One of my fondest memories from my childhood days has always been my passion to read various interesting crime books.
During my school days, I made sure to keep myself busy with books from the Sherlock Holmes series, the master craftsman at solving crime cases. I vividly remember my keen interest in the detailing involved in the books to reach the culprit/solution. I was amazed at the very clean way in which every brutal killing or death was reported in the books, without making the reader cringe or feel bad.
Well, my interest in the crime-related stories found bigger means when I started to watch such programs on Indian television, probably around the time I entered college.
Wow! I found a few of the TV shows really intriguing. The best that comes to my mind now as I write is Byomkesh Bakshi, which was the desi adaptation of my favourite, that is Sherlock Holmes. Based on the Bengali fictional character, actor Rajit Kapur was so very subtle, yet to the point, in the way he handled his cases based on crime. The search for truth was the key factor and the best part in these shows of the early ’90s in the genre of crime was that there was no bloodshed and extreme cases of violence, that could curb families from sitting together and watching them.
The biggest crime-based show of all times for Indian television, CID, found its keen viewers in all age groups. And I was one among the huge audience base that the show had. Again, the USP of the show was the clean manner in which cases were solved. Though fights, deaths and terror remained a key part of its concept, nothing was shown in an offensive way that would make the viewers think twice before watching it.
Well, coming to the present day, things in the entertainment sector have changed drastically, and it is certainly not for the better. We live in a society that is filled with crime, bloodshed, rapes, atrocities on women, etc. You name any treacherous problem and you have it happening somewhere at some time.
Amidst all this, thrives our Indian TV and also our newer means of entertainment like the digital platform, and to some extent, our big-screen content.
Remember, we live in an era when the tender minds of kids and youngsters need to be nurtured in the best way possible. Every parent has this huge responsibility of imbibing positivity and righteousness in his/her kids
What we see today on television and the web in the name of depicting real stories is nothing but cruelty and violence, crime to the biggest extent possible. We have kids being shown as killers, executing the worst possible crimes with no great reason being clarified in the script. We see women being subjected to the most horrible rapes, their life threatened to a great extent and no laws in place to put the culprits in place, at least in the narratives in the shows.
Recently, I was watching a very well-appreciated web-series on a leading OTT platform. It had a kid killing his own sisters, and even going to the extent of getting his father caught for the brutal murders, so that he could get him out of his way, as he planned to kill his last living sibling (a few-months-old kid) and even the mother.
And then I saw yet another sensational story on an OTT platform, which had some fabulous actors playing out-of-the-box roles. It had a mother teaching her daughters to kill, thrash a kid on to the ground and enjoy seeing its blood. It showed how a mother taught her daughters that the basic instinct for survival is to kill and find happiness in it. And what’s more, one of the daughters walked this path and even surpassed her mother in the kind of dubious crimes that she committed. One word for it is PATHETIC!! The series was given five stars by all who reviewed it, but I had other thoughts about it. When I was watching it, I had to literally keep my kid away from me, for fear of her peeping into what I was seeing. Gosh!! I really hushed her out twice when I was seeing this gruesome series that had won laurels otherwise. My immediate thought was – should such a series be made just because it is a real story, and has happened in some nook and corner of the world? It may be reality. Yes, we have cases of brutal violence happening all around us, and it is nothing big to cry about when shown on TV/web. But my question is – why show it when it is not good enough for family viewing?
The same is shown on TV, which is supposed to be the entertainment medium in every living room. We only had a handful of such ‘real-life’ crime shows running on TV. But seems like the makers have found a trump card in showing these brutal concepts on TV and there are many more shows being made along the same lines, each with the common factor of negativity and violence.
Remember, we live in an era when the tender minds of kids and youngsters need to be nurtured in the best way possible. Every parent has this huge responsibility of imbibing positivity and righteousness in his/her kids. We have been seeing kids and youngsters erring, to the extent of killing others or ending their own lives. Why create an environment wherein the field of entertainment gives our young kids the worst possible lessons?
Yes, another theory of viewing it is that such shows that depict what is happening around create awareness. Agreed! I do not deny this point, but can we weigh the pros and cons? I feel, rather than creating awareness, such brutalities shown via entertainment can only give vague ideas to whoever sees it. Why lose your sleep after watching such programs?
The field of entertainment enables people to get entertained, have a hearty laugh, or even cry over the drama involved, and then forget it and move on. However, what is the point in watching something that creates such a negative impact, that it is not easy to erase the memory of watching it?
Enough is enough!! Can we create programs that will give us a good family time? A good time, wherein we sit together, watch, enjoy and get on to another day.
I feel that this trend of showing the worst possible crimes as entertainment will stop when the people involved in making it think otherwise. What if a maker decides to drop a crime series and work on a matter that is more intelligence-driven? What if an actor refuses to play a role that will push him into the highest order of negativity?
Will we see such a day when crime shows depicting bloodshed, murders, rapes, etc. will stop?
Certainly, it’s high time we stop watching such shows. It is the time to stop, guys!! Let us move on…
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and not necessarily those of IWMBuzz. IWMBuzz does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of the information provided herein