The Hindu : A folk play with a disturbing message

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A folk play with a disturbing message

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

CHENNAI DEC. 9. Often television, cinema and theatre make a greater impact on the eye and the mind than paragraphs of prose or stanzas of poetry.

Obviously so. For, the visual medium — be it the screen or the stage — has the power to completely grip one's attention and the images invariably tend to remain in one's memory long after the curtain has fallen. This is one important reason why a movie-maker or a drama director has to be particularly careful about what he shows. Unfortunately, some are careless, to the point of being irresponsible.

A folk play (Jatra) in West Bengal is now under Government scrutiny because of its disturbing message. The work portrays Osama bin Laden as a hero and was last performed, of all places, in a high school.

Coming as it does at a time when the world is grappling with radical fundamentalism — and this is not confined to any one religion — the theatrical creation appears to be in utterly poor taste, promoting a line of thought that no sensitive or sensible human being can adhere to or agree with. Deplorable as it certainly is, the ``jatra'' seems to have achieved what it probably wanted to: support and patronage for a rank terrorist. One avid playgoer said after he saw the production: ``We like the way Bin Laden has been projected''.

Sadly, though the auteur may lay claim to artistic liberty and licence, some of them are quite oblivious of the fact that freedom without duty can be a dangerous thing. In India, it is not so much the theatre that is guilty of such violations as it is the cinema. Producers and directors give their cameras such a free pan that films appear to be not only convoluted and sadistic, but also pushing perilous ideas. One, might is right. Two, violence is an easy means to a splendid end.

Somewhere, our movie-men have become highly desensitised to coercion and brutality. They forget that the once-upon-a-time masters such as Alfred Hitchcock often spoke about the seedier side of existence, but conveyed what they wanted to with subtlety and humour. But, above all, they made sure to tell their audiences that crime and compulsion are never the paths to ultimate success, even if they do fetch fruits in the short run.

Also, social scientists have been warning us that cinema and television (and drama too) may be great tools of entertainment and education, but they can be destructive and damning in the hands of the wrong person. In their quest for quick returns, helmers take refuge in sensation and thrill to glorify evil. What is worse, today villains no longer look like villains. The modern ``bad man and woman'' are sophisticated, suave and seductive and they hide their vicious side so effectively that they confuse a viewer. A teenager once asked this correspondent, ``but can a rogue be so handsome, rich and well dressed.'' He can be, of course.

This is precisely why society watchers say it is important to delink crime and evil from charm and glamour. At least on the screen and on the stage, an effort must be made to draw a clear line between white and black. In a young nation like India, the visual medium wields this enormous power to create lasting impressions.

Teens, especially, are a bewildered lot now: consumerism beckons them in such a compelling fashion that they find it hard to resist the easy, but questionable, methods of attaining things they take a fancy to. (Masato Harada in his Japanese celluloid work, Bounce Ko Gals, talks of schoolgirls who lure older men into hotel rooms with the promise of sex, only to hit them unconscious and escape with their money to pamper themselves with designer labels. Harada, of course, sets his record straight by telling his audiences that such adventures do not pay.)

There are some others — young and old — who feel that the likes of Bin Laden are the answer to poverty and suffering. To them, religion is a mere excuse to execute what they think will brighten up their lives. They care little if, in the bargain, death and darkness cripple and kill hundreds of others.

Must theatre and cinema drive these people further into darkness?

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