Farouk Gulsara's Blog, page 83
January 4, 2021
Play ball or be cancelled!
Falling Down (1993)
Thanks, Danny, for showing the existence of this film.
We are constantly bombarded with the notion that we should follow the weather-beaten path, and everything will be alright. Do as I say, not as I do. Follow the dotted lines, and you will be taken care of. We are expected to act in a particular manner as it is how a civil society behaves. Keeping your emotions under check denotes maturity, and everybody will play their part.
We do our share of our bargain diligently but then, we realise that we had been taken for a ride. The promise turned out to be an empty one—a dream not, but a nightmare. And we flip. The system to whom we had been loyal all these while turns around and say that we are the evil one. The significant others whom we saw as the scourge is now the protected one.
Foster must have found himself in the same kind of predicament. Working diligently as a faithful servant in a defence facility, he realised one day that he had neither a job nor her family to go to. His employer had terminated him, and his wife has a restraining order against him. He is stuck in a bad traffic jam, his car air-conditioning has failed, and it is scorching hot outside. He had it. He decided to abandon his vehicle and walk-on home. Then it dawned upon him. He is the bad guy now. He is chided for leaving his car in traffic; he is threatened by ruffians when resting in an empty plot - is thought to have nefarious thoughts; guns and weapons are at everybody disposals, but was told that it was for peaceful reasons; he had to conform to pre-set orders on the menu; that people are outwardly pleasant masking a suppressed hatred; the immigrants who scaled the country in poverty are now dictating terms. Foster is now hunted as a villain because he deviated from the socially accepted norms.
Even his wife does not think he is right for her anymore as he has deviated from the societal pre-set rules. There is no place for self-expression; conform or be shipped out! (Hey, this is #cancel culture!)
In contrast, another character, a policeman, despite the curveballs that life has to offer, he is accepted as he plays ball. Like a domesticated cat, he conforms to the home environment.
A thoughtful offering on the pressure cooker state that modern man has to endure to stay relevant in modern societies. His wings are clipped, and his testosterone slowly dwindling in an environment that continually looks at him as toxic.
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January 2, 2021
The devil is in the details
Story and Direction: V. Vignarajan
At first look, the storyline suggests that this film will be one with scares and screams. Midway through the movie, you think it is a remake of Hollywood's 'What Lies Beneath' where the dead communicates with the living to uncover a murder. The thing done differently is that two dead people (spoilers) are communicating with the protagonist. The protagonist, Vinodh, appears to be going into paranoid schizophrenia ever since his best buddy died. He feels guilty as he had gifted his friend a book on the subject of occultism. He thinks his friend was pushed to suicide after delving into the book. Ever since a rotary phone was installed in his apartment, Vinodh feels like he is being watched. His girlfriend arranges for a therapist.
Another plot is about a blind library clerk, Selvam trying to earn enough money for his kidney transplant. He moonshine as a medium. One of the jobs he manages to secure involves exorcising a building. Selvam also inherited a priced building in the heart of town from his father. Selvam's teacher is Vinodh's friend's sister. This is how Selvam and Vinodh get connected.
In another plot, a psychiatrist is confronted by his patient who shoots him and his family. The doctor 'survives' the shooting but his licence is suspended. He visits his patients at home instead.
As the story goes, you soon realise that both Selvam and the doctor are trying to contact Vinodh on his new phone. But the problem is their stories are both told different timelines. Both were dead many months previously and it is their spirits which is doing the job!
Refreshing storytelling makes the audiences connect the dots to get a composite picture of the whole story. The devil is in the details as a line in the movie says. After completing the story, only then you would realise why certain scenes were told in that particular way. It seems no stones were left unturned. The acting is brilliant indeed especially by the character of Selvam. I thought they had got a visually handicapped actor for the role. Googling later, I realised that he had acted in many other movies before. All the actors are new (at least to me) and did justice to their roles.
The movie is almost three hours long but the director managed to capture the suspense. The ending may be perceived as an anticlimax as viewers are used to having melodramatic ends in keeping with the Indian psyche. It is decent enough.
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December 31, 2020
Get real!
Bad Santa (2003)
Mention Christmas movies, everyone will think of the 1939 'It's a Wonderful Life' or perhaps 'Home Alone' or even Nakatomi Plaza, John McClane and the' Die Hard' franchise. I bet nobody would want to remember 'Bad Santa'. Most, if not all, Christmas movies try to spread the message of love and the joy of giving in general. In their own way, they try to convey that good prevails over evil, and the Grace of God will help overcome any adversities. Even the antithesis of Christmas - Charles Dickens' Uncle Scrooge in 'Christmas Carol' came around to finally see the spirit of the Yuletide. No, not in Billy Bob Thornton's depiction of Santa Claus.
Come to think of it, nobody likes to dresses in a fat man's suit to listen to children demands (yes, not request) for Christmas presents. These days, children are too smart to believe that there is an old saint up there in the North Pole who works all through the year with his elves making gifts for them as per request. And he has a list of who had been naughty or nice. To top it all, he can deliver all his presents in a single night on a one-man open sleigh squeezing through a chimney for a cookie and milk. DHL would be out of a job.I remember an episode on 'Family Guy' (S9E3 -The Road to the North Pole) where Stewie and Brian go to the North Pole to discover an ailing Santa Claus because of exhaustion, wilting to the pressures of a highly materialistic world and a 'sweatshop' like working conditions of the elves in keeping with the demands of an exploding population number. It is not a gratifying to be a provider as they soon discover when they took over the ailing Santa's job. People are suspicious of anything free, and the idea of their child sitting on a hirsute old man with a lousy dressing sense does not excite any average parents. Whatsmore, in the pandemic times, coming in contact with someone who has been wandering around.
Anyway, the character of 'Bad Santa' is about an alcoholic who is generally a sourpuss who grudgingly dresses up as Santa annually to the beck and call of his 'partner in crime', his old midget friend who dresses up as an elf. They work in malls during the Christmas season, but their real MO is to rob the mall come Christmas eve. That particular, their path crosses with that of a lonely unattended boy who lives with an old demented granny. If you think Santa Claus will bring the joy of the festivities to everyone, look elsewhere. Here, Santa used the young boy's naivety to squat in his mansion and gave unlimited access to his out-at-work father's access to booze and other luxury accessories. At the same time, he and his elf friend with his Asian girlfriend architect their next heist. This dark comedy is an excellent diversion to the age-old lovey-dovey warmth atmosphere in a White Christmas that is often depicted in most Xmas films. It is set in the hot desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, by the way.Dan Cowley @riflerangeboyII just sent me a song in the spirit of the occasion. Ariana Grande's 2014 hit song asks Santa to tell her whether her new beau is for real or he will be one of her love interests who would disappear into the dark of the night. Maybe, it is just me, but I think this song would only excite a paedophile. The backup singers/dancers, even Grande herself, are way too young to be having many previous romantic trysts! The dancers look mere tweens for Christ sake.
Anyway, in the spirit of eternal hopefulness of better times ahead, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2021.
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December 30, 2020
Are you ready for the challenge?
From a movie-making, storytelling or cinematographic point of view, this anthology of four stories hit the nail and gets an all-star rating. It also deserves an A+ for the attention-grabbing edge of the seat type of suspense in my books. It is all hunky-dory for entertainment value, but somehow, I could not help it but compare it to the novel 'Mother India' which came out in 1927 when the heat of self-rule was very much in everybody lips. It can be described as a polemic book that attacked the practices, religion and every fibre of Indian society. Katherine Mayo, the author, a historian by training, thought that India was not fit for self-rule and independence looking at India's treatment of India's women, animals and the untouchables.What do you know? Despite all the leaps and bounds that the society had bounced, the storytellers decided that the old formula of societal discrimination against LGBT, women, castes and victim-blaming would sell. Are they covertly telling that Indians are not ready to meet the new world's challenges as they are still stuck in the colonial era's quagmire?
The first story (Thangam, Beloved) deals with a love triangle where falls in love with a Muslim girl against both families' wishes. This is complicated by the girl's gay brother, who is supposed to be the bridge for their union, who also falls for the sister's beau. He, however, sacrifices his affection for the sake of his dear friend and beloved sister. But both families are having none of those and have no qualms into resorting to honour killing for normalcy.
For the record, India had legally accepted transgender people as the third sex since 2014. It replaced the 153-year-old colonial law set by the Colonial Powers which viewed the same-sex relationship as an offence. Since antiquity, hijras (the third gender) have been recorded in Indian history, including Kama Sutra, to straighten the record.
The second offering (Love Penna Uttranum, Let us Love) tells the nefarious act of Janus-faced local politicians who seemingly promote inter-caste marriages, but in reality, vehemently opposes it. He does not hesitate to stage an accident of his daughter who fell in love with the politician's lowly driver. Things become intricate when his second daughter turns up with her friends and confess to being a lesbian.
The funny thing is that the murderous father eventually realised his wayward ways, turned over a new leaf, had to leave his wild country to become a regular person to learn rap music in a civilised country like France!
The third story (Vaanmagal, Daughter of the Sky) takes a swipe at the perceived Indian society's propensity to victim-blaming. A pre-pubescent girl is raped (after a mix-up), and the family is more interested in hiding the 'shame' and taking the blame for such a malady to have taken place. Seeking legal redress and punishing the perpetrator are not options as they viewed as a humiliation to the victim. At one time, the mother even thinks of killing off her 12-year-old kid for bringing shame to the family! This episode is a subtle attack on the Tamilian practice of public announcement when a girl attains menarche. It is construed as a roll call to deviant to pounce on an unassuming young girl.
The final episode (Oor Iravu, One Night) is the heart-wrenching one which is probably based on a real event. After she had eloped with her boyfriend from her village two years previously, a father visits her gravid daughter. She is now settled in the city with a stable job and a lovely apartment. Their union was opposed by her family because of the boy's caste, hence the clandestine arrangement. It appears had mended his ways and invites the couple to his home for a baby shower celebration. The suspense is in what happens in the father's house. An intense performance by Prakash Raj, who always excels in character roles.
Good entertainment value.
(P.S. The Bollywood 1957 national award-winning blockbuster 'Mother India' was a rebuke to the novel of the same name portraying a stoic self-sacrificing single mother who, despite the adversities in her life, manages to bring up her two sons.)http://asok22.wix.com/real-lesson
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
www.riflerangeboy.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Are you ready for the challlenge?
From a movie-making, storytelling or cinematographic point of view, this anthology of four stories hit the nail and gets an all-star rating. It also deserves an A+ for the attention-grabbing edge of the seat type of suspense in my books. It is all hunky-dory for entertainment value, but somehow, I could not help it but compare it to the novel 'Mother India' which came out in 1927 when the heat of self-rule was very much in everybody lips. It can be described as a polemic book that attacked the practices, religion and every fibre of Indian society. Katherine Mayo, the author, a historian by training, thought that India was not fit for self-rule and independence looking at India's treatment of India's women, animals and the untouchables.What do you know? Despite all the leaps and bounds that the society had bounced, the storytellers decided that the old formula of societal discrimination against LGBT, women, castes and victim-blaming would sell. Are they covertly telling that Indians are not ready to meet the new world's challenges as they are still stuck in the colonial era's quagmire?
The first story (Thangam, Beloved) deals with a love triangle where falls in love with a Muslim girl against both families' wishes. This is complicated by the girl's gay brother, who is supposed to be the bridge for their union, who also falls for the sister's beau. He, however, sacrifices his affection for the sake of his dear friend and beloved sister. But both families are having none of those and have no qualms into resorting to honour killing for normalcy.
For the record, India had legally accepted transgender people as the third sex since 2014. It replaced the 153-year-old colonial law set by the Colonial Powers which viewed the same-sex relationship as an offence. Since antiquity, hijras (the third gender) have been recorded in Indian history, including Kama Sutra, to straighten the record.
The second offering (Love Penna Uttranum, Let us Love) tells the nefarious act of Janus-faced local politicians who seemingly promote inter-caste marriages, but in reality, vehemently opposes it. He does not hesitate to stage an accident of his daughter who fell in love with the politician's lowly driver. Things become intricate when his second daughter turns up with her friends and confess to being a lesbian.
The funny thing is that the murderous father eventually realised his wayward ways, turned over a new leaf, had to leave his wild country to become a regular person to learn rap music in a civilised country like France!
The third story (Vaanmagal, Daughter of the Sky) takes a swipe at the perceived Indian society's propensity to victim-blaming. A pre-pubescent girl is raped (after a mix-up), and the family is more interested in hiding the 'shame' and taking the blame for such a malady to have taken place. Seeking legal redress and punishing the perpetrator are not options as they viewed as a humiliation to the victim. At one time, the mother even thinks of killing off her 12-year-old kid for bringing shame to the family! This episode is a subtle attack on the Tamilian practice of public announcement when a girl attains menarche. It is construed as a roll call to deviant to pounce on an unassuming young girl.
The final episode (Oor Iravu, One Night) is the heart-wrenching one which is probably based on a real event. After she had eloped with her boyfriend from her village two years previously, a father visits her gravid daughter. She is now settled in the city with a stable job and a lovely apartment. Their union was opposed by her family because of the boy's caste, hence the clandestine arrangement. It appears had mended his ways and invites the couple to his home for a baby shower celebration. The suspense is in what happens in the father's house. An intense performance by Prakash Raj, who always excels in character roles.
Good entertainment value.
(P.S. The Bollywood 1957 national award-winning blockbuster 'Mother India' was a rebuke to the novel of the same name portraying a stoic self-sacrificing single mother who, despite the adversities in her life, manages to bring up her two sons.)http://asok22.wix.com/real-lesson
http://.facebook.com/farouk.gulsara
www.riflerangeboy.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
December 27, 2020
Doggone Man!
Chief, Doggy extraordinaireCredit: IMDBI watched an episode of the documentary 'Forensic Files' where a dog, when it failed to protects its masters, still managed to bring justice to the masters via its DNA to expose the identity of their murderers.
A group of gangsters had entered a couple’s home mistakenly thinking that the stash cocaine that they were looking for was there. Chief, a pit bull-Labrador mix pet of the household, pounced at the intruders only to be subdued by a gunshot on its shoulder. The gangsters continued their harassment by shooting the wife dead and giving non-fatal shots at the husband. Despite his near-fatal wound, Chief pounced back on the shooter as he was aiming at his master’s chest. The shooter turned and shot Chief right between the eyes. The couple and their pet succumbed to the injuries eventually. Despite all the extensive police investigations, the perpetrators could not be pinpointed. Finally, Chief’s DNA and furs were instrumental in bringing a guilty verdict to the gangsters. Poetically, even after its death, a dog did his duty to bring justice to his Masters by bringing to light their killers. I am pretty sure that is what his owner would have wanted.
That episode left a sour aftertaste after learning what a domestic animal could do for his master; serve even after his death. I could help but compare to the news that had been hitting the headlines recently. The Human Resources Minister recently made a spot check into some foreign workers' living conditions in a particular small glove-making factory and was shocked to discover that their hostels were comparable to cowsheds.
It is besides the point whether his officers were ignorant to all these and that the minister was living under a rock, this is how human beings treat their kind. The bosses depend on their workers' loyalty and toiling under extreme conditions to fatten the company coffers, this is what they get in return - living conditions fit for cattle.
Then there was a woman whom I met in the course of my daytime work who just enough to sneak herself into the country to work clandestinely in a small factory but not intelligent enough to care for her biological organs. When the employer, the biological seed contributor, after discovering her parturient state, scooted off and claimed ignorance. That is how much loyalty is reserved for a fellow human being.
For a piece of discarded bone, a pat on its head and a walk with his leash, I guess a dog would serve its master with its life. That is much more what a thinking Homosapien would do for another.
P.S. The word 'Doggone' is a euphemism for 'Goddamn it."
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December 26, 2020
Match made in heaven!
As part of the ritual after marriage, newlywed Brahmin couples are told to search for Arundathi-Vasishta pair of stars (Alcor-Mizar). These double stars make part of the Great Bear constellation and named after a great sage, Vasishta, and his philosopher wife, Arundathi. They were an exemplary couple that complemented each other, without one dominating over the other. Unlike most double stars where one star would be revolving around the other, the Arundathi-Vaisishta pair orbits around each other. The Hindu traditions believe that that is how a husband-wife pair should be - the couple should work together; not one exerting dominance over the other!
VarahaIt is beyond comprehension how ancient Indians knew so much about astronomy. These traditions have a long history that predates Corpenicus and Gallilee. At a time when the world was arguing about flat Earth and imprisonment of scientists whose discoveries clashed with the Church, the Indians knew that Earth was a sphere. Varaha, Vishnu's boar avatar, tried to save a spherical Earth from the major floods on his snout. (Not a disc)
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December 24, 2020
The sweet smell of freedom
In terms of world cinema, this movie not score high on the scale of creativity. As far as Indian cinema is concerned, at least one given to minute details to the storyline, this would be number one.Like Papillon and Shawshank Redemption, this film centres around the planning and the execution of a jailbreak. The first quarter of the movie shows the circumstances upon which the hero gets imprisoned. In prison, he plots his prison break after recruiting his accomplices. There is not a dull moment as the storyteller managed to fill up the story with characters with compelling backstories. The props look real, and the actors are made scruffy and muscular enough to fit the bill of hardcore criminals. The fights look authentic and short enough to get the message. The music suits the situation, and the escape plan appears believable enough. There are a few failures and sudden changes of plan to hold the suspense.
The inmates' plan is to dig their way out of their bunks to get to the outside of the prison complex and subsequently escape by boarding the midnight train, hence the title 'Freedom at midnight'. The only thing that kind of defies logic is how they managed to wash that amount of sand and dirt down their tiny toilet. Indeed it would have clogged up in no time.
Besides that tiny faux pas, it was a good attempt at procedural drama. 3.5/5.
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December 22, 2020
Yada yada, blah blah!
Joker (ஜோகார், Tamil; 2016)
Before Joaquin Phoenix came out in the 2019 DC comic film as the legendary Joker, there was already an award-winning Tamil movie with the same name. Unlike the DC version, this one is a low-budget production. And like the former, both are political and social satires of the system that we are living. In our societies, more often than not, we give people the liberty to speak a little bit too much. Some talk just because we want to be heard. Others vocalise just because God gave them a mouth. We tolerate many because we pity them; we know it is unkind to be cruel against the mentally challenged. We let them just blabber, but the problem is that mental illness can be contagious sometimes.
With the advent of social media, there is no limit to how much stupidity can spread like wildfire and profound wisdom.
Unfortunately, life is not so straight forward. Muddled somewhere inside the pile of insanity is what is supposed to be the truth. Because of all the murmur of uncertainty and the noise of distortion, real facts remain buried in the rubble.
There was a time when only the learned would be allowed to speak, and the rest would listen. One needed a certain amount of intelligence to put forward their opinion. With the democratisation of speech and empowerment to express thoughts, everyone gets the opportunity to get their 2-cents worth of view across. Do we call this giving the oppressed a voice to speak? Is the converse the rule of elitist? Is the former pushing for chaos and the latter a precursor to leftist's wet dream of creating unthinking automatons?
This bizarre movie starts with a man who is living in a debilitated hut. Starting his day answering calls on his cheap mobile phone answering to the name of President of India, rubber-stamping his letter with the Republic's emblem and pushing his weight around his neighbourhood. Slowly we realise that he is delusional. He has a comatose wife at home who became so after a freak accident caused by the corruption of the Government machinery. He tries to obtain a court order to allow euthanasia on his wife but repeatedly fails. The whole film just shows the vulture of politicians and his sycophant businessmen and hyena henchmen who hawk on Government projects to maximise profit and pay back the minimum to the gullible public.
Imagine even ants, without a cerebral matter, can organise such complicated colonies, complete with armed forces, reserves for a rainy day and even sick bays to care for the informed. Why do we need politicians to guide us through? Seriously, mankind should have stopped at the oldest profession of all time, not start the second oldest which is close to the first!
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December 19, 2020
Mission accomplished!
Mr Dalip Singh Kokra(1922-2020)Yet another story of an immigrant who started with nothing and went on to create a legacy of sorts for himself and his offsprings. I had the pleasure of knowing Uncle Dalip Singh when I entered my wife's family more than thirty years ago and had taken part in many happy and sad events as they came and went.
Over the years, I made a composite picture of his life and times starting as a night school guard and gradually rising to be the President of the local temple.
As a young man, with scant of education, he arrived in Malaya with hope in his chest, strength in his limbs and resolve on his mind. As a night guard, he had built quite a reputation as a goto man for petty cash. Towards the latter part of the month, it was a common sight to see peons, clerks and even teachers forming a beeline outside his quarters requesting friendly loans (at 'reasonable' interest, of course). He was a leading a thrifty life, appreciating the simpler things of life to raise his five children. Not happy with just wasting his day time idly, he decided to become a travelling salesman. With his faithful wide as an aide, he drove to small rubber estates and oil palm plantations to sell sarees and Indian clothes on credit. With the little remunerations that he obtained from these, he uplifted the standard of living of his family. After he retired from Government employment, he moved into a large landed property in the more affluent side of town. With his tenacity, he educated his children and became a respected figure in society.
He is a living proof to the adage 'hard work never kills anyone'. Until about six years ago, at a ripe age of 92 years, he was still seen driving around the housing estate. After sending quality time during his 98th birthday with his loved ones, he decided to call it quits. He became progressively weak, bade his farewell and passed the baton to the generation next to bring it to the finish line.
Some would simply throw in the towel at first sight of an obstacle. They would blame everyone else except themselves for their predicament. Others would approach these hurdles somewhat differently. When the barricade is too high, they will go under it. If it is thick, they will go around it. Wailing and garnering sympathy is not going to take us anywhere. That, maybe the life lesson I learnt from Sadarji.
Parnam, till we meet on the Otherside if we do!http://asok22.wix.com/real-lesson
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