I WILL start this piece with a disclaimer that this is not a review but an outright rejection of Kamal Haasan’s recent film Vikram. I have great regard for Haasan’s versatility and his superb acting skills, and I think he has done justice to his role in Vikram.
What I abhor is the movie glorifies cold-blooded killings, with which the movie starts and ends. The black-ops cops who go undercover in masks make killing justifiable through perverse logic and a twisted sense of right and wrong.
In the dark world, there is an obscure line between right and wrong, and if one is not careful, the distinction disappears and what rules is the momentary, external influence that draws you into the wrong side.
I decided to watch the movie for all the hype that was abuzz, and from the reviews, one would think it would be a worthwhile three hours spent at the cinema. I have no issue with the length and it was definitely gripping with action and dripping in blood.
Indian youths in Malaysia are a disillusioned lot. They hover between reality and faked idealism from the Indian movies they watch. A 2021 report quoted that 72% of gang members identified in Malaysia were Indians and that more than 26,000 are members of one gang or the other.
For a population of about 32 million, with Indians making up about two million, this is a staggering figure, and the number is not easing up. There have been many research and studies done to identify the root cause of gangsterism in Malaysia, and poverty tops the list.
Lack of education and job opportunities add to the woes of the Indians in the country. Gangsterism is an escapism where the members get to live life on the fast last with their own rules. The mainstay of gangsterism is violence, and movies like Vikram can influence youths who are at the verge and brink of choices.
An evocative movie such as Vikram, with megastars in the line-up, make it impactful and is taken as representation of life and reality. Just because Haasan takes to correcting the misdeeds in the community and takes to violent slaughters, they do not make them right. Two wrongs do not make a right, but rational thinking has no place in a movie like this.
It is a tad sensitive and may be unpopular but Vikram is a movie that will scar the society, which is already bleeding. If the bottom line is the only concern of the producers, then our censorship board should have perhaps banned the movie here. A movie like Vikram cannot be censored in parts as the entire movie sits on gun violence, lawlessness, brutal killing, slaughtering of humans and fights that give viewers a trance-like feeling.
It is no secret that action films usually end up as box office hits and are deemed to be in demand by the people, hence, it makes sense for filmmakers to make films that will sell, and the tendency to make such films has increased.
Particularly post pandemic, there has been a deluge of action movies with weighty violence that have not gone wrong in terms of popularity, but how do we evaluate and strike a balance between profits and social obligation?
There have been defensive statements on this topic by filmmakers such as, “It is only entertainment. It does not influence anybody”; “We just reflect reality. Don’t blame us, blame the society”; and “We give the public what it wants. If people don’t like it, they can always turn it off.”
If the end game and message is to sacrifice some people to save the world from the effects of drugs that would proliferate and destroy millions, the end does not justify the means.
Bhavani Krishna Iyer
Kuala Lumpur
