Violence manifests in many forms – physical, emotional, psychological, verbal, sexual, cultural, financial, spiritual, neglect and much more. How many of these do we come across and condone everyday? The rising phenomena of collective violence are their combinations including riots, social media attacks, gang rapes and much more. Aren’t our news reports already full of these? Everyone needs to answer this truthfully before pointing fingers at others and saying “its them and not us.”
Cinema does have the power to influence but to saddle the primary responsibility of a social condition onto cinema is frankly illogical. There are way too many influences and indicators that point to the rising scale of violence in our society in all of the above mentioned forms and yet it has remained unchecked and unregulated. For this everyone needs to bear the responsibility.
The study Walking on Eggshells in the Malayali cyberspace specifically addressed the Malayali community and it is illustrative of high levels of digital violence in the Malayali social media space. The Samagati report details the kind of violences rampant on college campuses. The Justice Verma report addresses the social structures that allow violence and abuse to be rampant. The Kerala Government’s study on suicides explores the rising levels of violence through self-harm. A real-life illustration is the high turnout of audiences across the nation for very violent films – relishing them and making them super duper hits. All of it points to a high level of latent violence in the people who make up our society. Where does that emerge from? Evidently the many forms of violence that we witness and experience everyday has built an appetite for more and more of it.
So should filmmakers be mindful about their role in perpetuating violence? Of course they should, but so should everyone else. Blaming others and absolving oneself is what has got us into this rut of dysregulation. Vikram Patel sharply articulates in his article the Shared Shame about social factors that “make for a toxic brew which can push a vulnerable young person over the cliff of brutal crime at the slightest provocation.” He underlines that people seek to pin the blame solely at the crime perpetrator without acknowledging their own supporting roles. “Monster”-izing the other and not looking at how we are all connected will escort us to the island of the Lord of the Flies. It is the biggest clincher that stands in the way of change. Taking individual responsibility and amending actions is the crucial start, and not assigning blame.