When I watched First Day First show videos of fans from all over the world, cheering and chanting
“This is true Rajinism,”,
“We got back our old Rajini” and
“Petta Parak”, an unexplainable undivided extreme level of sublime happiness was evident on viewers’ face. It was not just the first day show fans who expressed such extreme level of joy, but even young kids and old people who were not regular theatre-going audience showed a strong sense of satisfaction and enjoyment.
I watched Petta twice. I thoroughly enjoyed it the second time as well even though I knew the twists. So, one question kept popping in my mind- So what exactly made Petta an unexpected never-seen-before celebratory cinematic experience among the audience?
Films transport us to a different world. Film-watching may be considered as a pastime, a hobby, a family activity or social gathering event.
On a surface level, we see it as ‘ok, let’s watch this movie,’ But in an individual, what films make us do, react for or respond to?
Why do films like Petta make film-watching not just another activity but an experience to be remembered? Two crucial parts of film analysis are audience response and narrative engagement. Films are also about how audience members construct mental models of meaning to represent a story and the cognitive processes that are internalised in our minds which result in the term called ‘enjoyment’
Audience pays their fullest attention on the film when they are experiencing ‘total immersion’. Total immersion, according to film enthusiasts, occurs when the viewers are not aware of things around them and that is why after a good film, we remark ‘time ponnathey theriyalai.’ There are many perspectives and specific descriptions of the term immersion, it is difficult to sort it out in a single unified definition that covers all aspects of immersion.
However, film scholars have crafted a reader-friendly framework called Wheel of Immersion. The fundamental idea of the wheel of immersion is that viewers go through a dynamic progression of different levels of involvement by overcoming obstacles to narrative progressing. This is similar from a video game perspective as both playing video games and watching films like Petta do result in similar emotional and cognitive effects. In 2004, film analysts Brown and Cairns, have studied wheel of immersion and listed 4 levels of involvement- Reality, Engagement, Engrossment and Total Immersion.
When we say ‘I love Petta’ or ‘I enjoy watching Petta’ (or any other film for that matter), what exactly happens within us is that we are carried from each level to another level subconsciously. As much as there is progression, bringing us happiness and joy, there are also moments when we feel distanced from the film- that is dropping back to ‘reality’. And that is how Wheel of Immersion works.
(Brown, Emily & Cairns, Paul (2004) ‘A grounded investigation of game immersion’. Proceedings from the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘04) (pp. 1297-1300). New York: ACM Press.)
(Not all obstacles will be discussed in this article)
The diagram shows different levels and the associated arrows indicating the level at which the viewer typically can progress to, from the current level. At the same time, the viewer can fall back to reality if that specific level isn’t achieved by the viewer. However, he or she cannot reach the level of total immersion directly, as the level of engrossment must be achieved first. A largely well-written narrative like Petta, naturally moves us from one level to another simultaneously creating blissful moments. Black lines have been placed between the levels to represent the obstacles the viewer might face, disconnecting the viewer from the film.
From Reality to Engagement
A viewer typically begins at the level of reality. Brown and Cairns asserted that from reality, the viewer has to overcome three human-dependent obstacles – access, investment and preference – in order to progress to engagement.
The obstacle of investment is the time and effort the viewer has to put in, for the film in order to keep focused.I felt that the 171-minute film was an obstacle for me because in the 2nd half, an additional cut could have added value. However, as a Rajini’s fan, I didn’t feel it was a big hinderance to total immersion and that was one reason why I enjoyed investing that amount of effort and time.
Preference refers to the individual viewer’s interest in the film and style. It was a Rajini film made by one ardent fan of his, Karthick Subbraj. Naturally, everyone’s excitement level was at its peak. The promotional strategies weren’t as loud as Kabali and I felt the just-enough advertisements and tweets from Sun Pictures were sufficient to make it appealing. Rightfully done, the trailer was the biggest asset to Petta’s success I would say.
Adding on to all these fasincating factors that eradicate the obstacles to engagement was Anirudh’s Marana Mass music/songs. Either it be the authentic percussion at various places to keep adding multiple layers of beats to the excessively powerful kuththu Marana Mass song or be the breezy romantic number ‘illamai thirumbudhey’, we as audience were well-prepared to watch Petta.
When many trailers miserably fail at meeting audience’s expectations, the mood set well from the Petta’s trailer and the music/songs were a smart investment the makers have made. (Click here to read about my take on the trailer)
According to the theory, atmosphere is defined as the graphics we see or the environment shown in films (or gaming videos). However, for South-Indian films, we can and we should define ‘atmosphere’ as the ambience in the theatre. If one had not seen Petta in an electrifying and roof-shattering ambience where howls, whistles, cheers and chants like ‘Thalaivaa!!’ fill in the theatre, then you had missed out a major part of total immersion.
Because, atmosphere was an obstacle for me when I watched it the first time. The mood was not high enough as the theatre was occupied mostly with working adults, overly-quiet families with well-behaved school-going kids and Indian aunties suffering from arthritis and the only possible screams- “Yeppa da” were the ones they made when they had to climb on the cinema hall steps. The second time I watched Petta in another theatre, there was relatively a more vibrant atmosphere and that definitely helped me with levelling up to ‘Engagement’.
From Engagement to Engrossment
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