RIFLE RANGE BOY

Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (Documentary; 2016) Director, Screenwriter: Dinesh D'Souza, Bruce Schooley Even though this partisan documentary did such a fantastic job criticising the Democratic Party and probably aided the victory of Donald Trump and his Republican Party, it received a flurry of negative reviews in the mainstream media. Despite having the honour of being one of highest grosser of all time, the film was nominated and made a killing at the Raspberry Awards for the worst Director, Film and Actor. The presentation starts with D'Souza starting his jail sentence for misuse of political funds (when he did his first film, 2016: Obama's America). As he mingles with the hardcore criminals in prison, he realises that the modus operandi of the gangs that control the jail is the same as the crooks that control politics in America, especially that of the Democratic Party. Just like the design laid out by a schemer who was a fe...

2016: Obama's America (Documentary; 2012) Director: Dinesh D'Souza, John Sullivan What is the hallmark of a mature society? Is it the ability to agree in unison to everything that is charted out by the forefathers? Is it the ability to assess, reassess, argue and substantiate all assertions with facts and figures? And that too without resorting to our primal elements of anger and violence. The member of society must be free enough to express his opinions without fear of persecution by decerebrate members of the community who are in the realm of power not by intelligence or erudite stature but by accident of birth. The society must be allowed to think. Creativity cannot be curbed or forced upon. Many of Man's most significant achievements come about by our ability to think outside the box, outside the conforms of the norm. Remember Star Trek. Just 50 over years after it fascinated our imagination, all the devices that were seen in The Enterprise are a reality, includin...

America: Imagine the World Without Her (2014, Documentary) Director, Written: Dinesh D'Souza, John Sullivan At a time in our country when leaders from the ruling party tell non-dominant races of the nation, the so-called 'newcomers', not to comment on the political running of the country but to just continue paying the tax without raising an eyebrow on the turn of events, I thought this documentary was an eye-opener. Only in America an immigrant who still remembers his time in his original country and after 30 years of residence in his newfound country writes and makes documentaries about the greatness of his new home but condemns the opposition to the concept of America. He further goes to prison for hurting the people in power. This is Dinesh D'Souza, the filmmaker known for making political documentaries and of one of the highest grosser in the history of USA. His previous flick, 2016: Obama's America (produced 2012) remains the second highest grossing...

An Era of Darkness (The British Empire in India) Shashi Tharoor, 2016. We all have listened to Shashi Tharoor's fiery debate at the Oxford Union on the necessity of Britain to pay reparatory damages to India. It was easily the most verbose and well-argued rebuttal on the merits of colonisation of the East by the West by any scholar. The bombastic choice of words and poetic structure of sentences would make even an authority on the English language scurrying to the thesaurus. This book is a continuation and elaboration of his articulations in his argumentation. India was doing quite alright even before the first white man reached its shores. At the beginning of the 18th century, India's was apparently the wealthiest nation in the world, controlling 23% of the world GDP. After the pillage of the country by Western powers, mainly the  British, in 1947, it became a poster child of poverty, misery and backwardness with 3% of the world GDP. The British India Company was prim...

Indian Deities Worshipped in Japan (Documentary; 2015) Director: Benoy K Behl If we look around us, we will find an unsatiable attempt to divide and sub-divide people. Human beings are often 'boxed-up' to be made seem different. Individuals placed in these 'boxes' feel exclusivity, and members of this association do things that convince themselves that they are indeed unique and their activities are centred around trying to satisfy their internal quagmire. Unfortunately, it does not lead to world peace as nobody wants to neglect their belief to bow to others' domination. Cognitive dissonance comes in the way. Everybody else can see the world tear apart except themselves. Paradoxically, all claim to descend in peace. The Greeks with their Platonic and Aristotelian teachings,  Hindus with their Vedantic leanings and many of the ancient belief systems must have got it right all along. They endeavoured to connect the dots and try to find commonalities betwee...

It: Chapter 1 (2017) Coulrophobia is a psychological condition when its sufferer feels a morbid fear of clowns. Funny it may sound as clowns are generally employed to liven up an event, a child's birthday or as a filler between circus performances. Furthermore, as the general statement goes, come sun or rain, the show must go on. Movie buffs will quickly remember Raj Kapoor's 'Mera Naam Joker' (My name is Joker) where the clown has to make his audience laugh even though he was crying and dying inside. Sivaji Ganesan also did a similar rendition in 'Rajapath Rangadurai' in the song 'Jinjunaka' where he, dressed as a clown, had to entertain a rowdy despite his bleeding heart. There is a logical explanation to coulrophobia. Clowns are accepted in certain places, parties, circus etcetera. He elevates the mood. However, outside this ambit, people are supposed to behave appropriately. Humans, as survival defence mechanism, have developed pattern recognit...

Memories of Murder (2003) We look at things around us, and we get awed. We observe, scrutinise, see a pattern, try to connect the dots and suddenly be cocksure about something. We brag and gloat that we have cracked it like we had unveiled the secrets of the Universe. Then it would hit you right smack in your face - that something did not turn out as we thought it would. We are shocked. We deny it. Cognitive dissonance would set in. Our ego would not accept our failure. We would blame error in experimentation, that somebody had slept on the job, that it just cannot be. What we do next may make or break our civilisation. We can just deny that the whole thing did not happen and move on with life, content with our prior knowledge. We can tell ourselves that we have learnt everything already and that there is nothing more to earn. Or be a sceptic and retrace our every step and try to outline where and when and how things can go wrong. The former is the easy way out that maintai...