Angry? See how films use your anger
You must been angry at some point of time or even now as you read this. Maybe some tasks left undone or some words spurted at you with intentions which is just not acceptable. Don’t worry films evoke anger in you too and you relish it. Do you know why?
Anger is a delicious dish. I mean think of the entire gamut of emotions in you and compare it with anger. Well, doesn’t seem quite equally grounded right? Fair enough. Let’s just look at what anger separately and what it does in people. It makes people impulsive, violent and revenge-seeking, disappointed but there is a certain rage and instantaneous thing about anger which makes it so juicy and evil to people. Anger can be long-term too. That is far more dangerous and taxing to the emotional well-being of a person.
Look at Hindi films or any other language films for that matter which have the stereotype of a hero-villain and good-bad aspect in it and have done well at the box office. Doesn’t it show the exuberance of anger. In the final scenes in which the so called hero is loosing yet angry and the villain is winning and proud, the hero reciprocates the anger in us while the villain is whom we feel angry against. The final outburst is so relaxing because the anger is finally let out by punches or certain wit in which the hero defeats the villain. I have always wondered what would happen if the hero never won and anger did not get its outlet. What if the villain remained ahead of the hero and made the anger more and more fertile and palpable. The audience would be in absolute disgust. Not because of some moral compass always of good and evil but just because the anger did not get its outlet. Revenge dramas and action films hence are so loved by the audience not only because we love violence but our anger receives an outlet. In romance too, such a thing may turn to be helpful. Anger against the society for the couple becomes an outlet for the audience in the form of happily ever after.
When does this anger not receive an outlet in films? In tragedy, yes. But there too the tragedy is more acceptable to audiences if the anger is entirely extinguished by the killing of the protagonist with whom the anger is being is piled onto and we see the tragic end of the anger with the killing of the hero. But what if the hero never died? What if both Romeo and Juliet remained alive unhappily? That too would be a tragic end right? No, it wouldn’t be in terms of the anger. The pressure cooker of anger wouldn’t have an outlet then and hence would make the dish all burnt. Hence, anger is a delicious if it is cooked and either steamed out or if the gas is just extinguished at the right time. Common, let’s all enjoy a meal of anger again.