Monster's Principal is most of us

‘Monster’ directed by Dibakar Banerjee turned out to my favorite out of all the four stories in Ghost Stories. Since the time I watched it a month ago, I have dearly wanted to write about it. At this point, you’re warned to not go ahead and read it if you haven’t watched the anthology, for what I write is filled with spoilers, at least about Banerjee’s part. To those who are ready to proceed, a warm welcome to you all.

That Monster was deeply metaphorical has been firmly established by now. Nor can it be discounted that it was also deeply political. The Bigtown and Smalltown and what happens between them stands clearly as an analogy of societal divisions between the powerful sections of the society and the lesser powerful sections. I don’t want to delve into the entire story and pick out all metaphors here. What I want to write about, though, is one character in the story – that of the Principal of the Smalltown School.

We first encounter him when he is shown sitting on his table as the visitor enters his room to complain about the state of affairs outside. With dark glasses on in the dark and dingy room, he’s shown continuously scribbling on a notepad when the visitor tells him that the children outside are in danger. His response to that is to simply walk off like a dead man. In the next scene, we get more details about the Principal where the child is seen telling the visitor about those of his ilk.

Gradually, it becomes clear that he belongs to that group of people in the smalltown who devoured their own to survive because that’s the only way to survive from the Bigtown oppressors. As the kid reveals, “Jo khaate hai, wo unhe nahi khaate.” So, we get to know that the Principal was also complicit in whatever the Bigtown people unleashed on the Smalltown people. But while that meant the Bigtown people spared him, he’s shown to experience a rather uneasy existence. We see him struggle to scream and vomit when the kid elaborates about his apology of an existence. “Pehle aankhe jaati hai. Shikaar bhi nahi kar sakta fir wo.”

To me, the Principal is a representation of those stuck in their jobs or in big positions who are happy to not notice anything wrong around them and by doing so, end up empowering the wrong. By ignoring it, they let the wrong happen to people around them so that no harm comes to them. They are happy being ‘busy’ and ‘working’ (as shown through the Principal’s mindless scribbling)’, as that fills them with the belief that they’re doing something useful as opposed to those who are fighting the forces of wrong. In broad daylight, they put their shades of neutrality on and when confronted with the inconvenient truth, they just choose to not respond. And that’s how they end up being complicit with whatever wrong eventually takes place. By choosing not to see the wrong, they’ve earned themselves a life. But are they alive even?

The tribulations of the Principal symbolise the struggle of those who’ve traded their conscience for life. While acting neutral to everything that was happening around them, they eventually end up ‘blind’. After the Bigtown manages to vanquish the smalltown, those from the latter who chose to look away like the Principal are left alive but toothless. Their hopes that when those from Bigtown win, the bounty will be shared with them as well are found to be misplaced. In such a condition, people like the Principal are neither dead but nor alive.

In this lies a warning from the director to those who refuse to acknowledge the wrong when it happens around them. By staying quiet against the oppressor, one may survive death. But is life after that moral trade-off worth living even? If the last sight of the Principal shrieking, vomiting (Is he vomiting out the hate that he was filled with by the Bigtown people?) and ending up like a dead man but still alive is anything to go by, Banerjee is clearly telling us it isn’t.