“Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists
because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were
perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is
born out of an ill-designed world.” ― Andrei
Tarkovsky
What
is Art? We come across many definitions and connotations about Art. However
when we closely observe these definitions, we observe that the class
characteristics makes all the difference. The power centers or the
ruling class ‘artistic’ minds tend to define Art as ‘entertainment’ and
anything ‘non-entertaining’ becomes ‘Art’. Isn’t this a little weird! So what
is ‘Art’ then?
“Art
is Dissent”. In an unjust society,
the definition of art is to be arrived with its purpose, because it’s a
powerful medium of communication. In the historical course of development all
aspects of human activity has evolved and transformed. A collective all
inclusive social set up slowly disintegrated resulting in an unjust world
giving birth to different living standards, the rich and the poor, the power
and the powerless, the rulers and the citizens, the owners and the slaves - otherwise
called the Class society.
As
the Class society evolved, human values, beliefs and culture also evolved but
unfortunately to protect that particular exploitative socio-political set up. Art
that was a medium of communication, later a part of expression that was
entwined with the labour and living conditions of the people lost its
collective-expressive-reflective nature and got appropriated by the ‘ruling
class’. With the emergence of STATE (Government) Art became Alienated. A free
form of expression was subjected to ‘censorship’, a structured and controlled
form of expression. Art was seized by those power centers as a propaganda tool.
In the due course art had its classifications such as ‘classical’ vs ‘folk’,
‘mainstream’ vs ‘alternate’, ‘commercial’ vs ‘Artistic’ and so on. (The
politics of evolution of Art by itself is a long topic. I stop it here and get
on to the topic)
Karl
Marx said, “The ideas of the ruling class are in
every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force
of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which
has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same
time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking,
the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it.”
[The German Ideology]
People who gain this social class consciousness (knowingly or
unknowingly) become the ‘alternate’ or ‘artistic’ voice in the society and the
rest become the ‘entertainers’ in the ‘market’. While the ‘commercial’ artists
want to ‘construct’ a false reality (which is highly saleable) the
alternate-conscious artists have always been thriving to reflect the reality,
the dynamics of power and its ill effects on the society. We have hundreds and
thousands of such true artists in history and we are still counting!
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan who chose cinema as his medium of
expression and discourse with the society is one such alternate-conscious
artist. Sanal’s film language is uncustomary not only deconstructing the
‘grammar’ of ruling class film making, but reconstructing a new grammar and
hope for the next gen.
Ozhivudivasathe kali, S. Durga and now Death of Insane (sorry
I missed Oral pokkom). Though these three films are of different stories
(sambavangal!) they have a common connect. They all expose shame,
reflect and confront Power – The STATE power and the power of the Ruling Class
and Caste. We are no more audiences in Sanal’s film. We become witnesses.
In Ozhivudivasathe kali and S. Durga he narrates an incident
and takes us to a politically conscious state. In his narrative, there is
always an invisible character that plays an important role. It is US, our
conscience! We see a few characters indulging in some act and casual
conversations of daily life, but as the film goes by we experience a sense of
edginess. No punch dialogues, not many cut shots or close-up shots compelling
us to boil or cry! Simple narrative, yet hard hitting.
The incidents and characters narrated in his ‘stories’ are
not heroic, but a reflection of our day today life and that’s probably the
reason that we become a part of the film. This is one of Sanal’s tactics to
ignite the consciousness of the people. Hence his films becomes a
powerful Political Parody.
Death of Insane is Ultimate in this series. Yes to me his
films are a series of Socio-Political discourse, exposing, shaming, questioning
and confronting hegemony and hypocrisy. While ODK and S.Durga were a simple
straight narrative, Death of Insane takes up a highly creative ‘artistic’ form
of narrative. It is visually entertaining and politically igniting; rather it
is a ‘poetic war’!
In a country where the state even interferes in our food
culture with beef ban, it is not too far for it to peep into our bedrooms. In
Death of Insane, Sanal presents such an ‘imaginary’ situation with a hilarious
disclaimer and then spins into a territory so unexpected. The film starts with
a third person narrating the problem of an ‘insane’ person. All he does is
dream! Is dreaming a problem? Not really, dreams are never a problem for the
concerned, but become a problem for the STATE, Power Centers, exploiters and
the Ruling Class! Yes trust me Sanal is talking only about dreams in this film
and in the end we realize that Dream is mightier than Sword!
Through the ‘insane’s dream the state and cultural barbarism
is being dwindled with a combination of idylic landscapes, realistic visuals
and surrealistic graphical visuals. Sanal isn’t mocking at any political figure
or party, but his metaphor does it! This is the artistic style that Sanal has
mastered making him an original, bizarre, entertaining and at the same time an
enlightening film maker. His uniqueness lies in the instructive comedy. Yes I
call this a Genre by itself – ‘Instructive Comedy’! You may have a
laughter-blast, but you got to act on the misery that is being portrayed in the
film. The narrative would drive the aware audience to act and alert the unaware
that their silence is betrayal to humanity.
This is the purpose of art. Awaken the
socio-consciousness! Though Sasidharan calls Unmadiyude Maranam as his personal
reaction following the oppression, censorship and atrocities of the right wing
groups on his films, especially S. Durga, it is a critical, philosophical,
phenomenal dissertation representing the concerns of all the dissenters.
Afterall, Personal is Political and there is no way out there, but to expose,
question, resist and fight these fascists. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan does it in an
eccentric manner in Death of Insane challenging the dream catchers!
Thanks to #IFFC organized by Thamizh Studio Arun for screening such artistic films that are banned and excluded by State and Religious Fundamentalists
