KOCHI: The brutal murder of 26-year-old Shraddha Walker by her live-in partner Aftab Ameen Poonawala in Delhi left the nation in shock. He strangled her and then chopped her body into 35 pieces using a cleaver knife and a saw.
Aftab packed her body parts in 18 polythene bags, and stored them in a brand-new 300-litre refrigerator, before dumping them at various locations across the city. He told police officers that the modus operandi was inspired by the American TV series Dexter.
The 2006 fictional crime drama talks about Dexter Morgan, a man with homicidal tendencies, who lives a double life. A police forensic technician, he illegally hunts down criminals who, according to him, were not adequately punished by law.
Dexter butchers the bodies of his victims, wraps them in plastic, and disposes of them. The show has been a hit in India, where it was released online in 2019. Soon after the Shraddha-Aftab case, news broke on a four-year-old crime that was brought to light in Ghaziabad. A young woman revealed how her mother killed her father and buried his body in a pit behind the house and covered it with cement a la Drishyam.
The influence of cinema on life is nothing new. However, now, the crime genre films and web series have gained unprecedented traction, thanks to online platforms which offer a free flow of gore. And that, of late, has been a point of online discussions and debates.
Kerala diaries
In October, a case was reported at Panoor in Kannur, where Shyamjith M was arrested on charges of murdering Vishnupriya, who had allegedly spurned his romantic advances. Officers found that Shyamjith had planned the murder a long time ago, and had even forged a knife on his own. He stabbed her multiple times. After the murder, Shyamjith showed no remorse, and confessed that he had been planning to murder one of Vishnupriya’s male friends as well. According to officers, Shyamjith drew inspiration from the Malayalam film Anjaam Pathira, which tells the story of a serial killer.
Mohanlal’s 2013 blockbuster Drishyam, apparently, has influenced more crimes than one. In 2018, a man killed his younger brother following a brawl and buried his body in the backyard of his house in Kollam, with the help of his mother and wife.
Another ‘Drishyam-style’ murder was unravelled in Thiruvananthapuram in 2019. Cherthala resident Vidya was strangled to death by her husband Prem Kumar and his partner Sunitha Baby. The duo allegedly disposed of her body in a forested area in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.
To mislead the police, they left Vidya’s mobile in a dustbin on the Netravati Express headed to Mumbai. Two days after the murder, Prem himself reported at the local police station that his wife had been ‘missing’.
‘Mindset compels them’
In the Shraddha Walker case, psychology experts note Aftab had violent, murderous thoughts long before his plans to kill her. It would usually be impossible for someone with a normal mental condition to do such brutal acts, they say.
But can web series or films actually instil thoughts of murdering another person? “Such brutal crimes had been committed even at a time when there weren’t many crime films or series as now,” says popular psychiatrist Dr C J John, who is a member of the Kerala State Mental Health Authority.
“For example, more than 25 years ago, there was a case in Kerala where a doctor murdered her lover and chopped him into pieces and stuffed the chunks inside a suitcase. She used a surgical knife to cut his body up. However, she has still not been traced ever since she got out on bail.”
John, however, notes the incidence and intensity of violence among people having criminal thoughts and aggressive impulses have increased.
“Such people, even if they engage in normal fights, tend to become more violent, and are capable of inflicting brutal injuries on their victims,” he says. “Studies also reveal that vulnerable people are likely to copy the crimes that they watch on screen. Also, the chances of these vulnerable people relying on Internet information is more. There seems to be a trend of people with criminal thoughts researching on the web for executing crimes.”
John adds that there is a difference between habitual and normal offenders. “We need to analyse what predisposes an individual to commit such crimes, and what is this person’s personality or history,” he says. “Only after analysing such things can a remedy be planned.”
Serial killers or psychopaths are often persons with antisocial personality disorders, and they do not feel guilt or remorse over what they do. They also enjoy flouting the rules, and find pleasure in committing crimes. “This mindset compels them to commit another crime, sometimes without any motive,” says John. “One example is the case of serial killer ‘Ripper’ Jayanandan, who killed many people with a hammer in their sleep.”
‘Brutality has increased’
Additional Director General of Police (Cybercrime) K Padmakumar notes the “brutality factor” in murders has increased in recent times. “We are coming across many such cases where the body is dismembered or chopped without any mercy,” he says.
“Basically, the sort of movies that are being screened have a certain role and are having an impact on the youths. In OTT platforms, there are a lot of movies which show gory visuals with extreme violence. Hence, the influence of such elements in the films need to be studied by filmmakers. It is easy to brush it aside, terming it as fiction. But it is certainly having an impact on today’s youth. That is definitely a factor... killings have become more brutal and heinous.”
Padmakumar also points out that there is not much control over the content that children are watching these days. “Parents should keep a check on children’s internet usage and the sort of content they are watching,” he adds.
‘Negative and positive influence’
Currently, a series on real-life American serial killer Jeffrey Dalmer is being screened on Netflix. Two series on the ‘handsome devil’ Ted Bundy, one of the most famous serial killers in history, were released in 2019. These series show the killers enduring bad childhood experiences, parental neglect, etc.
“Films can have both a negative and positive influence on an individual,” says film reviewer Vishal Menon. “There were a couple of murder cases similar to Drishyam. It is true that these kinds of films influenced the criminals to some extent, but we cannot generalise that the crimes were committed due to the films. Cinema does influence individuals, but it depends on what they imbibe. People can also read crime books and commit crimes.”
Vishal highlights the positive impact of the film Pink, which conveyed the message ‘No means no’ effectively. Our in-house film critic Sajin Shrijith says: “While we can’t completely dismiss the possibility of films influencing negative or positive a small percentage of audiences, I don’t believe they wield a huge influence. All these social media and television debates about art are necessary and they have shaped the nature of some scripts. But how many really create a notable impact? They last until the next big issue, and the cycle gets repeated.”