The beard could be an indicator of a turning point in attitudes.
Look around at the many young men around you and you may notice that beards are growing as rich and thick as foliage in the Amazon jungles, on their faces of late. A clear indication of the said men’s most recent preoccupation with streaming channels.
If the sales teams of companies involved in producing and marketing shaving products are scratching their heads about how to prevent what could be a certain drop in their KRA ratings, taking time off from looking at numbers might give them the answer. The Pushpa phenomenon is what has affected the industry sales, as young men skip the chore of de-fuzzing their faces, and decide to emulate the film’s anti-hero’s unkempt looks. So they let the hair grow longer and allow beards and moustaches to sprout untamed. Perhaps it actually creates the Pushpa effect; giving them the same derring-do as the protagonist of the superhit film. And why not? After all, the coolie-turned-smuggler not only grew rich and vanquished his competition, and the law, but also won his lady love.
Films and the stars who play leading roles in absorbing larger-than-life stories have always inspired viewers to emulate them. But whether it is the chocolate-box hero mooning over his love interest or the angry young man, the influences have been mostly sartorial. The latter’s rough ways that cock a snook at societal niceties may have attracted the impressionable among viewers, but very few walk the full mile to take on the corruption, avarice or cruelty that the hero with a heart of gold fights against on screen.
Technology and timing seem to be creating a new milestone in influence though. The action-packed thrilling story of a single man’s success in rising to dizzying heights in his chosen, unsavoury profession is not a new one; it’s an old theme and localised adaptations of The Godfather and its sequel continue to crop up in real and reel life across the world. The fact that Pushpa hit the small screens in a plethora of Indian languages, and the fact that it sent the pulse racing, waking it from the moribund state that the pandemic had thrown it into, has indeed been a decisive reason for the film’s popularity.
But in a world that has seen deprivation and loss and is struggling with problems of identity, one wonders if this time round, the influence will go beyond the superficial. Whether inspired by the reach-up-and-take-it attitude of Pushpa the screen hero, aspirants to his style will think little of adopting similar attitudes to getting what they want.
Power and might are magnets, but when the means to the end snake through unsavoury ways, it is a dangerous example. Yet, the wheel turns constantly, and it may soon be the turn for the superhero again, fighting evil with good. And who knows, he may wear a beard along with his cloak!
Sathya Saran
saran.sathya@gmail.com
Author & Consulting Editor, Penguin Random House