Suzhal (Tamil, Vortex; 2022) Amazon Prime Miniseries S1, E1-9.
Just because we live in a close-knit society or have lived long enough to know things, it does not mean we are experts at predicting humans. Humans are a breed of animals that are so difficult to foretell. Sometimes, when we least expect it, the most docile of us may do something so dastardly that it altogether questions our judgement of human character.
This is the very point that this gripping crime thriller is trying to propagate. I hesitated to delve into another miniseries with nine 1-hour episodes from the get-go. But I am glad I did. This is one of those shows that puts you constantly at the edge of the seat and cannot sleep till you have completed the season. With big ambitions of dubbing it in 15 languages and subtitled in 30, I am sure this Tamil miniseries cannot go wrong.
At the Mayanakoolai carnival
The series tells about the apparent eloping of two teenagers from a small town where everybody knows each other. The parents of the couple are on a warpath in real life. The boy's mother is the local police chief, and the girl's father is the local factory union leader. The factory is gutted by what is suspected to be the work of arson. The eloping couple is later found to have been murdered after all. The storytellers have creatively shifted the suspicion of arson and murder from one person to another. Concurrently, as the investigations proceed, the townspeople are busy with their 8-day-long celebration of Mayanakollai, an event that hails the victory of diety Angala Parameswari Amman over evil.
Goddess Kali's avatar has been feted from the days of yore, pre-Vedic times, by war-going heroes of the Southern part of India for their protection in war. The returning soldiers symbolically bring their loot to this angry form of the Mother. The way the carnival atmosphere and festivity are covered adds to the suspense and steers the story in a cult-like direction. Coincidentally, many transgenders often partake in the extravaganza, giving reason to include their participation in this offering, hoping to get brownie points from the woke-minded crowd. There are many stories linked to their involvement in this festival.
At the end of the day, there is a straightforward explanation of the events, and it reminds us of a social disease often swept under the carpet in many families.
Lost Illusion (Illusions Perdues, French, 2022) Director: Xavier Giannoli (Based on 'Illusions perdues' by Honoré de Balzac)
The distinction between the left and the right side of politics is said to have had its origin at the time of King Louis XVI. Those seated to the right were royalties and the nobilities who were quite contented with the status quo, that is, authoritarianism and the church's excessive meddling. The feudalistic method of wealth distribution works just fine for them, thanks to their linkages to the monarch. Those on the left of the King earned their every penny through hard work and hard-sell. Naturally, they abhor cronyism and want level playing fields.
The French revolution jolted this arrangement at its core. The peasants did not want to be reminded of their past anymore. People with surnames that had an association with the royalties and aristocrats were hunted down and guillotined. By the post-Napoleonic era, things had resorted back to how it was before the time the French broke down the gates of bastille. French society had been divided again by class. Money, wealth and ancestor became important again.
Against this background, Balzac wrote this classic. It is the story of a talented young 20-year-old man from the countryside who lands in 1821 Paris to be a somebody. Lucien, a man embarrassed by his heritage, comes armed with poetry and the zest to be a famous poet. He earlier is caught having an affair with a high society woman, somebody's wife. He soon discovers a world full of fake news and a press willing to prostitute itself to the highest bidder. His dream to be a poet crumbles as his writings hurt the sentiments of a certain section of society. Nobody writes the truth anymore. It all depends on who is their paymaster. The more things seem to change, the more they seem to recoil back to how it was previously. He falls in love with a budding actress, but her career is also cut short by these critics who shoot down talent with scathing jeers and paid negative reviews. Lucien comes home an empty man.
The kudos we read in the newsreels are because the reporters were told to do so. Publishers publish articles that meet their agendas. They realise that a lie often repeated becomes the unassailable truth.
Recently, during my last trip to a town right in the centre of the Hindi heartland, I had the fortune of interacting with some friends who would be relatives. A chance conversation with some female members of the society jogged my memory back to a time when my girls were developing into late teenagers, growing horns and their pointed devil's tails were sprouting.
My wife was getting acquainted with two female members of the family. This is somewhat the direction the conversation took.
"Hi, since we know each other now," wifey said. "Maybe we should exchange numbers and contact each other!"
Our hosts, almost in unison, replied, "...but you have our husband's numbers. You can call that number. "
"No, I don't have your numbers."
"We share the same phone." was the reply.
I could see my wife's eyes pop in amazement.
"But, but I am sure you want to check your Facebook, WhatsApp, etcetera."
The homely girls cooly replied, "Nah, we don't need them."
"How about when you go out shopping and need to call someone?" wifey asked.
Again, the girls looked at each other, kind of bewildered. "When we are at home, you can contact us at the home landline. When we go out with our husbands, we use their phones!"
It looked much like a non-issue to them.
Ten years previously, my wife and I were in the same predicament. My teenage daughters were up in arms like they felt it was their right to own a mobile phone at that age. In their eyes, it was a natural passage of rites to be initiated into a digital world to mark their presence as human beings on Earth. All rules and regulations on parental controls just went down the drain. It is all water under the bridge now, all done and dusted.
It looks like we had initiated ourselves into the first world by acquiring their problems. We were not worrying about basic needs but digital availability and access. There was a need for digital expression and digital freedom. We were not talking about covering the bare essentials but demanding the right to expose more than needed.
We are trapped in a conundrum between one side that demands too much versus the other that needs too little. When you have little, you demand more. When you have in abundance, you want less.
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022) Acted and Directed: R Madhavan
I heard about the Isro Spy Case a few years ago. I did not think much about it then, but my interest was piqued when R Madhavan announced and promoted Nambi Narayanan's story; at the same time, he announced his intention to make a movie about him.
Then came the 'Rocket Boys', a miniseries showcasing India's intention to apply for membership to the exclusive club of having nuclear facilities and rocket technology. It further stirred everyone's anticipation of Madhavan's movie. Then came Covid-related closures and the delays in production and post-production work.
With the Real McCoy
We have all heard of Kalam, the satellite launches and even India's Mars exploration. Mangalyaan in 2014. Mangalyaan was initially made to last six months, but it is still functional more than seven years (three Martian years) after its launch. The man who made all these possible is Dr Nambi Narayanan. He was wrongly accused of being a Pakistani spy, imprisoned for fifty over days, humiliated, and lost many good years of his productive life. This is his story. It is a tale of political backstabbing, Cold War espionage, honey trapping, big bucks and escapades of James Bond proportions. Despite being declared innocent of all charges by CBI, compensated handsomely for his ordeals by the Supreme Court and conferred the nation's highest awards, he intends to track down the people who accused him and all other honest serving patriots in India.
The story is told in a flashback format as the senior rocket scientist gives what is expected to be a boring interview. Dr Narayanan tells his whole life experience, from his stint at ISRO with the likes of Kalam and Vikram Sarabhai, his doctorate in Princeton, his research into fluid propulsion technology and his refusal to accept a post at NASA. His patriotic fervour pushed him to help ISRO source more advanced equipment from Scotland, France and Russia. All the while, the Americans appear to make the going tough for India. The Indians close association with the Russians made the Americans hot under the collar. At the time when the Soviet Union was about to collapse, Nambi and his team, in a daring escape, managed to secure some advanced Russian rocketry components.
NY Times apologised for this cartoon which came out after India's Mars Mission.
Then came the arrest in 1994 and the accusation of treason for selling India's rocket technology to Pakistan. Two Mauritian ladies were roped in to be the go-betweens. After failing to secure a confession and the news became a national scandal, the Central Bureau of Investigation was called in. CBI exonerated him.
The post-arrest days were painful for Nambi and his family, his wife primarily. Obstatrcised by the community and vilified by the press, the public was quick to hurl brickbats, lash out sharp tongues and throw physical stones at their home. His wife became an emotional wreck.
The conspirators were never identified. Many theories have been flaunted, nevertheless. The American involvement with big bucks being dangled at potential inside men was entertained. Nambi was climbing fast in the industry, and there were naturally evil eyes. In Kerala, there was severe political in-fighting. A faction wanted to put the Chief Minister in a bad light. They succeeded eventually, as the CM resigned after the seemingly poor handling of the ISRO spy case. Corrupt police officers, Kerala Deputy Intelligence Bureau included, are suspected of having picked the two Maldivian ladies for unrelated matters and beat them into submission to play the part.
Even though the film is just newly released, critics are quick to shoot the movie down, the storyline, the direction and everything about the film. They complain about the supposedly 'forced' patriotism that the movie is trying to promote. If that is not enough, these sepoys or Uncle Toms, crack jokes at the Indian traditional almanac (panchangam). A perusal of most liberal media outlets will reveal them consistently giving low rankings, a 2.5/5 when in reality, it deserves a 4/5 as the movie achieved its intended aim. That is, to publicise an Indian icon that would have been lost in the annals of history or made infamous by the trumped-up accusations. It gives the Indian diaspora a reason to feel good about themselves.
Still managing a smile after a 27-year-old legal battle. Padma Bushan Award in 2019.
Elvis experts generally agree Baz Luhrmann's depiction is sprinkled generously with artistic licence and liberal truth-bending. It can be said that the movie was made to appease the woke generation and to rebrand Elvis to the newer generation who had not heard of the King of Rock and Roll. The message behind the movie was that Elvis Presley appropriated black music and the real heroes of rock and roll were the numerous black legends who never had their moments under the spotlight because of the bigoted attitude of the people then.
In reality, Elvis did sound like a black singer. Growing up in the deep south, he drew inspiration from the black gospel church and helped popularise rock and roll music.
The narration of the whole story is from the point of view of Elvis' notorious long-time manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Colonel Parker is a shady character who had allegedly illegally immigrated from Netherland and was not a colonel. He, however, had a short stint in the US Army. Apparently, one of the reasons he opposed Elvis' international tours was that Parker did not have or could not get a passport. He later went on to be convicted of defrauding the Presley estates.
Austin Butler plays the King.
The film went on to take artistic liberty to paint a rather cosy relationship between Elvis and some of the black singers of his time. In particular, it implies that BB King and the King (of Rock and Roll) had a first name kind of a relationship. In modern times, it would be akin to having him on his speed dial. Purists insist that the closest they came together was probably being caught in a photograph together.
The film tries to paint the idea that the public perception of black culture was that of decadence. That a white boy singing in the tune of a black voice was akin to promoting the black style of living amongst the whites. In reality, however, just 30 years previously, the nation was hailing the Harlem Renaissance. This New York City neighbourhood went on to become a Black Cultural mecca to showcase the golden age in African American culture, manifesting in music, stage performance and art.
Tom Hanks as Col. Tom Parker
Elvis' trademark of gyration of hips was viewed as a big crime and kicked a lot of dirt in his days. It was discussed extensively in the dailies. Somewhat erroneously, the movie seems to imply that Elvis volunteered to be enlisted in the US Army as pro quid quo against incarceration for lewd acts in public. It seems that Elvis was drafted, and Parker encouraged this to paint the image of Elvis as an all-American regular guy.
Life is never easy, even for the King of Rock and Roll. Coming from n underprivileged background, the stigma refuses to go away. His brand of music was referred to hillbilly music by a newspaper. Elvis' father, a truck driver with whom Elvis was not really close, had a criminal record and was perhaps easily manipulated by the Colonel for self-interest. Elvis' mother, with whom Elvis had a strong bond, died relatively early in his career. His stint in the Army, it seems, gravely depressed her. She feared losing him, just like how she had lost Elvis' twin at birth.
The stress of being in showbiz obviously had its toll on Elvis. The razzmatazz of fame added strain to his marriage. His philandering ways broke down his marriage. He had to resort to a cocktail of prescription drugs to keep up with the gruelling challenges. This combination of polypharmacy gave him bad constipation, and he succumbed to a myocardial infarct during straining at the toilet.
The Colonel was only interested in making money, it seems. Elvis rebelled by cutting deals with other new agents with new ideas and political statements, but the Colonel was having none of those. He had a stronghold on Elvis' affairs. His later stints at Vegas were apparently to offset Parker's gambling debts. Elvis' last years saw him a lonely man, barely alive, working hard to satiate the appetite of loyal fans.
Imagine a time 20 years ago. We were all fed with a single narrative. The government-controlled media or media barons churned out cable news will tell us 'the truth'. There was no counter-narrative to argue this. The world accepted this one version. The fringe publishment that aired an alternative perspective of the event is labelled a rabble-rouser and scorned. Now with the availability of all the information at our disposal, we are still unsure of many things. For every piece of news churned, there is an immediate contradictory explanation just to shoot it down at its inception, making us none the wiser.
I have always been given the impression that RSS is terrible news. My brother-in-law, who spent much of his formative years in India, and his wife, an Indian citizen who gave up her citizenship for her newfound love and land, Malaysia, have no qualms that RSS is synonymous with bigotry and fanaticism. Any piece of news from RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; National Volunteer Organisation) is immediately labelled propaganda and untrue. Yet another family member who has found employment in Malaysia has nothing nice to say about RSS. To him, the RSS management cherry-picked delinquents and academically weak students to do their dirty job in the name of religion.
My schoolmate, who probably had his long-lost ancestors coming from India, believes Muslims are selectively persecuted in India. He himself is a Muslim. He is convinced that RSS in India is what Mossad is to Israel, just like the symbiotic relationship between Sein Fenn and the IRA. He is cocksure that RSS is the militant wing of the BJP (like Al-Aqsa martyr Brigades and Fatah).
But then alternative news tells me otherwise. In the aftermath of any calamity, volunteers of RSS are the first to be at the scene giving moral and humanitarian support. They are so well organised and are said to provide service without much fanfare. Being an NRI, I was naturally conflicted between what I read and what I had heard.
Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar
I thought this book gives a complete account of RSS' genesis, its earlier objectives, and how it evolved in a post-independent India. India was a restless country from the turn of the 19th century to the 20th. The rebel yell was heard from all four corners of Bharat. Every third person that one saw was a freedom fighter. Events like the Partition of Bengal in 1905 and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 further ignited the fire for self-rule.
Against this background, with the shouts of 'Vande Matram' and Lokmanya Tilak's 1906 visit to Nagpur, Maharashtra, a young Keshav Baliram Hedgewar's national interest was piqued. Thilak was labelled 'the Father of Political Unrest'. He made a political life of agitating the British for self-rule. Nagpur, at that time, was a fertile ground for nationalistic activities steeped deep into the Hindu way of life. Keshav went on to read medicine in Calcutta in 1910. Dr Keshav Hedgewar returned to Nagpur in 1915 with a medical degree and a chest full of Indian nationalism after interacting with Bengali revolutionaries.
RSS flag
His idea of disciplining the young mind was through physical activity, traditional martial arts and wrestling. Slowly his group started participating in satyagraha movements and campaigning against social ills. Somewhere around the 1920s, the British managed to introduce the idea of the 'Muslim-Hindu unity' concept. Gandhi, with his Congress Party, parted ways with Hedgewar over Gandhi's support of the Khalifat movement. Some within the Congress Party also opposed Hedgewar's so-called militant-natured activities. RSS was formed in 1925. Its objective at inception was to influence the mind and soul of the Nation to gain independence. Not wanting to fall into the British divide-and-rule trap, the RSS decided to dig deep into the Nation's civilisation to inculcate value readily present into the subcontinent before the invaders wrecked our knowledge and infused theirs.
After independence, the RSS continues their service to the needy. It promotes the Hindu way of life, fights for social and caste justice, and tries to improve modern familial relationships. Contrary to what they are accused of, RSS is not a misogynistic organisation. They have many prominent female leaders. Even though detractors hurl abuses of religious bigotry, the RSS have many Christian, Muslim and Farsi members and leaders in their fold.
They must be doing something right for being around for almost a century. The RSS must be relevant for drawing so many non-Hindu members into their fold. Something to ponder.
First, we were told that our vocation determines us; staying true to fulfilling the goals of our job is equivalent to being close to Divinity. But just see what it let us to - a social classification system that essentially pigeon-holes one's future by birth. Karl Marx then asserted that life is more than mere monetising one's labour. Man has to find balance in maximising time spent on Earth by indulging in things that excite him, maybe hunting, art, music, etcetera. And that led to Lenin extrapolating it to stir the working class to rise against their enslavers.
Now we are told that we should find a life-work balance. We should not bring home the stresses of our workplace home and vice-versa. We cannot let our personal dilemmas affect our work performances as well. So what better way to severe these two intertwinings?
This is the premise of this miniseries. Workers of an unspecified company doing seemingly so much yet nothing agree to undergo this dissociative procedure. A small device is implanted in the brain, which gives no memory of their outside life once they enter the office. Essentially, they lead two individual lives, oblivious of their two lives.
Soon the workers realise that there is more than meets the eye. The latest recruit wants to resign, but she is told resignation is not an option. Pretty soon, the workers discover a way to find their outside life. This leads to many events with a nail-biting cliffhanger at season end. The miniseries is far from over and has built a cult following. Season 2 is in the pipeline as internet sleuths try to identify the Easter Egg cues that may explain the whole meaning behind the story.
On the side, the viewers also sense that the tale also takes a swipe at the modern environment and etiquette of the typical modern workplace. There are plenty of unproductive actions in the name of work, and there is a tendency to self-aggrandise one's frivolous 'success'. This 'success' motivates workers to continue their pursuit to lick the boots of higher management and the imaginative figures of 'Big Bosses'. Non-conformers are labelled troublemakers, and their career paths can be far from smooth.
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