The Kunderian theory of 'Imagology' cinematically manifested:

Conceptual aspects of the Sri Lankan film Guerrilla Marketing

By Dilshan BOANGE

Cinematic creations appealing to mass audiences with a strongly built line of entertaining storytelling with provision for 'food for thought' into aspects of contemporary human behaviour and the complexities of the human psyche are not produced in abundance in Sri Lanka.

Films that can spur the general moviegoer to start thinking deeper into what can be deciphered from the fabric of moving images syncing with audio elements to speak and perhaps enlighten them about the society they inhabit and the individual human psyche, can be appreciated from many aspects as a work that reflects the contemporary state of things.

Works that can skilfully reflect the milieu of the age while not bombarding a general audience viewer with too many philosophical and theoretical aspects in the course of its narrative will no doubt mark its presence for a value that transcends the mere purpose of entertainment alone.

Imagology

Sri Lankan film director Jayantha Chandrasiri's Guerrilla Marketing is a film that presents a story which deals with a host of theoretical elements relating to subjects such as Sociology, Psychology, Psychiatry, Political Science and so forth while significantly and perhaps one may even suggest critically depicting realities related to the advertising industry and its inner workings unseen to the public eye.

The focus of this article's discussion is of the merits the film carries related to a theorem expounded by the Czech born French author Milan Kundera whose novels mark an indelible milestone in the development of postmodern literature in Europe.

In his highly celebrated novel Immortality, Kundera discusses his theorem of 'Imagology'. It relates very intrinsically to the concept of propaganda and how advertising plays a role in our daily lives of influencing the way we think and act and become herded into becoming a mass that follows the messaging of advertisements that serve the agenda of those who control mass media and the State.

The example form USSR

Citing examples from the former Soviet Union where the ideology of Marxism was reduced to a symbolic hammer and sickle to emblemise the concept of Marxism and the system of Communism, Kundera speaks of how the masses were moved to obey the controllers of the system. The masses were exacted of their beliefs to be placed in the images that were thrust at them through propaganda machinery.

The masses of course were made to believe that realising the concept of a utopia through the doctrine of Karl Marx means to follow the instructions of the State that conveyed to them the goal they were believed to be moving towards, through images such as workers courageously moving forwards in amity as a united force under the guidance of a hammer and sickle insignia. The creatively strategised campaigns would in essence be the constitution of non-verbal messages through skilful assemblage of 'images'.

Imagology as propounded by Kundera becomes a means to manipulate the masses through sets of images and symbols that relegate the need to think and decide for one's own self and erodes the notion of an idea that is deliberated upon to be the means by which a decision is reached. It is a means of convenience to direct the masses that in essence creates a world that relies on media to 'tell them everything' and also 'what to do'. In his novel Kundera discussing Imagology speaks of public opinion polls and how 'truths' are created to convince the reader, listener or viewer in to thinking that the actual state of things is what has been declared by the media. A question raised undeniably is how truthful is the media and what it delivers to the masses to be trusted as the truth?

Business of public opinion creation

In the film Guerrilla Marketing the lead male roles are played by Kamal Addararachchi and Jackson Anthony who portray the characters of Thisara the advertising maverick and Gregory Mahaadhikaram the Leader of the Opposition whose presidential election campaign relies heavily on the advertising concepts of Thisara.

In the scene where the two characters meet for the first time the Opposition Leader says to Thisara that he isn't scared of public opinion which according to the politico is something many men in his line of work are daunted by.

The reason being that public opinion can now be created by advertising firms. Here one finds a very salient point of the Kunderian discourse of how the media becomes the generator of public opinion based on the trust placed in it by the masses.

The advertising industry creates the message which is disseminated through print and electronic media which makes them siblings cradled together within the domain of the 'information business'.

The characteristic of media dependency for information for a society to be directed is telling of the mediatisation that defines the present milieu which stands on the revolutions in ICT.

The message that comes clearly through the story of Guerrilla Marketing is that the media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion as well as 'image building'. One of the notable junctures in the area of image building of a personality and icon creation for the public domain is the scene of the when the photo shoot of Gregory Mahaadhikaram for the poster campaign.

The conventional photo shoot which does not develop the desired effect of dynamism from the subject's demeanour owing to the physical restrictedness felt by the presidential candidate being garbed in the typical white national dress turns into a performance of modern dance. The camera's click frantically and finally Thisara gets the picture which he feels is what befits the poster image he has in mind.

Striking

What is very strikingly depictive of the Kunderian theorem of Imagology at practice is how the selected photo of the presidential candidate who is wearing a black turtle neck shirt is reset with the typical white Chinese collar long sleeve shirt by the use of computer software such as Photoshop.

This juncture manifests to a large extent the ideas discussed by Kundera of how an 'image' is created or laid out to be fed to the public.

It is very blatantly a manipulation of the true state of things, the existent state of an entity to be made more public savvy and appealing from a vantage of popular politics.

Who really was the candidate at the moment he posed for the photo in terms of his mindset? Was he the public figure clad in white who addresses public rallies? Or was he a westernised Lankan who was reliving a moment of exuberance and ecstasy from his young days as a university student in Chicago Illinois where he had followed a course in modern dancing? Yet what is offered to the public as an image of a national minded leader is a concoction of images doctored to project the intended image to the public and not to portray the real person.

Power of advertising

Advertising is an industry that deals with concepts and how concepts can be turned into messages for public dissemination through media that can be static as print and electronic means that can be visually motional like TV, as well as the media that is solely auditory -Radio. Advertising creates opinions and can create markets where there really may not exist any real need for a certain product.

The power of advertising and the role of mass media in forming opinions and directing the collective senses of a society playing on the societal common interests, tastes and dislikes held and shared when forming opinions comes out very pronouncedly in Guerrilla Marketing.

It is an appreciable work of cinema which offers decipherable elements through the medium of film that relate to the theoretical grounding expounded by one of the masters of European postmodern literature, which thus shows an interrelation of cinema and literature across continents and cultures.