The blood smeared alleys of the dreadful crime valleys
Somehow hastily having something for my meal I sat down to binge-watch a popular crime thriller in a weekend night. Slowly I entered into a merciless world full of gruesome violence. Power hungry men and women were using every imaginable unkind means to fulfill their vested interests. Characters were hurling abuse and slang in the name of dialogues, frequent violent scenes were presented as graphical as it could be. In a blink of a second someone would pull out a gun or a knife and you would see on your screen a corpse lying on a floor having a hole on its forehead from where blood would be oozing out profusely. Female characters were also not far behind than their male counterparts. Without any hesitation they would play the role of a seductress titillating the male characters. In addition to that, they were equally engaged in the murder games of the story too. It was apparently nothing but the reflections of the darkest sides of human psyche. But, I was not complaining; after all it was my own choice to watch it, probably to chill my bones and thrill my nerves. Perhaps like Rami Malek starrer Mr. Robot, I too have a darker side which needs such a violent, inhuman ambience to satiate itself. But, wait a minute! I am not alone here. The show I was watching is quite popular in India. In fact people were eagerly waiting for arrival of its second season. Whether our human side likes it or not, extreme violence in movies and web series has become quite a key ingredient. Most of us if not all savor it in the name of entertainment. But, should or can violence be an art too?
Can violence be an art form
Before this OTT revolution, or even prior to the invention of modern cinemas, the only similar performing art form was Drama or Play. Although they are quite different in nature, still we may say cinema is an offshoot of stage play. The invention of the motion camera facilitated a performance art like cinema. Traditionally since the plays have been performed in front of a live audience, there were certain rules and regulations. Whether it’s a Greek tragedy, Shakespeare’s drama, or an ancient Sanskrit play of Kalidasa, there are always certain dos and don’ts.
Bharata Muni, who is considered as the father of Indian dramaturgy expounded the concept of ‘Rasa’ ( aesthetics) in his scripture Natya Shastra. Rasa theory delves deep into the human psyche; in fact, it goes even beyond. According to this theory art is not mere a tool for entertainment, it’s a mean to elevate oneself emotionally and spiritually.
Entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder and bliss, where he experiences the essence of his own consciousness, and reflects on spiritual and moral questions.
“Rasa (aesthetics).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 April 2021, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_(aesthetics)
If we apply rasa theory in this context, we may consider violence as an ingredient to create respective rasas like Vivatsam(Disgust), Bhayanakam(Horror), Rudram(Fury) or may be Advutam(Wonder), as the case may be. Invariably this will invoke certain emotions(bhavas) in the viewers.
But, in the olden days, types of violence and physical intimacy shown in current crime based movies and web series were forbidden in stage plays. However modern man knows no boundaries. He now dares to explore the uncharted terrain as well. We have examples of filmmakers who has made the gruesome violence indeed a matter of aesthetics.
Aesthetic representation of violence
Death too is an art;
An indifferent sculpture carved from the hardened stone of life
——Translation of a famous Assamese poetry of Hiren Bhattacharyya.
Inclusion of violence particularly in Crime and action genres in a visual art like cinema is perhaps a neccesity many a times. But, how is it represented is the matter of concern. Art is always interwoven with aesthetics. If representation of violence in an art form lacks the aesthetic part, it would fail to evoke the right emotions in the mind and soul of the viewers; then it would be nothing but vulgarity.
In the process of aestheticization of violence even murder is also treated as an act of art, and the murderer is a kind of artist or anti-artist who is specialized in destruction, not in creation. As professor of literature Joel Black of University of Georgia stated that “(if) any human act evokes the aesthetic experience of the sublime, certainly it is the act of murder”.[1] Quentin Tarantino’s films are prime examples of how a violent moment can be converted to an aesthetic experience. His Uma Thurman starred Kill Bill series has revolutionized the concept of aestheticization of violence in cinema.
In Indian scenario, noted filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Sriram Raghavan and others have been exploring the crime thriller genre. Films like Gangs of Wasseypur, Raman Raghav 2.0, Badlapur etc. based on the lives of gangsters and dreaded criminals have explicit violent scenes. However, these are not the films where violence is shown in stylized manner, rather these are an attempt to showcase the criminal psyche to the so called normal audience.
Moreover, in a country like India arrival of the OTT platforms has provided the opportunity to viewers and creators alike to explore various aspects of art in cinema and web series. Two major web series of crime thriller genre— Sacred Games in Netflix, and Mirzapur in Amazon Prime Video have seriously made the audience to gasp in awe. Probably an Indian spectator has never seen such rawness in an Indian setup. The violence shown in Mirzapur is so much so that, the sitting MP of the city of Mirzapur of the state of Uttar Pradesh had complained against the show citing it has maligned the image of the locality. This leads to the question of regulation of the content shwon in OTT platform. After the controversy of Tandav in Amazon Prime Video, it has already become a pertinent issue.
Artistic freedom and censorship or regulations
Of late in the month of February, 2021, the ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India notified guidelines to somewhat regulate the content in digital platforms in the form of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It emphasizes on establishment of a three tier grievances redressal mechanism, and self regulation of the content in digital platforms by the publishers themselves. Prior to this, contents in digital platforms were unregulated in India. The concerned stakeholders may fear that excessive regulations would curtail the artistic freedom of the creators. Obviouly, it’s a matter of debate. But, beyond these regulations or restrictions imposed by government, there is a more pertinent matter to ponder over by the creative community.
In a civil society, there will always be a conflict between the social and moral codes and the artistic approach of a creative person, particularly when she or he would try to deal with the sensitive subjects. It’s not like that a work of art has to conform all the social norms and satisfy everyone’s moral code. However, sometimes, there is a fine line between artistic approach and vulgarity. Although art or artistic appreciation is a subjective matter, there needs to be a balance between freedom and responsibility. Everything that’s sprouted out from human mind whether it’s art or science is to elevate the humankind, not to push them backward or to create chaos.
By Saralananda Prakash