Wealth does not last more than 3 generations?

House of Gucci (2021)

Director: Ridley Scott

They say wealth within a family only lasts only for three generations. This adage is applicable for immigrant populations and also for family businesses. The maverick from the first generation with fire in his belly, zest in his heart and vision in his mind, would venture out to dream the impossible. He would not sleep till his vision of the future materialised. With his affluence, he would not want his offspring to be deprived of what he did not have.  

Opportunities would just roll in like a fountain for the offspring, i.e. the second generation. They do not have to struggle to get their chances. To them, it is all a given thing, a no-brainer. "These things are human rights, no big deal!' They start to explore the finer things in life and the ember in the belly is slowly fizzling out. 

The generation next would have easier growing up. Shielded from cruelties of life, street smartness would be something quite alien, unlike the first generation where being witty would decide between sleeping empty and hunger pangs. Slowly, time would consume the establishment. The legacy of the pioneers would only remain as spiced up biopics for general entertainment. 

The House of Gucci was started by Guccio Gucci, who had started as a bellboy in Savoy Hotel in London, around the early 20th century in Florence, Italy. Gucci initially specialised in leather goods with their own workshop but had to diversify after 1935 when it could not source leather. The League of Nations had imposed a trade embargo after Mussolini had invaded Ethiopia. They ventured into other fabrics and by 1953, Gucci had become an international brand. The House of Gucci opened its New York branch.

By then, the House was run by the second generation. It was owned by two brothers, Aldo and Rodolfo, 50% each. Trouble brewed in the 1980s after Rodolfo died.

The movie portrays the stormy days as Rodolfo's son, Maurizio, reluctantly gets into the driver's seat when he inherits his father's share in Gucci. With the prodding by his wife, Patrizia Reggiani, they plot a devious plan to take over the whole of the House of Gucci. Patrizia's domineering attitude did not go well with their marriage. The flamboyant Maurizio started an affair that angered Patrizio. She, with her clairvoyant friend, hire a hitman to gun down Maurizio in broad daylight. Even before Maurizio's death, Gucci had lost its family-owned business status as Maurizio's spendthrift ways forced him to seek assistance from an investment group. As fate would have it, this group ousted Maurizio from Gucci.

So Gucci's is Gucci family's ownership no more; talk about wealth not lasting in a family for more than three generations. 

The movie is a trip down memory lane as songs of the yesteryears kept unexpectedly rolling as the background soundtrack. Lady Gaga gave a sterling performance of conniving missis and scorned wife who would stop at nothing to get her way.

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An early freedom fighter!

Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham (Marakkar: Lion of Arabian Sea, Malayalam, 2021)

Screenplay / Director: Priyadarshan

Of late, many movies seem to highlight and bring to the fore the many freedom fighters in India who had been lost in the annals of history. They failed to make it into the mainstream history books as the syllabi were written either by colonists or the sympathisers of their colonial masters. It seems many of the non-Muslim empires that ruled valiantly with impressive CVs like the Cholas, Pandyas and Vijayanagar just remain in the folklores and children bedtime stories. Luckily, the current generation of scholars appears to be digging deep into the dusted palm leaves and forgotten scripts to remind everyone of the nation's fallen heroes.

Long before Jhansi Rani rode to fight the tyranny of the East India Company in 1857, there was Queen Velu Natchiyar from Sivagangai District, who holds the reputation of being the first Queen who fought the British. In 1780, with the allegiance she built with Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore, she reclaimed her land from the British invaders. She formed the first all-women regiment named Udaiyal Army. Her aide/adopted daughter, Kuyili, is said to be the first suicide bomber. She had doused in ghee and oil, immolated herself and walked into the English ammunition depot.

Then there are Bhagat Singh, Veerapandia Kattabomman, V O Sithambaram, Chandra Bose, the INA and many more who hardly gets mentioned in the mainstream narratives. Thanks to the new generation of moviemakers, the general public is able to view these oft-forgotten icons of yesteryears on the silver screen. 

The current tone in India portrays Muslim marauders as looters and destroyers of India's past wealth and glory. They bear the single burden of destroying the whole web of scientific wisdom that existed there before their invasion.

 

Not wanting to be left out in the sea of the revival of the long-lost Hindu warriors, Muslims of India probably dug deep into their armamentarium to unveil this 16th-century defender of the motherland. This film is perhaps the result of that.

Kunjali Marakkar
Memorial
©Nmkuttiady

In the 16th century, when pirates were hailed as national heroes, naval power was king. We remember a time in British history when the British Crown rewarded pirates for stealing off the Spanish ships that carried gold and silver from South America.

By the early 16th century, the Portuguese had reached the Malabar coast. Many European nations were eager to find an alternative route to the spice trade controlled by Arab traders. Slowly and indeed, the Portuguese befriended local warring chieftains. Trouble brewed when a new law dictated that spice could only be traded through the Portuguese, upsetting their age-old traditions. 

The Marakkars are said to be seafaring people who have their origin in the Arab peninsula. They had settled in Kochi and were involved in the King navy and shipbuilding. The Marakkars had been helping to fight the Portuguese in many wars. 

This movie is a biopic of the fourth Kanjali Marakkar, Kozhikode's ruler's fleet Admiral. After his family was doublecrossed, the Marakkars go underground, performing minor thefts. Their help is summoned when the local chieftains feel that a combined effort is necessary. One of the slaves aboard a Portuguese ship, Chinnali, joined the Marakkars to give the Portuguese a run for their money. 

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The world is doomed?

Don't Look Up (2021)

Director: Adam McKay

That is the problem with the modern world, is it not? Nothing gets moving. Everything gets hijacked along the way by self-interests, personal agendas and public image. Trivialities are rewarded, and no one gives credence to knowledge and intelligence. Social media just gives an illusory comfort to the Joe Public that he is in control of everything. This becomes a fertile ground for conspiracy theorists and fringe movements that are hellbent that there is a higher plot to annihilate our civilisation as we know it. It seems that movie stars and singers are prerequisites to get public services messages across.

Slowly, these things are unravelled in how the world deals with the Wuhan pandemic. It seems that for every innovation that the scientific community comes up with, there is an equally opposite move to convince the public on the contrary. Science, which had saved mankind from major catastrophes many times before, is no longer held in high esteem. It is comical that comedians are viewed as making more sense than elected leaders in the modern world. In the meantime, businessmen, carpetbaggers and money peddlers make the world go round.

This film is a cruel satire of everything around us. Even when the bull is on a rampage knocking everything in its path in the china shop, it appears that people are more concerned with capturing the perfect Kodak moment, not the imminent danger that the rabid bull poses to the bystanders. 

Nobody gives importance to substance anymore. Everyone is more interested in superficialities, skin-deep appearances and self-gratifying desires. Pokemon, TikTok and Instagram are testimony to these. This is what Nietzsche had predicted about the future, anyway.

Diabasky, an astronomy PhD student, discovers a catastrophic comet that may soon hit Earth to the brink of extinction. She and her Professor, Dr Mindy, brought their discovery to NASA, the White House and TV shows. Instead of getting their hands dirty, working against the clock to save Earth, everyone thinks it is just another doomsday prophesy. They are more interested in their appearance and that they are on anti-anxiolytics.  

From a society that was curious about its environment and wanted to turn the tides and make Nature work for it, it has become conceited. The inquisitive zest has dwindled. Individualism and self-gratification had taken over universal progress. 

A swipe at high society?

Decoupled (Miniseries; 2021)
Netflix

It used to be that the institution of marriage was held in such high esteem that all parties worked in tandem to ensure the continuity of this august partnership. This union is viewed as a necessary worldly duty and a mandatory duty for the continuation of species.
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In a family unit, in daily day to day living, frictions are bound to arise. The schism between fitting to fulfilling personal agendas and familial needs often clashes head-on. When the shove comes to the push, family requirements take precedence. People had no qualms putting aside private desires for collective upliftment.

Somewhere along the way, things changed. At the dawn of the 20th century, the century of self saw people taking more interest in personal development. The idea of giving life and soul to a community or clan did not fly. It became self-interest above the rest. We, a collective noun, became I, me and myself.

This miniseries piqued my interest so much. A sarcastic individual who has a caustic comment on everything that happens around him reminds me so much of myself. Quite often, this trait of his lands him in trouble. The protagonist, Arya Iyer, is a prolific writer, second on the bestseller list, is quite opinionated and has no qualms about airing his two-cents worth. In his eyes, modern society is self-centred and narcissistic. No matter what they say about inner beauty and external appearance being skin-deep, they are quick to pose to get that perfect angle of their best look. Herd mentality is deeply engrained, and a preset response is expected.

Despite his displeasure, Arya has to tolerate all these quirks about society as he lives on their goodwill. They have to like his books. It might be a paradox as they are the very observations that he is trying to poke fun at. 

The modern upper-middle class is a haughty, demanding lot that feels entitled and has no reservations about expressing what they think. They do not give a damn how the affected party would feel as it is well within their rights to articulate. At the same time, put in the same situation, they flip. They hyperventilate, scoff, quiver, feel tight-chested and cry invasion of personal space. It seems that everything in the modern world is defined.

It is a riot to watch Arya and his antics as he goes through a separation from his spouse of 10-over years. They, however, want to keep it hush until their daughter reaches high school. In the meantime, living in a gated community with the fellow middle-class western-educated crowd in a twitter-dominated world is no fun. Infiltrating into media with equally quirky members is no walk in the park. It is so easy to find love of the passionate kind in an open society. Is it the generation gap or just that Arya and his similar-minded friends are just a notch above the rest?

Reviews on this miniseries found online are mixed. They are either all too condemning or singing praises of it. This is to be expected. After all, writers, journalists and much of the English-consuming audience are the target group of the screenwriter's ridicule. It is deemed crass humour to mock sexual orientation, gender identity, body shapes and place the female gender as the butt of jokes. It is insensitive, it seems, to ridicule 'noble' deeds like switching all electrical devices for an hour on Earth Day but leaving the air-conditioning off for the rest of the year! On top of that, there are cancel culture and woke generation that one has to deal with! 4.5/5.

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Be careful what you wish for!

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Director: Jon Watts

I was under the impression that the Universe moves along and things happen along its path. Whether events occur by pre-determined means or just by chance, for example, by a mere flutter of the butterfly wings, is anybody's guess. Everything goes on with a pre-set sequence despite all the randomness and the chaotic soup it portrays. 

The question is whether everything is pre-determined or it can be changed willfully. If events were pre-determined, nothing we can do changes Nature's course. So why bother to pray and hope that God will change things. A minor change in the complex order would just cause everything to crumble like dominos. If something can be altered at will, then the next course of events should be intelligence, not prayers.

One is reminded of the battleship dilemma here. A sea battle needs battleships. Tomorrow, there will not be a battle if the Admiral does not send a battleship. So, the question of whether a sea battle will take place tomorrow cannot be fate. The grand finale results from multiple 'what-ifs' and 'choices' made along the way that culminated in the showdown. 

"Shit happens all the time; deal with it. It's not the shit we face that defines us; it's how we deal with it." said a wise person.

In this outing, Spiderman finds out that his secret identity is revealed. The public is furious with the damage he had caused during his crime-busting activities. Specifically, Spiderman @ Peter Parker and MJ are vilified by the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson. On top of all that, Parker, MJ and his friend, Ned, all fail to gain entrance to MIT. Hoping to change all these, Spiderman approaches the mystic, Dr Strange. Change did not happen but not without consequences. It opened the floodgates of many multiverses and villains of those multiple alternative universes. To confuse things further, Spidermen of those universes also got drawn in. The rest of the story is about maintaining order after curtailing all those villains and their nefarious ambitions.

The lesson learnt here is that nothing just happens out of the blues. They are the combined effects of actions and inactions. Like they say about the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the testimony of one's resolute is in how he deals with adversities.

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It is only natural to move forward!

May 4th Movement
Tiananmen Gathering 1919;
a turning point in Chinese history.

It seems biological warfare does not just mean sending anthrax spores or releasing serine gas at a railway station. It had evolved to something quite specific to the intended victim.

Like in the latest James Bond offering, like how Spectre had perfected the art of individualising weapons against its enemies, some conspiracy theorists believe that the emergence of the Wuhan virus is one step closer towards this end. The constant mutation of this RNA virus at such neck-breaking speed all through alpha to zeta variants in a matter of years further cements their arguments.

When the western world decided that facial recognition software does not work well, in came the Chinese with a technologically functional system so advanced that it puts shame on the Western stereotype that 'all Chinese faces look alike'!

The condescending look of the world (read West) probably reached its zenith after the 1919 Versailles Treaty. After dismantling the Chinese dynasty and fighting an uphill battle with opium addiction, the Treaty sealed the last nail on the coffin at a time of turmoil. Even though China was aligned with the Allied Forces, she got a raw deal. She had the area around the Shandong peninsula, German holdings before WW1, assigned to their mortal enemy, Japan.

The time after that was of great upheaval; the age-old Confucius styled civil service entrance examinations were revamped, the May Fourth Movement, political and cultural revolution and finally Communist China came to being to restore China's past glory. At every turn, the world viewed China hawkishly as a despotic, third-world godless country that does not respect human dignity.

So when the world foolishly thought that China could be cajoled to perform the Western world's menial and laborious chores, China jumped at the opportunity. Slowly, on the sly, it improved its human capital.

Zheng Ho, the 1400s

After a century of slumber, the dragon has awoken. The ugly duckling has turned into a swan. Suddenly their brilliance shines the world over. If the club of space-venturing countries thought going to the moon was unproductive, China shocked everyone by approaching the moon from the dark side.

The fear of 'Yellow Peril' is ignited once again by people who tend to be negatively affected by the rise of the sleeping dragon. Will they repeat their previous feat in the early 15th century when their fleets explored the four corners of the world, including the New World, almost a good 90-over years before the European looters?

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We dig our own grave?

The Eternals (2021)
Director: Chloe Zhao

The story is actually an amalgamation of many stories, folklore mainly. After all, most world mythologies have almost a similar theme. See how often babies are left to float in a vessel by a river to escape persecution. Moses survived Pharoah's persecution and was adopted by the Pharoah's daughter in a twist of fate. Karna was left off by his unwed mother in Mahabharata to escape humiliation, only to be adopted as a charioteer to fight his younger brothers later! And see how everything comes to an end, in Armageddon, or when Kalki descends from his horse at the end Kaliyuga.

Gilgamesh

So, how did Judea-Christian mythology get intertwined with Hindu mythology? Simple. After destroying the First Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, Jews were taken as slaves and brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar and subsequent Persian conquerors. They spend 48 years in Babylon imbibing the Indus culture into their, hence, the cross-overs. King Cyrus freed them from Babylon and helped them rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. So, one can see many cross-over influences in the Judeo-Christian stories.

The Sumerians have their own past stories of glory. Annunaki was an extra-terrestrial king if we believe what our ancient alien theorists say. He thought homo-sapiens were not too intelligent workers and frequently fought amongst themselves. Annunaki decided to infuse extra-terrestrial DNA to make humans into productive workers. Gilgamesh, one of the characters in this movie, is a long-forgotten Mesopotamian hero. In the first half of his life, he was a king who fought fearsome battles and spent the remaining half pondering the meaning of life. His adventures are depicted in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In this movie, the Eternals are a breed of near-immortal of ten alien superheroes sent to Earth around 500BCE by Arishem to protect the planet against Deviants. Deviants are Arishem's (The Creator) creations who have gone rogue. They are hell-bent on destroying Earth, and The Eternals are assigned to protect Earthlings from them. Periodically, the Eternals infuse knowledge into Mankind. With this knowledge, Mankind made periodical monument jumps in their civilisation. The Eternals were strictly told not to interfere with any conflicts that arose from within humans. The last of the Deviants were slain, so they thought, in 1521. And the Eternals awaited further instructions from Arishem, which never came.

In the present time, the Eternals had to re-group when a Deviant re-emerges. Their leader, Ajak, is killed, and Sersi assumes command. She communicates with Arishem telepathically to be told that their real mission was to save Earth from the Emergence (the End of the World).

Friction ensues amongst the Eternal for what they feel as being 'used' by Arishem. The rest of the show is about how Earth is saved and how they resolve crises.

The human race is meant to progress through the exploration of their intelligence. Their discoveries are meant to propel them collectively forward. Exclusive control of power and knowledge by alpha predators (leaders) seems unhealthy as they would steer the whole race towards a particular that would benefit them. Hence, the Deviants were meant to clip the wings of the alpha predators. Unfortunately, the wisdom handed to Earthlings seem not to civilise them but instead lead to their own destruction. The Emergence/ Armageddon/ End of Days is their own doing.

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