Remembering Jallianwala Bagh massacre...

Sardar Udham (Hindi; 2021)
Director: Shoojit Sircar

One always wonders how a cult started by a group of semi-literate fishermen at the fringe of the Roman Empire by the Sea of Galilee could eventually grow up to impress the whole of the Empire, including its rulers. This rebel's rhetorics soon triggered justified wars and legitimised usurping of lands to claim their hegemony. The belief system garnered potential believers because it targeted the oppressed or the persecuted. The marginalised and the dying were given the dignity to exist with others on Earth. In return, the converts were willing to trade in their lives (or, in their words, sell their soul) for the religion. Yes, martyrdom played an essential role in recruiting more new members. 

As India goes on a spree to rewrite its national history, more and more heroes of yesteryears come to the fore. Sardar Udham Singh (@ Sher Singh @ Ram Mohammad Singh Azad) is one such example. He had been conferred the title Shaheed-i-Azam Sardar Udham Singh, the great martyr, after Indian Independence to honour him as one of the freedom fighters in India's war of Independence. He is credited for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former Lt Governor of Punjab who gave orders to Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer to open fire on a crowd of 20,000 inside Jallianwala Bagh, an enclosed park, in 1919. These people congregated in an enclosed garden near the Golden Temple in Amritsar to celebrate Vaisakhi, at the same time, to express their protest against the British colonial masters for arresting Congress Party's satyagraha proponents, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew. The congregants were accused of violating the law, which banned any assembly of more than four people.

Udham Singh

Udham Singh from an orphanage, himself a late teenager, was witness to the brutal assault at Jallianwala Bagh. Deeply traumatised by the whole event, he joined the movements of the masses to oust mighty Britain from their country. He, a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Movement, made it his life mission to assassinate the perpetrators of the killings at Jallianwala Bagh. The army shot at the unarmed civilians not to warn them but on a mission to kill. They hit till their enormous cache of bullets ran out.

Udham Singh was running away from the British Imperial Police all his life. He crept out of India, through Germany and Russia and finally sneaked into England. His revolutionary activities were influenced by Bhagat Singh and the Gaddarites, the overseas Indians who supported India's quest for self-rule. 

21 years after the incident at Jallianwala Bagh, Udham Singh shot Michael O'Dwyer in cold blood after he delivered a lecture in London. This film gives a rundown account of this whole saga, spending a lot of time on the aftermath of the shooting and death at Jallianwala Bagh.

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To demand, expect or accept?

Doctor Strange (2022)

Director: Sam Raimi

The people in the Marvel Cinematic Universe must be thinking that their diehard fans must be nuts. Still riding on the idea of the existence of multiple universes, MCU came out with their 28th instalment through this film. It is a simple story of a woman scorned by losing two young sons. As we saw in Wandavision in a make-believe happy family, Scarlet Witch is livid as she tries desperately to get back to her Universe. For that, she needs power, and she tries to sap the energy of a newbie superhero (who does not even recognise her superpower), American Chavez. The need for inclusivity brought in a Latina-flavoured character.

American Chavez and Wong, on their run, between Universes, land in Doctor Strange's Universe and the good doctor is sucked is in into the duel. After witnessing multiple eye-popping displays of CGI and destruction, we are told that there is another evil Dr Strange with a 'third eye' later seen in the post-credit scene. The storytellers hint to the fans of their next Dr Strange offering, which may show the good doctor going rogue. Maybe all that power to correct the imbalances between multiverses must have gone to his head.

Even though it is accepted as the norm that a mother will fight tooth and nail to care for and keep her young under her protective wings, Scarlet Witch realises at the end that all the violence, destruction and negativity just turns off her children. Their idea of a loving mother is a kind, mild-mannered one. 

That brings us to all those lovey-dovey Hallmark types of Mothers Day wishes hog our social media spaces. Sure, mothers would run into burning buildings or jump into icy lakes to save their offspring. Maternal instincts prepare them for the protection of the young so that the continuity of the species does not halt. Someone may say that it is just a biological process, but nothing is altruistic about it. Nature is only interested in the young and the progeny. It is hostile towards the old and weak to make space for the living. Hence, logically for an aged to be cared for should be a luxury, not an expectation to be demanded. Breeding and protecting the young is biological, but caring for the aged is only a humane or sociological expectation.

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It does not matter...

This weekend would see meaningless parties and stupifying merrymaking in the name of a monarch who is synonymous with opulence and redundancy. There cannot be a worse time to glorify a family when the rest of the world looks at entitlement as a bad word. The idea of a person, by his birth, being feted up to high heavens despite all the scandals that have linked with the royal family does not make any sense. It is worse when the ruling monarch takes the helm as the head of the Church of England.

Nothing looks pretty when we talk about their predecessors' curriculum vitae or past glory. Her laurels include legitimisation of robbing non-British merchant ships of their gold and silver, giving a royal seal to pirates to loot the Spanish royal armada of their wealth,  allowing famine deaths in their subjects (just because they are brown) to feed their soldiers and brutally murdering millions in the name of civilising the natives. Yes, the Platinum Jubilee of the longest-reigning British monarch is here. 

  

Completed 1903 to mark Queen Victoria's
Diamond Jubilee (1897). At 60 ft tall, it
commemorates each year of her reign.

When the wokes are up in arms questioning the privileged, the errors and omission of the generation past, as well as the blatant widening of the gap between the haves and have not, this is in bad taste. There is no reason for the royal family to flaunt the wealth that they acquired by birth and force others to revel in jubilance. If anything, it only rekindles old festering wounds and re-emphasises the extent of the limit humans are able to dehumanise each other. 

To the aristocrats and plutocrats, it is an opportune time to reinforce their loyalty. In return, the tongue-hanging loyalist would pounce upon the mittens shrewn to them as picturised in the children's folklore 'This Old Man' - give a dog a bone!

In my school days, I remember walking past a clock tower in Penang, erected in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Then from pictures in magazines and museum documents, I realised that Penangites were having a whale of a time during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and King George V's coronation. The million-dollar question is whether the colonial subjects really share the sentiments of their Masters, or there are they there just for the party?

Like the Tamil proverb that says, ராமே ஆண்டாளும் ராவனே ஆண்டாளும் (Whether Rama rules or Ravanaa rules), it does not matter to the Average Joe. The life of the ordinary man hardly changes for the better. Still, like Sisyphus, Average Joe tries to find contentment via these meaningless celebrations despite his seemingly hopeless life. He can pack his troubles and seek a release from his bottled-up emotions for one evening. But come tomorrow, it is back to the same grind mill.

(N.B. The idea of celebrating a Jubilee goes back to the time of the Old Testament. A Jubilee is celebrated in a kingdom every 50 years. At this time, debts are written off, enslaved people are freed, and people take a full year of a break from work. It is a kind of reboot. The land is not planted, and people were expected to fete in ecstasy for the ruler.)

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Secrets, I have a few!

Anatomy of a Scandal (2022)
Netflix, Miniseries.

There are essentially three types of truths (or secrets if the situation arises). The first is the one which is common knowledge that is no secret. It is the one you do not mind sharing with the rest of the world. Information on your background, ethnicity, place of childhood and education background will encompass this category. With the easy availability of personal data online, the demarcation between private information and the public domain becomes increasingly blurred.

In the second category, it could include something done not at the proudest moment. This truth may be only shared amongst individuals who would not spill the beans no matter what. There is some kind of unwritten rule - bro code, tribal honour, mafia or gang loyalty and business secret - which will fall into the category. God forbid, access to these truths by individuals with ill-intent would be disastrous and make someone fall from grace. However, every type of secret has its price in the real world. It could be used as a bargaining chip when the cookie crumbles.

Then there is the third secret you need to carry to the grave. This secret may be so detrimental that it may damage your reputation, career or family relationship. Others may use their yardsticks or wilfully create a ruckus to paint a heinous picture of you and your acts, an unforgivable one. Some may be forgiving as Man are fallible, especially if you are family. Different yardsticks are assigned to other people.

Just how far this third secret can be protected? Is it necessary to stay to your word when you raise your hand in court and promise to tell the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth? The aftermath when they bare your insides can be pretty devastating. In essence, this is the premise of this movie, among other things.

With the breakdown of community feelings and familial piety, every man or woman is an island. A modern person finds it more fulfilling to explore personal development by hopping from one community or family to another. With the tweaking of familial bonds, exposing the third secret to your family (or your other half) may prove disastrous too.

As the ugly court trial of Depp and Heard reveals, nothing is sacrosanct or stays within the confines of the bedroom's four walls. A bond so tough can sometimes crumble like dominos. A sweet affair can turn sour overnight. Every putrifying detail is laid bare for scrutiny. Recording devices just add more zing to this carving ritual. With their holier-than-thou speak, armchair critics will take their time to slow cook, dissect, expose, crucify, and exsanguinate you. Honesty is not always the best policy.

The miniseries tell about a Cabinet minister accused of rape by his researcher-cum-fling. They had a small affair which they mutually ended but then this. All these come as a total blow to the minister personally and his family. There is actually more than meets the eyes. The minister shares a dark secret with the Prime Minister, which goes way back to their shared alma mater. The prosecuting officer also has a personal score to settle with the minister.

What is rape, and what is consensual sex between two mature adults? What is implied consent, and at what point does this end? How far would a spouse support the significant other's shenanigans? These are some of the dilemmas this story tries to explore.

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A minute's pleasure, a burden to Mother Nature?

Nature does not give favours. It just spins on its wheel as the Universe goes on moving forward and expanding outwards. It does not care for the weak, the rich or the powerful. It whitewashed the nation in one swing, denuding the land and flattening enormous erections.

A pup is born in a freak accident of Nature, combined with the estrus cycle of an ovulating bitch and the mating season. It is not a season of joy but a mere duty ingrained in the female canines to care for the pup. The Nature that brought the puppy is playing its tricks again. Nature unleashes its vigour yet again. At every level, elements strike him. The pup grows because of and despite the forces of Nature. In a way, Nature is strengthening and preparing the dog as it meets the hurdles that will befall it in its future. The weaklings will be cancelled. Its presence would not be missed or recorded in the annals of dog history. Sometimes you wonder what the purpose of all these is? The same force that creates also destroys. All these strengthening of species for what; a breed of super dogs?

You should ponder the next time you see a neglected puppy by the roadside. Should you go out and save the poor soul from the elements or let it go through the process of Nature that it was supposed to go through? 

One minute's pleasure, a burden to Mother Nature? Where does karma come into the picture?

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Nationalists, Loyalists or Spoilers?

RRR (Telugu; 2022)
Director: S.S. Rajamouli

Week after week, this film seems to be roaring to greater heights at the box office. And the reviewers are going gaga over the offering from Tollywood and giving the Bollywood mafia and their chamchas a run for their money. The recent spate of blockbusters from the South cinema has evoked has started a Twitter war that may be related to the rekindling of the national language debate. RRR also reaffirmed the fact that the Baahubali duology was no flash in the pan.

In keeping with Baahubali's drift, RRR also threads along with big bucks on CGI and historical slunt. In RRR, the storytellers decided to create a fictional account loosely based on the lives and times of two freedom fighters from India.

Alluri Sita Rama Raju

Alluri Sitaram Raju (1897-1924) opposed the 1882 British Forest Act, which restricted movement in forests. It interfered with the tribals' practice of the 'slash and burn' style of farming (podu). The reason for the British legislation is to usurp the land for mining. Alluri used to ambush local police stations for British weapons to arm and lead his revolt against the colonialist. He grew up in Andhra Pradesh, gave up college, pursued spiritualism, found Christian evangelists annoying and found the purpose of life amongst the tribal people. He himself was not from the Adivasi community. After two years of terrorising the British, the British had to dig deep into their coffers with their special force to employ extreme measures to violate, kill and torture his sympathisers. Alluri was executed by a firing squad.

Komaram Bheem (1900-1940) is a member of the Gond tribe in the princely state of Hyderabad. He led an Anti-Nizamite rebellion in the 1930s against the monarch's feudal and oppressive Zamindar system. Restrictive regulations hampered the tribes' way of podu farming. Failure to comply with the state law saw brutal killings and forced amputations. In reality, the Nizam was just another British conspirator in the field of Indian who played lackey to the invaders, sold their motherland and continued to be immersed in the loot of yesteryears.

Komaram Bheem
© Praveen Kumar Myakala

After failing peaceful negotiation, Bheem went underground, linked up with the Communist Party and created an Adivasi guerilla army to protect their lands. It took the British, all its local police, and local turncoat Muslim aristocrats (taluqdars) to capture him in an ambush. Bheem's battle cry was 'Jal Jangal Zameen' (Water, Jungle, Land). [Note: Jangal = Jungle; another Anglicised Indian word.]

 

In reality, Bheem and Alluri Raju probably never met. With the creative artistic licence, the storyteller portrayed Bheem as the protector of the Gond going under disguise in search of a young girl appropriated by the British Governor's wife just because she could do beautiful hand painting. Raju is seemingly an obedient British bulldog scurrying around doing his Master's dirty job. Unbeknownst to anyone, Raju holds a dark secret. His father died fighting the British, and Raju has big plans to sabotage the British and defeat them at their own game.

The plan sees Bheem and Raju finally discovering each other's identity, and after many mind-boggling and gravity-defying acrobatic aerial fights, the heroes come out victorious. Bheem unites the abducted girl with her mother, and Raju smuggles British guns to the revolutionaries.

It is a question of whether one is a nationalist, a loyalist or a collaborator. A nationalist may be one who does everything to preserve the honour and dignity of his flag. A loyalist is loyal to whom - his country, his paymaster, the powerful, race, religion? The list goes on as schism amongst the population becomes more acute. The nationalist may look at someone who works against his interest as a collaborator. At the height of the rein of their empire upon which the sun never set, the British were master planners in planting collaborators amongst their subjects. During the pre-Independence era, in and outside India, the British successfully planted informants among the rank and file of the RSS movement and the Gaddar movement in the USA to thwart their planned ambushes and mutinies. In fact, Chandra Bose and Homi Bhabha's mysterious air crashes are said to have British handiwork written all over them.

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For how long?

Eva Mireles (victim)
4th-grade teacher

We all know the drill. Regular broadcasting will be rudely interrupted with news flashes of yet another senseless killing in public. All cable news network cameramen will run to the site hoping to catch a glimpse of yet another gore porn over prime time. They will appear empathetic, trying to blank out the faces of victims and underaged but secretly wish they could exhibit violence in its full glory.

Then for the next few hours will be reels over reels of footage of witnesses and victims relating their dastardly experiences. The police chief will come forward with a press release that they have identified the perpetrator. The chief will be flabbergasted how the aggressor managed to possess his firepower. A revealing loophole in the system would manifest - he is underaged, that he purchased his assault weapon at a mall, that he has mental issues, that he bought it in another state, yadda yadda. Then his social media would expose his screwed up ideology and true intentions that went below the radar, whilst others get barred by FB or Youtube for politically incorrect phrases!

Experts will be whisked in to opine their two cents worth - that the USA has got to get its act together. Politicians will cry for the victims and plead, "for how long do we have to endure this?" The gun lobbyist will saunter in to proclaim that 'guns do not kill people, people do!'; without a gun, an angry or deranged would have to run all the way to his intended target and lay a punch or beat the pulp out of his victim. And the damage is far less brutal.

Over the following days, the incident site would be revisited to show wreaths and cute figurines left by mourners. The frequency of the mention of the incident would dwindle. Pretty soon, another national crisis would loom. The shooting incident would be forgotten until another shooting in another vicinity. It is then another state or county's headache to sort out.

Anyone with half a brain will know that gun kills, and it does that much more at ease with the least effort. Experiences in countries that outlawed gun usage have drastically reduced gun-related crimes. One does not need guns to live in modern times. Easy access to guns just makes it necessary to possess bigger and more powerful firearms, even overpowering what the law enforcement officers have at their disposal.

It made sense to make it a person's right to own firearms to guard his land during the Wild West when the white men were snatching lands from the retaliating Native Americans. In the 21st century, when policing and protecting the citizens is outsourced to the State, can the Second Amendment still be relevant?

The country that considers itself the policeman of the world is impotent when it comes to protecting its own people. The nation that is telling the world how economies should be managed is finding itself dealing with homelessness and decimated family units. Still, people call going to America and living the American way an American dream!

Some victims of the recent Texas shooting. Too young to die.

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