the killing

I rarely write about serials. At least I haven’t for quite some months. But the other weekend I was idly watching season 4 of the serial The Killing on Star World premiere and I decided I would mention this in my next blog. Catching up to a story, any story in Season 4 involves a lot of guesswork and I gathered from what I saw that both detectives have committed the murder of a corrupt partner. Running parallel to this back story is the new case they have been handed - an entire family massacred with the son, the lone survivor a suspect though wounded. The story, as stories go, is nothing great but what struck me is the treatment. Absolutely astonishing photography and extremely realistic performances! And the actress( Mereille Enos playing Sarah Linden) is marvelous. Her guilt, her conflicting emotions- betrayal, anger, hurt- above all her complete lack of make- up – camera picking up her frown lines, her cracked lips, her scanty brows, her pulled back hair. Kudos to her. To be a woman and not afraid to show up your physical flaws is a big thing in any race, culture and country. Everywhere women hide behind masks afraid to be what nature meant them to be. In real life don’t we have red eyes, cracked lips and bad skin when we are emotionally miserable? When we cannot and do not want to summon the energy to get on our war paint? When we become tired of seeing ourselves through the eyes of the others and grow comfortable in our skin? Then why in our serials and movies are we so afraid to show our flaws?

Why in our Hindi serials do our heroines look perfectly made up even when sick, asleep or grieving? It’s good to be glamorous if the role demands it but when it does not is it necessary to be picture perfect? What is wrong with acknowledging our flaws? Better still of accepting them. If romance demands picture perfect faces and hair and clothes then trash it and create something new. Where you can say like Congreve in the Way of the World: “Nay I love her for her flaws”. (Hope it’s not misquoted. Been a while. But you get the picture right?) 

Let fiction mimic life sometimes. Escape is good. But so is reality. And sometimes we can get real. Even if it’s just fiction!