Indian cinema's fascination with identical twins

Iratta(Twin, Malayalam; 2023)

Written & Directed By: Rohit M G Krishnan

Indian cinema's fascination with twins, particularly identical twins, goes way back to the late 1960s and 70s. Kollywood had MGR appear in many swashbuckling matinees featuring twins separated at birth by twist of fate, only to be reunited in adulthood by chance. Invariably, the twins would be different in mannerisms and characters, like day and night, but would be the spitting image of each other in appearance. These movies were mainly to boost MGR's political career as well as to spread Dravidian party ideologies. His films that involve twins' confusion include 'Enga Veetu Pillai' (1965) and 'Maattukara Velan' (1970).

Not wanting to be left out in the race to stardom, Sivaji Ganesan took the challenge to act in double roles. He pushed his acting prowess to the limit by appearing in triple roles - 'Deiva Magan' (1969), as a pair of twins, one looking normal and one scarred face, just like the father who is also Sivaji and scarred faced! Pushing the limit to the point of no return, this excellent actor assumed nine roles in 1964's 'Navarathri'. In 2001, BBC described Sivaji Ganesan's appearance in that movie as the best in his illustrious career. Each part is said to reflect nine human behaviours.

Double acting of yesteryears. 

Kamal Haasan tried to outdo Sivaji's roles via his 2008's 10 avatars in 'Dasavathaaram'. A fine actor he is, some characters did create a buzz, but sadly others fell flat, giving the feeling that they were just forced upon.

We have our own representation of double acting in the 1956 P Ramlee's 'Anak Ku Sazali', which earned him the Best Actor award in the 1957 Asia-Pacific Film Festival.

This police procedural Malayalam film is different from most 'twin' stories. Most movies depict twins as poles apart, so black or white, one good and the other bad. However, this one has both good and bad, just like an average Joe in real life. 

Pramod and Vinodh are twins separated in childhood by feuding parents. Their abusive alcoholic father chased out the mother and Pramod after a drunken stupor. Interestingly, both twins become police officers working in the same area. Pramod becomes a Deputy Superintendent of Police, and Vinod becomes an Assistant Sub Inspector. Pramod had drinking problems and was separated from his wife and daughter. Vinod is a hot-tempered cop who has no qualms about abusing his power. He throws his weight around the public and is a menace to his colleagues. The story starts with three gunshots that shatter the tranquillity of an idyllic hilly town in Kerala. ASI Vinod is shot at close range and found sprawled at his table in the police station. The rest of the story is about the investigation of the murder, interviews with Vinodh's working colleagues and narration of flashbacks to the deceased and his brother's back history.

The beauty of the movie is the fine acting of Joju George, who did not give a single hint that Vinodh and Paramod are acted by the same actor. Their body language, mannerisms and speech differ much. There was no uncertainty about who was who. Wait for the twist at the end.

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...to pull the plug?

Thalaikkoothal (Mercy Killing, Tamil, 2023)
Director: Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan

I grew up frequently hearing that Mr So-and-so died a 'good death'. I was often curious about what was defined as a 'good death'. In my naive eyes, all deaths were terrible, a tragedy. Everyone cried at a funeral.

In time, I realised that a good death is one in which one dies in his sleep peacefully after leading a long, satisfying life fulfilling the purposes of his existence. The problem is that no one is given the choice of death he eventually gets. We still do not know what is in store for us anyway.

This movie tells us the story of a filial son who would go to all lengths to care for his father, who is basically in a vegetative state. The doctors have told him point blank that there is nothing more the hospital can do. The father has to be given hospice care. Because the father needs so much attention, he does a less-paying job, provoking the ire of his young wife, who has to work as a miserable factory worker in a match factory. Because of that, she has to tolerate unwanted advancements by her blue-bearded supervisor. She has to stinge on niceties that she used to pamper herself. The wife is high-strung, scolding the preteen daughter and hate the sight of her husband and father-in-law. Gone were the times when husband and wife shared intimate times. The husband, who planned to seek better employment in the town, can also not do so. The thought of leaving his father, who cared for him through thick and thin, was too much for him to stomach.

Looking at how the ailing old man affected the whole family, his relatives and village elders frequently advise the son to consider performing a form of assisted suicide practice called Thalaikkotal to end their misery.

Of course, the husband vehemently opposes the suggestion. He performs a sacrificial prayer at the local temple, hoping for the Divine powers to change the course of his ailment. The father's condition hardly changed. Creditors close in to demand his house. His wife left him to return to her father's house with their child. The husband thought he could stand alone against the world. He soon came to the realisation of reality and agreed with the villagers to perform thallaikooliyal.

The ritual, a senicide, involves liberal early morning oiling of the head and body with sesame oil,  followed by forced feeding of tender coconut water infused with a cocktail of herbs that damage the kidneys.

Life improves after the father's demise, and everyone is happy. 

That is the problem with longevity. Sometimes the body stays in a much better shape than that of the mind. The body continues its bodily function, but the mind is not cognizant of what it can do or is doing. This describes someone in a coma. Just how long can or should be kept in a non-responsive comatose state? As long as finances allow or the relatives are willing to sponsor? Is it worth the effort to wait for the possible miraculous recovery to happen? The living needs to continue living, while the ones who have lived a full life need to go.

 

Sometimes the body fails terribly, but the mind faculty stays intact. This can also be a devastating experience for the sufferers as well as their caregivers as the victim projects his frustrations on people around him, fate and God. 

Should euthanasia be legalised? Are humans qualified enough to decide who should live or die? Should assisted suicide be legalised? Who decides who deserves to live or be resuscitated by all means? On what basis is this decided, productivity, past laurels, societal status, or a level playing field for all?

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Symbiotic living

The Elephant Whisperers (Tamil/Jemmu Kurumba; 2023)
Director: Kartiki Gonsalves

This is the utopia that the modern world is looking for. A world that is all lush green and man living in harmony with Nature. A world where animals are cared for and the forest is respected. Add Indian mysticism and simple living to that, and what do you get? An Oscar-winning documentary.

 Kartiki Gonsalves, a filmmaker, went with her camera to record the daily activities of a tribal couple, Bomman and Bellie, who had been assigned to care for an elephant calf after his mother was killed by an electric fence. The forest department had given up hope on caring for an elephant calf as the outcome was not so promising. 

Bellie had just lost her young daughter. As a divine calling, she thought nursing the baby elephant would give her some relief. She named the elephant Raghu. Later somebody gave them another orphaned elephant calf for them to care for. 

Karthika Gonsalves spent a good five years filming the couple with their baby elephants to come out with this documentary. In the process, she also managed to capture the picturesque scenery around the reserve with the Kattunayakan tribe members and the animals inhabiting the forest. Hey, that is how people in this part of the country have been living all the while. They live off the jungle, harvesting fruits, collecting honey and such. In one scene, the indigenous people mentioned that, as a form of respect to the forest, they remove their footwear whenever they enter the jungle for work. This feel-good documentary shows how the barrier between the human and the animal world can be broken.

Bellie and Bomman
(the main stars of the documentary)

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To Money God, with love.

Traditional Vietnamese stone
carving at Ba Na Hill cable car station.

 

They led peaceful lives by their standards. They were ruled by little kingdoms with their own belief systems and mode of administration. There were little skirmishes here and there, but the subjects were contended, breaking their backs and building mammoth structures for their kings and the divine forces that protected them. They had a sense of belonging to the land that served them. In their own way, they developed their high culture for the present and the world after.

Then came the foreign invaders. With their imposing figures, strange hues, smell, and conducts, they bulldozed their ideology. They handed us the book of love with the pretext of friendship and commerce. Whilst we closed our eyes in prayer, they took our land deeds unbeknownst to us, and we were stuck with their books.

No more a godless society?

They looked down at our living and called it uncultured. The French colonist proclaimed our land theirs and decimated our structures just to replace them and build buildings in French designs. They introduced French haute culture, theatre and the French way of living. 

We fought tooth and nail to assert our dominance. Fought we did, only to be a pawn in world politics afterwards. After sending the French packing, we had to fight our brothers over political leanings beset by the superpowers beyond our control. Many had to flee the country as the Americans experimented with cocktails of chemicals on us. We again sent the foreigners again, packing in a rush for good this time. 

With a new pack of friends from the North, we again started going places. Maybe because they share a common heritage and a love for the Money God, we have set the wheel of progress. My people have what it takes and have no qualms going the whole nine yards to see us through to recreate a kingdom so prosperous so long ago. We have the tenacity to work our way all the way to the top.

Entrance to My Son, Champa heritage.
Ruins of a glorious Hindu civilisation.

View atop Marble Mountain Da Nang.

Indo-Chinese fusion: the hirsute monk and dragons.

China's marvel at engineering is on full display.
Entrance to the world's largest cable car service.
5km long in Da Nang, the 3rd biggest city in Vietnam.

Chinese architecture in Indo-China!

Not a rafflesia. 

The might of Chinese engineering Ba Na Hills.

Was the tiger awoken?
40 years ago, the US bombed Vietnam to smithereens.

Too sanitised for sanitation?

A mock French village in Vietnam? Da Nang

Is slave mentality on display? The colonised trying to mimic the colonisers?

The French left them with beer culture and a sense of dressing up.
Most Vietnamese women were dressed to the nines.
The culture of 'slutty dressing' has not permeated yet, as for now.

A peacock in a French garden?

The invisible hands that control us all?

To keep up with the Joneses?

Can we build, or ‘copy and paste’?!

Seafood galore!

We will sing for you; we will dance for you. At your service!

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Longevity, a boon or a curse?

This newspaper cutting has been making its rounds in many social media groups, especially amongst the senior section of our society. Understandably they embrace the silver hair stage of their lives with much trepidation. It is anybody’s guess what the future holds for each of us. We try, however, to patch up all possibilities and pave all roads for a smooth transition to the other side. As mischievous as it always is, Nature will inevitably come up with some loophole that we never expected and, thus, are ill-prepared.

The generation before us, facing an uncertain future, seeing a world war and migrating for survival, saw education and wealth as a foolproof way to prosperity. Having hardly seen anyone pass their sixth decade of life, everything was done in a hurry. They needed to educate their kids, make a territory their legacy, and save for rainy days as they slowly rode into the sunset after having the pleasure of seeing their offsprings produce offspring.

However, they should have considered the push-pull factor from their Newfoundland and their newfound longevity.

Benefiting by leaps and bounds from the stride in medical development, baby boomers are now living to years thought impossible by their parents. Unlike their parent’s world, the world had grown smaller. The world is at their feet for the millennial to step out into. As per taught to them by their parents, migration to a more prosperous land and the validation of their qualification by a white man as success, they naturally migrate overseas, leaving the old people behind.

Unfortunately, we are creatures of habit. The oldies are left behind, not because of inconvenience but for comfort. The oldies feel safe at havens familiar to them. Hence, they stayed back. Sadly the mind ages slower than the body. This spurs many sad thoughts and needs to endure the maladies of loneliness and physical pain.

Humans are the only species on Earth that nurtures their young for such a long time, and conventionally the oldies are cared for in their twilight years. This turn of events is tricky when the old live long lives at a time when the young are struggling to put their mark on their lives. Care homes and assisted living to fill the gap but can only do so much.

Should we complain about living long lives or being uncared for in our geriatric age group? Money can buy love and medical assistance; that is about it.

The mighty Hang Tuah and even the Pandavas, after they felt unwanted after achieving unsurmountable tasks in their lives, decided to wander off into the wilderness of Gunung Ledang and Meru Hills, respectively, to be one with Nature. Just saying….

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Nobody's child, growing wild!

THE ROOST

There was once, many years ago, there was a spate when many of my relatives had given up on their motherland, turned their back on Malaysia and started looking around for greener pastures. I wondered how Mother Malaysia would feel to see one by one, her children, after years of nurturing them, after growing so big and strong, feel compelled to fly away from their roost. Like a proud mother seeing her kids having a mind of their own, she must be immersed in a bitter-sweet feeling.

Like a flight of swallows,

you came stocks and barrels,

from Swatow, Coimbatore, Minangkabau,

Looking for peace of mind,piece of pie,

for that,

you scaled the high seas and brine.

You were hungry; I fed your soul,

you had shivers; I showed you warmth.

you were homeless; I gave you home.

you were stateless; I was your hope.

Under the yellow umbrella,

and a piece of cloth,

you had dignity, camaraderie,

a history, a legacy,

an emblem, an anthem.

The colours to spill your crimson.

Now that you have wings,

you can expand your span,

once an ugly duckling,

majestically now a swan,

I remain your dodo,

Flightless, lifeless, brainless, valueless,

And cared less.

I am not up to your mark

not up to your spark,

you want to fly,

to reach high up in the sky.

you peacocked to new horizons,

no future, you cite as reasons,

you curse me,you betray me

still, I don't call it treason.

A summer love, a puppy love,

the morning after, the hangover,

a one-night stand,

a nightmare to be got over?

I have my desires too,

to progress like the red dot,

to shine like the rising sun too.

a tiger, not a chicken to the rot.

I stay regal, guarding,

patient, majestic,

hawking over the nest

providing a haven for the swallow for the summer.

What do Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh have in common? Besides standing tall and hoisting their Oscars in the recent Academy Award ceremony, both spent a brief time in Malaysia. For the ignoramus, a little Ke Huy Quan appeared as 'Short Round', Indiana Jones' fast-talking sidekick in the 1984 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'. 

Now Ke is all big and strong and appeared in the supporting role in 'Everywhere everything all at once!'.

Michelle Yeoh, as we already know, hails from Ipoh. She wanted to be a ballerina, but an injury prevented her progress. Like most Malaysians of that era (and now, too), many qualified Malaysians who lost out on the New Economic Policy are left with Hobson's choice but to pursue their ambitions outside the country. Malaysia is no place for a ballerina to prosper too. A place in a beauty pageant, sure, as it is forbidden to the majority. So, Hong Kong and Holywood were where Ms Yeah had to be to shine. Now, this country wants to bask in glory for the accolade as if it had everything  to do. Maybe it was the main push factor for millions to explore green pastures and hence, attributed to a massive brain drain.

Ke Huy Quan probably had multiple brushes with death before fame and fortune finally made their much-anticipated appearance. Once, at his birthplace in Vietnam when the family had to split up. The father left with half of the family, and the mother with the other half towards Malaysia, possibly aboard Hai Hong. Defying death again from rough seas and the risk of being shot at by the then Prime Minister, the family reunited in the USA a year later. 

It is not that citizens do not want to contribute to the nation. It is not that they do not want to be part of the nation. Paradoxically, it is the nation that does want intelligent citizens. They do not fit into their social engineering programme. They want obedient subjects who would dance to their drum beats and the fiddle of the ruling party. There is no place for slaves to question their masters! Michelle Yeoh and Quan should thank Malaysia for being inhospitable and help them to push to the limit and explore what they truly are made of.

A clip from 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.'

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