Myths about crime that nontheless appear in films
In my research into screenplay writing, the crime drama fascinated me particularly the ones that tended to portray the use of psychologists to solve crimes. I met with police officers in the UK and discussed the public perception of criminal investigations.
People have unrealistic expectations of the abilities of police to solve crimes - these are fuelled by television dramas and films, which tend to portray investigations as exciting. The truth is the opposite. Solving crime is tedious and time consuming. The demands of commercial media make it imperative that police investigations are presented as being exciting. Psychologists are not routinely employed by police - if they are, it is when police investigations result in dead ends. Criminals are fundamentally different from the rest of us ‘normal’ people. They can be identified from a certain type of appearance. This can again be linked to media, which falls back on stereotypes to represent criminals.
The author is a researcher of Indian cinema at the University of Leeds. More.
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With all due respect, I would expect a lot more depth and analysis from a researcher like yourself on such an interesting topic than a 2 paragraph generalization. Not sure why this is a standalone post.
Yeh kya… post chalu hone se pehle hi khatam ho gaya
(Hinglish: what this… post ending before starting)
This is the abstract; now where is the paper?
Kishore .. wish u had elaborated on this very intresting topic ….
Have u seen Zodiac/ Black Friday ????
How much relevant are these two fils vis-a-vis ur paper ?????
Vijay/OZ: Regrets, I wrote this in a hurry hoping to put down some thoughts — before being overwhelmed by overzealous relatives who are convinced I need to be over fed round the clock, a real bad tummy, and a crappy internet connection, which keeps giving up on me. Jokes apart, the research into screenplays is a work-in-pogress and I will put up my findings and arguments.
Kartik: yes, we need more understanding vis-a-vis INdian films. There is little research. I am in India currently and am soaking up as many films as I can — mostly Telugu and Tamil as I am travelling South. Black Friday is due for analysis. In fact my earlier post on the analysis of the crime film in India was a critique of the mass media/cinephile (over) valorisation of films such as Satya. The film is an excellent demonstration of pushing of the cinematic envelope in an Indian context (that is, it challenges/subverts the norms set by the popular film form). In terms of screenplay, I am interested in looking at the idea of “truth as myth” — which reveals the fantasies of both filmmakers and cinephiles.
More to follow.
Just so you know, you can save the *thoughts* and any such work-in-progress as drafts until they are fit for publication.
WB: Thanks for that. I am aware of how wordpress works. Not all posts have to be elaborate. Unless there is a pedagogy to writing on this site!
Kishore Budha // You’re welcome mate.
Please excuse my enthusiasm in trying to explain the intricacies of WP to you. It’s just that your comment “I wrote this in a hurry hoping to put down some thoughts” didn’t reflect your WP prowess. Ergo.
And apparently I wasn’t clear enough in my first comment which you must have missed (or not). Brevity doesn’t necessarily mean paucity of substance. You can write a haiku and call it a post, as long as it’s meaty and savorable enough for the readers.
This post, the case in point, is neither substantial nor extensive enough to be called a post. Period.
And as far as writing on this site is concerned, we all follow the same rule book. Oz or one of us editors can send it again for your kind perusal.
i thought posts were also meant to germinate ideas and trigger discussions which am sure this one did…
however its sad to see instead of discussing the core idea behind the post and how relevant it is for the current crop of Indian films…the discussion has degenrated to the rulebook and the dummies guide to wordpress…
c’mon you guys, passion for cinema should be more than the ontology of wordpress…
“The demands of commercial media make it imperative that police investigations are presented as being exciting”
I think this is an area which should be explored further. Are pressures like these responsible for the police to round up suspects within a day of the attack on the Indian parliament be it lecturers like Geelani or rounding up surrendered terrorists like Afzal? Wonder when a film would be contemplated on this.
The book Dec 13-The Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament has a collection of essays which potray the jingoistic films and the role of the law enforcement authorities and the treatment of so called terror suspects with the Kashmir issue. An interesting area would be how the special cells of law enforcement authorities esp of Del and J&K operate and the way they are potrayed in our films in rounding up the ‘terrorists’.
Another would be films like Ab tak Chhappan which deals with the encounter specialists vis-a-vis films like Shootout at Lokhandwala which could be traced to the rise and popularity of encounter specialists in 90s era after the blasts.
Sohini: Initial comments from Vijay, Oz, WB and Kartik show how much interesting they found the subject and they wished more material in the post. Many posts face avoidance because of lack of material and if readers are asking for more than author or his present work is in demand which shd be a positive and good sign.
Being editor WB has to offer his advise on technical matters. Luckily Kishor knew the technical details of WP but many and leave alone new authors dont know this that they can save the document till they finalize the matter.
A full post would be able to generate more interesting discussion.:)
Thanks for putting the near bickering to a subtle and honest end RK. I was hoping to find comments relating to the subject, and got pulled into somethign else.
Kishore, like RK and everyone else has mentioned, this is an infinitely interesting topic. Pls do let us have more on it. If you’re visiting Bombay, I would like to meet, from my interest in crime fiction more than anything else. Do let me know if you will have the time.
Thanks