RIFLE RANGE BOY

Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Just a biological act or something divine?

Y tu mamá también (And your mother too, Mexican Spanish, 2001)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Interestingly, sex has always assigned the duty of maturing someone and smacking people with the profound answer of the reason for existence. Tinseltown impresses us that sex is the panacea to all our worldly problems. Of course, we all know that sex may also create problems of its own.

There was a time when sex was accorded a special status in society. Because of its mysterious nature, which was ill-understood by primitive men, sanctioning permission to indulge in this biological activity was complicated. Many requirements and rituals had to be fulfilled to obtain access.

As the societal restrictions became increasingly questioned with no logical explanation in sight, the biological act came to be treated as such, a biological process, not needing frills and pomp. Humans were merely continuing the spread of their seeds for the continuity of species.

Slowly sex lost its respected status in society. No more did ritual-sanctioning coital-related activities make any sense. Sex became a plaything and acquired many new roles - break-up sex, revenge sex, coming-of-age sex, casual one-night-stand sex and more; all deviated from its intended purpose, i.e. sowing the oats. Oats were sowed alright, but wildly.

But then, in modern society, sexuality becomes more complicated. Their premise is that love does not necessarily blossom between genders but within genders too. Gender is fluid, and a person picks and chooses the gender he feels at that moment; a male in the morning and a female in the evening, perhaps?

This story is about two precious sex-crazed 17 years-old boys who had left their girlfriends at the airport. The girls are off on a family European summer vacation. The boys, minors legally, are already smoking, drinking and sexually active. They are hoping for a sex-filled summer sexcapade. They meet a cousin's bored wife at a party. They try to flirt with her, offering to take her to a secret beach hideout. The bored wife discovers that her husband had a fling. Heartbroken, she decides to join the boys on their road trip.

The boys obviously want to bed the sexually mature lady. After many ups and downs, quarrelling and soul searching, the summer turned out to be a season none of them could forget, especially the boys.

"Life is like the surf, so give yourself away like the sea." is a dialogue in the movie. Well, it is not so straightforward. If one has put his mind to surfing, he has to manoeuvre his body and posture in such a way that he stays afloat and not swept away by a massive wave and goes under. In strict terms, he is not merely giving himself away to the sea but skilfully using the buoyancy of the water and propulsive forces of the waves to his benefit. Similarly, man cannot simply surrender to his primal instincts but plan his life with his intellect.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Sunday, 19 February 2023

For a fistful of rupees?

Farzi (Fake, Miniseries; 2023)

Created, Written &Directed: Raj & DK

It said that Pakistan is on the brink of bankruptcy. It has gone with a begging bowl to IMF for aid. After securing massive loans with low interest from China and investing in projects that never saw daylight, Pakistan found itself in trouble deep. The creditors came knocking on its door. The pandemic and local political turmoil tilt the economy further into hopelessness. Even God was not kind. Massive flooding, almost unheard of in desert-like Pakistan, took many lives in the densely populated regions of the country.

The real reason for Pakistan's predicament, India likes to believe, is Modi's demonetisation policy. It is alleged that Pakistanis were actively printing fake Indian rupees and using them to fund terrorist activities across the border. With the help of corrupt politicians, civil servants and the Mafia, these monies made their way to the Indian marketplace. It is the grey market; a fake ₹100 is equivalent to ₹30 in real money. It is sanitised once it is fed into India. Everyone is happy. Politicians are free to utilise these easy ill-gotten gains to bribe constituents and for campaigning. Other avenues for this foolhardy are cricket betting schemes and Bollywood financing.

The new size of the new notes made it difficult for the counterfeit industry to keep up. With the increased use of digital currency, physical money is also slowly losing its place in daily cash handling. The fake note industry took a severe beating, which shows in Pakistan.

The movie 'Farzi' is said to be based on Amazon's bestseller book by Sree Iyer, 'Who painted my money white?'. After reading the book and viewing the miniseries, I see that the theme is similar, but the premise is different.

Sree Iyer's book is more about dirty politics and the shenanigans of politicians. It tells about everything going wrong in India through his lens - fake currency, Islamic terrorism, love jihad and more. The climax is the attempted assassination of India's Prime Minister. For those familiar with Indian politics, readers can immediately identify that all the characters in the story obviously carry an uncanny resemblance to present-day politicians.

The miniseries tell about a street-smart artiste with a neck printing fake Indian notes in his grandfather's newspaper printing press. His fake turns out so accurate that an international terrorist based in Jordan wants to use his services. And things get complicated as governmental enforcement is hot on his trail.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

Friday, 17 February 2023

A recoil after the peak of civilisation?

Cunk on Earth (BBC Documentary S1, E1-5; 2022)

Creator: Charlie Brooker

If you find the following joke particularly funny, you will enjoy Philomena Cunk and her caustic below-belt deadpan British comedy.

FG asks X, “where have you been? ... haven't seen you in a while.”
X replies, “Oh, I have just been to Amritsar.”
“But why did you go there?” asks FG.
“...it was just on my bucket list. I always wanted to go there,” said X.
To which FG, with facial expressions a poker player would envy, blurted, “so now that you have fulfilled your bucket list, does that mean now you can happily kick the bucket?”

Diane Morgan appears as the persona of Philomena Cunk, a clueless TV comperè who interviews high-level scientists and academicians in this mockumentary. In a nutshell, it narrates the evolution of mankind and civilization as they progress from cave dwellers to their current status as the most successful species on Earth.

At the end of the five episodes, the viewers go off with the idea that humankind is actually regressing after all that leaps and bounds. Gone are the days when innovations, scientific discoveries and technological advancements were feted. Now we tend to reward people for mediocrity and for things that border on stupidity.

The highlights of this docuseries are the interviews between Cunk and the highly erudite guests of their fields. Cunk erroneously thinks very highly of herself. She is set on her ideas; her reference points are her ex-boyfriend, Sean, her flamboyant tarot card-reading aunt, and perhaps her intellectually challenged mates. She asks the most embarrassing questions to her guests and openly disagrees and argues with their opinion. The facial expressions of these guests are priceless. I am sure it is all part of showbiz, but how they responded to Cunk’s dumb statements is classic.

A light-hearted presentation with British dry humour laced with profanity. It may be interpreted as a swipe to the working class or the nouveau riche who climbed the social ladder, not by class and education but by their sheer ability to make money and command power.