The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : A surge in violence on the idiot box

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

A surge in violence on the idiot box

Dhanya Parthasarathy

Exposure to violence on TV makes children hostile and aggressive, says college professor

CHENNAI: A furious mother brings a red hot ladle straight out of the fire and places it on her little son's hand to teach him a lesson; another brings down a massive log on the head of her sworn enemy, now feared dead; a paralysed man, suspicious of his wife, uses a staff to hit her. Her face is swollen and she is bleeding.

Blood, gore and violence are now being served hot on your television screens day after day. "The level of violence now is comparable to films," observes Geetha Suresh, a management lecturer at Mother Teresa University. While scheming women with revenge on their minds and glycerine in their eyes have always been the soap writer's pet theme, the rise in the portrayals of violence is startling viewers.

Actor Vijay Adiraj, a familiar face in TV serials for 12 years now, agrees that the amount of violence in soaps is definitely up. "But if you ask any serial producer or director, they would defend it saying that we are being true to life. We are portraying what is written about in newspapers and magazines."

He blames the rise in gore on "regressive writing" and "an absolute paucity of thinking progressive scriptwriters." He refuses to act in scenes that portray violence against children and is "personally against the mother-in-law harassing daughter-in-law themes." But he cannot do more than that.

Keith Gomez, a professor of medical and psychiatric social work in Loyola College, believes violent scenes have "entertainment value" because adults often find their everyday life "boring and frustrating. People need a diversion and they turn to the television."

Shalini, who played Sandhya in the recently concluded soap Salanam, believes that serials are an extended version of film minus the style. "The violence can be cut down," she says. Shalini was disturbed by a scene on the small screen that showed a man killing a fish in rage.

A.M. Poornima, a school counsellor says: "I wish violence would be shown more symbolically instead of such brutal scenes. With summer holidays on, all restrictions on TV are off in most homes and I am worried about the effect on children."

Theatre artiste S. Ve. Shekher believes that television needs more stringent censorship. "More than violence, I feel the greater evil is the way all family relationships are being portrayed. The daughter-in-law wants to poison her mother-in-law, a bride has the worst interests of her husband's sister at heart... It's a mess out there. Every producer or artiste should have a conscience about what they are presenting to society."

V. Keerthana in standard I is hooked to TV. She will eat dinner only if she hears the `Chithi' song. In response, her parents unplugged the cable connection. But these days the smart little girl drops in at her neighbours' who have the television on at prime time every day for an hour's visit.

Dr. Gomez cites proven studies to show that children exposed to violence on television do have behavioural problems, are more aggressive towards their siblings and develop a hostile attitude to society. "Just like parents are concerned about their children not catching any physical illness this summer, they should be aware that prolonged viewing of violence is a psychological hazard," he says.

A different view

However, actor Chetan, who has been a part of 1,000 episodes of `Metti Oli' and 400 episodes of the recently concluded "Adukiran Kannan," has a different take on the issue. "Television's censor is the TRP. That's why whatever violence you show has to be within limits. An adventure serial with cops doesn't sell. I have been part of some story discussions and I don't think there is a conscious effort to bring in a lot of violence in family dramas. Women, the main target audience, wouldn't watch it"

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