Memes emerge as social media art, comment and empowerment tool

It's all about art -- when M F Husain took brush to canvas, when Satyajit Ray got behind the camera and even when a clever somebody logs in to inscribe astute comment on image to produce what has come to be known as a meme.

And when India's twin obsessions cinema and politics combine, you get a meme that is not just just humour but a biting comment on contemporary times and also a tool of empowerment and expression.

According to Ramit Verma, creator of social media account 'Official PeeingHuman', memes are "time capsules" representing the culture prevailing at a particular point.

Like when a cow replaced antagonist Ganesh Gaitonde in a defining scene from Netflix's India original "Sacred Games", based on a book by author Vikram Chandra on Mumbai's underworld.

It was a sure-shot viral meme -- a bovine standing amidst the burning mountain of Mumbai's trash in self-deified glory with the dialogue "kabhi kabhi lagta hai apun hee bhagwan hai" (it often feels that I am god) inscribed on it.

Bulls eye for the creator who used the pop culture medium to make a devastating comment on the current political climate and issues related to the cow and cow slaughter. The viewer may or may not have seen "Sacred Games" but the message hit straight home.

Memes were used to drive home other messages in 2018.

Films such as "Padmaavat", "Manmarziyaan" and "Kedarnath" and the controversies they raised blurred the lines between cinema and politics. And memes used India's obsession with the two and turned them into instant social media art.

What makes current affairs and entertainment industry gel is that both are articles of mass consumption and, in the age of internet, people need everything that is a touch away, said the man behind ROFL Gandhi, a popular parody account of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, requesting anonymity.,