Perhaps a common man is preordained with paucity of originality and the grit to lead. Hence is why, history is congested with atrocious leaders and preachers of platitudes. An obsequious ordinary man, confounded over his own style statement, follows the celebrities; He tries spikes because his favorite star did so, smokes/drinks because the brave brat in his favorite movie tried so and sometimes observes passions like singing/dancing purely because by doing so a hero in a particular movie managed to bag a sexy mate; perplexed or perhaps ignorant of his original mandate, blindly asserts views expressed in widespread media as his own.
Precisely speaking, a common man is deaf and dumb when it comes to possessing proto voice of concern. Since eternal times, leaders and preachers have utilized this as a tool to propagate their self interests. Any thing that is common amongst the commoners inspires them to behave over issues they are oblivious of and if that common thing is pumped with strategy, it can go a long way in controlling the thoughts of masses. Cinema is one such thing and Bollywood in particular has warped the way we live over the past decades
Personally, I consider Bollywood as another piece of shit, responsible for almost all the bad things that are happening around us. I would be dealing with how the wrong cinema changed our emotional sanctity and behavior which should have otherwise been original
The hard truth is that there is nothing inventive in Bollywood cinema. Post Independence, when there was an opportunity to rise from the ashes, it created blunders instead. Starting with the predilection for west, western concept of love marriages is the predominated theme of almost 99% movie garbage that our Bollywood produces. Arranged marriages were made to believe to be an orthodox Indian practice and lovers were depicted as real heroes. Indian parenting saw an all time low in the movies per se when parents were almost always prevaricated as the enemies of the young buds.
Similarly, a swimsuit wearing actress was supposedly more modern and a Saree clad woman was typecast as Sati Savitri. English speaking hero is progressive and pure Hindi is, still, spoken in comedy scenes only; where we proud Indians mock our own culture. Childhood version of the actor or the son of the actor always went to a convent school where the Christian father had a larger than Buddha image. Raheem kaka and D’souza aunty are always religious and humble together, while a pundit is always dhongi and greedy. This all has been typecast to such an extent that even the truth that - Christian missionaries are involved heavily in conversions and be it a Mullah or a pundit, anyone can have any type of character, seems to be camouflaged by these images in a common man’s mind.
Larger than life depiction of sentiments and anticipations has made us emotionally and enthusiastically numb. It is sort of a crime when you show false dreams to a poor man about snowy Switzerland wherein his love interests dances in shiffon Sarees, larger than Buckingham palace like houses and the stories of those who live in them, black-belt actor who manages to tackle 20 goons at a time and a young child who goes against the system and finally seeks justice by killing the villain who raped his sister/killed his father. Rather than showing simple real stories of a down to earth protagonist, our Bollywood movies were just making protracted exaggerations. All Indian women are largely progressive but Bollywood is mainly responsible for typecasting them as pati-parmeshwar-dependent-sati-savitri. Movies like “Water” highlight issues which were existent only for a small period of time but project them as key features of Indian Culture.
Someone might ask, public is mature enough to look behind the scenes. I would say a big NO. We all look for inspirations around and in the absence of a purified ambience and responsible parenting, which is generally the case, we look for ideals in celebrities. So even if being scantily dressed is considered obscene even today, we look upon Mallika as an ideal and are eager to meet her at some point of life.
When I was a child and had limited toys and little chocolates to boast of and when I saw movies where the actor used to fill an entire room with toys for his yet to be born ward, I often used to think that my parents don’t love me. As I became mature, I realized that my parents loved me enormously in their own simple ways. Nonetheless, a larger than life image ruined my childhood predomination. Similar is the thinking of a girl when she sees the actor singing senti songs at Rakshabandhan for her sister and expects nothing less from her brother. This happens and it’s natural. Problem is the way in which we present the cinema. Incessant emotional overdose makes Bollywood movies clumsy, and hence despite the reality that an average Indian man is shy in expressing his love, Bollywood makes songs where a son sings in praise of her mother, a husband sings an emotional shayari for his wife. This all stokes expectations of the counterpart and the frustration of the protagonist. At some point we all were clouded with the thinking that we are not able to live the right relation forgetting the spirit of uniqueness the God has endowed in each and every individual
Cinema-making is an art and upon watching Hollywood movies, one can sense it. Mention of realistic and motivating classics that came up occasionally and exceptionally in Bollywood has been deliberately avoided
7 comments:
After i read ur blog i have two questions poppping up in mind and obviously i am unable to answer :
1) Is cinema a reflection of changing society(infact just society) or cinema is catalyst for changing society .
2)Indian people have chosen to see emotional movies(bro singing a song for sis,or family ) over others .Whats wrong with that ?
Dear Alok
Thanks for commenting
Answer to your first question was dealt directly in one of my previous post "Crap that is bollywood"
As far as your second question is concerned, just answer a simple question- inspite of the fact that u love ur bro/sis enormously, dont u get embarassed when on rakshabandhan all songs on TV are dedicated to this theme. As far as i have seen, people do get embarassed. this is purely because of exaggerated images and poor direction.
Indian masses have rejected such theme down the decaes, hence i rarely find such senti sibling songs these days. Also Aura of Lata/Rafi made people listen to any of their song. but today I really dont want Shreya singing some song on Dipawali.
People are helpless, they were forced to like what they were served. With time the taste of people deteriorated too. Hence no more movies like Mother India are made which shows a real progressive Indian woman, matured relations and realistic depictions
It has been good reading your comments about Indian Cinema and its impact on society.
But Indian Cinema is largely influenced by west. SOme of the time it tries to highlight social issues but as due to being a story it has to end on good notes, which is unlike in real life.
In films, "Paap ka gadha , bhar jata hai", but we hardly see such things in real life.
But i still appreciate your thought and my wishes for you are always there.
Keep Writing.........
Kunal
Everyone makes cinema according to his sensibilities and dreams. There is nothing wrong or right in it. Film makers may take people as dumb but voice of the people always emerge through cinema, music and theater. People always look to authorities and elites for their taste and hobbies. From 100 years, its movie starts. Before there were britishers or kings and queens.Just give common choice to see all kind of cinema. You can't guide him like a child forever. At one point, this will turn into dictatorship.
And don't paint everything black and white. Stereotyping is done in the movies but times are changing now. Be patient my friend. Don't thrash whole cinema, just promote good one !
Anything that is accesible to society and affects it, is always filtered and must be filtered. That is why we have censor boards. Mahesh Bhatt's sensibility is incestuous towards her own daughter(public accepted hy him only) and therefore he puts such material in his movies also, I sincerely feel that this type of sensibility may not be right/wrong but should not be shown in public
I did not guide, I dont comment on Hollywood. I find them sufficiently mature. Lack of maturity and irresponsible film making is like spreading venom in society and it needs to be checked
Lastly, exaggerated emotions have caused an effect, I dont expect others to believe in what I observed but at least they cant totally reject it
Mayank, when you draw moral line for others, be sure that others will make stronger for you. That will lead us to Taliban style of ruling. As people link morality with religion, it will become very diffcult to differ between Saints and extremists.
Whenever we think we are stopping someone from hurting our sentiments by curtailing their freedom of expression (right or wrong), we also empower someone (e.g. the government, extremists, or even religious leaders) to shut our own mouths.
Freedom is the word that every Constitution in this world guarantees but that freedom has always come up with various penal codes as well, to maintain a healthy balance. Dont look at the picture in just either White or Black perspective, Both things go hand in hand. Starting from Vikramaditya till Akbar, all gave validated freedom as well as harsh penal codes
Look at the picture in another way, we draw the moral line that killing a human being is bad and by doing so we give power to govt to go and hang the person guilty and we should give such power to it. These all things have worked successfully since ages
I didnt expect a situation unseen hitherto by drawing a bigger moral line. Both the upper and the lower limits of this moral line are decided by society and once again we have seen 1000s of peaceful rules so far in the world history
You have to enter the dirt to clean the dirt and u have to pick the broom as well to clean that dirt. All actions are required. Running away from it is forgetting your Dharma. (I suppose you understand that religion is a very poor translation of the word Dharma, or you have got another excuse to call me pro Hindu)
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