Text and Context: Violence on screen has increased, yes, but don’t filmmakers and viewers need to share responsibility alike?

Ahead of the release of Lokesh Kanagaraj and Vijay’s ‘Leo’, there have been clarion calls on Tamil movies getting overtly violent, but don’t filmmakers and viewers need to share responsibility alike?

(Originally published in The Hindu on October 19, 2023)

A bullied and disgruntled teenage boy watching Bruce Lee movies to learn some moves, could end up learning more about Lee’s appeal to peace and oneness, and fall in love with martial arts movies. Or, he might turn a blind eye to all that and stray onto a violent path. Or, he might yet realise that movies are just “24 lies per second at the service of truth.” Now, should Bruce Lee be held responsible for the kid’s newfound love of violence?

Thanks to recent films like Vikram, Jailer, Viduthalai, Saani Kaayidham and so on — and particularly due to the trailer of Leo, Lokesh Kanagaraj’s upcoming film with Vijay — there have been clarion calls on Tamil movies becoming more and more violent. Much of these concerns operate under the fair belief that cinema can influence people, and that such on-screen violence could result in a surge of criminal activities.

This is an unfair burden that several creators — from Quentin Tarantino to Anurag Kashyap to Park Chan-Wook — have been forced to deal with over the years; but there is a lot that has been overlooked also.

Read the full story here: A history of violence: In defence of ‘Leo’ and Lokesh Kanagaraj’s penchant for the action genre