Can reel world affect the real one?

he State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar’s observation linking the recent Malayalam blockbuster Premam to the tragic incident that claimed a life in the College of Engineering campus in Thiruvananthapuram has reignited the debate over film-influenced crimes.

The debate spilled over to the social media with noted writer N.S. Madhavan tweeting sarcastic remarks about the DGP’s statement. “There’s as much connect between Premam & CET killing as between Chemmeen and high sea killing of fishermen by the Italians. Get real DGP,” he tweeted.

Mr. Madhavan said that the same thing happened with another blockbuster

Drishyam when it was blamed for all crimes. “Forget films. Do some hard work,” he further tweeted.

Filmmaker Kamal who himself had commented on the bad influence of

Premam on youngsters, however, felt that the DGP was right. Mr. Kamal said that filmmakers are also a part of society and have to show some commitment like others. He reminded that there used to be men like MGR in the film industry who declined to be seen drinking or smoking on the screen fearing that it would be a bad influence on lakhs of his fans.

Ajithkumar Nair, a criminologist, who is part of the Kerala State Police Complaints Authority’s ongoing investigation into an alleged custodial death in Kottayam, said that whether deliberately or not, filmmakers were tapping into the vulnerability of a directionless generation of youth.

“I blame society and not the youth at the centre of it,” he said.

Senior psychiatrist C.J. John cited research-based findings that aggressive behaviour in films and television could influence a certain segment of teenagers to imitate it in their day-to-day behaviour. Filmmakers need to realise that their product is targeted at the public and hence need to have certain social commitment, he said.