The Criminal Minds

The Criminal Minds

 

In Today’s era of digitization, when the global entertainment industry has taken a new shape with the online contents on apps like Netflix, Disney Hotstar and Amazon Prime, Bollywood also is not far from the race in its share of contribution by promoting its own media channels like Voot, SonyLiv or Zee5.  The kinds of content are also being westernized from big-banner movies to low-budget web-series to match up to the demand of new-age viewers. The topic here is not to determine the success of each online application, or to justify the dignity and the relevance of the contents; the debate can be on. I’m here to discuss around the visible transformation in the web series and keep myself open for others’ feedback.

Suspense thriller is a genre which perceptively never becomes monotonous among various other alternatives. Here the directors are not always the story tellers and most of the times they adapt the story from some infamous novels and can play safe with good sound design, exciting scenes and possibly couple of un-apprehended twists at the end. The Adrenalin rush increases instant views and prioritizes it over any other informative content or relatively thoughtful genres.

In recent days (specifically during the prolonged lock-down) we all came across multiple web series which got released in different platforms in India. 90% of them are thrillers /suspense drama. It starts with Family man, Asur, Raykar Case, Marzi, Illegal, Patallok, SHE, Special Ops, Bard of Blood, Arya, Breathe-into the shadows and the list goes on and on. Few series in the list definitely stand out from the rest due to its commitment to the story. Having said that they are also no exceptions in falling into the usual trap of a basic underlying pattern. Let’s make it a little clear…

The construct of the thrillers now-a-days follow a few age old success patterns which most of the times become predictable and monotonous, leaving the viewers with not much to ponder their imaginations around.

A)      The backdrop: The backdrop mostly would land up in north India (somewhere in UP, Delhi, Haryana or at the max Mumbai) - this is applicable even for those pre-lock-down series like Mirzapur, Sacred games, PoW, Delhi Crimes or Criminal Justice. For Series makers it is the safest play to justify a crime when it is not so far from the reality

B)      The Usual Suspect: It is a no brainer now that the usual suspect is not so usual in these stories. We, the 90’s kinds,  have been fed with many twist and turns of the thriller movies for years in Bollywood (Abbas Mustan, Mahesh Bhat movies are well known for these examples in Bollywood), even for the viewers with low appetite, it is easier to guess and figure out the criminal after watching half of the story

C)      Hybrid Originals: Once Steve Jobs quoted Pablo Picasso saying-;Good Artists copy, great artists steal'- we can obviously see the good artists in the story telling. Many of these are not exact replica of one old movie, but a good hybrid copies [read inspiration] of combination of subplots from multiple movies. Example? Asur may give its concept credits to –‘The bone collector’ & ‘Angels & Demons’. Similarly ‘Breathe-into the shadows’ took its many shades from ‘Primal Fear’ and ‘Seven’. The problem is not the ‘copy’ here, the problem is copying the mail concept from the Classics.

D)      Association to the larger community: Although it is important for the viewers to see that a larger purpose is met with the message, the desperate need to solve World’s problem sometimes makes the storyline weak. Still the subject line will incorporate links with Media, Intelligence and even a small link to country’s age old enemy organization to give it a feel that it is some kind of national emergency or crisis. Example-? Special Ops, Bard of Blood, PatalLok

E)       Plot Twists: Keeping multiple twists and turns in the plots and sub-plots, actually makes thrillers interesting, at least that is what popular thoughts go by. The idea is not to negate the need of it, the idea here is to validate the right time and situation where twist can make sense. Some cases an entire series is built basically to incorporate a plot twist which was not even required at the first place. It just reminds the viewers once again- the most deceit lies in where you trust the most. Example? Bard of Blood, Arya, Raykar Case

F)       Mind Games: Psychology is a subject which, in perception, is un-touched and under-utilized in ‘Indian contents’ compared to the western movies. Multiple taboos, pre-conceived notions could be behind the scene. The actual intent of introducing any psychological disorder (multiple personality, bi-polar or schizophrenic syndromes) is to educate the viewers to relate to their problem and be aware and empathetic about its constraints. But today’s so-called progressive culture, web series dares to touch it and uses [read misuses] it to its full potential in thrillers. It creates characters associating it with some form of imbalance in regular psychological notions (sometimes without even proper detailed researches) and leaves to the viewers to visit it from an outside world, not fulfilling its intent. Example? – Asur, Breathe, PatalLok

G)     Hindu Mythology: last but not the least, it is debatable to understand and argue the idea behind re-iterating the Hindu mythology and sacred stories and stitching them to the ‘intents’ of the crime. More research is needed to subscribe to whether the mythology justifies the criminal minds or it instigates the crime. Any content which is released with any shade of religion/culture, presumably is appreciated by the censor board, media and verified by the current chairs. Hence, to avoid the political debate, it can be easily concluded that Hindu mythology is going to become a bigger driver of entertainment contents going forward.

 

The intent behind viewing a pattern out of all the recent web-series out there is to voice that- all these 7 patterns should not limit the directors, if they have a compelling story to tell. Today the whole industry craves for new ideas, and quality of contents. The originality can come from real life experiences, truths and facts if researches are done properly. It’s hightime the directors should venture into other genres and start making light, witty and thoughtful web series like Panchayat or little things or even a Bandish Bandits. My two cents to the story tellers would be- not to underestimate the viewers’ understanding of the topic, exposure to world cinemas and their tacit expectations from these web series while serving them with any content. The current ones not only dilute the classics spanning Hitchcock’s thriller to Agatha Christie’s novels, but also leaves audience with nothing but redundancy and mediocrity in the longer run.