As you read through the article, you’ll begin to realise why I chose this headline. Indeed, where are the children in the times we’re living in? They’re forced to be latch-key kids, either due to both parents working or due to coming from dysfunctional families. The period of adolescence begins at the age of ten … an age that should still be believing in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy is now bereft of innocence, as a recent TV series by the same name goes to prove
There is a lot of animated discussion about the British mini-TV series ‘Adolescence’ (airing on Netflix) on social media these days. The series has garnered much praise among the Bollywood fraternity as well, with Alia Bhatt, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Hansal Mehta speaking out in favour, indeed, even an experienced personality like Shekhar Kapur commended it fulsomely—although coming from directors, that could have as much to do with the fact that each episode was filmed in a single take, as with the content.
Yes, I’ve watched ‘Adolescence’ and yes, one can’t help but be moved by it. The story is gritty and compelling, reflective of the ugly times we live in, where children commit violence against other children. The emotions are raw and churning, fully on display for the audience to absorb.
The protagonist is a 13-year-old schoolboy, Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper in his debut film role), who is accused of murdering his classmate, a girl called Katie Leonard. Subsequent police investigations reveal that she was mocking Jamie on Instagram for being an “incel” and, at some point, he snapped.
To my mind, the star of the show is Stephen Graham who plays Jamie’s father (and is also the writer of ‘Adolescence’); he has completely slipped into the skin of the character that demands an honest, working-class man fending for his family as best he can—and then to be confronted with such a heinous crime by his teenaged son. Graham plays out his controlled emotions, his unrestrained fury, his palpable confusion, his awkward tenderness especially in the final scene, so, so beautifully.
To be honest, this verbiage “incel” and the whole “incel culture” with its symbols/emojis/call it what you will of colour-coded capsules, left me as baffled as it did the Brit cops in the series!
I think I can speak for many of us when I say that childhood, for me, was about games like carrom, hopscotch, kho-kho or pithoo; having fun with mud, stones, marbles or even, a stick (gilli-danda).
It’s frightening to think that children today, rather than revelling in the innocence and simple, carefree joys of childhood, are experiencing such utter rage, such drastic forms of bullying and peer distress, where the only option they can see is to resort to violence!
It goes without saying that we have miserably failed our future generations. From the times of apes and chimpanzees, we came a long way as a human race—but as a collective humanity, we have devolved and become a hedonistic, degenerate society where anarchy rules!
And if you think such wanton acts of violence are confined to western shores alone, you’re sadly mistaken. Recently, I watched ‘Khakee: The Bengal Chapter’ (Netflix), which is so pukeworthy that I couldn’t—didn’t want to! —get past the first episode!
There was a young boy no more than nine or ten years old, stabbing away at an adult man savagely. Now, while some people might have been repelled by all that violence and some perverts fascinated by the sight of all that blood and gore, everybody would have moved on from that scene and it would eventually be forgotten.
Or … would it? Be it ‘Adolescence’ or ‘Khaki…’, filmmakers seem to have forgotten that they owe—yes, owe—a sense of accountability and responsibility to their audiences.
It isn’t always true that Art imitates Life; it’s becoming increasingly frequent that it’s the other way around in the dissolute, depraved times that we live in. Films like ‘Satya’ and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, while being technically sound and having some quirky dialogues, nonetheless unleashed a kind of frenzied nihilism among Indian filmmakers; one bemoans the loss of a director like Shyam Benegal who could convey poverty or hopelessness whilst still affording his characters some dignity.
An alarming fall-out that no one—neither the film fraternity nor audiences at large and certainly not the parents of the child actors—seems to have considered, is the devastating impact portraying such brutishness will have on the still-impressionable psyches of the young lads essaying such roles.
Aapne popocorn kha liya; maa-bap ne paise bator liya – bacha kaun? These aren’t just actors seen on screen, for God’s sake—these are real children! There are so many of these ghastly TikTok videos doing the rounds where little girls are dressed up in pancake and revealing clothes, doing some vulgar gyrations that greedy/wannabe parents think passes for “dance”!
Have you ever wondered why so many child stars haven’t made it big? What influence did playing a child coming from a dysfunctional home have on the cute, innocent face of ‘Masoom’—where is Jugal Hansraj these days and what pinnacles of fame has he achieved? How emotionally vulnerable were these lovelies Sridevi, Sarika, Rekha—forced to earn and feed their families from a young age, only to subsequently get into disastrous personal relationships?
Macaulay Culkin of the ‘Home Alone’ fame, Drew Barrymore, Tatum O’Neal, Britney Spears, are just some in a long list of child celebrities with drug addictions. Selena Gomez has publicly admitted to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
So yes, my point is that filmmakers ought to be more scrupulous in their depictions. By all means, go ahead and pick up an intense story, but you don’t have to hit the audience on the head with dead bodies to prove your point!
Moreover, as a mother, I strongly believe that parents are liable for what goes on in their wards’ lives. Talk to your progeny instead of your phones! Be there for them; be vigilant as to what’s going on in their lives. Check if your precious princess is actually a bullying little monster, as shown in ‘Adolescence’; check if the apple of your eye is being persecuted or shunned by his/her peers.
Above all, the guardians of young children who propel them into the world of glamour must stop chasing after filthy lucre at the cost of lost innocence.
