Child is the father of man

“Child is the father of man” – so someone great had said. That makes a child more mature than a grown-up (taking the statement literally, don’t bash me up :) ). Well, if we really try to understand the human psychology, we will perhaps find that there is a child in all of us and perhaps for many of us the child may even overpower the grown-up inside. We may pass ourselves as mature person and term “jealousy”, “competitiveness” and such behavior characteristics as kiddish but in reality we all are a part of the above sentiments. Whether we show it in front of others or not is a different issue. For that matter, whether we show it to even ourselves or not is also a very intriguing question to ponder on.

Now, why this question of being a kid? Well, that’s because I am trying to find out the reasons behind the consumption of the torture genre movies. Na na, don’t get me wrong. I certainly don’t think that watching such movies, by any long shot, is a kid’s job. It’s definitely not. It will take a lot and lot and perhaps a bit more lot of guts to watch such horrific scenes being enacted. And when it comes to a movie where you are not even sure whether what’s going on screen is an enactment or a reality being picturised, then, it’s no mean feat to consume it. So, where does being a kid feature in all this? It features if we try to look at the segment of “curious on-lookers” and “daring challengers”.

Curiosity is a feature which perhaps won’t be termed kiddish per se. But what if the curiosity gets the better of you? What if the curiosity is related to an unproductive thing which might not be of much help? Yeah, now you got it right. We grown-ups do everything thinking of a goal in mind. And there are times when we forcingly generate our curiosity in things that we aren’t even curious about because that will accomplish something for us. On the contrary, kids are curious about each and everything around them. (I was an exception though :) ). And this is the streak that I feel overpowers us when we are curious to know what a certain movie of this category shows. It’s not something usual. It’s not something that happens all around us. And it’s not something that can be experienced easily. Then, what is it? How has it been picturised? What has been picturised? Can I really see so much of horrendosity? All these questions and many more comes to mind and are discussed and then curiosity takes the better of us :).

PS: I know that “horrendosity” isn’t actually a true-blue English dictionary word but I guess the meaning that I want to convey is best put forward using that word instead of the words in my small vocabulary collection.
So, continuing the article now and coming to the daring streak that we have in ourselves – we all seek thrills in our lives. And more often than not, we seek these thrills passively by watching somebody do something. And that’s where the medium of television and cinema seeps in. Though, watching a cinema depicting torture is perhaps not that passive a thrill as watching some mean vamp fluttering her eyes and plotting an idiotic scheme to put fire in a nauseatingly sweet family in the saas-bahu serials. On the other hand, it’s perhaps as passive as it gets when we analyze the actual rendition of such torturous acts (And am not talking of saas bahu serials this time, but of the torture genre movies :) ).

Watching these kinds of scenes and being capable of taking in the scenes without puking out often will be an act of bravado which can also flourished in public chat rooms. I have gone through some of the threads discussing if a particular scene was that bad to take and though there is seldom a response unashamedly trying to prove the bravado, but one can certainly feel a sense of achievement in the responses. And in some others, one can feel the sense of being a more pro than others when they analyze the scenes and compare with others proving how these scenes were perhaps not as torturous as others think it to be. And then the game goes on in loops.

I guess with this, I will put a stop on the discussion of what motivates people to watch these kinda movies. Though, I have left out the “horror fans” category for the obvious reason that they are fans and look forward to watching these movies. And the last two segments of “one-off cases” and “by mistake people” are just some outliers who are not a regular for these movies. Here, I will also like to again say that not all horror fans perhaps approve of such kind of torture genre movie and there are separate levels within the genre of horror too. And I am pretty sure that curiosity and daredevilry play a certain very important role even in the horror fans who look forward to these movies.

The next couple of posts will perhaps be related to the promotion factor of these kind of movies and will be more informative rather than analysis based. But perhaps they will be more entertaining than these. So, watch out for them. Before signing off, let me take leave on a very different note today. It’s Independence Day for us today and though I am never enthusiastic about days which celebrate love, friendship and all such emotions, there’s a part of me which celebrates the Independence Day. Primarily because love and friendship don’t need one particular day to happen but it was only today when we got independence. So, here’s wishing everyone Happy Independence Day. And though Independence Day now, as opposed to my childhood days, also reminds me of the carnage that followed it and how I wish and hope that never does it happen again, I still want to salute the great heroes who fought for us. And going in future, I hope that there will be day when we have a boundary-less and united world, at least when it comes to emotions and patriotism, but till that happens and even after that, here’s wishing everyone again: HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.