Every culture has its heroes. Most popular stories are woven around a hero. Mythologist Joseph Campbell identified the different stages that go to make a hero. He says a hero is one who steps out of the threshold of routine to encounter challenging circumstances on behalf of his community, fight them, overcome them or draw such benefit as would accrue to the whole community through them - like Rajnikanth does as Kabali, fighting for the rights of Tamils in Malaysia in the newly released film of that name. Campbell says there are eleven stages a man goes through to transform into a hero. First, the potential hero feels uncomfortable with the way things are around him. Then comes the trigger-impulse to bring about a change and he ventures out, though the path ahead is dangerous. A mentor almost always pulls him across the threshold and then camps are formed, rivals and followers. The remaining story is about reaching the target, winning over it and returning with its rewards. Even though Campbell is talking of the construction of the mythological hero, it holds good for today's scripts too, like that of Kabali. A hero radiates power and inspires confidence. As Kabali does.
Campbell says, "It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward...In fact, it may well be that the high incidence of neuroticism among us follows the decline of such effective spiritual aid". So the hero was a spiritual aid. He edified your thoughts and took you up a notch higher in your way of life, rather, in the elegance of your life. Does Kabali do that? At every step, a hero acts in accordance with nobility of spirit. His goodness stands above any violence that may be part of the story. Storytelling does need some exaggeration to be effective. So at both ends, goodness and violence need to be exaggerated for the mind to compress the trajectory of event into a story.
The Jainas found an interesting way of handling this situation. Every story has three main characters, may be four. The fourth, who may or may not figure in the story, is a chakravartin or monarch. The other three are the hero or Baladeva, the Prati-Vasudeva or anti-hero, the villain. Prati-Vasudeva is a title that immediately recognises that a villain is a ruler of half the world. Just as there are Vasudevas who rule the world, there are anti-Vasudevas who also dominate the world, but villainously. Baladeva never kills. He upholds the Jaina principle of non-violence. Vasudeva kills and descends to the lowest of hells. The Prati-Vasudeva is the villain so anyway he was not destined to get a better birth since his acts have been evil. Baladeva, a more mystic character, enters the Jaina order to eventually renounce and move towards enlightenment.
The hero may also have to resort to violence, but if it is as gory as that of the villainous character, does the message of righteousness, rise above the bloodshed and the fact that the 'hero' is able to kill without compunction? Is killing humans as easy as slapping a mosquito between your palms - as it is for Kabali? Can we not promote the brand of heroism that does not involve killing?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment