The Blurred Lines

Gangajal, the latest “realistic” fare to come from the art cinema turned commercial director, Prakash Jha, turned out to be thought provoking, literally.

Set in the interiors of Bihar, the film effectively captures the stench of corruption and terror that pervades the environment. A quietly courageous SP, recently posted there, unwittingly sets in motion a sequence of events that result in a group of young police officers using acid and stilettos to blind and maim 2 hard core criminals. This weapon, ironically called “gangajal” (which is water from the holy river of Ganga) acquires immense popularity amongst a population that suffers daily under the hands of criminals/politicians/police officers.

Not only did this acquire popularity in the fictional population of Tejpur, it drew cheers from the audience of thousand-odd that were gathered in the movie theatre. As the scale and intensity of brutalities steadily increased on screen, so did the crescendo of cheers and laughter in the hall. It was as if the anger and frustration of the mobs on screen connected with the spark of violence that resides within each of us, igniting it and drawing appreciation and comradeship in the acts of horrific brutality that were being committed. On screen, the lines between good and evil rapidly blurred. And in reality, it took just a 150-minute film to blur the lines between sanity and insanity, to transform the “family crowd” into a mob frothing at the mouth, seeking blood.

Everyday we live at the mercy of this precarious balance. Whether it is the French revolution centuries ago, or the recent Gujarat riots, the disturbance of this balance promises horror – a glimpse of which was seen in the theatre, the promise of which we see whenever that rush of blood to our heads causes mental and physical pain to someone else. Unfortunately, that seems to happen all too often.