GBUF - 19 Dec 2021

 

Hello all, good day!

Here is the weekly roundup of Good/Bad/Ugly/Fun of what happened.

#GBUF #sriGINthoughts

CYA: Views are mine.

 

#Good 💚

• Connectivity and communication are key to modern day life. Bharatiyar, a great visionary Tamil poet whose 139^th birthday was celebrated last week dreamt of such things in his poems (joining rivers, telecoms, global trade and knowledge transfer – India PM Modi referred to his lines last week, again!) Along that line, we have the new Portugal-Singapore longest train journey – 21 days it shall take to cover the 18750 km route changing trains in Paris, Moscow, Beijing, Bangkok and a few others. Well, if only omicron isn’t there… #TrainToOrient

• There is something about those initials, I think. Maybe he was named after the great man. Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew has booked his place in the BWF World Championships final, where he will meet India’s Kidambi Srikanth later today. In the form of his life, Loh has beaten higher seeded players consistently and is on the threshold of creating history, again. Good luck, young man! #LKYftw

#Bad 💔

• KL is flooded. Philippines is typhooned. Kentucky is tornadoed. Australia is being LaNinoed. Yet, Indonesia’s coal lobby is up against the government’s COP26 green commitment. It keeps happening. Are we listening at all? #BurnAndDrown

• In the recent British movie, Boiling Point, Stephen Graham, a chef at a popular restaurant will be beleaguered by a host of problems. Well, his PM Boris Johnson is also in a similar situation. Breaking his own tough covid rules through parties at 10 Downing, having a close ally resign a sure-Tory seat after being disgraced etc., are causing more bad-hair days for Mr Johnson than England’s poor Ashes showing so far! #GritItOutBoris

 

 #Ugly 😡

• 30 years ago, logging what happens when the computer program executes was limited to a few messages on the screen. Now, logging – just like living your life on social media - is a separate industry in itself. Last week’s boiling over of #log4j security problem seems to be deadlier than the latest Greek alphabet variant of Covid. While a ‘security patch’ is available from Apache, vaccinating all the systems is not so easy and will take time. Just be careful with where you go on web. #logjam4j

• Putin has a pet project: Annex Ukraine. Crimea was done so in 2014. Now, he has gotten his troops near the Ukraine border. Experts say that there is a high chance of a war in Europe before Sankaranti. West is wringing its hands; pulling its hair; making threatening noises. Putin continues to call their bluff. Problem for west is that they are caught in a conundrum: Is Ukraine worth a fight when China is looming large in foreground? Is antgonising Russia good for their energy imports? #ZapadOffensive

#Fun 😆

• Two lions who were in transit at Changi airport decided to check on the duty-free shopping goodies. They seem to have gotten out of the container and one of them even was found atop the container. While NY Post sensationally called them to be ‘roaming around freely in the airport’, SIA managed to tranquilize them and even had the cheek to say that the lions’ ‘safety is key’. A worthy tagline for the Singapore Tourism Board to consider: Singapore – Where Lions Roam Without A Fine! #LionSinghs

• In what was a super-fun Sunday last week at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, the Dutchman Max Verstappen managed to pip Lewis Hamilton to claim F1 crown for the year. The race was full of drama and in a straight slap to those who crib about F1 races being driven just by machines, this year’s championship was dictated/decided by a human decision by the race director to make it a 1-1 race after the safety car was deployed. #MaxVroom

 

Sources: The Straits Times, Tamil Murasu, CNA, The Guardian, The Hindustan Times, NZ Herald, NY Post, Bloomberg, Top Gear

 

 

GBUF - 12 Dec 2021

Hello all, good day!

Here is the weekly roundup of Good/Bad/Ugly/Fun of what happened.

#GBUF #sriGINthoughts

CYA: Views are mine.

         #Fun 😆

• They were lauded as the cutest by everyone. Social media was flooded with the smooth mammals jumping in and out of water; crossing roads; Otter Watching Groups were created; Singapore is called the #OtterCity. Life is good. Until a rowdy group attacked a man and caused 20 wounds, butt-bites included. Now, tables have turned. People want the population to be curbed. Soon we may call them as OT – #OtterTrash 😊

• For all those who swear by technology, the first Ashes test served up what it was like in the not-too-distant past. No snickometers, no automatic no-ball detection, no power in the stadium – so no DRS, no spider cameras tracking everything from captain’s nose-digging to early-balding batsmen to teaching kids the latest cuss words. It was the good old game where only the 15 pax on the field were involved. Lack of tech surely affected the umpires – 14 on-field no-ball calls were missed in a span of few overs. #TechAshes

        #Ugly 😡

• China’s Evergrande has defaulted. We knew that it would happen eventually. Apart from almost half-a-trillion debt mountain that is out there, the bigger issue is the contagion of bankruptcies that this will cause in small and medium enterprises who are still hoping that these failed/failing conglomerates would pay the bills for anything from supplying tiles, plumbing, electrical works, cleaning services… #WorseThanCovid

• India is doing great on several fronts – Covid management, better infrastructure etc. But the indoctrination also seems to be getting ‘better’. Ahmedabad court censured its municipal corporation for targeting non-vegetarian food carts only against encroachment (‘Don’t dictate what I can or cannot eat!’) & worse still, the CBSE 10th Standard English Reading passage attempted by 2+ million students yesterday seems to have set an appalling standard on gender stereotyping (‘emancipation of the wife destroyed parent’s authority over the children’/’male chauvinist pig’) #SlowGoebbels

#Bad 💔

• I thought that it is a season of giving. What is given is the giver’s prerogative. Well, you could give pink slips, for all you care. BCCI gave it to India’s most successful ODI captain (%), Virat Kohli who by switching off the phone expected that he would not hear it! 😉 And then Vishal Garg of Better.com did it for 15% of his employees over… a Zoom call – ‘If you are on this call, you belong to that unlucky group!’ #SameShitNewZoom

• Losing the head honcho of any organization is bad enough. Losing the Chief of Defence Staff in an accident is definitely worse. India lost her premier soldier and a host of others in a helicopter crash a few days back. What was galling was the way the media handled it – it was actually business-as-usual – in your face, laden with innuendos of conspiracies, sensationalizing every morsel of info. Where has the nuance vanished? #OneMinuteSilencePlease

#Good 💚

• Omicron seems to be a mild variant. Governments are opening up the vaccine regime to kids now. More VTLs happening now. Cheaper Antigen Rapid Test kits ($4.90 vs $10+ per kit) made available. Antibodies from Ostriches used to coat masks to detect Covid under UV light. One step at a time. One jab at a time. One test at a time. Slowly, but surely. #ConstantHope

• Watched Bunty Aur Bubli for the first time yesterday. Survived. No, that isn’t the good news. There is a dialogue which Bunty spouts: ‘What is the use of sending two reformed souls to prison?’ The Dutch seem to have taken it to heart. They have reduced their prison population to such a degree that they are now turning the prisons into other useful structures. Prison chapel becomes the school theatre. Cells turned to Hammam. #KajraRe

Sources: The Straits Times, Tamil Murasu, The Guardian, New Indian Express, Positive.News, TikTok

 

Maanadu - Delightful Loop

#Maanadu #sriGINthoughts #tamilmovies #reviews

Mild spoilers ahead. If you don’t want them to be revealed, just ‘Like/Love/Wow/Sad/Angry’ and move on 😊

8 reasons why I did not ‘like’ Maanadu… 💓

1. Probably for the first time ever in all these years of movie-watching, a villain does not want the hero to die. That was as tough to digest as an undercooked biriyani #BeAliveLoop

2. One finds the hero flying from Delhi to Coimbatore in ShivAir and GoAir alternately. The day might get repeated. But the flights don’t. I have heard of codeshare flights; but this one is…? Unless I missed a subtle message there... 😉 #AirlineLoop

3. STR has a grand total of four outfits – okay, five including the patient gown. And that is the highest among all actors. Advantages of a timeloop movie? No costume expenses. #SartorialLoop

4. Dhanushkodi meets KhaliQ for the first time, he asks for his name. When he gives his name albeit diffidently, Dhanushkodi lets out a judgmental, ‘Oh!’. The next shot is on Khaliq’s face, which depicts a tremendous mixture of resignation, insult, how-long-will-my-community-be-judged feelings. #ReligiousLoop

5. Just like people wondered about how old Kattappa in Baahubali was, people will be counting the number of times Simbu dies in this movie. #NumberLoop

6. Blood is thicker than water, they say. Yeah, right! Don’t let them mix. Else it will be a #BloodyLoop all over again!

7. There is more to SJ Suryah than that meets the eye. He probably exhorts YG Mahendra as ‘Thalaivarey!’ in more ways than the number of punishments described in Garuda Purana #LeaderLoop

8. Heard that they have stopped teaching the students Caesar’s veni, vidi, vici in schools. Instead it is, வந்தான்; சுட்டான்; செத்தான்; ரிபீட்டு! (He came. He shot. He died. Repeat!) #InfiniteLoop (yes, that pendant!) 💓

######

In software development lifecycle, we keep harping that the clearest of requirements gets the best software out – I mean there will be less bugs; a bug-free software is a myth anyway! Similarly, a good movie must have spent a lot of time on writing. Readers might remember my lament about Tamil movies’ writing or lack of and how Mollywood movies rock in that aspect. Venkat Prabhu has worked really hard to make a cogent movie with intelligent writing, that Ujjain BS notwithstanding. Creditable, indeed.

######

Maanadu – a successful conference of minds!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

PS: I unlocked my phone only once during the movie; just to snap a picture of friend Baala (Great start, man!! Congrats & best wishes!) That, my friends, is an achievement in itself!

GBUF - 05 Dec 2021

         Hello all, good day!

After a month-long break, here is the weekly roundup of Good/Bad/Ugly/Fun of what happened.

#GBUF #sriGINthoughts

CYA: Views are mine.

         #Fun 😆

• Two sports. Two records. On Friday night, it was the Memphis Grizzlies who won by the highest margin in NBA history – 73 points! Then the other teddy bear, Ajaz Patel picked all the ten wickets in one innings following Laker (1956) and Kumble (1999). We are in a #BearMarket alright!
• Xmas Spruces are everywhere. Norway even gifts one to Britain every year for her help to the Scandinavian nation during WWII. The gifted tree finds its way to Trafalgar Square and stands tall there through the festive season. Only problem this year is that the 24-metre tree seems to be lambasted for being ‘sparse’, ‘threadbare’, ‘ill’, ‘half dead’. All due to a few broken branches! Talk about the ‘thought that counts!’ & ‘look a gift horse in the mouth’! #GiftBranch

        #Ugly 😡

• Politicians prevaricate. Politicians mislead. Politicians lie. When they do all these one after another, the lose credibility. And when they do it in the Parliament, then it gets ugly. Raeesah Khan of Workers’ Party, Singapore did all this and her leaders – yeah, Pritam! - kinda threw her under the bus. In turn, she threw them under the MRT when she said that it was them who asked her to ‘take the lie to the grave’. #LiesDontWork

• He was the poster boy of Singapore’s opposition when he was jailed six years ago for wounding religious feelings. He sought asylum in the US citing persecution at home. Today Amos Yee is jailed in the US for 6 years for grooming and possessing child porn. We lost a young man somewhere. Parents? Teachers? Society? #AmosInfamous

#Bad 💔

• South Africa did a favour by identifying handful of variants. The whole world did the apartheid on them; named the variant as #omicron (can’t name it as the next Greek alphabet Xi, for obvious reasons); closed borders – pretty much played the COVID playbook perfectly. Typical situation everywhere. Experts say something and the talking heads take over. #ShootMessenger

• World #1 and #2 are still fighting. US says China’s Taiwan moves will have ‘terrible consequences’. China warns China-linked US businesses that they can’t make a fortune silently. Didi delists from NYSE. US-EU is looking to start Global Gateway as against China’s Belt Road Initiative. Competition is good – only if it is healthy! With COVID-induced imbalances, this is not looking healthy at all. #FightLikeKids

#Good 💚

• China (them again!) funded (almost 20% of Laos’ GDP) and built a 400+ km high-speed rail from Vientiane to the border town Boten and eventually to Kunming within China. There is of course a grander scheme to snake through Thailand, Malaysia and reach Singapore. How this will work with the HSR between Malaysia and Singapore – noises of revival can be heard now – is a moot point. But overall a good thing for the region’s connectivity! #LaneXang

• When #AdiPenne created by Singapore’s Suria Velan/Stephen Zechariah, made it to some of my Indian contacts’ Insta reels, I was feeling good. We do need some good news in these gloomy times, don’t we? Enter ‘Tank’s Good News’! Founder George Resch’s motto: “Making people think a little bit more positively, and making them laugh,” is something that we all can use, right? #GoodNewsSellsToo
  
  
  
  
  

Sources: The Straits Times, Tamil Murasu, Bloomberg, Forbes, Nikkei Review, The Guardian

 

 

GBUF - 31 Oct 2021

Hello all, good day!

Here is the weekly roundup of Good/Bad/Ugly/Fun of what happened.

#GBUF #sriGINthoughts

CYA: Views are mine. 

#Fun

• Cristiano Ronaldo is going to become a father of twins. Now #GGMU fans are already worried and wringing their hands: “We spent so much money on this man to produce magic on the pitch. Not only has the magic not happened but also, now he will go on paternity leave! #CR7x2

• Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) seems to have taken the unwanted sobriquet of Singapore being the ‘World’s most fatigued country’ to its heart. It is giving away $30 vouchers for those who register for a Sleep Challenge. Minimum 7 hours of sleep required. Along with that you must have move the butt to add steps to the count. Who says sleep doesn’t pay? Take those #40Winks!

#Ugly

• This year, at least one cyclist per day has been arrested by the police in Singapore for riding on the expressways!! With speeding vehicles at 90 kmph, these lightweight velocipedes will just fly off in the draught! I think in their eagerness to enhance their fitness, the cyclists seem to have left their brains at home! #MenacingPedals

• Covid has seen 5m deaths across the world. To put it in context, that is 90% of Singapore’s population. So much of waste – economic, opportunities, growth and above all human! The way we humans handled the pandemic was simply not good enough. We yoyoed from one end to the other; blamed and continue to blame; stumbled and continue to stumble. What is the use of all the education and growth? #BackToSquare1

#Bad

• You worked hard to become famous. Millions follow you. Then an anonymous post flames you. Fans leave in flocks. You become an outcast overnight. Then it is found that the post was false. Welcome to ‘Cancel Culture’, a herd mentality facilitated by that omnipresent phone you are holding now! South Korea leads the pack on this; but it is as much a pandemic as Covid! #ShootFirstAskLater

• Sometime back Sellur Raju, a minister in Tamil Nadu was ridiculed for trying to cover Vaigai river with Styrofoam sheets to prevent evaporation. Well, they are trying that in Switzerland to stop glaciers from melting. The world is definitely becoming hotter by the day. Carbon emissions will double in less than two decades & most of us will live to feel it then! So, take that small step. Switch that aircon off. Follow #ReduceReuseRecycle

#Good

• Some good things are happening in Rome G-20. They are shaking hands on Climate, Covid and Economy – notwithstanding the usual saber-rattling by the usual suspects. They also endorsed the common tax regimes to prevent rich getting richer – hopefully it does that! There is #COP26 in Glasgow which wants to get some agreement solidified among all the parties. Tough. But must proceed boldly. #HotHotterHottest

• As the delta variant rages through Singapore (number of cases are as consistent as Pakistan is in #T20WorldCup), what is heartening is to note the planning and the coping up of the health infra in Singapore. ICU facilities we/are beefed up, more nurses trained and deployed and private hospitals roped in. It is a positive spin alright; but it is needed for us to know and recognise the great work that frontliners are doing! #SaluteFront

Sources: The Straits Times, Tamil Murasu, Bloomberg, CR’s Instapage, SG HPB

PS: If you are interested in taking part in #GQ2021 related to #T20WorldCup, please let me know.

No. 2: How to be one?

This article was written for Volume 6 e-journal of www.arbharconsulting.com

3 Chicken-Soup-For-The-Soul Movies

Three life-is-crap-but-there-is-always-a-good-bidet-around movies on #Netflix…

1. 42

Those who have read Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker trilogy (with 4 books!) would remember that the answer to ‘What is Life?’ Is 42. Perhaps Mr Adams got it after the shirt No. 42 'owned' by Jackie Roosevelt Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball for Brooklyn Dodgers. Harrison Ford is delightful as the cigar-smoking version of Krishna Paramatma. Key message: A hero doesn’t fight to burn down but to fight and keep the fire on. One hit at a time. One run at a time. #PitchPerfect (4/5)

2. Green Book

What if a black pianist, Dr Dominic Shirley sophisticated to the core, wants to travel Deep South in the US during early ‘60s on a concert tour? Mad, you would say. What if the same pianist (Mahershala Ali in an Oscar-winning performance) employs a white, racist Italian (Viggo Mortensen) to be his driver-cum-valet for the trip? Possible and the inevitable happens. Both grow up during the long drives experiencing, by now familiar, situations of how segregation was so deep-rooted. There was this poignant scene where the negro farmers look at their ‘brother’ pianist with awe, respect, disbelief and a bit of pride when they see him being served by a white man. Key message: The best way to fight bigotry is through dignity. #TunedPerfect (3.5/5)

3. Yesterday

It’s a hard day’s life. Jack can’t Let It Be. His manager who yearns to be his lover, Wants to Hold his Hand. But Jack is still stuck in Yesterday In His Life. Then miracle happens. Whole world forgets that Beatles ever existed except Jack. Promptly whips out the songs and becomes an overnight star. Did the star become a black hole or a true polar one? Danny Boyle casts yet another Brit-Indian to play the struggling musician. Oh, Ed Sheeran is in it too! Key Message: Character is doing the right thing even when no one knows that your are cheating. #JudePerfect (3/5)

#sriGINthoughts #reviews #fortytwo #greenbook #yesterday

Drishyam 2: The Resumption - Knight Vision

If a man could commit a perfect crime in six hours, what can he do to hide it, if he is given six years?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to #Drishyam2, technically the second half of the #DrishyamWhole!

If Drishyam1 (D1 for short) showed how far a man will go to hide a crime, D2 shows how far the same man will go to escape the eventuality!

D2 follows the same template. Leisurely setting of the context for the first one hour! (so much so that I even nodded off a couple of times!) Then a roller-coaster ride for the next 90 mins to leave you breathless.

If D1 was all about emotions (parental, lust, power, remorse, the absolutism of family-first...), D2 is about survival. How does a cornered family, nay, a man comes through the pangs of guilt and fear to survive?

Years ago, read an abridged version of Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, which had crime, morality and redemption as central themes. The two Drishyams have packaged it colourfully to cater to the modern audience, though I have to say that redemption is a bit of a rare commodity in the movie as everyone seems to be yearning for it.

I did feel that GeorgeKutty was more ruthless and even calculative here. His movie-in-a-movie meta-touch was interesting, though Vellithirai had it better. There were a lot of emotional connects in D1 which helped people to identify themselves with both the pro/antagonists; but D2 is all about a super-intelligent man who would go to any lengths to protect his family including himself.

There were no red herrings. All actions were Newtonian. Cinematic licences were taken (court hearings, medical tests, convenient acquaintances etc.) Thankfully, this movie was not done by any of the Tamil/Telugu superstars, else the BGM would have been Anirudhesque!

I wanted to write a comparative note on how the ending of D1 was treated across the various languages. Lalettan, Kamal, Venkatesh, Ravichandran, Ajay Devgan etc. showed different colours to practically the same scenario. Such was the climax's power. However, D2, though adorned with a oh-so-clever denouement did not tug your heartstrings as the former did. Maybe it is because we are talking about the Punishment part, rather than the Crime here?

A word about the scripting in recent Malayalam movies. They are simply awesome. Sujatha (and many other great writers) used to say:

 ‘Write. Scrap. Rinse. Write. Scrap. Rinse. Write. Scrap. Rinse. By doing this, you might get something worthwhile in the end.' 

Mallu movies seem to have taken this to their heart. One can see the effort that has gone into chiselling the script to such an extent that it coruscates from any angle that you see!

D1 and D2 are the two perfect halves of the same apple. One can binge-watch them over five hours and not find a missing step or a jarring note. That is the true #crownjewel example of nuanced yet powerful writing. 

Watch it for sure. Then you can have your own opinion on which one is better. 🤩

PS1: Not sure whether #Papanasam2 will happen or not. After all, Kamal has done the Crime and Punishment routine in Virumandi! 😛

PS2: Will there be a #Drishyam3? There is enough of an opening left in the movie. Only Jeetu knows though! But I would say, stop it here when the going is good.

#SriGINthoughts

Parasite Pandemic

 #Parasite #ஒட்டுண்ணி #English_and_Tamil

(mild spoilers ahead)

Got to watch Parasite yesterday (22-02-2020). After having watched a zillion remakes of Korean movies in Tamil, it was decided that we shall subject ourselves to the original this time. Brilliant decision, I should say.

After finishing the movie with great subtitle help, one was left with a heavy heart – although with a ray of hope.

A struggling family replete in the underbelly of Korea (South, I mean!), finds its way through skulduggery into the mansion of a super-rich family, masquerading as an English Teacher (Son), Art Therapist/Teacher (Daughter), Mercedes Driver (Dad) and Housekeeper (Mother). But when the previous housekeeper returns during a weekend, their lives go for a complete toss. What happens thereafter leads to a riveting climax that leaves us with all the familiar questions about class-divide and more!

The story is straightforward; the acting is quite subdued; hardly a note of jarring music. But what stole the show was the fantastic treatment of the story through an exotic weaving of a screenplay filled with subtle layering and subtexts.

Some samples that are still with me are…

The below-poverty-level subsistence of the family being shown through their residence which is neither above nor below the street-level; yet scrounging for free wifi #dungeonlife

The various ugly fights that the residents of the tenement have in between them taking out their frustrations on their fellow low-classes

The subtle humour of the have-nots – ‘My daughter should get a degree in Forgery from Oxford!?’ (note that the ‘haves’ only crack condescending jokes!) #PoorHumour

The matter-of-fact reference to the fried-chicken joints & the Taiwanese Cake fad that is/was so prevalent in Korea (after the 2008 Great Financial Crisis) where the hero’s dad probably lost his shirt! #EconomyStupid

The subtle and not-so-subtle ways that the workers/servants are put in place – ‘You are being paid for this, aren’t you?’ with the unsaid portion of ‘So, better work for it!’ #NegativeDignity

People have been discriminated through seeing/hearing/feeling/tasting their poverty. But for the first time, the sense of smell has been used overpoweringly to raise the stench of persisting the divide! #MoneyCanIronAllWrinkles

I always say that making movies is a seriously serious business. It has the infinite capacity to make the world to look into the mirror and see its ugly side. Director #Bong_Joon_ho has managed to polish that mirror so very well, that the images that you see are crystal clear and disturbing.

PS: Aren’t there such movies in Tamil and Malayalam (I can’t look beyond these to go to Oscars!). Definitely. #Aadukalam was one such case. Even the movie #Maayaanadhi that I watched on Vasantham had incredible shoots of promise. So, it is possible and definitely doable. What is needed is for Shri Modi to talk to Mr Trump (who is reportedly cross about a Korean movie getting an Oscar – did someone tell him that it is a South Korean movie?) and make sure that the next Oscar is for an Indian movie

**** Tamil Below ****

சில நாட்களுக்கு முன் Parasite பற்றி சில வரிகள் எழுதியிருந்தேன். அப்போது படம் பார்க்கவில்லை. ஆஸ்கர் வேறு கிடைத்துவிடவே பார்க்க வேண்டிய கட்டாயம் வந்துவிட்டது. எப்போதும் கொரியப் படங்களின் காப்பியைத் தமிழில் பார்த்து போர் அடித்துவிட்டதால் இம்முறை நேராகவே பார்க்க வீட்டில் முடிவு எடுக்கப்பட்டது.

சப்டைட்டில் உதவியுடன் படம் பார்த்து முடித்தவுடன் கனத்த மனம்.

கொரியாவில் வறுமையில் வாழு(டு)ம் ஒரு குடும்பத்தைப் பற்றிய கதை இது. ஒரு பணக்காரப் பெண்ணுக்கு ஆங்கிலம் சொல்லிக் கொடுக்கச் செல்லும் ஒரு இளைஞன் சிலபல தகிடுதத்தம் செய்து தன் தங்கையை ஒரு ஓவிய ஆசிரியையாகவும், தந்தையை கார் ஓட்டுனராகவும், அம்மாவை வீட்டைப் பார்த்துக் கொள்ளும் பணிப்பெண்ணாகவும் அதே வீட்டில்

நுழைத்துவிடுகிறான். சிங்கிள் டீக்கே சிங்கி அடித்துக் கொண்டிருந்த குடும்பம் சிறிது சிறிதாக நிம்மதிப் பெருமூச்சு விட, விதி பழைய பணிப்பெண்ணின் ரூபத்தில் வந்து, ஒரு வார இறுதியில் அனைத்தையும் புரட்டிப் போட்டுவிடுகிறது. மீதி என்னாயிற்று என்பதைக் கண்டிப்பாக வெள்ளித்திரையில் காண்க.

கதையைக் காட்டிலும் (மின்சாரக் கண்ணாவுடன் தயவு செய்து தயவு செய்து ஒப்பிட வேண்டா!),

நடிப்பைக் காட்டிலும் (ஓவர் ஆக்டிங் என்றால் கிலோ என்ன விலை?),

கதை கூறப்பட்ட விதமும், திரைக்கதைக் களனும், உறுத்தாத குறியீடுகளும் இரண்டேகால் மணி நேரம் நம்மைக் கட்டிப் போட்டன.

கொரியாவில் இருக்கும் ஏழை-பணக்கார ஏற்ற தாழ்வுகளை மெல்லிழையாகப் படம் முழுக்க நெளியவிட்டு, கடைசியில் பளீரென அடிக்கும்போது வலிக்கிறது.

வறுமைக் கோட்டின் கீழ் இருக்கும் குடும்பத்தினர் இருக்கும் அந்த தெருவுக்குக் கீழான டஞ்சன் போன்ற வீடு…

அதற்குள் ஓசி வைஃபை கிடைக்க அவர்கள் படும் அவஸ்தை…

அம்மாவின் குண்டு எறிதலுக்கான (எதற்கும் உதவாத) வெள்ளிப் பதக்கம்…

போகிற போக்கில் கொரியாவில் 1998க்குப்பின் காளான்களாக முளைத்த வறுத்த கோழிக்கடை, கேக் கடை போன்றவற்றில் நாயகனின் தந்தை பணம் விட்டது பற்றிய கேஷுவலான வசனங்கள்…

எவ்வளவுதான் சுதந்திரம் கொடுத்தாலும் வேலைக்காரர்கள் கோட்டைத் தாண்டி வருவதைச் சிறிதும் விரும்பாத பணக்கார வர்க்கம்…

ஐம்புலன்களில் ஒருவரின் ஏற்ற தாழ்வை - நாம் #பார்க்கலாம்; அவர் பேசும் பேச்சைக் #கேட்டு எடை போடலாம்; கை குலுக்கும்போது #தொட்டு உணரலாம்; அவர்களின் உணவைச் #சுவைத்துக் குறைத்து மதிப்பிடலாம். ஆனால் அவர்களின் #வாசனையைக் (துர்நாற்றம் பழகிப் போச்சுங்க!) கொண்டே அவர்கள் தனிமைப்படுத்தப்படும் போது, பிரித்துக் காட்டப்படும் போது, அதன் தாக்கத்தை திரையைத் தாண்டி நம்மாலேயே உணர முடிவது அற்புதம்.

சினிமா என்பது ஒரு அதீதக் கலை. அது புண்ணாகிக் கிடக்கும் கலாச்சாரத்தை வெளிச்சமிட முடியும் ஒரு சீரிய ஆடி. இப்படத்தின் மூலம் இயக்குனர் #பாங்_ஜூன்_ஹோ அதை அழகாகப் பாதரசமிட்டு நம்மையே அதில் பார்க்கச் செய்துள்ளார். #ManInTheMirror

படத்தில் ஒரு வசனம் வரும்.

’அந்த அம்மா பணக்காரியாக இருந்தாலும், ரொம்ப நல்லவங்க!’

‘இல்லை! அவங்க பணக்காரி. அதனாலதான் நல்லவங்க! பணம் ஒரு இஸ்திரி பொட்டி மாதிரி! எல்லா கசங்கலையும் நேராக்கிடும்!’

ஒரு ஏழையின் பார்வையில் இருசாராரின் வாழ்வும் எப்படி மதிப்பீடு செய்யப்படுகிறது என்பதை இதற்கும் மேல் சொல்ல முடியாது!

பி.கு.: தமிழில்/மலையாளத்தில் இது போன்ற படங்கள் இல்லையா? கண்டிப்பாக இருக்கின்றன. #ஆடுகளம் என்னைப் பொறுத்தவரையில் கண்டிப்பாகத் தகுதி பெற்ற ஒன்று. இன்று வசந்தம் ஒளிவழியில் பார்த்த மலையாளப் படமான #மாயாநதி ’அட!’ என்று நிமிர்ந்து உட்கார வைத்தது. தொட்டுவிடும் தூரம் தான்! இதோ ட்ரம்ப் வந்துவிட்டார். மோடி அவரிடம் பேசி அடுத்த வருடம் இந்தியப் படம் ஒன்றுக்கு ஆஸ்கார் வாங்கிக் கொடுப்பார் என நம்பிக் கொண்டு…