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American Fiction (2023)
Sticking to the same narrative?
It seems that we have not changed much since our days as cavemen. Imagine living exposed in a world so hostile we would have tried to understand the unusual things around us. We continued compartmentalising the living and non-living things amongst us even when we became hunter-gatherers, farmers or city dwellers. By compartmentalising everyone in boxes, we thought we had our defences up to remind us which one of them was friends and which were potentially harmful. Gone are club-carrying or sabre-rattling days, but these classifications helped somewhat.
The Chinese viewed anyone non-Huns as barbaric. So did the Greeks, Persians and Arabs. During the mercantile era, the dark-skinned were labelled as God-sanctioned slaves.
In the USA, post-Civil War America assumed that the emancipated slaves were ill-prepared to fit into modern society. They expected them to remain the subservient ones. They were prevented from getting into mainstream business, education and even usage of common public amnesties. In their own stride, the Blacks did prosper. Records showed the presence of significant numbers of black entrepreneurs and millionaires all through the late 19th century. There were pockets of prosperous descendants of slaves. Such a vicinity was Tulsa in Oklahoma. Like the Osage Nation, there were abundant automobile-owning, well-suited professionals there. Tulsa was fondly called 'The Black Wall Street' because of the burgeoning business activity there.
The Great (2020)
Huzzah!
There may be better places to learn about Catherine the Great, her supposed greatness and Russian history than this miniseries. With the liberal use of the creative licence and the need to lure viewers to the miniseries, the moviemakers have taken the liberty to mix and match events haphazardly. There is plenty of exhibition of flesh in different stages of undressing.
A European history student may cringe at how historical figures are interchangeable at will here.
For the records, Catherine II was not Russian but Sophia of Prussian origin. She was not of aristocratic breed. Sophia was married off to Peter III at the age of 17. She embraced Orthodox Christianity, learned Russian, and was immersed in its culture.
Unlike what is depicted in the series, Peter III was not Peter I's son but his grandson. Peter I (Peter The Great) was the one who established the Russian Empire. After Peter the Great's unceremonious demise, his second wife, Catherine I, took the helm. The rule was chaotic, and civil unrest was the order. Catherine I's rule was short. So was her grandson's, a teenage Peter II's.
Peter III, Catherine I's other grandson, only ruled for six months before his wife, Sophia, who assumed the name Catherine II, arm-twisted him in a coup and put him under house arrest. This is far different from what is supposed in the show, where they have a love-hate lovey-dovey relationship with various expressions of carnal passion.
Soon after his incarceration, Peter III died under mysterious circumstances. The official cause of death was something as ridiculous as 'haemorrhoid colic'. There was a running joke amongst diplomats who wanted to avoid a Russian posting. They would cite fear of death as they already had piles!
Funny. After her death, Peter III was supposed to have inherited the throne from Queen Elizabeth I, his maternal aunt. What do you know? She is seen here giving motherly advice on royal etiquette, marital advice, and even ideas on how to rule the Empire.
Catherine II and the whole of the Russian Empire are known to be promiscuous and to be indulged in much sexual debauchery. And the miniseries maximised it to tilt. Sex sells. Catherine II is known to have had multiple lovers, just like any male emperor would have, for political reasons.
Another interesting observation in this miniseries is the character named Pugachev. Here, he assumes the role of Peter III's bodydouble to confuse possible assassins. From my understanding, the closest he came to Peter III was broadcasting to the serfs that he was indeed Catherine II's estranged husband. Pugachev started a rebellion with the support of the serfs. It did not succeed, of course.
Catherine II's CV shows that she introduced smallpox vaccination to Russians, even before Edward Jenner made inoculating cowpox exudates to stimulate immunity against smallpox. She had picked this up from the Persians, who learned from the Hindus.
Despite its historical inaccuracies, the miniseries was a humorously entertaining one, though. With witty, well-written script with wordplay and innuendoes, it was a delight to watch if one does not mind the Russian aristocracy speaking polished English! Be prepared for many F-bombs and toilet humour. As per the disclaimer, the producers have forewarned us that it is an occasionally true story.
The Forgotten Army - Azaadi ke liye (2020)
The story of the fallen
26,000 Indians had died under the banner of Indian National Army (INA) while fighting for Independence of India. Their actions triggered the Royal Indian Navy mutiny, which nailed the coffin of the British occupancy in India. The plea for Independence and the spirit of Indianness were supported by the diaspora outside India just to be sizzled out by the historical turn of events. They say that history is written by the victors. This is one clear proof of this statement. History had vilified the efforts of INA and had labelled them as traitors. Their agitations had been marked, not as nationalism but as treason.
Their rebel yell, Dilli Chalo (Let's go Delhi), was not in keeping with the narrative of the day then, as dictated by the Father of India and supported by the Congress Party. These people wanted India to be a British dominion to be given crumbs by their colonial masters. As such, Gandhi et al. decreed that Indian should be fighting for the cause of the Allied Forces to stay loyal to their master's path.
Subash Chandra Bose wanted full Independence from the British, not being a protectorate of Britain. He definitely did not believe that Gandhi's non-violent path would lead to self-rule. He managed to garner support from all the enemies of the British and the Allied Forces. At a time when India, being the subject of the British, was expected to fight for against the Axis Alliance, Bose lobbied for an Army to march with the Japanese against British in their Burmese campaigns. Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) was his brainchild, armed by the Japanese Imperial Army and financed by contributions expatriate Indian civilian volunteers of Malaya and Singapore. Hence, he was labelled as a traitor and enemy of the state.
Even though the operatives eventually turned out to be a dangerous one and had to be abandoned due to logistics as the Japanese found the whole exercise an uphill task, the INA did leave its mark. They stirred Indian nationalism. They were instrumental in initiating the Royal Indian Navy mutiny which expedited the British exit from the subcontinent. They were also the first Army (after Russia) to recruit a whole regiment comprising women -The Jhansi Regiment. For that time, the act of Indian women donning pants itself was revolutionary.
History never really gave the INA its befitting place. They were never given credence as free fighters, only tried as traitors. The 13,000 odd INA soldiers who were apprehended were never given due recognition for their sacrifices and never remunerations reserved for freedom fighters. Their activities actually roused the nation and stirred political consciousness in British colonies. Their soldiers later initiated left-wing and union movements in Malaya, Singapore and even Indonesia. They began to think of Independence. In Malaya, after Merdeka, their members continued carrying education reforms and women empowerment movements at the local and national levels.
This 5-part miniseries brings its viewers through a nostalgic journey into the past. Using the spruced-up colonial buildings of Singapore, the rubber estates in Malaysia and the jungles of Thailand as backdrops, the director managed to narrate the genesis of INA. Starting with prisoners-of-war of Indian descent serving the British Indian Army, the Japanese riled up patriotism to recruit more volunteers to serve at the Burmese-Indian border in their encounter with the British.
Using characters with names of known figures who had participated in the mission, the storyteller managed to create a love drama of soldiers as they scaled the treacherous terrains of the Arakan and the perilous battles in Manipur.
Janaki is the story refers to Janaki Athi Nahappan who went on to establish Malayan Indian Congress with John Thivy. She continued her social work until her demise in 2014.
Rasammah Naomi Navarednam
Rasamma here refers to Mrs FR Bhuphalan, a Malaysian educationist and social activist, the 95-years lady of steel who appears in the media annually during the Merdeka month. The character Lakshmi denotes Dr Lakshmi Swaminathan @ Lakshmi Sahgal @ Captain Lakshmi, who gave up her medical practice in Singapore to join INA in the Azadi movement. She later became a Minister in the defunct Azad Hind Government. After the war, she settled in Kanpur, continued her medical practice, entered politics under the Communist Party banners and passed away at the ripe age of 97 in 2012.
A lovely miniseries that educates the ignoramus on the side of history as narrated by the fallen. Excellent cinematography and prudent use of computer graphic imaging (CGI) to recreate the feel of a real war and fairly credible combat scenes. We are relieved of the typical gravity-defying acrobatic battle encounters typified by Bollywoo
U-Turn (2018)
It will take a full turn!
We think that rules only apply to others. We simply break the rules without batting our eyelids. We want the lawmakers to just close one eye, give leniency or forgive with a slap on the wrist. Somehow when the same law is broken by others, we are quick to throw the full might of book at them.
How many times have we seen drunk driving and the sequelae of such acts? How often have we seen friends cajoling their buddies to have 'one more for the road'? This must be what is meant by the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
This film is a sort of drama with a social message - 'Don't take things for granted!' It is a public service announcement to remind us that every single, seemingly useless regulation means something in the long run.
Many road users take an illegal U-turns atop a flyover by moving the laid-out concrete slabs. After making the intended turn, they do not re-adjust the concrete layout. Many accidents had happened there and an intern journalist, Rachana (Samantha Akkineni), decide to run a cover story on that. She pays a homeless guy to note the plate number of vehicles taking U-turns on the flyover. With her contact at the Road Transport Department, he gets the whereabouts of the vehicle owners. She then interviews them. She goes to the apartment of her first contact but fails. The next thing she finds out is that she is a suspect of the murder of the first contact. Soon she realises that all the persons in her list of offenders have all died recently. And their cause of death was suicide, all of them!
Things get complicated when the superior officers pressure their subordinates to close the case, and Rachana has no means to prove her innocence. Luckily, there is a sympathetic police officer who believes her. Together they try to scale up to the limits of the paranormal to get to the root of the problem.
An entertaining flick with a message.
Two (1965)
Can't buy happiness, just feel happy!
In 1964, renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray was asked to create a short film for 'ESSO World Theater', a cultural showcase presented on television and funded by the American oil company Esso. Asked to write and direct the film in English, Ray opted instead to make a film without words. The result is a poignant fable of friendship and rivalry. As he did for many of his movies, Ray composed the music for the film, including the haunting tune played on a flute. After Satyajit Ray was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1992, the Academy embarked on an ambitious endeavour to preserve the works of the Bengali filmmaker. "Two," also known as "Parable of Two," is part of the Academy's Satyajit Ray Collection, which includes 18 feature films directed by Ray and preserved by the Archive.
It is ironic that film without words can make one speechless. One can say so much by not speaking at all. It is partly the storyline and also the ingenuity of the director that helps to bring out the unspoken message which is left to everyone's imagination to decipher.
It is ironic that Ray made this short film for a multinational company which is involved in the global promotion of consumerism, materialism and decadence of the environment. I look at it as a slap on the face. From the get-go, one can see a well-fed home-alone well dressed young boy complete with a hat with big ear-like contraptions which will only remind one of Mickey Mouse. And he is seen gulping a beverage from a bottle which has the shape of Coca Cola - what else can it be? He is obviously feeling bored despite all the expensive toys that are lying around him.
Out down from his window, he sees a poor peasant boy having a whale of a time playing a melodious tune on his flute. Jealous that the poor boy can have such a good time, he sabotages his every plaything; banging his drums, shooting with his toy gun and even shooting down his kite.
Despite all the destructive attempts at spoiling the poor boy's play, the latter returns with more ideas to entertain himself. The rich boy remains unhappy despite his access to luxury and the toys at his disposal.
The people in power are hellbent on crushing the hopes and attempts of the less fortunate to progress. The well-heeled feel that only they deserve to be happy. After all, money can buy happiness, they think. The poor, they believe, merit what they have for all their Dionysian outlook of life.
The clip may be voiceless, but the message is loud and clear. Happiness is also a metaphor for the human spirit. The poor are representative of the human race collectively. Despite the repeated insults hurled upon them by the powers that be, the rich multinationals which rapaciously destroy the planet or even Mother Nature who regularly test them with calamities, the human race will never give up. Hitting brick walls has become second nature to them. Overcome they shall.
Bad Education (2019)
Honour among thieves
They used to say that education was the only left to us to come out of the rut that we were stuck. At least that is what Amma made us believe when we were forced to burn the midnight oil even during festivities. While others were busy getting ready to usher in the festival in full spirits, in new garments and air of celebrations, we were made to cramp in facts about biology and Newton's law of gravity. She impressed upon us that at the time of reckoning when our future endeavours were at stake, our knowledge and quick thinking that would pull us through interviews and promotions, not stories of merrymaking and feasting with friends.
Then we grew up. The years in the School of Hard Knocks showed us that Amma was only partially correct. True, education would help to lift you up by your boot-straps but 'whom you know' will skyrocket you to greater heights. Knowing people helps to cement transactions and grease you out of difficulties.
We all understand that a good education can be bought. In the real world, we can see that not all who graduated from the Oxbridge or Ivy League got in via merits. There is, of course, donation or diplomatic connexions.
Losers will talk about the law of Nature and how evil gets back you. A crime is a crime only when one is caught. Even apprehension does not equal conviction as one can get the best justice that money can buy. The best legal representations can ensure acquittal on technicalities. It is common knowledge that the law is no friend of the poor. The mere legal procedural process itself can be bankrupting.
This 2019 film is based on a true story that happened in a high ranking American public school district in the State of New York. Its superintendent and his assistant are exposed in embezzlement of using the district monies for the personal needs. The scheme was presented by a student reporter of the school magazine. They were incarcerated.
On another note, in the US, in 2019, another scandal arose over a criminal conspiracy to influence undergraduate admissions decisions at several top American universities by cheating on college entrance exams and fabrication of elite sports credentials. The importance of good education is evident to everyone that people are willing to lie, cheat and find the simplest way to secure a good education for their loved ones, even for their apathetic, non-motivated and intellectually challenged ones. It is just an extension of helicopter parenting.
This story also reminds me of the corrupted system that we all live in. It is filled with the spirit of patronage, serfdom but aloofness at the same time. I guess they call it professional courtesy or honour amongst thieves.
Shinel (1959)
Symbolism of a broken system
Watching Mira Nair directed film 'Namesake' eventually brought me to this Russian movie. One of the iconic lines mentioned in 'Namesake' is 'we are all from Gogol's Overcoat'. The quote is attributed to Dostoevsky, who meant the whole Russian literary world owe their ideas and styles to Gogol, the pre-eminent satirist and literary realism.
Gogol's Overcoat had made it to the silver screen many times over. From the silent film production in 1916 to the 2018 animated version, some of it carries different storylines.
This 1959 Soviet production stays true to the original short story. I also managed to catch up with a made-for-TV adaptation for 'Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents' starring Buster Keaton named 'Awakening'. Both of these movies are available on YouTube.
Akaki Akakievich, the protagonist in Gogol's story, is a sad character who leads a boring life. He works in a governmental agency doing seemingly mundane job of keeping records, writing and copying documents. In his mind, he is doing something quite profound. He knows all the figures and numbers like the back of his hand. His eccentricity is actually the butt of joke among his co-worker. Akaki earns pittance, and it shows. He lives in a rented room in the poor side of town. His overcoat is so worn out and cannot be patched anymore, according to his tailor.
He stinges through to be able to sew a new coat and receives attention from his co-workers when he shows up with his new overcoat. The usual socially awkward Akiki is feted with an office party in his honour. Akiki is extremely happy with his decision, but still, his new purchase cannot change his awkwardness. He personifies his coat and cares for it dearly, sometimes over the top. He even removes the coat when it snows, not wanting to get it wet.
Going home, his flashy coat draws unwanted attention. He is mugged. Muggers scoot off with his pricey possession. Next comes the lengthy bureaucracy of reporting his theft. He is given the runaround. His loss and exposure of cold proved too much for Akiki. Akiki succumbs to pneumonia and haunts the neighbourhood. A meaningless death to a person leading a meaningless life.
The Buster Keaton version (The Awakening) has a slightly different ending. Akiki does not die, but instead, is determined to relive his dream where he raises up to assassinate the chief of the tyrannic system.
The story is a symbolism of a broken system. Even though people's patience has been stretched thin with ridiculous policies and unwise decisions, the people go on thinking that they are doing alright. Not realising that the joke is on them, they blindly give themselves a pat on their back for a job well done. Unbeknownst to everyone changes can be detrimental, but then, the Truth or generation after them will rise to the occasion. This is shown as Akiki coming back as a ghost to haunt the living daylight of the people of St Petersburg.
K.G.F: Chapter 1 (2018)
Go for gold?
It is touted as the highest-grossing Kannada film, the fourth highest-earning Hindi-dubbed film after the Bahuubali movies and 2.0, an international success and was feted at the National Film Awards. It was dubbed to Hindi, Telegu, Tamil and Malayalam almost immediately after its Kannada release with much success. And Chapter 2 is in the making. Am I missing something here that everyone else seems to enjoy? And, to say that this is one of the films that give people a reason to watch movies coming from the South, as quoted in a blog and recommended to me, is just too much.
Just how many times have we seen a child wronged at childhood to grow up with vengeance against the rich and the powerful as mighty as Sri Rama himself to be a Robin Hood to the poor? How many times have we seen unknowns infiltrating into gangs just to disintegrate the whole setup from within? Think Nayagan, Thalapathi and the umpteen Bollywood and Kollywood productions. Even the hero's nickname in the film is not original. I remember Sanjay Dutt calling himself as 'Rocky', a scrambler wielding kid-wonder who was able to achieve the unimaginable in an 80's crowd-pleasing matinee.
The film narrates how a cartel enslaved people in a gold mine to extract the precious metal in secrecy in cahoots with the politicians. Even though it is made to appear that gold is smuggled from overseas, it was mined locally in a clandestine manner. Everybody wants to have a stronghold in its control, even gangsters from abroad. To get this message across, viewers have to endure senseless violence, ruthless decapitation, gravity-defying stunts and larger-than-life pyrotechnic display. Again and again, there are repeated scenes of the macho hero walking away, leaving behind a trail of a destructive cloud of explosions and cadaver.
What spurred my interest while watching the movie was the fascination of man to gold. History of gold is as old as the modern history of mankind. It had been a fascination with Man for ages. The destruction of Aztec, as well as many of the advanced civilisations in the Americas, were solely because of gold. Rappage of India by Muslim invaders and 'traders' from the West was also due to this precious metal.
It is said the temples of India in ancient times were so rich with gold that they could finance many of its international naval expeditions as well as create a conducive environment for research on science, mathematics and Nature. Its wealth became its very downfall as it also drew many barbaric tribes. The gold stock had to be locked away in underground vaults only which were only to be lost in the annals of history.
The Indian diaspora has always looked at gold as their fixed deposits. In times of needs, jewellery is still there for the rescue. No need laborious credit application and credit ratings. The friendly pawnshop owners are always willing to take your piece at low-interest rates. Gold will go a long way.
In one of the numerous Youtube presentations that I received recently, an economist was suggesting that perhaps with the amount of gold lying around in India, it could be used as leverage to secure loans for small businesses. Now that there is talk some countries are trying to put gold back as the golden standard as the value of currency instead of the Greenback, this could be a good option. With the colossal amount of gold lying around in India, this could be an exciting thing for the even big players to look into. But then, nobody is going to be so open to display their hidden treasures in public. It may attract the attention of the wrong kind. of thieves and legal pilferers from the internal revenue service. These significant changes require political will but the powers that be are quite content with the status quo. Many third-world leaders have parked their assets in foreign lands. Do they really care what becomes of the country they lead?
Hindi Medium (2017)
One life, a hundred desires!
The apparent difference in outlook in spirituality between the Western and Eastern philosophy is quite visible. The former revolves around its fixation on following preset rules to appease the Maker. In the case of the latter, it appears to be more like an eternal quest. It is a lifelong journey to hunt for the secrets of the Universe. The whole teachings in the Vedanta, Buddhism, Confucianism and the Tao scriptures are towards this end.
In simple terms, Eastern cultures are seekers of knowledge. Sometimes, this also became their own undoing. When the Western cultures first hit the Indian shores, the natives slowly neglected their age-old wisdom. They plunged head-long into their newfound obsession of acquiring erudition from the visitors, only to be led astray.
This hunger for knowledge has not been quenched after all these years. The world over, Asians, armed with their right discipline and dedication, are slowly but surely making their presence felt once again. In academic, artistic and scientific fields, they are redeeming their rightful places.
The movie, 'Hindi Medium' and its spiritual successor, 'Angrezi Medium' (English Medium) are evidence of the length Indian parents would go to ensure that their offspring will get a sound education.
In 'Hindi Medium', a nouveau riche couple move into posh housing estate to register their young daughter in a prestigious grammar school. When the daughter failed to make it into the school register, the parents realise that they could still qualify under the quota set aside for the underprivileged students. They move into the most impoverished side of the town masquerading as the urban poor. The unpleasant living conditions, the dodging from the school inspector and the overprotective nature of their neighbours form the basis of this comedic, yet thought-provoking presentation.
'Angrezi Medium' (2020) is Irrfan Khan's swansong. Here, he is a single parent of a bright teenage girl. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake of clipping his deceased wife's desire to study, he yearns for his daughter to win the scholarship to study in the UK. Khan also has a nagging legal battle with his family members over his small-time Indian sweets business. The court case goes against his favour. His bad luck, the presiding judge happened to be the husband of the principal of his daughter's school. The daughter's scholarship gets cancelled when Khan verbally abused the judge in a school function. The rest of the story is how Khan, against all the odds, although some of them are unbelievable, still manages to get his daughter enrolled in a university in the UK.
Bangalore Days (2014)
Desires last 60 days; lust 30
The stories of the silver screen and fairy tales make us believe that it is worthwhile to grasp that one chance at love. They convince us that it the single most crucial fight that one has to win. Overcoming that would translate to eternal bliss. It is happiness afterwards, forever and ever. Err... wrong answer.
In a very entertaining way, combining the scenic backgrounds of Kerala and Bangaluru, as well as the pleasing youthful features of the good looking actors, the story tries to tell us in a subtle way that it is not all hunky-dory when and especially after one finds love. It is an eternal struggle to keep the flames alive. Even if the ember stays aglow, there are too many interferences that threatened its harmony. In modern living, with the relaxation of rigid social restrictions that used to prevail and the scream of empowerment, no one can be pinned down anymore. Everybody is free to do what he (or she) wants. Is that daring to be different, to empower oneself, defiance to status or plain lazy to uphold the age-old agreed norms that rock the whole fabric of marital bliss? Or is it that the desire to defend the holy institution of marriage that makes one overlook or tolerate the many imperfections of the other?
The story revolves around three cousins (Kuttan, Arjun and Divya) who are close as thick as thieves sharing an unforgettable childhood and the same sense of humour.
Arjun, a son of an army man, went wayward after his parents divorced. We get the sense that he attributes his failure in life to his parents' separation. From a top student, he ended up being a dirt-bike racer and an occasional mechanic. His love interest turns out to be wheelchair-bound paraplegic. The positive thing about the film is the paraplegic character actually had a positive. Unlike a typical India movie where a far from 'perfect' person will usually sacrifice her life, here she is paved the way for a possible happy experience.
Happy forever and ever?
Kuttan is a goody-two-shoes who followed all the pointers given by his parents and is a software engineer. One day, Kuttan's father disappeared from their home. He left a note citing his desire to find peace and purpose in life. A subsequent letter clarifies that he actually must be enjoying himself in the laid back beaches of Goa, away from the smothering of his wife, Kuttan's mother. Kuttan also realises that his mother, though meaning well, could be quite a pain in the neck when she moved in with him.
Meanwhile, Kuttan is also finding love, naively thinking that a nice traditional Kerala girl would be ideal. His first love, a stewardess, proved disappointing. She used him to get back to her ex-boyfriend!
Divya, the only female of the trio, undergoes an arranged marriage to Shiva. After the wedding, Shiva and Divya move to Bangalore. By a twist of fate, her cousins land up in Bangalore. Divya soon discovers that her husband is far from intimate. Their marriage goes through a tailspin. Soon it is found that Shiva keeps a dark secret from his past.
The rest of the story is in trying to tie up everybody's life to a resolution and a happy ending. Inserted subtly into scenes are cryptic messages which tend to answer itself. One visible message is how Indians tend to parrot Western's way of dressing and embracing their culture while the Westerners look highly at the Indian way of living and cannot wait to immerse into them.
At the end of the film, Kuttan, who was looking out for a typical Bharat Natyam dancing Malayalee with long pleats for matrimony, found one in Michelle, a Caucasian girl fitting the above description!
Vaxxed II: The People's Truth (2019)
Are you vexed?
HttIt must be difficult being educated in the 21st century. With the plethora of information at our fingertips, we are left not more well versed but on the contrary, more confused and unsure about almost everything. The more knowledge we seem to acquire, the more we seem to be wanting. The influence of visual media and the persuasive power of raw human emotions make us buy any story and rethink that perhaps conventional wisdom perhaps needs reassessment.
For aeons, people succumbed to communicable diseases. Entire civilisations have disappeared in our not so distant past. The advanced Aztec and Mayan cultures were probably wiped out by the smallpox viruses brought in by looting Spanish sailors. Barring some viruses kept in laboratories for bio-weapons, we have managed to eradicate smallpox from our list of the leading causes of mortality. Vaccination used to be hailed as one of the fifty of mankind's greatest discoveries. Now, people stand proud thumping their chests boasting of their statuses of not being inoculated against communicable diseases. In fact, it appears as if they have lost all confidence in the medical profession.
No, it is not true that medical professionals are not trained in administering vaccinations. Contrary to what is wrongly alleged in this documentaries, medical students spend many hours studying immunology and rationale of immunisation. True, adverse reactions to vaccines are known but it is a numbers' game. We are talking about extremely rare serious debilitating long-term neurological side effects, in the range of 1 in 100,000 for triple antigens. The disgraced British Gastroenterologist, Dr Andrew Wakefield, in his seminal 1998 BMJ paper suggested that the combination Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine probably carried many contaminants that could be linked to autism. He suggested MMR administration be reassessed and be given as separate preparations.
Japan, after its 1960s experience with unexplained subacute myelo-optic neuropathy (SMON) which was linked to polio vaccine and threatened to put a stop to the 1960s Tokyo Olympics, is very wary of introducing vaccines to the country. For the record, many years later, a popular dysentery medication Clioquinol (CQL), was singled out as the probable culprit. The manufacturers of the anti-HPV vaccine against cervical cancer, Gardasil, have been trying very hard to penetrate into the Japanese market with no success.
The documentaries managed to pluck the melancholy strings of many of its sentimental viewers. The pictures and video clippings of before and after pictures of patients with vaccine-injury can move mountains. Imagine a bubbly and smiling infant learning to walk before the MMR vaccination turning into a fretful, floppy child with no eye contact. And yet in another instance, a dirt-bike racing teenager boy becomes quadriplegic with spinal meningitis after Gardasil. An active cheerleader with a bright future has her personality all altered after the anti-HPV jab.
Statistics do not matter to the victims of vaccine-injury. The question is whether the subsequent morbidity experienced by the patient was indeed caused by the act of vaccination. Was it a mere coincidence or a manifestation of an unrelated disease that was deemed to surface anyway? Are the symptoms related to the contaminants in the preparation of vaccines? It is known that aluminium, nickel and mercury which carry the antigen are linked to ill effects. Does the multiplication of deactivated viruses or antigens in animal cultures bring with it zoonotic diseases linked to attached retroviruses? Perhaps the human body has not been given time to adapt to the high load of animal inoculations.
The democratisation of information does not liberate its consumers. It merely pushes all the information to the end-users, to empower them to make choices. The product insert lists all the known and obscure adverse complications related to the vaccines, hence, absolving the manufacturers of possible litigations.
The presence of a special vaccine court in the US where vaccines cannot be sued but the possible victims of vaccine-injury may be compensated by a professional body raises suspicion whether Big Pharmas have some kind of a stronghold to reap benefit from an unsuspecting society. Is there more than meets the eye in the story of immunisation.
From a movement that demanded a reassessment of combination vaccines, it has now morphed into one that opposed all kind of vaccinations. In my opinion, it is a kind of overkill. Some of the later scenes in the second documentary borders on ludicrousness, though. Clips of proud parents from the Bible Belt region flaunting their seemingly healthy and smart children is no testimony of perfect health.
KD (2019)
If you love someone, let him go!
This story reminds me of the many stories that I discussed with my fellow partner-in-crime in the not so distant past. Quite many a time, seriously ill patients with advancing age with the myriad of medical illnesses that complements the geriatric population often gets admitted to his unit. Invariably, the patient's children would insist that their moribundly ill elders get all the best treatment that money can buy. The oft-repeated dialogue would be, "money is not a problem". My friend knows it is no use flogging a dead horse but like a good servant he is, he obliges, every time.
The tide would be going against the acutely ill patient. The next of kins would, however, stay hopeful. The life is literally hanging on a thread, living on a prayer. But hope lies eternal in the human heart.
Days move ever so slowly but the patient's condition did not improve. Slowly, the number of visitors hanging around the visitors' lounge becomes thin. People have to go back to their daily routine. One has to live for the living. Occasionally, the nurses can hear arguments amongst siblings. One busybody nurse overheard one relative threatening to stop contributing to the family coffers. Then another would butt in to say that the treatment is the least the family offer to the patient. And yet another would throw in the towel citing economic reasons. Collectively they all would agree that the successful one amongst them take the tab.
Soon it would be a single relative hanging around to get daily updates on the patient's progress. Then the Universe will speak and lead to an amicable curtain call so as to give a suitable closure to the whole brouhaha. Nobody gives what the patient wants. The living decides what is best for the dying.
Everyone says that there is an absence of sufferings on the other side. One can enjoy of all kinds, eternally satiating all the senses at a divine but first, one has to die. That is the problem. Nobody wants to die no matter how much one is convinced of life after death.
This offbeat but entertaining drama tells of an unconventional bond between an 80-year-old man, KD, and young orphan boy, Kutty. This octagenarian was in a coma for three months. Lying in his daughter's home, given up by doctors, he holds on his life. Refusing to die, he becomes a burden to his 5 kids. They just want to go on with their lives. One sibling wants to marry off her daughter. Another is waiting for his inference to settle his debt. The youngest child, however, does not like the idea but relents anyway when collectively the family members decide to terminate the old man miseries by performing euthanasia using traditional village methods. By a twist of fate, the 80-year-old came around at the precise moment, overheard the conversation, and scooted off the scene on a local bus. He paid the fare for the last stop but the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. KD decided to hang around a small temple, help around the temple, and make acquaintance with Kutty.
His friendship with Kutty gives KD a new lease of life. Kutty, an orphan, a street smart boy, was left at the doorstep of the temple at infancy. For the first time in his life, Kutty found love in an adult. Kutty made KD's bucket list and together they try to fulfil the list. The family, upon realising KD's disappearance, assigns a private investigator who is hot on the old man's trail.
Another entertaining story with a picturesque spread of the Indian countryside. It has its fair share of quirky moments as two members of different generations try to find commonality.
A lesson to learn: Do not let your family members decide the fate of your life. When your faculties are no longer yours to make a decision, they will make decisions that suit them or what is expected of them by society. Your suffering will be their bargaining chip. Write a legally binding declaration of refusing resuscitation when the situation arises. Have a difficult but necessary discussion of opting to turn off the plug when things do not look promising. Let people remember you as the ambulant and cheery person you are; not as the pain with tubes that drained half of the family heirloom, if there is any left.
The Lift Boy (2019)
When we go up...
HThe slave sees how comfortable the life of his master is and vow that no one in his lineage should ever be clutched by the curse of the serfdom. The slave is willing to break his back to ensure that his offsprings do not experience that bitterness of having to crack his head to put the next meal on the table. He works through the humiliation, the ill-health, the injustices to appease his bosses. In his mind, his job is his divine duty; his career gives his dependents food, covered their modesty and put a roof on their heads.
The slave paves the way for his offspring to change the family's fate. His hope is that his family would be the exemplary model of a rags-to-riches saga. The offspring, on the other hand, thinks that it is his birthright to be served. He knows his parents have put heavy burdens on him. His parents made sure that their golden goose is pampered to lay the best eggs. The offspring thinks he is too good for his family. He wants out and feels his parents are an embarrassment.
Then, right smack on the face, fate plays a cruel game.
In this simple movie, an 'almost an engineer' student, Raju, who keeps failing his examinations has to replace his father at work, as a lift attendant, after he has a heart attack. As it is Raju's term holidays, he reluctantly agrees. In a real sense, it is not holidays as he has to sit for remedial examinations. It turned to be an eye-opener and a game-changing event for him. Raju initially thought that doing his father's job was way below his 'qualification'. His short tenure and interaction with the occupants of the building that he worked, became a coming-of-age experience for him.
The lift is a metaphorical representation of our desires to elevate ourselves in life. People who worked hard to own a space up there stays longer, but eventually, we all have come down. Also, a point to remember, the uniform that is given to us reinforces upon us our servitude to the profession entrusted with it. With a surgeon's scrub suit, he makes the bold life-saving decision at the nick of time. A person at the check-out counter is supposed to do just that; help in the check-out and tolerate whatever annoyances that comes with it.
Karwaan (2018)
The destructive forces of a revolution?
Just to recapitulate what Jordan Peterson mentioned in his book 'The 12 Rules of Life', we tend to assume all social ailments or individual problems that one faces in the process of growing up must be solved with a radical restructuring of one's culture. The call for social revolution is heard loud and clear amongst the young chicklings in every generation. The oft-quoted complain among the youth is that adults are not in tune with reality or are living in the past. Names like fossils and dinosaurs have been heard. On the part of the elders, it is pejorative as well. Their offsprings have been referred to as the generation that would bring down civilisation.
What we often forget is that revolution by nature is destructive. Look back at history. Revolutions have always been of chaos, destruction and re-setting or jump-starting a failing system. If every generation feels that the generation before them had wronged them, there must be something wrong somewhere. Aeons of living together as a community, and we are still struggling to pave the best way from childhood to adulthood. Surely this cannot be true. The parents cannot be wishing ill of their downlines. This is contradictory to the theory of the selfish gene and maternal reflex of walking into a hopelessly burning building to save her young. Logically, after going through various challenges over the centuries, the human race would have surely come up with a blueprint on how to tackle teenage and growing pain issues. But then childhood, adolescence and teenage is a new construct of the 20th century. Before that, children were just little adults, beaming with desires to grow up and fill into the shoes of the adults. The priority was the community, not personal liberty.
Time is an excellent teacher. Hopefully, before the young gets all her life muddled up, they would realise that all the ranting and whining were indeed well-intended.
So, it was told...
A 5-year-old child would think that his father was the strongest, bravest or the fastest than any of his mate's father. At 10, he would not think too much of him. At 15, he cannot see eye-to-eye with him. At 20, he likes to avoid his father altogether. He only communicates with his mother (to pass the message). Then life goes on. At 40, now with children of his own, he understands that it is a Herculean task to be a parent. At 50, he appreciates his father's deeds. At 60, with his father dead and gone, it is all full circle again - his father is the strongest, smartest and most patient man.
This movie tells the story of three people who go on a journey of self-discovery when one of the protagonist's parent's remains was accidentally couriered to the wrong address. Avinash is living in daze working in an unsatisfying job, forever regretting of not pursuing his passion for photography. He has a bone to pick with his father, who had died recently during his pilgrimage, for making his childhood a living hell. His father had unilaterally decided what was best for his future.
When Avinash received his father's coffin, he realised that the sender had mixed up the package. He had to send the box to the rightful owner and reclaim his father's body. He got the help of a friend, Shaukat, with his van to travel from Bengaluru to Kochi. On the way, they had to pick a young girl, Tanya, the granddaughter of the other deceased.
The three characters all have 'daddy issues'. Avinash had a father who objected to his choice of carrier. Shaukat had a drunkard and abusive father. What puzzled him was why his mother took all the abuses and chased Shaukat out of the house instead when he raised up to question his father. Tanya grew up without a father from the age of eight. He had succumbed to cancer. Looking at Tanya's rebellious behaviour opposing all the values that Avinash holds dear to his heart, he realises that that was how his father would have felt. With the benefit of being grilled in the School of Hard Knocks of Life, Avinash can see more things than what the young Tanya just simply fail to realise.
The cinematography is quite breathtaking as the characters drive through the country road to God's own country. Watching the film just reignited our cycling team's earlier plan to cycle in India. Before the COVID pandemic brought all travels to a grinding halt, we were interested in a 950+ kilometres cycling tour through Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The Pathological Optimist (2017)
How far would you go?
Sometimes people tell me that I have to wise up, that I have to be a man. When I don't budge, they add that I have a moral responsibility to re-act. I owe it to society to voice out. If a person of my standing did not, who would? Doing the right thing is not always about doing the likeable stuff. One needs to create chaos to maintain order. The serpentine opposing forces of yin and yang, of male and female, are not mutually exclusive but complementary! Chaos and order make up the eternal, harmony of the Eden of life.
I claim to love my country so much, but I do not think I would be willing to don jungle fatigues, drag around a rifle in the discomfort of the outdoors and deafening sounds of exploding gunshots. Probably not in this lifetime.
Would anyone go through great lengths to defend what he thinks is right; at the expense of peace of mind, creating a turmoil within his family, being treating a pariah by people by people beneath them who obviously do not know what they are talking about. All the things that he considered his reason for living, his raison d'être, ridiculed like he is a lunatic. Just how far would he hold on to his conviction?
Andrew Wakefield, a Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Free Hospital in the UK, was having a comfortable life doing what he wanted to do all his life - to treat patients. The study he co-authored which implicated MMR vaccination to gastrointestinal dysfunction and neurological regression which appeared in a 1998 publication of Lancet changed all this. Even though ten out of the 13 contributors agreed to retract the said article, Wakefield stood steadfast. He reiterated that there was an association between the combined MMR vaccine and severe neurological symptoms. He suggests further testing and advocated single vaccines.
Brian Deere's investigative journalism work in the Sunday Times accused Wakefield of undeclared conflict of interest and manipulation of results. After a long process, Wakefield was struck off from the British Medical Register. He migrated to Austin, Texas. The topic of autism and its association with MMR as well as the increase in the activities of the anti-vaxxers' movement. Correspondingly, Wakefield's name gets mentioned every now and then in documentaries as well as in the mainstream media. It led on to multiple court cases against Deer and the BMJ to clear his name. Unfortunately, he kept losing all his legal battles and ended up paying the legal costs for the opponents. The many groups supporting those injured by vaccines keep on supporting him.
Despite all the difficulties that Wakefield, his wife Carmel and their four kids have gone through, he is adamant about defending his research, denies monetary intentions or fraud and works with non-profit organisations related to autism. The periodic spike in incidences of measles is blamed on his movements.
This documentary, done in a very personal way, following Wakefield into his yoga class and his home, takes us to a time between 2011 and 2016 when he had to slug it out with the Texan court in a suit against the BMJ. The viewers can see a weary man fight with all he has for what he calls a 'moral issue'.
P.S. So much for love will keep them together fighting a good fight. 32 years of marriage of Andrew and Carmel Wakefield came to an end. Andrew Wakefield is now dating ex-swimsuit model of Sports Illustrated, Elle MacPherson, 54.
Ustad Hotel (2012)
He who tills the land gets satisfied with bread
It is not just about owning a property. It is also about generating economy. It used to be that the owner of a piece of land will be King. Nature will bestow the yield with its raw materials. The landowner will provide for his subjects, whom, he subjugated via conquest or stature. In return, he will be served. Come to think of it, so did the Mafia. They provided for what the legitimate bodies found to be non-profitable or poor returns on investments.
Modern economies had real estates as such hot commodities. Each and every square inch of God's Earth has to be owned by someone and be developed. Developers and bankers all have their own arm-twisting techniques to squeeze that lone recalcitrant small landowner to surrender his property. They would bring in new legislation, enforcement protocol or taxes. It is evident that the powers that be are subservient to the rich entities. They believe that spurring economic activities will have a trickle-down effect. We now know it only widens the gap between the have and have notes. It is not that simple.
In this country, a group of intellectuals are lamenting that much of the nation's prized land bank has been given away to foreigners and citizens of a particular ethnicity. The funny thing is that they are blaming the recipients and the former colonial masters for the shenanigans, not the present administrators, even though this practice continues till date. It is an open secret that many land swapping deals happen at the highest level in full view of the powers that be.
Perhaps, it is business that dictates who owns what, not sentimentality. It is the economy, stupid. Before Independence, many of the lands around Malaysia was owned by the money lending Chettiars who would usurp lands from their creditors for lapsing payments. They would gloat looking at their vacant properties even though they were just attracting lalang and grazing cows. All these changed after the 1969 racial riots and the fear of instability as the Chettiars sold their realties and returned lock, stock and barrel to India. The Chinese who bought them over were courageous enough to develop these properties. Pretty soon mushroomed supermarkets, housing estates and cineplexes. He who tills the land gets satisfied with bread and also satisfies the whole village of their hunger. It is about working on the land, not merely owning it.
This brand of a new wave of films tends to hit the Indian movie scene these days. No more the same aged actors romantically paired with actresses old enough to be their daughters or pretty young things that are apparent mismatch the people surrounding them. And no more bad dubbing.
This movie combines realistic acting with a refreshing look at Kerala outdoors. The music is fresh and tends to grow on the listeners.
It tells the tale of a chef, Faizi, who is disowned by his father for choosing the profession that he so despised. Faizi's grandfather, who owns a small-time biryani restaurant, takes him in and teaches him the philosophy of cooking. To cook is not just to fill the stomach, but to satisfy the minds, of the feeder and the one being fed. Even though Faizi has plans to be a famous chef in Europe, as expected, he finds his calling in India.
Panipat (2019)
To relook, recreate and remind
Many post-colonial nations are eager to re-write their histories. Previously their colonial masters painted a story of their land as seen from their jaundiced eyes, in keeping with their narration as being the saviour and liberators. Now, after years of accepting the past history as the gospel truth, the natives have arisen from long slumbers. They want to re-write the baloney. There is an urgent need to re-look at our history books.
Indians complain that their history books are only filled with a dramatic depiction of impoverished India where the liberators from the West, rose to their occasion to illuminate wisdom and a sense of purpose. Their glorious pasts are conveniently whitewashed. It seems that even the narration about India's most prominent kingdoms like Vijayanagara, Paalavi and the Pandava Dynasties are conspicuously absent from the history textbooks.
Bollywood is trying to patch the gap conveniently blanked out of history. Of course, it is not going to be easy on all parties, as many have been mired in one kind of truth. To re-educate or re-wire their understanding of the original script may actually question their own existence. Loyalists, traitors, conspirators, villains and double-crossers may all be re-casted, depending on the scriptwriters.
Panipat, a site in modern-day Haryana, had witnessed three brutal wars. This film showcases the last of the Panipat Wars at the zenith of the once-great Maratha Empire which is famed by India's iconic hero, Shivaji Chhatrapati.
After defeating the Nizam of Hyderabad, Sadashiv Bhao Rao and cousins march towards Delhi to fight a Pashtun speaking chieftain, Najib-ad-Daulad of Rohilkhand who refuses to pay taxes and has form allegiance with the Afghan King, Ahmad Shah Abdali @ Ahmad Shah Durrani. Nawab of Oudh also supported Durrani.
It is not a showcase of the clash between the Muslims and the Hindus. The Maratha warrior had a Muslim warrior, Ibrahim Gardi, the artillery expert. In fact, the Maratha army had always had a regiment of mixed ethnicities and religiosities. The betrayal, as mentioned in the title, does not refer to Muslims acting as turncoats. The traitors here are the Rajputs and Jhats who decided to support the invaders due to high taxes.
The war is said to be the most brutal one with the dubious record of having the highest number of dead warriors in a single day. The Maratha's mistake was to bring in too many civilians. Their public relations with the local chieftains and strategical outlay was poor. Even though the Marathas lost the battle, its army was apparently praised by Durrani, in a message sent later, for the bravery and tenacity. King Durrani gave up his wish to conquer India after that.
This film is not without controversies. Effigy of the director and cinemas were torched to show peoples' displeasure. The Afghani embassy stated their objection for the depiction of the founder of Afghanistan like an Arab prince, with the crew's wardrobe choice and makeup (application of kohl).
Verdict: 3.5/5. The filmmakers have spent a lot of time to make the film believable. They have employed younger actors with the appropriate physique to pass off of warriors. Time and effort had been spent on war tactics and strategies. Though there can be room for improvement in the CGI department, the director managed to create the grandiosity of an army in full regalia and the aura of an ancient battlefield.
Da Tang Xuan Zang (2016)
A journey of conquest of a different kind
Hsuan Tsang or Xuanzang is mentioned in early historical scriptures as of one the first person who journeyed from China via the Silk Road through Central Asia to reach India (or Sindhu as it was referred to then). He documented his travels meticulously and penned down all his escapades as he traversed the treacherous terrains, hills, deserts, monsoon and scorching heat. A child prodigy, Xuanzang entered the Buddhist monastery and was ordained a monk in Mahayana Buddhism at the age of 20. He then mastered Sanskrit and started studying ancient texts. Discovering discrepancies in the available scriptures, at the age of 25, in the year 627AD, he started a solo journey on foot from Chang 'An to India. This was the transition time from the Sui to the relatively peaceful Tang dynasty. His final destination was Nalanda University, in Meghada kingdom.
After three long years, travelling through modern-day Kazhakstan, Kyzhegistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Lahore and Delhi, he reached his destination. He is the first person to have described the Hindu kingdom to be extending as far as Afghanistan.
He describes all the places that he visited within India. He told about how people live, the social norms and their dietary peculiarities. After learning at Nalanda University, he makes his teachers proud by winning an interfaith debate organised by King Varsha during Kumbh Mela in the holy city of Prayag (modern-day Allahabad). After 19 long years, traversing through 110 countries and walking 25,000 km, Xuanzang returned to Chang 'An with a wealth of knowledge and scriptures.
The film is recommendable for its infotainment value. It brings to light of mesmerising natural landscapes and buildings that most of us will not have a chance to witness in our lifetimes. Many of the magnificent shrines and temples that existed at the time of his visit are still standing today. One such majestic structure is Ajanta Caves.
In the early 5th century AD, another Buddhist scholar from China named Faxian made a similar trip to India. He visited India during the reign of a Hindu dynasty, Chandragupta II, and reached Gautama Buddha's birthplace of Lumbini to obtain Buddhist scripts. He also visited Pataliputra, a Buddhist stronghold (Maurya's kingdom). Faxian, however, continued his journey to Ceylon. He described the island as a land of demons. He returned to China via sea. His boat went off course to Java and again swept off to Shandong on a second trip back to China.
With so much ease of acquiring knowledge through the plethora of portals available to us, we still have the inertia to go the extra mile. These two extraordinary figures risked their time and life to acquire and disseminate the wealth of knowledge to generations after them. Holding on to compasses in their hands, faiths in their heart as well as the stars above their heads as markers, they ventured into unknown territories. Come what may!
The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
The go-to fiction of yesteryear
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's writings during the Russian Golden Age of Literature have been referred to as a go-to place by many great icons of the world. At times of uncertainties, Einstien used to read Dostoyevsky for clarity. Nietzsche defined him as the only psychologist that he needed. Dostoyevsky inspired many writers like Hemmingway and Kafka. Akira Kurosawa made movies based on one of his stories (The Idiot). Osho (aka Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh) described the profound moral and philosophical messages in Dostoyevsky's 'Brother Karamozov' comparable to the Bible.
This story tells the story of Fyodor Karamazov, a high spirited widowed father who enjoys the more beautiful things in life - wine, music and women, especially a lady, Grushenka, who runs a tavern. Fyodor has four adult sons, each with their own personality traits. He is very tight-fisted with his money. Dimitri, the eldest, an ex-army, has a penchant for money and also an eye on Grushenka. But Dimitri has a suitor, Katya, a rich heiress who is rooting for him but he is not interested. The second son, Ivan, is an intellectual, a newspaperman and an atheist. He has the soft spots for Katya but sadly unrequited. The third son, Alexi, is a priest who is the peacemaker of the family who sees the good in everybody. The last one is actually Fyodor's illegitimate and epileptic son, Smerdyakov. He functions as the butler and yearns for his father unconditional love but sadly what he gets in return are hurls of insult.
Smerdyakov plans to murder his father, executes it but circumstances caused Dimitri to be accused of it. Ivan, who knew of Smerdyakov's intention but did not do anything to stop it is made to feel guilty. Meanwhile, Alexi is holding the whole family on a tightrope. Grushenka and Katya show their ugly side to win their love.
It is said that the film failed to capture the intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual essence of the book. This is expected as it is not possible to show all the emotions and the soliloquy that occurs within oneself in this two-hour presentation.
Many of these topics are dealt with superficially to maintain its entertainment value.
Haider (2014)
The background
It turned out to be not a film depicting the plight of the Kashmiris but rather a retelling of Hamlet with the beautiful Kashmir in the background the internal squabble as the country as its backdrop. Even though the movie makes it appear as though there is just bloodshed, guns and terrorism in this snow-covered paradise on earth, much of its past history remains untold.
People tend to assume Kashmir had always been a Muslim majority country where India is trying to exert its influence, but its citizens want out. There are much more than meets the eye.
Kashmir was a revered place from time immemorial for seekers of knowledge and epistemology. It was the destination for many sages the world over. Hinduism, Shiva Taitrism, planted itself firmly here as early as 3rd century BCE. The populace was considered highly literate and skilled. The turning point came in the form of invaders. A particularly Muslim ruler by the name of Sikander Bhutshikan (1394-1417), an iconoclast, was hellbent on destroying non-Islamic symbols and enforced widespread proselytisation. Naturally, the Hindu Pandits escaped in droves to other parts of India and Kashmir became a Muslim-dominant country. Many Hindus remain closeted, only outwardly Muslims.
King Ranjit Singh united Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir all the way to Tibet, but his successors lost Jammu and Kashmir to the East India Company in the first Anglo-British War in 1846. The British started the Hindu Dogra dynasty. It was Hari Singh, its descendant, who was the King of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 who decided to join neither India nor Pakistan. It stood an Independent sovereign state.
Trouble started soon after Independence. Pakistani troops masquerading as Pashtun tribal groups infiltrated into Kashmir to take over the country. The 1st Indo-Pak war started when Maharajah Hari Singh asked for help and agreed for ascension into the Indian Dominion. The battle, however, ended in a deadlock with India controlling a third of the country and Pakistan the other third.
Sheikh Abdullah was appointed the head of Jammu and Kashmir by Nehru. He had earlier led a rebellion against Hari Singh was had been imprisoned before. Sheikh ruled the state with special powers accorded to him via Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. His reign was marred with many insurgencies, Islamisation pogroms and terrorist activities with help from Pakistan. There were hardly any economic activities or development, but only a high tension volatile environment. More Sikhs and Hindus exited from their ancestral land seeking a better life since the 1980s.
Many talented writers now settled elsewhere, have penned their doggone experiences in Kashmir in many of their heart-wrenching writing set in their once serene homeland. With the aberration of Article 370, India hopes to bring development and a semblance of peace in the region. Unfortunately, foreign media keeps stirring undue tension and anxiety amongst the people of the area to keep up their sales.
Dark Waters (2019)
Know the two sets of Laws
One thing the lockdown has shown us is that there are two sets of rules for people. One for affluent, the one perched atop the highest branch and the other for those scrawling at the lowest branch or doodling on the ground. The one close to the ruling party will get just a friendly slap on the wrist while the brunt of the long arm of the law would descend upon the nobody.
An 80-year-old vagabond who was waiting for his free food was slapped with a RM1000/= compound without much deliberation. He risks imprisonment. A minister was seen sharing meals with his supporters, and a deputy minister was enjoying his birthday bash without a care in the world of the MCO. The prowling digital spies did manage to capture the moment for the public to judge, but the law seems to be dragging its feet. This type of subservience by the authorities to the people of power is no alien to this country alone.
Beware, there is a 2015 horror flick named 'Dark Water' (singular) which is different from the remake of Japanese movie with almost the same name.
This 2019 film is based on real events. It tells the story of the fight of a lone farmer, Wilbur Tennant, who took legal suits against DuPont, a giant chemical company. It started in 1995 when the farmer discovered that his cattle, 190 of them, had died mysteriously with bloated organs and blackened teeth. He suspected that the cause could be due to the dumping of chemicals upstream. He tried to get the help of the authorities, but instead, he was slapped with a fine for improper farming.
Living in dire circumstances, he approached an old friends' grandson, Robert Billot, a hotshot lawyer who makes his fortune defending multinational chemical companies. Initially, reluctant to waste his time on an unrewarding case, he finally caved in to investigate the farmer's complaint.
He became interested when the environmental impact assessment report showed no contaminants, but DuPont's internal investigations repeatedly showed some unknown abbreviated compound. He also noticed that many dwellers of the town had an unusually high incidence of cancers. Everyone in the town looked at Tennant and Billot as trouble makers as DuPont had contributed so much in the upliftment and upkeep of that town, Parkersburg, West Virginia. Things had really changed for the better since DuPont set up a plant there. They thought their misery was a small price to pay for development.
Using the tentacles of the law to his advantage, Billot came to discover that compound was indeed PFOA, a fluorated hydrocarbon, which was used to make Teflon coating in non-stick pans.
It came to light that PFOA or C8 and PFOS had poisoned the land and their drinking water. Now, everybody wanted to join in the suit against the giant. It indeed became a David versus Goliath match. The mega-company used all the might of their finances to quash dissidence. Lawsuits were not affordable for the average Joe. Neither the legal fraternity nor the administrative bodies are laypeople friendly. Just like how flies are drawn to garbage, power begets influence.
At the end of the day, the general public is left only with a loud public voice via civil society bodies, the fourth estate and an unbiased judiciary system.
But wait, is the legal system here to carry out the law or to mete out justice?
In real life, Robert Bilott went through many financial and familial turmoils pursuing the matter, for each and every defendant, 3,500 of them. After a long battle that spanned ten-over years (Tennant had died then), he won the first three multimillion-dollar settlements against DuPont, and DuPont settled the class action for $671 million. Du Pont, however, seems unperturbed. They are still going on business as usual with other joint ventures.
For our own knowledge, Teflon is marketed as other variants and have made their way to our household in various forms - water-resistant furniture and carpets, wrinkle-free and water-repellant clothing, lubricants, pizza boxes, dental floss and many more.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
What is life all about?
I did not grow up appreciating the original Star Trek TV series. Hence, I do not qualify to identify myself as a Trekkie. I, however, managed to catch up Star Trek: The Next Generation when it made its way to the terrestrial TV channels. I remember the series not as much of an action-packed series but more of a cerebral one discussing life issues. I never did follow the ensuing Trek series or the silver screen productions. So, to me, Picard is only Starfleet Captain that I know.
More than a decade after his last mission and his unceremonious departure from USS Enterprise, Admiral Picard has to go to back to space. He does this clandestinely against the orders of the authorities, with a ragtag assembly of crew and space ship. In his previous mission, Data had caused the destruction of Mars. Because of that, androids, or synthetics as they were known in 2399, were banned. Picard had resigned in protest.
Enjoying his retirement in his chateau, Picard comes to know of a girl who may be the 'daughter' of Data as she was developed from Data's positronic brain. She is, unfortunately, assassinated. There is a vast conspiracy, from the Romulans mainly, as they had to bear the bunt of USS Enterprise's destruction of Mars earlier, to wipe out all synthetics. Picard's mission is to find Data's other twin daughter and save all synthetics from annihilation.
Keeping with the characters who are all senior citizens trying to save the Universe, the series progresses slowly with a lot of dialogue and intellectual discourse.
The last two episodes are the most exciting part of the season for an occasional Star Trek fan like me. Perhaps at that time, earthlings have eradicated poverty and abated their fixation for material wealth, their discussions seem to focus more philosophical issues. People still try to create schisms and have pre-conceived ideas about 'the other' even though he never had the chance to meet or interact with them. They fail to realise that all these animosities will eventually cause self-destruction. Is it necessary for species to kill each other to survive? Is sacrifice the highest form of deed one can offer to a fellow kind? Is there logic in sacrifice or is life too precious to be wasted?
The finale discusses death and purpose of life. The past is already written. The future is for us to pen. How is the narration going to be? It is fear and suspicion of the unknown, which is the destroyer. Is believing that openness may allay these problems naive? To say that we do not have the choice is indicative of our lack of imagination. We are beyond all these. Our collective intellectual should be able to overcome adversities.
Being alive is not a licence to indulge. It is not a choice, but it comes with specific responsibilities. It is the price we have to pay for building consciousness. It expects us to think for the future. Mortality gives meaning to our time on Earth. Developing peace, friendship and love help us to appreciate the gift of life. At the end of our lifetime, we are left with only memories.
Andhadhun (2018)
Are we blinded?
The movie starts with an empirical question "What is life? It all depends on the liver." At one look, it looked like an awkwardly constructed question. It may appear like it is grammatically incorrect. Or perhaps it could refer to how much one could hold his drink dependent on the neutralising effect of his liver. Maybe, it could refer to a time in Mankind's history when he was wondering where consciousness was situated. Some thought it was the brain while others placed it in the heart. Islamic philosophers gave credence to the liver for what we are. We are what we eat, and the liver plays a pivotal role in our digestion.
As it turned out, it was none of the above. In the context of this movie, it referred to the illegal organ harvesting trade! This is the gist for its viewers - a film full of double speaks. In fact, the title also could denote the blind rage that one experiences at the height of anger.
Andhadhun is based on a French short film, L'Accordeur (The Piano Tuner).
A blind pianist, Akash, with a sob story of how he was hit by a cricket ball which damaged his optic nerves. He goes by doing small gigs playing his music and has big plans to go off to the UK. He befriends a motorcyclist, Sophie, who almost knocks him down. The real truth is that he is not blind, and he is doing it for sympathy or for a social experiment, as he calls it.
Everything was going on fine. He had his cake and ate it. He had a beautiful girlfriend in Sophie, earned large tips, and everyone enjoyed his music. Until...
He came in to perform for a client's wife, Simi, to surprise her on her birthday, only to find the client sprawling in blood out cold, dead. The client apparently caught his wife in bed with her lover, and he ended up dead. Akash continued acting blind despite everything happening under his nose, the dead body being bundled by the lover etcetera.
The next day, he went to the local police station to report the murder. To his bewilderment, the lover turned out to be a police officer. Suspicious of Akash's movement, so started a cat and mouse chase -Simi and her lover hunting down Akash, Simi actually blinding him, Akash getting caught with a crooked doctor and his assistants who are keen to harvest his organ and a devious plan to outwit Simi of her money. The twist at the end of the movie where the ending of the story is left to everybody's imagination as Akash stays alive to narrate his life story to Sophie two years later in Europe.
As Akash walks away after telling Sophie about his life adventures, the audience realises that Akash is seen voluntarily hitting a crushed can. That is when we wonder, 'Hey, what is real and what is fake anymore?' Interesting storytelling.
Kapoor & Sons (2016)
Surrendering to the will to live?
Maybe, like what Schopenhauer said, every life history is the history of suffering. Life has no intrinsic worth but is kept in motion loosely by desire and illusion. We hopelessly fall in love, to marry to do everything possible to become an object of disgust to each other. The 'will to live' for continuity of progeny has hijacked our will power. He further went on to say that our inborn error is to think that we exist to be happy. But at every turn, we soon realise the contradiction that the world and life have to offer. It seems that is why the face of the elderly intrinsically appear deeply frowned and depressed, realising the futility of life and death that will ensue.
From the moment of the first cry, life is just a barrage of tests, tragedy and turmoil. We somehow are geniuses in creating troubles for ourselves. Rational people make rash decisions under the influence of emotion, giving intellect a rest. We think we are wiser with time and will not make the same mistake twice. Once bitten twice shy, we tell ourselves. But hell no! At the most crucial moment, our hormones and heart dominate over our intellect. Like Sisyphus, within the cycles of seeming joy of achievement and agony of defeat, we have to find contentment.
Aristotle believed that the final goal of mankind is happiness, and this is achieved with virtue and knowledge. The Greek thought we needed tragedy in life, through art and culture, to remind us of the hopelessness of life. It is a catharsis of sorts for us to purify our minds and souls to understand truths about suffering, loss, misery, adversity, and redemption.
This 2016 film is not the usual Bollywood fare. Done in a not so melodramatic fashion, it showcases the issues an average middle-class family encounters as the husband-and-wife couple is married too long to each other and their children have all grown up with a mind of their own. The husband and wife cannot stand the sight of each other. Their every action seems like an annoyance. Sometimes they ponder where love disappeared to. Trying to make the most politically correct response and trying to pacify warring factions between offspring proof stressful. Celebrations come and go. Everybody puts a brave front, putting fake smiles to display of portrait of happiness. Simmering beneath the cover are the frustrations, anger and disappointments of broken dreams just waiting to explode. The display of emotion does not always end in resolution. The end result can sometimes be quite devastating, and we wallow in melancholy. Hindsight vision is 20/20. We had seen it all along. We tell ourselves that we will be wiser the next around. But we will never learn, just waiting to plunge on head-on to the speeding trailer all over again.
Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019)
Like a surgeon! Rapid and precise.
It happened a couple of times before. Rogue parties have often made mischiefs previously. Like the Malay proverb goes, 'Baling batu, sembunyi tangan' - the perpetrator would start trouble by throwing stones, but with a sleight of hand, he would fold his hands behind and join the crowd acting innocent.
It is an exercise of futility cracking our heads, doing the conventional way, trying to be fair, exhausting all avenues in attempting to mete justice. Many a time, we have to depend on gut feeling and God-given intellect to deduce and do the right thing. Like the hand of a traditional surgeon, he uses his senses, makes a diagnosis, makes a precise surgical incision and removes the offending ailment and returns the patient back to health. Time is of the essence. Dilly dallying with formalities and pusillanimous inertia will just tip the feeble to the point of no return.
In recent history, at least twice the Israeli integrity was put to a challenge. In 1972 Munich Olympics, when a Palestinian terrorist group held Israeli athletes hostage, the German police killed five of the eight kidnappers. Hostages perished in the massacre. The prisoners were later exchanged when a Lufthansa flight was hijacked by the same group a month later. The Israelis did not wait for natural justice to take place. Neither did it remain idle for the international community to deliberate and drag its feet to condemn and advise. The following year, the Israeli Army retaliated by bombing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The Mossad hunted down to last remaining kidnapper and killed them in broad daylight in the 'Operation Wrath of God'. The last of the kidnappers died in a planted car bomb in 1988.
Another enviable rescue mission carried by the Israeli intelligence was 'Operation Entebbe'. An Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was rerouted to Entebbe, Uganda. The 100-over Israeli passengers were held, hostage. Israel managed to sneak in their commandos under the cloak of the night. How they outmanoeuvred the Ugandan radars (Idi Amin supported the terrorists) still remains an enigma till date. There are many unverified reports of how they deployed the expertise of Uri Geller and his psychic powers. In 90 minutes, the Israeli commandos killed all hijackers and rescued all but 3 of the 106 hostages.
This 2019 film follows the same direction as many of the new movies that are coming out of Bollywood. It combines excellent cinematography with new young actors and a new narrative as told by the young minds of New India.
The India-Pakistan enmity has been going on like forever. Pakistani dirty interference has been implicated in many upheavals and terrorist activities in India. This film is about one of them. When a military barrack in Uri, Jammu-Kashmir was attacked, and nineteen of Indians soldiers were killed, India had to rise to the occasion. This story is about how the Indian Army, with the help of the latest surveillance equipment, modern warfare machines, espionage and a little help from Pakistani turncoats, managed to hunt down the perpetrators of the Uri Massacre and flatten their launchpads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
A high octane movie of high standards. The fighting scenes are believable. The actors are young and built well for their roles. The deployment of fighter planes and military strategies appear convincing enough. 4.5/5.