Payback time?

Valley of Flowers (2006)
Director: Pan Nalin

In my books, the way to put someone on the right track when he has gone wayward is to make him realise his errors so that he can rectify them. A person aware of his mistakes will realise the implications of his actions and will not be a repeat offender. 

In theory, this is how it works, I think. One will not touch fire after touching, and burning will be having his fingers burnt before. The brain will be re-wired to be reminded (re-mind) of the pains, the blister, the scorching and the inconveniences of the healing process afterwards. 

Somehow I have issues extrapolating this analogy to karma. If the purpose of birth and re-birth is to create a 2.0 version of the species to improve oneself to reach the level of Eternal Bliss, not everyone is blessed with this realisation, however. 

Whenever we are caught in a dilemma and feel frustrated, we are told, akin to pacifying a crying child, that we are just reaping what we sow. We are paying back due payments to Universe - to bear the pain to realise the pains inflicted in previous lives. But the explanation does not hold water!

If everyone were born with a blank slate, not knowing of our past follies, how can we make amends in our current life? Sadly, we are clueless about what we did and how many demerit points we have.

If the Maker sincerely wants to make an Ubermensch out of us via newer improved prototypes, it must surely be an extremely non-cost-effective way to improve species. It is a non-tangible system, and all intellectual discourses and debates hit a brick wall here. All arguments stop here. It is like the battleship paradox. If the war is pre-destined, the Admiral not sending battleships will start a fight even if it is destined. When the Admiral sends the battleships, is it not pre-determined by God but decided by Man?

This film is supposedly set in the 19th century along the Silk Road. It tells the tale of a band of horseback robbers who make a living by travelling convoys of traders and wedding processions. Jalan, during one of these endeavours, meets Ushna. They fall deeply in love. The union breaks up Jalan's camaraderie with his mates. A showdown ensues. Jalan and Ushna part ways from the rest of the gang. Yeti, a spiritual master, is employed by the gang's victims.

Long story short, Ushna, a mystic person, dies, losing her powers, whilst Jalan consumes an elixir of immortality. Five generations later, in present-day Japan, Jalan is now Dr Jalan Otsal, a doctor who performs euthanasia. Ushna had undergone five rebirths and got connected with Jalan. Yeti is also on their trail. He hunts them down. He is akin to Yama or Grimm Reaper, who just does his job. His parting line is, 'true love lies in sacrifice'!

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After all, it is just food.

The Menu (2022)
Director: Mark Mylod

Back when Master Chef and Gordon Ramsay's 'Hell's Kitchen' were a rage in Malaysia, I used to ask myself what the farce was all about. I could not understand why the chef had had his honours stripped off or what was wrong if the fries were slightly soggy or the meat was overcooked. After all, food is medicine, and we eat to live, not live to eat.

Obviously, none of the people at the receiving end of my lament saw any merit in what I was blabbering. To them, culinary skill is an art form. In fact, they thought it was science, a branch of science more delicate than neurosurgery or detonating a time bomb. On top of knowledge of alchemy, art was the essence of luring potential gluttons.

An episode of 'Hell's Kitchen', or sometimes 'Master Chef', carried so much toxicity and backstabbing as wannabe cooks scrambled to stir up cuisine in record time. They had to do that with the provided ingredients in the most creative way as deemed by the judges. In my school of life, these were all exercises of futility, as productive as counting the grains of rice before cooking! After being brought up by a mother who impressed her children that gluttony is a trait best left behind in our pursuit to achieve greater heights in life, I fail to appreciate the anger of the Head honchos. 

'The Menu' must be a revenge movie for all those cynics like me who like to ridicule the histrionics exhibited by braggers obsessed with culinary skills. It also takes a swipe at the so-called self-professed know-it-alls who think they possess the know-how the best about cooking, where to source the best foods and how to bring out the best flavours. And combine with it an exotic location, a mad chef and murder to complement, you get this movie - 'The Menu'. 

It is a dark comedy that tells the story of a group of food connoisseurs attending a food-tasting session worth dying for. It sniggers at the obnoxious waste of resources and the extreme ridiculousness of high-end restaurants and their equally eccentric chefs.

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A Malaysian gem

Spilt Gravy, Ke Mana Tumpahnya Kuah(2022)
Director: Zahim Albakri

There is a Malay saying, 'ke mana tumpah kuah, kalau tidak ke nasi', which implies that the traits of children do not differ much from their parents. Its direct translation would be, 'where does the gravy spill, if not to the rice?' Its English equivalent is 'the apple does not fall far from the tree'.

Even though this movie was due for screening in 2013, it never saw living daylight. Thanks to the local censorship board, it was put in cold storage till 2022. Apparently, the board felt that the story could hurt the sentiments of the Malay Muslims in Malaysia. Hence, it had to undergo multiple edits, some dialogues were muted, a significant plot change, a hand gesture blurred, etcetera to qualify for a PG-13 certificate. The version that appeared on Netflix seemed close to the original copy, with the dialogue, gestures and all.

After a long time, we see an intelligent Malaysian movie minus the typical racial stereotyping and silly slapstick comedies that Malaysian movies are often guilty of. Underneath the main story about an elderly father summoning his five children from his five previous marriages for a last dinner as he senses that his end is near is the narration of our country's history. 

Two characters in all-white airline pilot outfits pull their roller luggage. They are actually angels (or maybe a sort of Grimm Reaper) out to pick up 'Bapak', a widower, an ex-journo, living all alone in the heart of KL city. 

Like peeling an onion, the story of his life and his children is revealed to us. Their childhood, time growing up as a family and the different directions life took them is shown. 

Slotted within this is the discriminatory nature of our history against women, LGBT issues, being Malay and even the different 'types of Malay' within the community. 

The last part of what it is about being Malay is relevant even today. It is apparent from the analysis of the latest election results, GE15. The Malays in this country are not the single-minded same-thinking entity that the country's leaders want them to be. Increasingly they, the leaders, misuse religion towards this end to produce a single-tracked unquestioning brand of Malay. Even at the infancy of its inception as a nation, Malaya had to grapple with this conundrum. 

Roughly, there were two major divisions. The first was the so-called elites who benefitted from education and opportunities the ruling colonisers or government offered. These mainly comprised civil servants and professionals confident enough to voice their opinions and mingled in civil society. The second comprised the bulk of the heartland occupants who were suddenly jolted to the forefront. The latter felt lost, unable to understand independence when everything in front of them was foreign. They were told it was their land, but nothing made sense - the lopsided economic distribution and the sense of being snatched of what was rightfully theirs. The ill feelings continue till today, with the non-Malays being the bogeymen.

It makes you think. Kudos to the excellent screenplay, direction and acting. Essential viewing for Malaysians to appreciate how the potpourri of cultures within Malaysia is given due respect and to know how a Malaysian movie should be made. 4/5.

(RIP Playwright and actor: Jit Murad)

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Pay for the sins of their fathers?

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 

(Turkish, Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da; 2011)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Imagine standing out on a hill in the wild on a dark moonless night. You notice a row of moving lights. From its movement, you can guess that it is a moving train. You cannot imagine where it came from and where it is going. Soon you get a complete cacophony of sounds, the chugging of its engine, the bellowing of its high-pitched whistle that pierces the silence of the night and its belching of smoke. When it is nearer, you watch it intently, swerving and crawling. All your pleasant memories of your train travel flash right before you. As the train rapidly manifests, the stream of trains disappears behind the mountains equally swiftly right under your watch. You are left wondering what happened to the passengers, staff and the train itself. What baggage does each of them carry? What bitter-sweet experiences did each of them live to tell?

This one exciting movie defines what cinematography is all about. The creative use of light and darkness, long shorts and tight shorts and whatever it takes to give a memorable, long-lasting impression of the movie. Even a blurred view from a frosted glass appears so poetic.

The story is phenomenal. It is a simple story with no heroes. Everybody is a nobody with only one mission in their mind. Everybody is in a hurry to finish their work and return to their respective lives, which may not be hunky-dory. It is their responsibility to do what they have to do as how their fathers did in their jobs and family lives. Sometimes in their careers, they ask themselves what they are actually doing in their day to day, their actions and inactions in a rather philosophical way. 

Three cars are seen moving in the cloak of darkness at the edge of a district in Anatolia. It is the wild country where might speaks louder than compassion and logic. Animals and even people fight to survive. Violence is expressed to prove a point. The cars carry some police personnel, a doctor, a prosecutor, a couple of general workers, an army man and a pair of brothers who confessed to a murder. The team is out there to retrieve the dead body.

The elder of the two brothers cannot pinpoint exactly where he dumped his victim as he was inebriated during the crime. They go on a wild goose chase, to which the overworked policemen put their frustrations on the convicts by giving them a good beating.

Slowly, the background of the characters comes to the fore. 

The investigating police officer must juggle between his never-ending job and managing his chronically ill son.

The doctor is a divorcee after 2 years of marriage. Obviously, he still misses her. The reason for their break-up is not revealed. Though he is a pacifist, he is caught with the band of the rough company at work. 

The only person who can keep all the men under control is the prosecutor. He uses his charm and experience dealing with criminals to rein them in. His intellect makes him able to converse with the doctor.

The prosecutor tells of a peculiar case where a lady predicted her exact date of death; five months after her delivery. It turns out to be his wife, we are told later. She was assumed to have had a heart attack, and that was it - an unprecedented unexplainable power to predict her own's death. When the doctor prodded further to suggest whether suicide was ever considered a possibility, the prosecutor laughed it off. Then it dawned upon him. The prosecutor was engaged in a short fling when his wife was pregnant. It was discovered by his wife, and the doctor proposed that she could have taken her own life after delivering at the same time punishing her husband. It all made sense to the prosecutor as digoxin was available in their household. Her father took digoxin for a heart ailment. 

The entourage stops for a rest at a local mayor's bungalow. Here, we are told that the mayor's biggest problem is not having a morgue to store dead bodies so that the deceased's family from overseas can visit before the burial. Talk about priority when frequent blackouts are not a big problem. How can maintain a mortuary without electricity?

In one scene, the mayor's angelic-looking daughter brings in tea. She mesmerises everyone with her beauty. The agitated men with only one thing on their minds suddenly swayed away. Are the storytellers suggesting that the presence of females is distracting men from their purposes in their lives?

The doctor faces a dilemma when the body is eventually found, and the postmortem is completed. The body was probably buried alive - earth was found in the trachea, not killed before concealing the body. If the cause of death was written as asphyxia, not a fractured skull, as was also found, it would just prolong the anger. The victim's son would avenge his father's death. The doctor thought we should bury the truth. Was he doing the right thing or doing a disservice? We are left to wonder?

The final take-home message must surely be this. We are the by-products of our father's actions. Subsequently, our progenies prosper or suffer because of our actions or inactions. Now, the question is, who is out there keeping count of our merits and demerit points and executing what is due to us?

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Angry birds!

Angry Indian Goddesses (2015)

Writer, Director: Pan Nalin

The first thing you wonder about in this nearly all-female cast movie is why everybody is so angry. This is a feminist film, but everybody is popping like sesame seeds on hot oil in a wok. They never seem at peace despite their relatively comfortable living status, high educational levels, self-confidence and jobs.

A group of six old school friends get together for a bachelorette party before one of them marries. The host, Freida's, helper is the other person at the party. Frieda is a frustrated fashion photographer who feels her talent is unappreciated by the lay public. Mad, a singer-songwriter, has hit writer's block. Su, a single mum and a fiery businesswoman, is vigorously pushing her team to develop a particular land. Pammy, who used to be an excellent student, is now a frustrated housewife who regrets a life that could have been. Jo, an Anglo-Indian, is an aspiring actress only hired for her physical attributes, not her talent. Lakshmi, the helper, had seen her cousin murdered before her eyes. Nargis is an activist. Her work with the tribal people brought her to a head-on-head clash with Su.

Freida initially refuses to reveal the groom's identity, but it is plain to the viewers. Freida and Nargis were to get wed when it was illegal in India.

The film continues with the characters whining about each others' predicament and disappointment with overt emotional displays and hugging each other as if hugging solves everything. Jo is gang-raped and killed, exposing the patriarchal view of society.

As in most Indian movies, empowered women are always portrayed as combative and loud, ready to shoot anybody who even dares to raise discontent against them. They dress in the skimpiest clothing and flirt openly but are prepared to pounce when the other party responds accordingly. They accuse the public of stereotyping them and looking at them with jaundiced eyes.

Have the members of the fairer sex been burdened with such heavy responsibilities that they cannot carry them? Has the load taken away the accommodating motherly vibes they used to exude?

Feminist films repeatedly remind us of the raging blood-thirsty combative image of Kaali and call for the female gender to rise to demand their rights. But glaringly, they forget the remind us of the gentle and nurturing Gauri or the pleasant demure of Laxmi or Sarasvati.

This film had a brush with the Censor Board. From the getgo, the opening credits, which depicted various Hindu Goddesses, the Board insisted that the images of Goddesses had to be blurred.

The title sequence that the Censor Board did not want the public in India to see.

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of wants and needs...

We Are Nature (2021)

Pictures by: Wim Michiels

I met Wim and Ellen during their tour of duty to Malaysia. When they were here, we met every now and then. They kept me updated on their yet another adventure. Besides being keen hikers and long-distance runners, they soon debelled into cycling.

One of the most adventurous expeditions that they embarked upon must surely be their journey to Japan. They did it in style, however. Investing in a tandem bicycle, they started their journey in Kuala Lumpur and cycled their way all the way to Sapporo in Japan. Of course, I assume there must have been a ferry trip somewhere between South Korea to Japan and to Hokkaido.

Taking an extended leave from their daytime jobs and sorting out familial commitments, armed with basic necessities, pedal and leg power and the traditional paper maps, they embarked on their journey. 

Their excited family members and friends managed to follow their progress as they periodically updated their positions on their blog http://7billionand2.blogspot.com/ whenever digital signals showed up.

An interesting thing happened when they reached China. The Border Control officers, bored stamping document after document in a seemingly monotonous chore, must have been jolted off their slumber when they saw Wim and Ellen’s immigration card. They must have dropped off their chairs when they saw the mode of transportation as a bicycle. They came out of their cubicles to see what kind of vehicle had brought them all the way from the land at the tip of the South China Sea to mainland China!

They contacted their superiors to give a good inspection and scanning to ensure no wonder fuels were smuggled into China!

Incidentally, our paths almost crossed when they were passing through Cambodia. I had gone for a family visit (by air, of course), but due to logistics, I did not catch them there.

One life lesson they imparted from this travel is worth mentioning. After travelling for months, they finally reached Korea. Even though the travelling light as they had to carry their baggage on their tandem bicycle, they packed the bare minimum. Even then, they realised that half of their things remained untouched. 

By chance, an old friend caught up with Wim and Ellen while in South Korea. They sent back their unused things in tY their luggage as he returned to Kuala Lumpur. Wim’s famous pearl of wisdom, he mentioned later on, was this - half of the things that we think we need in this life are worthless. We do not require half of the things we think are essential for life. Sadly, we overestimate. Epicurean teachings are worth collecting. Give me wheat, give me water, and I will be a happy man.

Asian elephant close-up - Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka

Get off my back! No close-ups, no long shots. Just leave me alone. Too much on my elephantine mind right now. First, you used me in your wars. Then you took my tusk; you said it was priceless. You forced me to pull your logs and carry spoilt brats on my back. With a shortage of water catchment areas and a lack of habitat, I have nowhere to go. Now, don’t ask me to dance for you. Go get a monkey! FG

They have since returned to Belgium, but they continue in their search of natural beauty in the four corners of the world.

I was pleasantly surprised one day when I received a signed copy of his collection of photographs he had taken during his escapades. Apparently, his other passions include composing impressive pictures and capturing the picturesque side of nature. He had earlier requested some of his friends, yours truly included, to write little snippets based on the pictures Wim and Ellen had taken in their travels..

With permission, I had taken the liberty to reproduce some from his coffee table book.

Beach flower after a downpour, surviving in harsh conditions - Koh Lipe, Thailand.

Perspiring trying to keep the beauty amidst a world so harsh;

being a flower among the thorns. FG

Intriguing rock formations - Takachiho canyon, Kyushu, Japan.
You ain’t heavy, I am your rock. FG

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We built this city!

Once upon a time in Calcutta (2021)
Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Like Mother Nature @ Bhoomadevi, who has seen it all, like the dinosaurs' passing, and various primates and species morphing into Homosapiens, great cities have seen it all too.

Admittedly all cities expanded and developed to their present glorious states, not via virtuous paths but through acts of sin. Show me one still-standing city that did not benefit from actions considered unholy transactions. They all benefitted from shady nightlife activities, brothels, alcohol, smuggling, racketeering, and robbing, you name it. 

Still, life goes on. Umpteen people migrate to cities daily with a chest full of hope. Many manage to improve their lives, breaking their backs, sleepless but with a restless dream with the sole intention of climbing the ladder of success. Some falter, crushed by their enormous goals, obviously too big for the shoulders to carry. The city has seen the successes, the decadence, the swindling and the ploys. Its duty is not to punish. It merely records to play for anyone willing to hear the lessons of what lurks behind the bright city lights.

As far as nostalgia is concerned, Calcutta must surely be a city that has many tales to tell. After functioning as the capital of the British Empire and later as the site of many bloody turmoils following Partition, its past must be painted in blood, sweat and tears. Now, in 21st-century independent India, it morphs yet again. Buildings and statues that were grand then have become eyesores and need to be deconstructed.

Against this background is where this movie is set.

Ela is an ageing actress who has many things on her plate. Her young daughter's death has drawn her to the bottle and destroyed her relationship with her husband. They live under the same roof but lead separate lives. Ela is trying to get a loan to buy a house to move out, but she has no money. She had spent all her savings on her daughter's illness.

Ela may jointly own her late father's old and run-down family house. The problem is that Ela's late mother was a cabaret dancer and her father's mistress. Ela's half-brother, Bubu, blames the mistress for his own mother's suicide and refuses to give Ela any access to the property.

Bubu gets increasingly paranoid about his servants. The almost single Ela has suitors of her own. She reconnects with her old flame, and a proprietor of a Ponzi scheme showers her with gifts. The ugly side of the whole city network soon comes to the surface. The Ponzi scheme collapses, and Ela's old flame's new highway collapses. 

It appears that city is a scavenger and is hungry for more and more, but remember that people make cities.

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