CONVENTIONS OF CRIME GENRE IN INDIAN SHOWS: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SACRED GAMES AND MIRZAPUR

The boundaries of the crime genre are fluid, dynamic and flexible. It explains the number of subgenres that have emerged out of the broader umbrella. There are multiple strong intertextual links between texts. Many crimes fiction texts have combined with other genres such as drama, action, romance and science to produce generic hybrids and because of the abundance of crime fiction, there is extreme variety within the genre. This includes texts that stay well within the conventions of the genre and those that push and blur the boundaries of the genre. With the rise in the content produced by streaming services and the digital boom that is being witnessed in India, the kind of content produced makes for an interesting study. Recently released Indian mafia and gangster-based shows Sacred Games and Mirzapur particularly become subjects for the study because while they evidently follow the codes and conventions of the crime genre, they open the debate about the limitations of the taxonomies of genres, the world of hybrid genres. A discourse analysis was conducted to observe how media texts may involve multiple combination of genres to form a sub-genre. These shows fit most aptly in the crime genre but also overlap with the conventions of the drama and action genre. It was observed that television texts remain important elements in the cultural practices of genres, and traditional narrative genres remain central for television and eventually form conventions that define the pieces that constitute the genre.