The once-upon-a-time Indian cinema had clear dividing strains. We knew who the villain or vamp was. He often smoked and drank, and she or he performed seductress. The good man or girl seldom indulged in any of those. Take, as an example, Hindi language actor Pran. He puffed away and performed along with his glass of drink. Not the noble hero. Padma Khanna or Helen taunted and teased males. Not the heroine.
Admittedly, this demarcating line was not as clear in Western cinema wherein good heroes took a puff – like our well-known Humphrey Bogart, who walked and talked in a swirl of smoke. But that was as a result of smoking and consuming had been regular, completely acceptable as a lifestyle within the West and even in some Far Eastern nations like Japan.
But now, cinema the world over is getting into harmful territory. It is being seen as morally debased. One of the earliest movies that shocked me was Woody Allen’s – sure Woody’s – Match Point wherein the main man, Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Chris Wilton, murders his lover, Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson) when her calls for start to come back in the best way of his wedded bliss.
More lately, I used to be aghast when Deepika Padukone, essaying yoga teacher Alisha, leaves her lover, Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi) to drown at sea and speeds away in a motorboat! Rajat Kapoor’s Jitesh portraying a enterprise affiliate is conscious of this misdemeanour however agrees to maintain it beneath wraps for a value.
Most lately, I watched Deep Water on Amazon Prime Video. It is helmed by no much less an auteur than Adrian Lyne – who has given us splendid motion pictures like Fatal Attraction (with Glen Close and Michael Doughlas) and Indecent Proposal (with Robert Redford and Demi Moore).
Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel, Deep Water regardless of two sensible actors – Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas – is not only vastly disappointing however insanely amoral. Vic ( Affleck) and Melinda (De Armas) have an open marriage, and she or he begins to take one lover after one other (which I do discover him doing), and every of them disappears. Vic kills them. He drowns considered one of them in a swimming pool with a boisterous occasion going proper throughout. Another man is taken to a distant wooded space and bludgeoned to dying! Melinda suspects her husband is behind all this, however ultimately, turns an confederate. Wow.
The cops seem as soon as and appear to research in a cursory kind of method. What a joke!
Lyne might take refuge in the truth that he was following the supply materials. But, pray, why would any good director take a novel like this for his work? A rank dangerous selection after a 20-year hiatus. Again, Charlie Macdowells’ Windfall on Netflix with Jason Segel and Lily Collins reveals a married girl capturing her husband and an intruder, and strolling away with a bag filled with greenback payments. She reveals no regret, no qualms. Well!
Deep Water and Windfall – very similar to Match Point (the place the police seem as bumbling idiots) and Gehraiyaan – throw up morally disturbing questions. We all know that cinema is vastly influencing. Time was when youngsters sported Rajesh Khanna’s Guru Kurta. Time was when boys had Dev Anand’s coiffure. In Tamil Nadu, Rajnikanth’s mannerisms are copied freely – and reverentially.
In a state of affairs like this, the query is, should cinema be so callous. Does it not have a social accountability? Must murderers and different criminals be allowed to go scot-free on the display?
I’m not saying that each man or girl who watches Match Point or Gehraiyaan or Deep Wate or Windfall can be tempted to kill somebody they discover inconvenient. But movies are watched not simply by adults, however impressionable children, who might wish to think about that homicide and mayhem are completely regular social behaviour. They should not, and cinema should perceive this.
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