The Kerala Police plan to enlist the help of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) to steer the entertainment industry away from wanton murder and mutilation films, which arguably desensitise youth to the horror of physical violence.
The move comes when investigators are still searching for believable psychological clues into the motivations of the 23-year-old youth charged with the “methodical and pre-meditated” murder of five members of his family in the Thiruvananthapuram district on February 26 and also the suspects in the recent killing of a Class 10 student at Thamarassery in Kozhikode.
The police initiative also assumes some social significance in the wake of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) decision to block the TV release of the Malayalam film Marco after the regulatory body deemed it viscerally violent for online broadcast to living rooms.
Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Manoj Abraham, who is in charge of the initiative, told The Hindu that Kerala has recorded a “significant spurt” in murders in 2025.
He says adolescent rivalries, possibly fuelled by filmy ideas of violent hypermasculinity and gang loyalty, accounted for 17 of the 70 murders reported in Kerala in 2025.
Officials noted that many of the killings displayed a high level of brutality. Furthermore, as many as 30 of the recent murders occurred within families.
The police noted that violent video games that normalise murder and mayhem also inured youth to actual acts of violence.
“Synthetic drug abuse and alcohol impairment were also aggravating factors”, another officer says.
According to the police, as many as 37 murders were spur-of-the-moment crimes. “Infidelity and suspicion of illicit relationship within social and familial circles accounted for 10 murders. Previous enmity accounted for 11 homicides. Psychiatric illness caused four murders”, an official said.
Senior officials stated that the police face limitations in addressing violent crime within households, families, campuses and youth groups.
Hence, the police have sought the help of local bodies, parent-teacher associations, the neighbourhood watch, residents associations, youth clubs and the Social Welfare department to address the social issue.
Dr. Mohan Roy, assistant professor and consultant psychiatrist at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, says dysfunctional families with apathetic parents were a significant reason for juvenile delinquent behaviour, including substance abuse and violence.
“It’s beholden on teachers and parents to steer children away from violent online and movie content. Many films are sugar-coated with violence to cater to the youth hooked on violent video games. The youth do not realise until late, as in the Thamarassery case, that a blow to the side of the head could cause a fatal temporal bone fracture”, he says.
Prem Kumar, Kerala Chalachitra Academy chairperson, points out that filmmakers increasingly incorporate graphic violence into screenplays to “compensate for weak storylines and plots.”
“Hitting the audience, especially the young crowd, in the face with brutal imagery is a ploy sloppy movie-makers use to make their shallow pop narratives click at the box office. Graphic onscreen violence today serves as a financial crutch for bad films. The film and television industry needs an intellectual cleansing,” he added.
Kerala Film Producers Association secretary B. Rakesh, however, says it is erroneous to always co-relate violence and scenes of substance abuse in films to aggression, juvenile delinquency and addiction.
“It is not a question the industry or society can answer at a stroke. The CBFC is the watchdog that can weigh the social consequences of violence in films and ensure movies remain within the societal guardrails before release”, he says.
Published – March 06, 2025 01:48 pm IST
Kerala
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crime
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Malayalam cinema
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cinema
