The Age of Perversion ...
“Boss, ek packet condom dena!!”…thus speaks the main
protagonist of a recent Bengali movie in one of the scenes … and the hall
erupts in wolf-whistles, claps and catcalls... and The Perversion Age has
arrived finally. Within the very radius of our drawing rooms, from the point
where the Idiot Box aka TV is placed, forms the epicenter of moral and
psychological corruption.
We thus find ourselves in 3 types of perversion in this
present time-space. Cultural, Technological and Political.
A backtrack in time would be required to find the source of
this corruption, of this inner rot. ‘60s? ‘70s? ‘80s? 2K?
A backtrack in history would be required to find the source
of this corruption, of this inner rot. Marilyn Monroe? Pamela Anderson? Madonna?
Hugh Hefner? Richard Branson? Mark Zuckerberg? World Wide Web?
Delhi Belly opened the floodgates. Of moral corruption. Here
on-screen representation of “obscene gestures” is thus “Seen” by the viewers.
“Shit” becomes the “It” thing. “22she Shrabon”, a successful Bengali film of
2011, completely does away with the Purdah
system. Imagine the pangs of knowing all those 4-letter and 8-letter words yet
not being able to use them publicly. People thus got liberated from the inner
turmoil of only listening to Ma-Behen gaalis
but not being able to respond to these gems. We can now relish in an AC
auditorium, laughing our heart out with each wave of abuse washing our feet. We
can now happily ignore the decadent smell of the putrefied souls. And the
circus thus comes to town. Uncouth is not “Uncool”
any more. A cinema not having these dialogues or shock-values is now considered
as yesteryear stuff. The viewers, in sheep-like formation, look up to the sky
now. They now ask their Father in an equivocal bleat, “What’s Next?”
In an age of constant surveillance and carpet-bombing of
question-marks, we live rat-like, with human masks on! We mock the Nazi-regime,
oblivious to the fact that Humans then have given way to a sinister combination
of Human+Technology now. We live in a time when status-updates are the new
status-quo and suddenly life has come under a large, invisible CCTV… somebody,
somewhere is watching all our moves, making careful notes of our daily
sustenance.
The Hubble Telescope
reminds me of a similar instance. When They (Read Uncle Sam) installed It up
there, the main objective was to constantly monitor the updates from the outer
space; as if in the anticipation of galactic signals of long-lost fellow space
dwellers’ home-coming. We live under a similar telescope on Earth. Constant
updates about our daily movements are streamed, aired, mailed and tweeted to
known ether and unknown ethereal levels.
A technological
perversion haunts us.
 |
| A recent advertisement campaign of Coca Cola |
Political scenario
has always been dirty. But then, there’s a distinct difference between dirty
and dirtier. What we have in front of us today is a product of exhausted
resources. Take an example. Depleted water-levels are giving rise to the death
claws of arsenic. In a similar fashion, exhausted moral and physical reserves
are giving ways to predatory ways of carrot-and-stick politics. With each
passing day, the protest-marches are increasing by the numbers. The dissidents
are hitting the streets while the media is busy reporting otherwise. Tones of
newsprint are being used to cover up issues. Mole-hills and mountains are
constantly being confused. Deliberate, most of the times. With each passing
day, we are proudly looking into the barrel of the gun. We can become sure of
the hole in the hull. A persisting downgrade continues throughout the four
corners of the world. In the pursuit of an ever-rising profit curve, we have
chosen cancerous growth. The perverse nature of politics is at its best when every
one of us is perceived as a product. And here we are, balancing skillfully
against an imminent drowning. Political perversion is now an aura around each
one’s head. A part now of “We, the People”.
As a mise-en-scene,
we can always remind ourselves of Coca-Cola’s campaign: whatever be the misery
around you, you should always buy a coke and “open happiness”. Period.
