The Father, Mortal Kombat

• Karnataka Govt gave permission for cinemas to operate from July 19, 2021.
• After April 21, which was last day of cinema hall operation, they gave permission.
• I had watched three movies on April 21, 2021. Before halls shut down. Here 
• Now first cinemas opened on July 23 Friday and that was Gopalan Mall Miniplex on Old Madras Road.
• This week on July 30 many more cinemas opened up and with new releases.
• Namely Mortal Kombat and The Father among others.

Mortal Kombat

• Watched this movie at Gopalan Cinemas, Bannerghatta Road.
• I liked the movie.
• We get transported to a magical world.
• Movie like this has to be enjoyed on the big screen.

The Father

• This movie was watched at PVR Cinemas, Vega City mall.
  
• This movie is full of emotions.
• Acting of Anthony Hopkins is wonderful.
• Towards the end he cries calling Mummy Mummy is just pure emotion.
  
• Surely he was in and as Hannibal in the 2001.
• There is too much difference between this role and Hannibal.
  
• I had seen that movie on September 11, 2001.
• Now almost 20 years have passed and it is safe to say Anthony Hopkins would not be coming back as Hannibal anytime soon.
• But who knows Hollywood may still spring a surprise and we have a 90 year old Hannibal.
• Jokes apart, everybody will reach "end-of-life" stage one day or the other. 
• And dementia is a real possibility in this day and age.
• We all need to confront it.
  

2nd Wave Karnataka and Bengaluru Lockdown History (Updated)

Details of Lockdown in Bengaluru and Karnataka in 2nd Wave of Covid-19
Sl No	Date	Day	Particulars
1	08-Apr-21	Thursday	Night curfew announced from 10 PM till 5AM from Saturday 10 April till April 20 in 7 cities across Karnataka. Link 1
2	21-Apr-21	Wednesday	Night curfew extended from 9PM to 6AM and weekend curfew announced till May 4 for full state Link 2
3	21-Apr-21	Wednesday	Last day for Multiplex and cinema halls operation
4	22-Apr-21	Thursday	Order modified and non essential shops closed. Link 3
5	24-Apr-21	Saturday	First weekend curfew day 1
6	25-Apr-21	Sunday	First weekend curfew day 2
7	26-Apr-21	Monday	Further lockdown announced from April 27 for 14 days till May 11 for full state. Link 4
8	07-May-21	Friday	Lockdown now extended from 10th May till 25th May Link 5
9	21-May-21	Friday	Lockdown now extended for 2 weeks more till 7th June Link 6
10	03-Jun-21	Thursday	Lockdown extended by 1 week till June 14 Link 7
11	10-Jun-21	Thursday	After 50 days of lockdown, Lockdown extended by 1 week till June 21 in entire state with existing lockdown restrictions continuing in 11 districts and balance 20 districts have some relaxations with  new weekend shutdown introduced for full state on June 19 and June 20. Public transport not allowed. All non-essential shops cannot open. Link 8
12	15-Jun-21	Tuesday	Bangalore Commissioner and Additional District Magistrate issues order imposing Section 144 of the CrPC in Bangalore, which will be in force till midnight on June 21. Link 8
13	18-Jun-21	Friday	Weekend curfew will be there but there is relaxation for essential services from 6 AM till 2 PM. Link 9
14	19-Jun-21	Saturday	After 8 weeks and 2 days of full lockdown. Further relaxation announced for two weeks starting June 21 till July 5 in 16 districts including Bengaluru where lot of facilities can continue with 50% capacity. Eating out is allowed with 50% capacity till 5 PM. Malls are still closed. Cinemas closed. Public transport allowed with 50% capacity Night curfew continues from 7 PM till 5 am in full state. Non essential shops can open. Link 10
15	21-Jun-21	Monday	Six more districts added to seventeen earlier where relaxations are in effect till July 5 Monday. Link 11
16	04-Jul-21	Sunday	Further relaxation allowed now starting July 5 Monday for 2 weeks till July 19. Malls and shopping complexes allowed to open with 100% capacity. Public transport also allowed with 100% capacity. Cinemas still closed. Night curfew now from 9 PM till 5 AM. Link 12
17	18-Jul-21	Sunday	Further relaxation allowed now starting July 19 Monday for 2 weeks. Night curfew now from 10 PM till 5 AM duration reduced by 1 hour. Cinema halls allowed to open with 50% capacity. Higher education institutions can open from July 26 Link 13

Russia Britain NATO conflict

• Recently there was an incident in the Black Sea.
• What happened that Britain sent her warships too close to Russian territorial waters. 
• Russia Britain Black Sea Incident on Google
  
• I must say this is foolhardy or rather foolishness on the part of Western forces and NATO to take on Russia.
• Russia is not Iraq or Somalia or Libya which the West can invade and browbeat.
• I know Russia has taken over Crimea in 2014 because historically this part of the Black Sea belonged to Russia.
• Letting go of that region to go to Ukraine would be suicidal to Russia and Russia needed to prevent the attempts by West and NATO at all costs.
• We have to see how this happened.
• It happened more due to belligerent posture of US and NATO leaders then otherway around.
• Obama and Hillary Clinton in earlier administration were hugely antagonistic towards Putin and Russian Government.
• Obama and Hillary hated Putin so much it cannot be put in words.
• When Trump came there was a lull but let us face it Trump was like a joker in front of World leaders. Trump only provided amusement to the powerful leaders of the world including Putin.
• So all leaders have conspired to get rid of Trump and this "fake pandemic" came into being.
• Okay let us forget about pandemic now and concentrate on Russia and NATO which includes Britain.
• For decades Turkey has been part of NATO and nuclear weapons of NATO have been stationed in Turkey which is like backyard of Russia
• When erstwhile Soviet Union wanted to station nuclear missiles in Cuba which was backyard of United States in 1962 that led to Cuban missile crisis and threatened World War 3.
• Let us not forget the Crimean War in 19th Century where hundreds of thousands of people died.
• We should not forget Florence Nightangale. She made her name during the Crimean War.
• Her birthday is celebrated as Nurses Day.
• When people die it is okay. Only bodies need to be disposed off.
• But when people get injured we require doctors and nurses.
• Whether death or injury the people need to be cared for.
• Whether own soldiers and population or enemy soldiers and population the dead and injured have to be cared for.
• For every death in a conflict there would be dozens of injuries including loss of limbs and mental power.
• Hence emphasis should be to prevent wars at all costs.
• History has a strange pattern of repeating itself.
• But it does not have to that way.
• We can avoid conflict.
• If we don't the result of conflict would be the "end of the world"
• Not just "the end of the world as we know it" but the literal "end of the world".
• Our entire world will end in a flash of light.
• Just see this mock documentary on Youtube to know how the war will transpire.
• Fictionalized BBC Special Report of NATO-Russia conflict - YouTube
• In the above documentary the situation begins like just any other day.
• Leaders begin assembling in Brussels and everything ends when Brussels itself comes under nuclear attack.
• Then slowly UK itself is under attack and London is probably obliterated including BBC studios.
• Trust me people please do not engage with Russia in a negative way else the World will end in a flash.
• Give Russia and China breathing space.
• They are not like teeny weeny countries like Afghanistan or Iraq or Libya or Somalia the West is used to fighting

Cloverfield Paradox

• Watched this movie Cloverfield Paradox on Netflix.
• That was just before my Netflix subscription expired.
• Hoping to join Netflix again soon.
• This movie is a continuation of Cloverfield series.
• But I felt it has no continuity with earlier movie in the series.
• The original Cloverfield was a disaster movie like Godzilla monster is shown in a Blair Witch project kind of "found footage".
• 10 Cloverfield Lane was a movie which was like Independence Day or War of the Worlds movie where Earth is invaded by Aliens.
• This movie Cloverfield Paradox is set in the future where energy is an issue and to avoid wars between nations a Space Station is built to send power from Space.
• It seems the crew is unable to do the job with loss of many people from various countries.
• The World still erupts into World War and remaining crew should not go back to earth but they go anyway and then something is shown.
• But then towards the end a huge monster is shown and the movie just loses it.
• As the crew descent and get swallowed by the huge monster before they can make it to ground.

10 Cloverfield Lane, Boar

 Watched the two movies as mentioned in the subject line.

10 Cloverfield Lane

• I liked the movie.
• The best part of the movie is that right up to the last 20 minutes we are in suspense whether the doomsday has already happened.
• Then we see that the doomsday where Aliens have invaded the earth has happened.
• It is like what was shown in "Independence Day" 1996 movie.
• First they destroy the population centers and then they invade.
• They choose to invade later.
• In Independence Day the mothership is destroyed before the land invasion can happen with a single nuclear warhead smuggled into the territory in their own aircraft.
• In this 10 Cloverfield Lane movie the heroine chooses to fight.
• I am sure the way she shows valor and even if given an option whether to stay under lockdown in that bunker with John Goodman or come out and fight she would have chosen the latter.
• John Goodman thinks too highly of himself.
• There is no guarantee he would have survived the land invasion. They could have been found and detected and destroyed by the aliens.
• The air is polluted initially and humans cant survive but maybe the earth is too big a place and the air repairs itself.
• What is not shown is what happens later when the heroine proceeds to Houston to join the forces fighting the Aliens and choses not to escape to safe zone.
• There is a sequel Cloverfield Paradox and will watch it soon.

Boar

• This is a classic Australian horror story movie must watch.
• This movie is loaded with Aussie language as well.
• Compared to the Cargo movie where there was not much dialogue, here there is too good Aussie language including slangs kind of language you may hear in reality but not on TV.
• TV including news channels is like made for kids and hence it is too clean.
• This is probably the real language what Aussies use.
• Coming back to the monster boar shown in the movie it is huge and it needs to be seen.
• Monster boar the size of Hippopotamus but they are not indestructible.
• Else it would have been a problem.
• But there could be more monster boars in the movie as is shown the end.

Chernobyl

Watched two movies and one webseries as mentioned in the subject line

Chernobyl

• This five part series was watched on Disney+Hotstar
• I must say this series is a must watch.
• I will say the Covid Pandemic is fake like "made for TV" but what happened at Chernobyl with radiation leak is real.
• I must appreciate the makers that they could bring the time and occasion and incident back to life.
• It is truly remarkable.
• Words will not suffice as to how good the series is.
• As a result of that 2600 sq kms needed to be evacuated and all wildlife and domestic animals had to be eliminated.
• 600,000 troops and personnel were involved. Though 750,000 were asked for as shown in series.
• Soviet Union was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan and the Soviet Empire and dream simply vapourised.
• So has also been confirmed by Gorbachev in 2006 interview. That it is the single event which resulted in the fall of Soviet Empire.
• They just fell like a pack of cards. One situation led to another and it became the end.
• The series does not criticise nuclear power as such.
• But certain checks and balances needed to be placed which were being ignored in Soviet nuclear industry due to need for promotion and fear of punishment.
• It was an army of "Yes Men" and no men were simply executed and that was a real problem that is shown.
• And that is bigger tragedy than the disaster itself.
• Series is so good that after I saw the series, the last episode shows the actual sequence of events, I was tempted to watch the first episode again.
• And soon planning to rewatch the balance four episodes again.
• After watching the first episode realised that it is the most important episode and Dyatlov probably knew that the reactor lid was blown off when he saw graphite on the roof when he was moving through a corridor from one building to another. 
• In the last episode it is shown how the nuclear fission went out of control.
• It is nuclear fission for Gods sake.
• Any athlete, cook, person who cuts vegetables, street sweeper can appreciate what is shown in the series.
• Even we change a bedsheet every two or three days then we know the old bedsheet is like "contaminated" and so we wash it.
• It is radiation. Man's attempt to control something as nuclear fission is something very delicate.
• I will say there is nothing beyond what is shown in the movie.
• In school we have read that nuclear fusion is a separate process from fission.
• Man has still not harnessed fusion to generate power.
• But fusion can generate more power than fission.
• Fission can easily become uncontrollable and that results in a bomb.
• We also get to know from the series that iodine tablets are required as the good iodine will tackle the bad iodine present in radiation.
• We know that people in India have been being sold and asked to consume iodised salt for the past 30 years and more.
• Is it due to radiation from Chernobyl and other "open air nuclear tests" happened in the world?
• Maybe. The radiation spreads around.
• (Added later):
• In the last episode, the brief discussion which the scientist Valery and administrator Boris have with each other during a break in the trial is simply priceless and makes us understand as to what life was like under Soviet Union.
• Boris says Each assignment one was sent to was not a matter of respect but because you were this small and you were made to fail. In other words you felt you were respected but it was not so. Like you were being made the fall guy.
• But Valery contradicts Boris and says whatever was asked Boris supplied and hence he was not small guy but rather due to him things happened.

365 Days, Block Island Sound, Awake

Watched the above three movies on Netflix.

365 Days

This movie is similar to "50 Shades of Gray" in lot of ways with an "Italian twist". I liked the movie. The movie shows a story of an "Italian stud" who is also part of the mafia. He falls in love with a girl and wants to marry her but the culture around Sicily does not allow it and the girl gets killed in the end. It has also been shown in some Hindi movies where the hero rebels when he is not allowed to be with the girl of his dreams. I think marriage is out of the question in cases like this. Worth watching.

Block Island Sound

This movie shows a phenomena which is caused by Aliens most likely as no explanation is given in the movie. Like rapture where people and things float to the sky and then they fall back. People get in contact with those beings who force them to bring food and other things. It is like what happens in real life where scientists do experiments and they take a few specimen of an animal species and do test for the benefit of the entire animal species. It may appear that these aliens are doing experiments on those people they take away. When their use is done they are discarded away. Movie has deep meaning if you try to understand it. Else it is like a funny comic book story which you can laugh away in your free time when you think about how far fetched it is (especially when the demand is like "dog, dog, dog or girl, girl, girl). Worth watching.

Awake

This movie is a serious movie. It shows how you don't sleep due to a solar radiation messing up magnetic structure existing in our bodies in addition to all electronics. Then those who have had near death experience in this time like "died and came back" within a minute can still sleep. Apparently there are not many people like this. And after few days of not sleeping people become crazy and in a military base where experiments are being conducted they shoot each other. The kids find this "near death" thing and then they attempt to use on their mom who is also a victim of this not-sleeping thing. We do not know whether they are successful or not when they drown her and then attempt to revive her. But there is a slight grunting sound. So maybe she came back to life. It is not clearly shown. But the revival attempt we see is like baptism we see being done in water bodies. Worth watching.