' which used to be heard in the 70s radio waves during the RRF days (listen below).
This film is acted by mostly unknowns. The familiar faces here beside Cho are Manorama and a cameo presentation by Vennira Adai Murthi in a birthday song sequence. Some remember Nellakandan as the regular supporting actor who in almost every movie dons the role of an obese pious Brahmin who is the butt of all jokes.
It starts with the discovery by an archeologist of an ancient tomb. A very much alive Sultan Muhammad Tugluq and his loyal minister Batuta  from 400 years ago are found in a coffin. They had apparently stayed alive with some secret herbs.

R. Neelakandan

Hence, starts the pandemonium. The archaeologist's family, a typical Brahmin family, have their own set of comedies. The wife is forever boasting and showing off her husband's achievements to her gossipy friend. She is also a seemingly pious person even though her actions does not speak much of her piety!
Then, there are the two fathers (one, in law) who are soon in the thick of things living in the same household. The two college going students are typical of any generation, aloof and in their own world with regards to priorities in life. Example of their screaming argument is to ascertain whether Raj Kapoor or Dilip Kumar is a greater actor when the whole excitement in town is the discovery of the live 'artefact' of yesteryears.
Then there is a con-woman fortune teller (Gandhimathi, Manorama) who is the daughter of a respectable freedom fighter. The freedom fighter had seen better times in his life. Being stranded in dire straits, Gandhimathi, has to resort to parrots and tarot cards to live by.
Thugluq's presence is a hit. People from near and far and journalists queue to meet him. Being in ruling business before, somehow Tukluq is drawn into elections. From this time onwards, politician bashing goes on full throttle. The way they conduct their political rallies, speeches, promises and over glorifying acts by people is ridiculed upon.

Mainly by the power of the media, Thughluq wins the election and before you know it by ridiculous swinging of the MPs, he is appointed the Prime Minister. Thukluq, in his comical ways, handles major issues of the country. For national language dilemma, he suggests Farsi! To combat corruption, he decrees standard differential corruption charges for officers of different calibre!
His cabinet is made of many yeoman and even Ghandimathi, a tarot card reader is in it.
Just when Thugluq is becoming a sensation, Ghandimathi's father, Thanikasalam, dies leaving a testimony. Apparently the facade was orchestrated by her father and two jobless young men, Mahadevan and Raghavan who assumed the roles of Tughluq and Batuta respectively.
At the point of reckoning when the two vowed to reveal their plan to the public, Tughluq @Mahadevan becomes greedy and power crazy. Ghandimathi, happy with the good life and fear of being exposed of her wrongdoings, burns the only proof of the pact. The virtuous Batuta @Raghavan is accused of being mad and is beaten to death by the public.

A low key production without the usual melodrama and razzmatazz of which Indian subcontinent movie industry is famous for. Probably suitable for over analytical minds who looks for more cerebral activities in film than the usual eye candy and hip gyrating melodies!