For what you’ve heard about Depp

Isnrsquot everyone without an exception an expert on romantic relationships Especially if theyrsquore not in one And while all heteronormative relationships stay happy the same waymdashdo they swerve towards unhappiness similarly tooStarting with being in love with the ideal of love first Assuming traces of it in a person instead Looking at them therefore with glasses so rosetinted that you can never tell the colour of the flag waving at youWhat follows is mild disappointment hence criticism blown to eventual contempt In between lie stonewallingsilenttreatment verbal aggression manipulation gaslightinghellipWith expectations perhaps inevitable being the mother of all screwups Only once the novelty of two new people impressing each other at their best wears off obviouslyTherersquos also possession as the flipside of that love naturally descending to lowgrade hate Because if you became resolutely indifferent once the relationship is over you werenrsquot that much into each other noOkay I will stop with the cynical psychology But do you somewhat see above a familiar story of the breakdown of relationshipsmdashif not your own certainly many you know Was there the same pattern with the vastly public divorce and defamation trial between American moviestars Johnny Depp and Amber Heard YesAnd hell no Sitting half the planet away and hardly much of a gossip trawlerscroller what did I know about the 2022 DeppHeard trial Triggered by a Washington Post column that Heard wrote in 2018 calling herself ldquopublic figure representing domestic abuserdquo Alluding to her exhusband Depp who filed a lawsuit claiming 50 million in damages against Heard who in turn made a counterclaim of 100 millionFrankly my dear in this part of the world I donrsquot give a damn Only the ears perked up a lirsquol hearing about human turdtatti that Heard had left behind on Depprsquos bed after theyrsquod had a fight and he exited the apartment one nightOutside of that you knew that every mousepotato with a microphonepodcasthandle was an expert on this marital nightmaremdashlsquobegani shaadi mein deewana Abdullasrsquomdashnamecalling slutshaming spinning conspiracy theories euphemism for plain lies in perhaps the most livetweeted livestreamed TikTok trial everldquoOver the course of the trial millions of dollars were generated by content creatorsrdquo as Emma Cooperrsquos threepart documentary series Depp v Heard recently dropped on Netflix points outAlso read Donrsquot take absenteeism in junior college lightlyA sobering documentary made with some distance of time is the safest antidote to noise getting passed off as news given ldquothe misinformation was truly unprecedented in the caserdquo as per a commentator in Cooperrsquos series Which does its precious job well So now we know how it happened who said what online in court Even if Irsquom unsure why but on that in a bitWhat could Depp v Heard remind Indians of Aftermath of actor Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos death around the same time Wherein the lsquocourt of public opinionrsquo including Internet bots talking to bots decided on a culprit a young girl among random others who had nowhere to escape relentless personal attacks by a mad mobIf indeed this becomes the norm with highprofile cases Americans will be better off because at least its legacy press more so mainstream TV isnrsquot half as unhinged as social media or as equally prone to blatant propagandafalsehoods In India the aggrieved go quiet because defamation laws get selectively implemented when overburdened courts have way more important cases to knock backIndians will be better off because we discontinued the system of lsquojury trialsrsquo after the 1959 Nanavati case Wherein a group of regular citizens decide on a caseThe juryrsquos verdict in Depp v Heard bafflingly went against Heard Itrsquos impossible as Cooperrsquos series also mentions that they werenrsquot impassionedswayed by social mediarsquos unanimous support for Depp Hersquod lost a libel case against UK tabloid The Sun that called him ldquowife beaterrdquo alreadyWas this a male American backlash against MeToo Depp and Heard had first met at work for a film that he cast her in and they fell in love She deemed him demonic while walking away with 7 million in divorce settlementDepprsquos own history with substanceabuse since childhood is undeniablemdashin India the NCB wouldrsquove booked him for that confession alone But Depp is adamant he never raised his hand on HeardItrsquos actually clearer that she did Are the two the same thing Also is physical the only kinda domestic abusemdashespecially since hersquos accused of flipping a mental switch when he went down on drugs But did he Did sheThatrsquos the immense beauty of the case hence the series I can see why America and the globe were glued to the trialmdashlive on air with personal testimonies scurrilous textmessages audiovideo recordings from either phonemdashwatching it like sport As it is we live inside a documentary filmSuch a conversation starter this thenmdashabout love relationships how celeblives are like ours or so not First World problems are the rest of the worldrsquos entertainment Surely both Depp and Heard are fine And Pirates of the Caribbean 6 will soon be on its wayMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper