Sins and Sinsability

Courtesy Aunt Ruk, I decided to watch Aattam (the Play) and boy was I glad I did - the movie got my thinking juices flowing once again and left me deeply introspecting.  A theater troupe of actors stage a play, it's appreciated and lauded by artsy  gora folk imbibing Indian culture. As a mark of their appreciation, the expat art enthusiasts handover their property, along with its caretaker, to the troupe to let their hair down for a success bash of sorts. The troupe gets together, alcohol starts flowing, things get a little rowdy, people are flung into the swimming pool, and as all parties do this one too simmers down as the participants call it a night. Cut to the next morning the lone female artiste in the troupe exits the premises early in the morning leaving other members of the troupe slightly befuddled but not altogether disturbed in any manner. One of the male artistes, who unbeknownst to the others is in a relationship with the female artist, seeks her out ...

Sex, without a shadow of doubt, is the weapon of choice Yorgos Lanthimos uses to pummel us, his audience, into submission as he provokes us to dig deeper and uncover greater meaning within Poor Things . This sex doesn't titillate, there is nothing erotic about it, neither is it boring and run-of-the-mill nor is it graphic and violent. It is just omnipresent, highly explorative, purely physiological and always around the corner as Bella Baxter, re-animated with the brain of her unborn infant, goes about figuring out her life - one baby step at a time. What commences with Bella discovering the wonder and euphoria of self-love soon evolves into an unquenchable thirst for "furious jumping" and eventually culminates within a brothel in Paris. What begins as infinite curiosity in an entirely unique physiological response simmers down to ennui and self-hate.  Setting aside all the masturbatory madness and fornicative fireworks, Poor Things eventually   boils down to...

0300hrs, some 70 nautical miles into the Arabian Sea, absolute pitch darkness with no moon and a sprinkling of stars in the nightsky. It starts getting windy with the unmistakeable smell of petrichor in the air. The clouds give way, and it starts pouring - it's raining sideways thanks to the wind. The door to the DG Room is ajar, the panel starts getting wet, the power trips, the DG activates, short circuit and BOOM the DG Room is on fire ! While the fire safety-trained personnel on the rig scamper to get the fire extinguishers to douse the fire, I rush down to the accommodation to alert the people asleep and get them out. Both my junior colleagues are fast asleep on their top bunks. I pull them out, tell them to put on their coveralls immediately, grab their lifejackets and get to the muster point immediately. We reach the first muster point, right below the helideck and notice the massive orangeish yellow aura of an inferno. I rush my juniors to move to the main deck ...

I've been a lifelong fan of Will Smith. My earliest memory of Will is watching him in Independence Day - what a movie, and what an absolute dud of a sequel !! Will played the role of a US Air Force Pilot that gets into a dog fight with an invading alien aircraft. Not only does he bring the aircraft down, he does this badass bit of getting out of his plane, going over to the alien's craft, renting open the hood, and as the alien's overenthusiastic tentacles slither all over, punching the alien unconscious while continuing to badmouth it.  Dark skinned actor playing a US Air Force Pilot - COOL  !! Dark skinned actor fighting an invading alien - 2X COOL  !!  Dark skinned actor bitchslapping the alien, leaving it unconscious and hauling it over to the President of US - 3X COOL  !!  I was sold, sold, sold and in absolute awe of him immediately.  He then went on to top his act further with Men In Black. That scene of him chasing the alien on foot (yes, anot...