Like a donkey with forelimbs tied!

Karnan (Tamil, கர்ணன்  2021)

Written and Directed by: Mari Selvaraj

Nobody actually thinks much about the presence of a bus stop. It is just there. But for the village of Pudiyankulam, it is, or rather the absence of it questions their existence on Earth. The village is considered a wasteland where nobody wants to live. But for a group of lower caste families, it the place where they live, their children grew, and the memories of their presence in this Universe is embedded. And they want recognition for that. 

For years the villagers had to walk all the way to the adjacent neighbouring village to alight the bus as the buses refuse to stop for the villagers as there was no designed stop there. For years, an application to local authorities for a bus stop drew a blank. The neighbours are not too happy having people of lower caste hanging around their area. Quarrel frequently arise. 

In emergencies, the dwellers have to resort to stopping speeding lorries to hitch a ride. In one instance, the protagonist of the story, Karnan, lost his sister in an accident. The animosity between the two villages escalates because of this.

In summary, the movie is about the oppression of the underclass and how the downtrodden fights back to salvage their dignity. Not sticking to the time-tested formula of one man's struggle will overcome all eventualities, the filmmakers decided to infuse many subtle symbolisms and parallelism into the storyline. As expected from the title of the movie, there are many references to the Mahabharata. Karnan was the 'unwanted' son of Kunti, who would land up on the other side of the warring army as a charioteer. Despite being a valiant man, he was denied many opportunities in life because of his 'adopted' family. The villagers named their kids after the characters from Mahabharata - Draupadi, Duryodhana; that also becomes a sore point with the police later. It seems the oppressed cannot even choose their own name. Apparently, these names of divinity are not suited for the low caste!

Sivaji as Karnan (1964)

There are many animals showcased here as an allegory to the situation at hand. A donkey is seen throughout the movie with its forelimbs tied by its owner. The donkey moves but with much difficulty, slower and with a lot of pain. That indeed is the predicament of the marginalised - they give space to live on Earth but with many restrictions. They move around, but like the donkey, they cannot run. They are smart enough to realise their handicap but not bright enough to untangle their knot of misery. A horse, which signifies aristocracy, is ridden by Karnan at the end of the movie, representing his attainment to a superior position to dictate terms with those in power. 

It is amazing how people give reverence to the uniform or any symbol of power. The Stanford Prison Studies and the Milgram experiment alluded to this fact. People who are innately coward gain so much courage in numbers. This is called mob mentality. 

The antagonist to Karnan in Mahabaratha is Krishna. Here Krishna comes in the form of police officer Kannipiran (another avatar of Lord Vishnu). Even though the story is supposed to be a work of fiction, it is based on an actual event in 1995 in Koduyinkulam where villagers attacked and smashed up a police station because of brutality and discrimination.

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Turn hunters to the hunted.

Nayattu (Malayalam, The Hunt; 2021)

That is how the world is today. One day you are doing all the dirty job, not because you like to do it but because you are part of the system. It is not within your capacity to change the status quo but just follow through as you have been doing all along. You know that the battle is unwinnable. You oblige as there are down lines who depend on you. Your leg is so deeply entrenched in the muck there is only one way to go, to get dirty. 

You perfected the system. You wanted it to work for you to serve your masters. It only strikes you to realise what a monster that you have created when the system is used against you when your masters are angered with your actions. 

Most Indian movies highlight police brutality and try to put the police personnel in poor light whilst the laypeople go around with their heart on their sleeves to prove their innocence. In Nayattu, the role is somewhat reversed. 

A sub-inspector and two of his subordinates are accused of drunk driving and killing a motorcyclist. The trouble is that the dead is a goon who works for the local politician, and the three of them were not driving. The driver, upon realising whom he had knocked, fled the scene. Because the local elections are days away and the victim is from the backward caste from which the local politician relies on votes, there is a dire need to apprehend the perpetrators before balloting day. The incumbent leader wants to show the public he has the gravitas to put things in order.

The accused have no chance to prove their innocence. Under the instruction of politicians who hold the strings of administration, their seniors deceptively decide to put an all-points bulletin on them. The accused are hot on their wheels, trying to disappear at least until the elections are over. 

Everybody agrees that for a democratic society to function optimally, there must be the separation of powers between the legislative (law-making body), executive (puts the law into operation) and Judiciary (interprets the law and settle disputes) arms of administration. This division of powers is essential to ensure checks and balances. No one man is yet to born is beyond reproach in carrying his duties without an error of omission or commission. Of late, we have seen how the Legislative part of the country tries to influence and control the other branches of power. And we know what devastation happened in the 1988 Malaysian Constitutional Crisis. We also can see how political leaders use and abuse the executive and judiciary arm of the country. The pandemic, the control over media and utilisation of cybertrooper facilitate them in their endeavours.  

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No honour among thieves?

Better call Saul (Seasons 1-5; 2015-2020)

Miniseries, Netflix.

When you were growing up, you were told to study hard and be somebody. “When you are up there, you will be only dealing with intelligent people!” But, reality hits you when you grow up. It is nothing like they say it would be. 

A doctor friend once remarked, “unlike bankers and lawyers, we have to see everybody who walks through the consultation door - sick, mad, hostile, smelly, dirty or dead (they are pushed through though) at any time. We cannot choose our clientele, and we cannot shut our doors to anyone.”

Some time ago, it may have been true when banking was noble, and lawyers fought for justice, not merely to dance to the tune of their paymasters. At this time and age, when throwing a stone into the public square would probably hit the head of a lawyer, the race to secure employment is now more than ever. Many men in robes have resorted to ambulance chasing and touting to make ends meet. It has transcended all professions. The democratisation of education and the push for all segment to receive equal opportunity have sometimes compromised quality and ethics for quantity.

People used to seek professional help when they were caught in trouble. Now professionals create problem to meet up with people. For example, a poor financial organisation got people into trouble who would seek professional help to get out of the mess. Now, professional give out loans to people with unworthy credit ratings, then send another set of professionals to pull them out of the mayhem they started in the first place, like advertising the splendour of great wines and selling liver tonic at the same time.

'Better Call Saul' is a spin-off from Breaking Bad. Somewhere along the miniseries, viewers may have seen a fast-talking lawyer in a flashy loud-hued attire. That is Saul Goodman (sounds like 'It's all good, Man') for you - a loud, in-your-face kind of character who has no qualms in bending the rules to get you that out-of-jail card. He bends the truth, finds loopholes, technicality issues, tampers with evidence and all the things that one does not expect a learned professional to do. 

'Better Call Saul' is actually a prequel to 'Breaking Bad'. The miniseries narrates the tale of Saul Goodman (real name: Jimmy McGill) as he elevates himself working as a mailman in a reputable law firm to obtain a law degree via correspondence from the University of Western Samoa. However, Jimmy, as he is known throughout this show, has a lot of baggage from his past.

An ongoing saga throughout the series is the loggerheads between Jimmy and his uppity elder brother Chuck. Chuck had been the ideal son who excelled at school and was a valedictorian in University. He emerged as a top-notch lawyer, whereas Jimmy was a prankster from school, all through into young adulthood. Jimmy had to be bailed out from jail when one of his pranks was deemed by the courts. Chuck tried to give Jimmy a new lease of life in his law office. Meanwhile, later on, with the stresses of life, Chuck became a social recluse and had to be cared for by Jimmy. Chuck and Jimmy, however, has a love and hate relationship; Jimmy grateful for the help in becoming a lawyer, whereas Chuck feels that Jimmy is not worthy of being a member of the legal fraternity.

Jimmy pairs up with a fellow legal eagle, Kim Wexler, who rose the rank and files in the same office. A subplot involves a former rogue, now reformed cop, Mike, whose daytime employment is a parking attendant. He moonshines as a fixer and an assassin to provide for his dead son's wife and daughter. Mike feels guilty for getting him killed as he was a straight cop. His colleagues decided to fix him up for not playing ball. Interspersed inside all these are two gangs who try to control the drug traffic. 

Also peppered at the beginning of some of the episodes are short snippets of Saul Goodman in another life where he looks older and assumes a different identity, Gene Takavic. He is a manager in a bakery situated within a mall and leads a secretive and quiet life. Maybe in the next and final season, Season Six, the secret will be out of what led him to such a situation. Quite a compelling miniseries. Kudos to the creative storytelling.

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Man proposes, but God disposes.

Of Mice and Men (novella, film, play)

Author: John Steinbeck (1937)

Films: 1939,1992

This John Steinback's post-depression novel is still being used in schools on both sides of the Atlantic. Why use an old book when there are so many new ones with less objectionable dialogues and situations? I think that is precisely why such a book with depressing, flawed characters and bullying as themes be used for students. As days go on, society wants to sanitise everything for our growing minds. Everything needs to be politically correct, and social justice must be seen to be done at all levels. Imagine one school in the UK collectively agreed that opening a door for a handicapped person is actually toxic behaviour. By doing so, we are emphasising to the handicapped person that he is needy. Furthermore, with critical race theory permeating every level of our interaction with a fellow human being, we need to drill upon our young minds that it is perfectly alright for others to be different from us. And that they should be accepted as a fellow inhabitant of this vast planet.

The real world is ugly and is not fair to everyone. Bad things happen to good people, and sometimes bad people get good stuff at the expense of the good. Just deal with it. Like John Steinbeck's other story, which found movie release, this story is also set in the post-depression era where migrants from other states go to another searching for a job. These interstate immigrants are scorned upon and treated less of human.

It starts with two men taking a breather at a creek after a long walk, after alighting from their bus some 10 miles earlier. These men are to begin as helping hand in a barn, harvesting and loading barley onto carriages. There is George, the street-smart one and his mentally challenged but physically endowed friend, Lennie. George is Lennie's guardian after his aunt died.

Lennie's behaviour is unpredictable. He has a fascination for things that are cute, small and smooth. The trouble is that Lennie cannot control his hands. He had once killed a mouse as he is too harsh with it. At their last sojourn, George and Lennie were almost lynched when Lennie caressed a lady's exquisite red dress so passionately that the lady thought he was going to rape her.

Lennie is repeatedly reminded to behave and not get into trouble again, but it is easier said than done as he is forgetful and relatively slow in comprehending things. Finally, George promises him that they would one day buy a farm and rear chickens and rabbits with enough money.

1992 version
Gary Senise and John Malkovish

The new working place is a farm where workers harvest barley. Curley is the owner's son, a pint-sized boxer with a Napoleonic complex who tries to throw his weight around. Lennie is his easy target. Then, there is Curley's wife, a flirtatious lady with showbiz ambitions. All the farmworkers try to keep away from her. Finally, Candy is an elderly worker with one hand who offers to contribute to join George and Lennie to buy their dream farm.

The climax of the story is when Curley's wife flirts with Lennie. Earlier, Lennie had accidentally killed a pup that was gifted to him. In their conversation, Lennie, being the clumsy person he is, accidentally breaks her neck. Curley, upon discovering his dead wife, puts up a search party to hunt Lennie down.

George finds Lennie in their secret hiding place and guns him down himself. End.

The little novel is a treasure trove for students of literature in discussing various characters, the qualities, their social standings or lack of, their mental state and injustices in the society. This is how life is. There are people at the top of the food chain who pounce on those below to keep themselves in charge. There is a schism within the community based upon a person's external attributes. There is a constant struggle for each other to get better than the other. Life on Earth is no utopia. It is the survival of the fittest.

Another angle often not discussed is about living with a person whose mental faculty is challenged. It is not easy. Mental illness comes in various forms, either acquired congenitally or with the stresses of life. Either way, the caretakers go through a lot to deal with the recurring unending demands of the afflicted party. The caretakers go through a myriad of emotions themselves, trying to put things for the person with mental illness to fit into society. But, the community does not make integration easy either. They are quick to judge, heckle and provoke the weak. It masks their own inadequacies. The mental challenged will only be left with their primal defences to protect themselves. This form of defence, unfortunately, is not acceptable to society. This further spins the caretaker into turmoil, sometimes resorting to uncivil actions, putting an end to the victim's miseries.

The title 'Of Mice and Men' is an extraction from Robert Burns' 1785 poem, which was written in Scot-language. He wrote,

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

(The best-laid schemes of mice and men

Go oft awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!)

Man proposes, but God disposes.

(Thanks to MEV for recommending)

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Who wants to bell the cat?

Line of Duty Seasons 5 and 6. (2019-2021)

Since writing about the TV series in 2017, two other series had been released. Continuing from the previous series, Anti Corruption No.12 (AC#12), continue in their endeavour to wipe out corruption in the police department. On the one hand, the police department wants to be seen as carrying out their duties above the board, without fear or favour and one-minded in seeking the truth to mete justice. At the same time, the department does not want to appear overtly corrupt but gives an image of having integrity. It is an interplay between maintaining the appearance and preserving integrity.

The funny thing about this whole exercise is that both arms of the regulators are from the same parent body. For any enforcement to function, it had to garner the trust of the general public. So how can it shoot itself in its foot and be able to run? But who would want an outsider to sieve through their household laundry and embarrass them of their soiled linen? No police officer worth his salt wants an independent body to go through his activities or shortcomings with a fine-tooth comb to point out their errors. 

With this balance in mind, the screenwriters of 'Line of Duty' managed to spin another two seasons with equal edge-of-the-street suspense at its predecessors. The AC#12 team races against the clock to pin down the mastermind behind the web of chicanery that goes on within the system.

All these hours of police procedural drama would naturally stir our curiosity to check our own backyard. With the constant bombardment of news of police corruption and death in police custody, it seems imperative that such an exercise is more important now than ever. The recent admission of the outgoing Inspector-General of Police of the unholy union between cops and underground elements is sufficient grounds to establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Committee (IPCMC).

There is no shame in admitting rots. The first step in correcting a broken system is the admission of failure. Many police precincts in the United States have turned themselves around after a series of misconduct. The New York Police Department has had undergone a series of scandals over the years but still functions with a check and balance system in place.

When everyone somewhat has his hand soiled with slime, how will he be the first to switch on the light? Nobody wants to leave their mark on the switchboard!

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Affirmative action will always fail.

Madras Café (Hindi, 2013)
Director: Shoojit Sircar

It all started with the British and the Christian missionaries. The colonial masters decided to modernise their colonies. The British evangelists took charge of the South of Ceylon while the Americans built schools in the northern half. The American preachers, who were assigned a predominantly Tamil population, emphasised Science and Mathematics teaching. The schism started there. The people from the North were more well prepared to meet the challenges of the new world. After independence, the ruling majority from the South imposed affirmative actions to balance the scale.

In came Solomon Bandaranaike, a Singhalese with an illustrious family background which even included a knighted father and a British godfather. Solomon, an Anglophile, an Oxford graduate, was more white than Snow White. He could not speak the local lingo and did not practice Buddhism. He served in the Ceylon legal administration after his return from the UK in the mid-1920s. Ceylon became independent Sri Lanka in 1947. In the early 1950s, he entered politics at a time when Singhalese consciousness was escalating. The push for the Singhalese language was at its heights.

Solomon started donning Buddhist robes and fought for the Singhalese course. He won the 1956 elections with a landslide and became Prime Minister. Now, as the head of the country, he tried to mend bridges with the Tamil minorities. Unfortunately, his supporters looked at it as a turncoat, and the Buddhist monks got him assassinated. The affirmative action, which was set up to improve the Singhalese representation in the Sri Lankan society, only created brain drain and loathing of the Tamils against the ruling majority. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Tamil professionals from the Jaffna district seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Those Jaffnese Tamil left behind had to fight for a place in the sun. Soon came militant resistance groups in the 70s and 80s to defend their homeland in the form of LTTE.

This movie, 'Madras Café', starts a few years before Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated during his election rally in Tamil Nadu. Indian intelligence had warned the entourage about attempts on the leader's life, but protocols were breached by both the local administration and the politicians. Perhaps, there was collaboration at the State levels, as alleged by certain quarters. The Tamil Tigers perfected the art of suicide bombing and RDX plastic bombs, which escape metal detectors during routine inspections.

At the outset, the filmmakers insist that the story is a work of fiction based on intense research. However, it is as clear as day that it clearly describes the intricacies surrounding the upheaval in Sri Lanka, the political ploy of the Sri Lankan leaders, the Tamil moles, and the double-crossings by Indian intel officers. Moreover, it narrates a close to reality the events behind the scene as espionage, power wrangling, and negotiations.

The Indian Government wants a peaceful distribution of power in Sri Lanka. They want to weaken the Tamil Tigers by instigating leaders within LTTE to fight each other. Tamil Nadu government and its people are sympathetic to the Jaffna Tamils because of their common language. Hence, there are attempts of sabotage at Delhi's efforts. On top of all that, there are foreign powers who benefit from the region's continued instability.

Thirty years have gone, and the seven convicted of planning Rajiv's assassination are pleading clemency to be released after time served. Their appeal is supported by the current CM of Tamil Nadu, Mr MK Stalin.

It is a bitter lesson for nations who opt for affirmative action to modulate social engineering. In the final, the intended target group will be too laid back. The already advantaged group will fly away, and the nation will be a basket case, ruled by despot and sycophants over a broken society.

This clip is from another movie.

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Fighting fire with fire is futile.

Ajeeb Dustaans (2020)
Netflix

This anthology of four stories is based on the topic of discrimination. With its rich civilisation that had stood the test of time against repeated foreign powers who are hellbent on destroying their culture and looting their wealth, India is again under the scrutiny of modern people to find faults in its societal makeup.

Well, the colonised can go on ranting about how the invaders destroyed their rich tapestry way of life and life sciences that were light-years ahead of their barbaric invaders. They can complain of how the British and their ingenious strategies of 'divide and rule' derailed the natives' societies even now, long after leaving their shores. But for how long? Shouldn't the post-colonial countries wise up already? Like Japan, which was beaten to a pulp and bombed to smithereens after the Second World War. Rather than being sore with their aggressors, did they not embrace the victors' technological advancement to rise from their ashes to showcase the greatest Olympic Games in less than 20 years after the end of World War Two?

All men are created equal in the eyes of God or the Law, they say. All beings are One; they also preached that we are all part of The Supreme Being, the Paramathma. We somehow attach caveats to all these teachings. We classify and subclassify according to colour, gender, class, caste, race, disabilities, etc. This division is Universal. By no means it is confined to India or Hinduism, but repeatedly we see India in a bad light when it comes to discrimination. Don't the British royalty and their henchmen get special privilege by virtue of their birth into the Windsor clan? Aren't the immigrants treated as second class citizens subjected to discrimination and stereotyping? Don't the Arabs consider themselves superior to darker-skinned brethren in the same religion of peace?

Direct antagonism by the affected parties against the grain of things are bound to be combative. The people who tend to gain from the pre-existing arrangement will be hellbent on maintaining the status quo. Affirmative action to help the downtrodden will not alleviate them but, on the contrary, just create sluggards and encourage brain drain. The government-sanctioned quota system introduced in India to balance the unequal distribution of opportunities to various societal layers only pushed the less qualified to occupy important posts and the more qualified seeking greener pastures elsewhere. The people in 'higher castes' are discriminated against. The country is left in the hands of not the best but the second-best because of their surnames.

The film sends home this message. To fight a cruel system, it is improper to clash the broken system head-on. Instead, one should use his wit and wisdom to beat it at its own game.

In the first story, the son of a loyal driver to a ruthless landowner is cheated blind. The son, an accountant, comes to bid farewell to his father's employer before leaving to start work as an accountant in the UK. The landowner cajoles the son to work for him instead by dangling a fat paycheque. The landowner had earlier broken his father's leg after crashing the landowner's car. So the son siphons off some money and, to top it off, seduces the landowner's unloved wife.

In the second story, a resourceful housemaid sees how the poor like her are made to do all the dirty work whilst the rich create an artificial cocoon to be just amongst themselves. The rich do not want the poor to be near, so they live in guarded communities. Still, the poor must be at the beck and call when they want. 

The third act shows how a less qualified person gets into a job due to her surname. A more competent and capable person is overlooked because of her caste. The woman scorned uses her God-given shrewdness to devise a win-win situation for her to usurp the post without any evident antagonism. 

The final offering shows that it is not only the marginalised who use victimhood to fulfil their desires. A sexually frustrated mother with a teenage daughter who is progressively losing her hearing is embroiled in a loveless marriage. She finds love in a hearing-impaired photographer. However, she drops him like a hot potato when she realises that she has to stay faithful to her marriage vows. 

An entertaining one, especially if you are expecting unconventional endings with a twist.

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