My sister and I were discussing yesterday, about the excessive
use of abusive language and cuss words in OTT serials. My sister was saying that all these serials can definitely be made without using such foul language ‘in
a better way’. Thinking about this made my memories jog to yesteryears. (as it has in many of my recent posts)
The days of childhood and early teenhood. It was a time when cuss
words (Gaali – in Hindi) was a way of talking to friends. It was a language in
itself with a judicious mix of sharp words thrown with varying degrees of
intensity and voice modulations. Like animals make different sounds with their voice box to depict different emotions (A dog for example- barks, whines,
growls to express different emotional states - anger, sadness and ferocity respectively.) ; gaalis were ‘thrown’ in different ways to express anger, hatred, laughter,
evilness and even sadness at times. Cuss words were used as all figures of
speech and in each of its forms as well. It could be in place of a noun,
pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective and as a noun form, verb form, adjective form etc. In fact, when talking to friends, each sentence used to have atleast two cuss words. A true friend was
one with whom you could talk this way and neither of you felt anything much about it later on and neither one was offended in any way. It was a very normal way of talking to each other.
And of course, you had full control over it – never used to
be uttered in front of parents, teachers, elders or girls. At the time, we used
to think that girls are generally not knowledgeable in this kind of vocabulary.
I know better now. They do know all of it. They just don’t think it is prudent or
feminine to express it so openly.
As we grow older, our environments change and the time you spend with friends is ‘replaced’ by time you spend in office with colleagues and seniors and with your family. It is not ‘conducive’ then to speak such foul language openly. Hence you mellow down. You even come to a point where you don’t like it. And of course, you would teach your kids not to pick up such things from their friends.
But somewhere there is a child in everyone of us, who is
still out on the ground playing cricket with his friends and swearing loudly at
each and every one of them……!! 😊
Coming back to OTT serials, I partly agree with my sister that
it doesn’t need to be there – THAT MUCH. But it shouldn’t be totally censored.
Because even swearing is an art. Imagine if you were really angry and swearing
at somebody in a very flat monotone. It would have no effect, no power in the expression at all. The person would kiss you rather than being very angry at
you for abusing them !!
For me, the fact is I really enjoy a series if it has its
fair share of abusive language and cussing – not too much, but a little bit of
it. Used with the right timing and intensity, it gives a very powerful effect to a dialogue!!
As a metaphor - just a pinch of salt is enough to enhance the taste of
the dish exponentially…..
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