Sunday, March 15, 2020
The Director and the Troll
The following opinion piece was published on June 15, 2019. The direct link to an edited version of the article can be found here.
The Director and the Troll
The Milan Chams—Meme Nepal
saga has shown that Milan Chams is the opposite of Voltaire. Chams disagrees to
disagree. This saga has shown that in addition to being a mediocre filmmaker,
Mr Chams also has no sense of humor. He should avoid making any comedies in the
future.
Richard Dawkins coined the term
“meme” in his book The Selfish Gene to
explain how information spreads through a society. Dawkins’ idea of a meme was
something that may happen unknowingly or subconsciously, and it is often difficult
to trace its origin. Dawkins’ original idea is a cultural phenomenon that
arises organically without anyone taking credit.
Sometime during the 1990s,
when the Internet exploded, the “Internet meme” started gaining popularity. An
Internet meme differs significantly from Dawkins’ idea. An Internet meme is,
often, easy to trace due to digital footprints. Internet meme creators are also
more than happy to take credit for their creations.
Internet usage has surged in
Nepal as computers and Internet subscriptions have become more affordable and
readily available. As more and more Nepalis get access to the Internet, the
spread of meme culture will only increase. This culture thrives in commenting
on social, political, philosophical, cultural and other changes through images
and videos. Pranesh Gautam, with Meme Nepal, is a member of that culture.
This saga shows that Chams
fails to realize the movie industry that he works in and the meme culture that
Gautam works in have two things in common.
First, both use the freedom
of expression to thrive. It allows Gautam to troll his audience through
mediocre memes. It allows Gautam to call a movie bad. Whether a movie is
actually bad is besides the point. Your movie may win an Oscar, but if I don’t
like it, I still have the freedom to shout from the mountain tops that your
movie is bad, bad, bad. Chams uses the same freedom of expression to troll his
audience with mediocre movies. Both Gautam and Chams have the freedom to do
that. And, as consumers of both these cultures, people like me watch their
products and cringe.
Second, Gautam and Chams both
rely on audience interaction to make their products popular. Successful and
repeated interaction is what makes both movies and memes popular. Both require
word-of-mouth to become popular. If enough people do not watch a movie and tell
their friends how good the movie is, thus enticing others to go watch the
movie, the movie fails. Similarly, enough people have to see a meme and forward
it to their friends who they think will LOL at the meme.
Chams has accused Gautam of
working towards destroying the Nepali movie industry. It is sad to see that not
many in the Nepali movie industry have come out against Chams’ statement. Chams
is a mere member of the industry; he is not THE industry. Gautam providing a
poor review of Chams’ movie does not constitute a grand scheme to destroy the
Nepali film industry. That is utter nonsense from Chams.
The Chams—Meme Nepal saga
also speaks volumes about the kind of society we live in. It shows that people
in power seem to be very thin-skinned and fail to take even a slight criticism
in stride. One little criticism from one powerless guy, and Chams used the full
force of his celebrity power and his connections to put that guy behind bars.
It has happened so easily and government agencies have been more than happy to
oblige the filmmaker. Nepal Police has shown, yet again, how powerful people
are able to get accomodating services from the police at will. The Court has
shown its eagerness to please an individual filmmaker and impose unjust
punishment on someone who simply said bad things about a stupid movie. What
does this tell us? That democratic liberties rank below a filmmaker’s hurt
sentiments?
Let us be honest here.
Gautam’s video is bad, in the sense that it failed to be “forwardable” to
friends and has very few LOL moments. It failed to be memeable. In the grand
scheme of things, Gautam’s video posisbly had no effect on Chams’ movie’s box
office collections. That movie did not fail because some guy called Pranesh
Gautam made a ridiculous video about the movie using even more ridiculous
memes.
Milan Chams fails to
recognize that millions of memes are created every year and they die poor
deaths. Only a handful make it big and become popular. Does that remind Chams
of something? It should. That is also the story of the Nepali film industry. Only
a handful of movies every year become hits. The movie that Chams made did not
have a good word of mouth. He simply made a movie that sucked. That is a fact.
Total viewership and total box office collections are facts.
Meme Nepal had nothing to do
with Milan Chams making a movie nobody wants to watch. It is time for Chams to
recognize that he has set a very bad precedent by campaigning against freedom
of expression. He has more to lose from this saga than the guy who makes memes
in the Internet.
Chams recently gave an
interview to a reporter from The Kathmandu Post saying he wanted to teach
Gautam “a lesson.” And, Chams has failed on that, too. He may have put the guy
behind bars, but the lesson that Nepali film audiences like me has now learned
is that Milan Chams is a bully who cannot handle the truth. I have read many
reviews of his new movie Bir Bikram 2. They all say his new movie is, in fact,
bad. It has loud acting, is riddled with cliches, and has misogynistic
storyline and characters.
If Chams has any decency left
in his being, he needs to apologize to the public for the scene he has created,
withdraw his case, and set Pranesh Gautam free.
Then, they both can get back
to becoming better at whatever they were doing. Being a better filmmaker. Being
a better comedian.
Labels: Bir Bikram 2, Freedom of Expression, Meme Nepal, Milan Chams, Pranesh Gautam
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