Virulent negativity in films.

    It was the famous English poet John Keats who first used the term "negative capability", in one of his letters in 1817, to imply the attainment of aesthetic perfection and sublimity, in the midst of intellectual confusion and difficulties. Subsequently, many poets, philosophers and literary theorists, started using this term widely, to clinch ideological outlays, through negative bumps on the way.

 Actually this term of Keats,was preceded by the other term 'willing suspension of disbelief' used by another romantic poet S.T. Coleridge. This famous quote means, believing things that could not be believed. Cinema as the most powerful form of art, creates a convincing base, to drive people towards believing many unbelievable things and illusions.

  Film making , especially Tamil film making during the post-independence era, stuck to family and social ideologies,with absolute dedication to its script and narration, with minimum violence displayed on the screen. There were of course themes and characters embedded in elements of negativity, such as greed, jealousy, rumour--mongering, and backstabbing. But the visual impact of violence was much less, until the end of the last millennium, or even until a decade ago.

  Interestingly, in between countless disclaimers, the audience would also come across confessions like smoking, liquor, sex and foul language being used in the film they are watching. After the arrival of OTT releases, those who prefer viewing films to serials, would have watched films released in multilingual mode, flooded with brute violence, exhibiting a killing spree,with any tool available on hand. The recent 'pretty' additions in this list are, hammers, screw drivers, sickles, spades, crowbars, pick axes, steel rods, steel pipes, vehicle wheels and even blades hidden in mouth, making the victims vulnerable to attacks in any form. Blood is the target, and so bloody is the film makers' thinking, up to. 

  This sort of film making is mysterious. Does it reflect the course of events taking place in their hometown, disturbing the film makers' mind, or does it vindicate the film makers' fancy to depict events in the manner they want to. No doubt,violence has become a part of life's routine either at home, or outside one's home. Family feuds, violent acts against women in various forms, rowdyism rooted to reckless violence, revenge saga and gang wars, are the more prominent negativities, portending the fall of humanity. 

   Now the question here is, will this sort of film making throw light on the need for shunning violence through genuine legal enforcement ,or will it delight persons with crooked minds, and encourage them to indulge in more brutality, with the protocols of violence shown on the screen?. Amazing film makers like Vetrimaran, Lokesh Kanagaraj ,Nelson and many others with their brilliant creative exuberance, could think better, in changing their 'violence exhibition formula skits' differently, so that they do not dehumanize film watching into an exercise of viewing devilry, from the box office.

  Films like Vada Chennai,Vikram II, Leo, Jailor,Malayalam films Aavesham,Bougain Villea, Level Cross,the most recent Pani {to mention a few},and a vast wagon of the digital version of films of these kinds, abound in "negative capability", towards creating perfect cinema, through dangerously 'imperfect' visuals. One must see the facial expression of the killers in such scenes. How many shots showed the brutal killing of a school teacher, in the film Vettaiyan, and how many times the shots were repeatedly shown, for the sake of cinematic impact, more than the crime's detective necessity. It is to a macabre world of cinematic version we are moving ahead, unmindful of the already existing gory scenario of a generation, helplessly exposed to drug menace, technology tantrums, and the possibility of the negative side of AI.

   Under these circumstances, it becomes the paramount responsibility of those involved in film making, to think several times, before magnifying the thrust of violence prevailing in the world, in various forms. It does not mean that film makers' individuality and independence in unfolding their creative dimensions, should be curtailed. It only means that cinema should not further erode the already falling standards of human values. This blog writer is quite sure that the audience would have breathed afresh,on watching films like Annapoorani, Meiyyazhagan, Raghu Thatha and the Malayalam films Little Hearts and Kadha Innuvare, forgetting the lightning and thunder of violence in cinema, for a while.

  In fact, this blog writer as a movie buff, is fond of crime and action thrillers. But the same thrillers and crime stories, can be shown in different ways without an over doze of violence. Every film maker knows that sordid scenes disturb the mind more than the eyes. There is nothing wrong in cherishing negative capability. But let the negative capability move on, in the positive direction. Let crimes against humanity be exposed with least thrust on exhibits of violence so that cinema's objective to cleanse society from evils, achieves its purpose, without sacrificing those objectives for the sake of visual extravaganza and commercial bonanza. 

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