Roads lead you nowhere when you don't know where you are going!

Master of None (Season 3, Ep 1 - 5; 2021)
Netflix

After riding high with the first two seasons of 'Master of None', Aziz Ansari got entangled with a nasty sexual assault claim that took much of the bejesus out of him. Maybe because of that, this season is not much about Aziz Ansari and his co-creator Alan Yang. If the earlier seasons were light comedies looking at the lives of first-generation immigrants and their interaction with their parents, this one is anything but funny. 

Aziz only appears as a co-star in two instances. Viewing the first episode itself, I had a certain deja vu feeling that  I had seen all that before. Then it clicked. It reminded me so much of Ingmar Bergman painfully slow 1973 miniseries, 'Scenes from a Marriage'.

This season centres around Denise (Lena Waithe), one of Dev's (Ansari) close friends. We know previously that she is a lesbian. She is now a thriving author living in the quiet countryside with her partner, Alicia. They seem to be a picture of bliss. The relationship slowly crumbles as Alicia becomes one-tracked mind to conceive through a donor. She becomes pregnant but unfortunately has a miscarriage. You can see the cracks as they appear in their seemingly rock-steady union. They divorce. A couple of years later, they meet up and reminisce about the life they had and of life on the whole.

This is a heavy drama that may be a disappointment to those who expected short, light-hearted jokes and life from the perspective of an immigrant to a first-world nation. Here, difficult questions are asked again, but more about relationships and the journey of life itself. It may strike as philosophical as it asks about our impulsive decisions and how much we are ever not satisfied with whichever path the path takes us. Perhaps, we really do not know what we want. When society predetermined how life should be lived, what mores were acceptable and stated our individuals, it was easier. As our targets were set, we just had to proceed without much thought while enjoying the scenery along the journey. But, ever since individualism crept in, we were let to our devices, trying to keep with the fickled trend, carrying more than we can chew on our plates whilst meeting all the challenges alone. Loneliness makes the trip seem longer and more arduous. 

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"I am a revolutionary!"

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

It is not easy to change society. The people of the top of the perch want to continue having their nice view undisturbed. Those in the middle rung wish to have continued access to the top and maintain their gateway to positions whilst asserting dominance upon the plebians under their feet. The plebians, well, they are a pathetic lot. They bicker amongst themselves to be king, imagining the changes in their lives upon springboarding to the top. 

The minions' blinded voracious appetite is not the only impeding factor that prevents them from reaching the top. The kingmakers also send in their instigators and moles to derail any flicker of progress.

The Civil War was not started by the Northerners because of altruistic intentions, because they could not stomach seeing black slaves being treated worse than animals. It was economics, stupid. The Union just wanted to liberate the slaves and pack them off to Africa, specifically Liberia, not treat them as an equal inhabitant of the USA. The slaves were emancipated, but nobody wanted to go anywhere. So they stayed back but were harassed of their liberties by the Klan members and bound by the Jim Crow laws.

Rainbow Coalition logo

Despite the restrictive living conditions that they were exposed to, some sociologists saw marked improvement in their living standards. As slavery was outlawed the world over, fellow African formers from the Carribeans and South Americans looked up to their American counterparts as role models. This era also saw intellectuals like Booker T Washington (1856-1915), born into slavery, who rose to become an intellectual and advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt. He established Tuskegee Institute (later University) in Alabama. Washington believed that the way to advance is to be pally with the ruling establishment, concentrate on education, learn valuable trades, and investing in their own businesses. This, he believed, would eventually lead to equal political and civil rights.

However, his nemesis, W E D Du Bois (1868-1963), a Ph D in history scholar, disagreed. He abhorred segregation and demanded equal rights for all blacks. Du Bois believed that racism is an inevitable effect of capitalism. He became a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, but his work spearheaded the subsequent black civil rights movement. 

The 1920s America also saw the Harlem Renaissance when African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance, and art, became mainstream.

Despite Washington and Du Bois' efforts, lynching and inequality continued.  

In the mid-20th century, other black leaders came to the fore with different strategies. Dr Martin Luther King advocated his passive, non-violent movement. Some took a militant stance. Elijah Muhammad and his 'Nation of Islam' united blacks under the Islamic religion were asking for a separate nation. Malcolm-X broke away from the 'Nation of Islam' and concentrated on social improvement efforts. The 'Black Panther Party' screamed for a revolution.

Fred Hampton (1948-1969)

In 1968, the Illinois Chapter of the 'Black Panther Party' piqued the FBI's radar, notably J Edgar Hoover. Its charismatic leader, Fred Hampton, was getting popular. He found a place in the hearts of the poor via the party's breakfast programme to feed the poor kids. Medical clinics were set up to meet their medical needs. He even tried to unite various fringe societies through his Rainbow coalition. Not only did he reached out to blacks, but his party also formed allegiances with Latino immigrants 'Young Lords', black gangs of Chicago and the group called 'Young Patriots', of poor white Confederate-supporting workers who came from the Southern states of the USA.

It was a time when Chicago was easily the most divided cities in the world. Police brutality was rife, and the mayor's support base was uneasy with the migration of poor blacks, Latinos and even 'white trash' into their neighbourhood. However, cooperation between these newcomers and the scream of political revolutions did not augur well for the local white population who had lived there for generations.

With the FBI's cooperation, the Chicago police planted a mole in the Black Panthers Party to monitor the party's activities and subsequently kill Fred Hampton. This movie is the story of the whole operation through the eyes of the police informant, William O'Neal.

Fred Hampton is portrayed like Jesus, the Messiah, the revolutionary who united a motley crew of marginalised people against a mighty but despotic Roman regime. But, unfortunately, Pontius Pilate and his sycophants saw Christ as a troublemaker instead. And Judas, like O'Neal, doublecrossed Jesus by being a follower for a meagre sum of money. Like Judas too, in the latter part of his life, O'Neal is said to have committed suicide for the sell-out. This, he is said to have done after his 'bare-it-all interview with the PBS channel. Others like to believe the 'accident' was 'arranged' by the FBI for his exposé.

The issues, all the while, have been the same by all movements - demand for good education, decent housing, adequate medical coverage, fair trials and an end to police brutality. It is pretty much the same ring even today.

Note the Confederate flag and Black Panther logo in the background on the same platform. 

One screams of White Supremacy and the other of Black Consciousness.

[When black, white and brown banded together to make life better for communities in need via 

The Rainbow Coalition, the power elite got so frightened, they had to kill it.]

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Old is gold?

Woman in the Window (2021)
Woman in the Window (1944)

After watching the 2021 version, which was entirely predictable, with a lot of screaming and display of feminine gusto, I also decided to view the 1944 one. I knew in the mind of minds that the older one, which has the classic black-and-white collection of nuances of acting and beautiful dialogue, will be a head-turner. I was not wrong.

There have been many rip-offs of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 'Rear Window'. If Steven Spielberg was taken to court for making 2007 'Disturbia', I wonder what they say about this. If in 1954, James Stewart was homebound after picking up a fracture while photographing, here in 2021, a psychologist, Dr Anna Fox  (Amy Adams), is confined to the four walls of her apartment complex due to a bad case of agoraphobia. 

We later learn that she had lost her daughter and husband in a nasty car accident during a winter retreat. She is the lone survivor, testing out a new medicine that may give side effects of hallucinations. She spends time watching old movies and looking out at the apartment across the road. So when she calls the police to report a murder in the apartment across, she is not taken seriously. Furthermore, the said murdered turned up in person! But, as expected, the absolute truth prevails, and after a blood bath, everything gets resolved.

The 1944 version is more of my kind of movie. It is a film noir of a simple plot that has had many copycat films that followed. The sensuality and femme fatale attraction are apparent even when both main characters are fully clothed in formal party attires. However, it is the mesmerising dialogue and the musical score that are the secrets.

A psychology Professor (Edward G Robinson) meets up with his friends in a gentlemen's club after sending off his kids and wife for a summer vacation. In the club, Professor and his friends, a doctor and a prosecutor, chat about a portrait of a woman displayed at a window outside the club. They sigh of declining vitality and reminiscing what their old self would have done if they were to meet in person the beautiful model posing for the picture.

As luck would have it, the friends leave the club and the good professor exits; hold behold, it is indeed the model as mentioned earlier (Joan Bennet). They struck a conversation, and they go for a drink, and they land up in her apartment. But, unfortunately, a man furiously turns up at the apartment in the dead of night and attacks the professor. In self-defence, aided b the model, the professor kills him with a pair of scissors.

The angry man was a bigshot and the model, his mistress. The next part of the story is about how they dispose of the dead body. The professor learns about the progress of the case, on the sly, from his prosecutor friend. Next, the bigshot's bodyguard tries to blackmail the model, threatening to tell the police that she is somehow involved with the deceased. Again, the professor is pulled into the fiasco.

Verdict: Woman in the Window (2021) is crap compared to its predecessor and namesake. The 1944 edition won, hands down.

Bennet's hairstyle is said to have
been styled after Hedy Lamarr's.

Hedy Lamarr. Once hailed as the prettiest woman in the world.

Lamarr's features were the prototype for Disney's Snow White.

However, she was no mere eye candy but a full-fledged scientist 

who is considered the inventor of the frequency-hopping method,

which is still used by many communication protocols,

including GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and CDMA.

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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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