A Study of Slow Violence, Corporate Eco-crime and Politics of Contamination in Irada

Abstract

Aparnaa Singh’s dark political thriller Irada (2017) deals with how industrial poisoning has led to an ecological disaster in Punjab, India. The film is set against a backdrop of corruption and greed. The film shows how reverse boring and toxic waste dumping is taking place illegally in the region and how it slowly but surely affects violence in the landscape. This article analyzes the film as an eco-thriller that unveils the cancerous relationship between the environment and the health of the people of the region. It also examines how the deaths of two young people, Riya and Aniruddh, are being used to uncover the ongoing conspiracy in the area. Through ecocriticism, environmental justice, and green criminology, the article will also explain how Irada makes environmental pollution a human rights issue. The article will conclude with an observation regarding how the film makes the spectator a witness to the corporate eco-crime going on in Punjab and the implications of such an act of violence at the local level and global level in the era of Anthropocene.