DNA Edit: Celluloid sting

It was Peter Schjeldal, an art critic of repute, who famously opined: “My problem with political art is not that it’s bad art necessarily, but that it is terrible politics.” And that exactly is the case with the leaked clip of the Tamilian movie Mersal starring Vijay. In the scene, Vijay’s character delivers an ill-researched and specious monologue on the structure of GST in India and the mechanisms of medical drugs and device pricing in India. It is obvious from the word go that the scriptwriter hasn’t bothered to understand the subject he so eagerly wishes to rebuke. The critique in the monologue is dodgy and is shorn of substance.

However, it more than makes up in theatrics what it lacks in dialectics. Crying women, a thronging crowd and a mob-like media have been guilefully placed into the scene, giving it a gravitas it is completely undeserving of. Had the Tamil Nadu BJP state unit not given it undue attention, the movie would have most likely passed under the radar for being a lame attack on government reforms. However, the state unit has shot itself in the foot by pressurising the producers to cut the scene, only for someone to leak the scene online.

Now, the BJP has a social media storm on its hands and Twitterati is having a gala time crucifying the party for “quelling creative expression”. Unquestionably, this is a social media disaster for the party, and the BJP IT cell has failed in preventing or even mitigating it. However, like all dark clouds, this episode also has a silver lining. The party’s key takeaway should be that any attempts to restrain the media or popular or niche cinema will invariably backfire. Even Rome had the good sense to not interfere with the goings-on in the Colosseum. By opposing the scene, the party has dug a new hole for itself and finding a way out of it is easier said than done.