Topic:

Are Indian movies a major contributor or reason for unprecedented rise in type & nature of crimes in our society….?

Author’s view:

Some popular scenes from Indian movies of recent times:

Take 1:

The hero just punches a side-kick of villain with his fist and he is thrown to a distance of not less than 50ft, while the next fellow meted out with a similar treatment flies in air for about 30ft high and hits the electric pole…..

Another Indian hero driving an SUV holds out a large sickle (Aruvaal in Tamil & Chura in Hindi) and cuts the tyre of other SUV in which the villain team is driving from opposite direction….now the SUV with villain gang flies some 30 metres high and crashes onto a palm tree

Almost every hero at every instance when he encounters so called villain group, he bashes atleast 20-25 people black and blue, though each one of them is atleast twice in size than our miserably looking hero…

Atleast one good person (mostly hero’s brother or father or close friend or police colleague) in every Indian movie is chased by some 15-20 goons, who carry some of those weirdest, crude and deadly sharpenels and they eventually outrun the good guy and kill him in full public view in a merciless, barbaric manner………pause….

Reality: These heroisms, macho hero worship & presentation of goondaism has increasingly made many imagine themselves to be heroes or goondas as per choice and indulge in road dadagiri, hafta vasooli, beating someone for money, kidnapping for ransom, gang wars, killing for ransom, goondagiri on streets etc etc….these days half of every news paper from any city has more such news than anything else…

Take 2: 

Villian / group of villains raping a hapless victim mercilessly (rape scenes are considered mandatory to get away with exposure as that can’t be seen as porn but social evil) and asking his deputies to throw her out….

Villian holding a child upside down, throwing a child, kidnapping a child, teaching illegal things to a child and sometimes even killing a child…

Villian raping a girl who denies his request to marry, or killing / threatening her family with dire consequences

Reality: These portrayals have resulted in numerous cases of acid throwing on women not accepting advances from men drooling over them, plenty of rapes everyday all over India, rape & murder of known or unknown women in gruesome manner, child molestation, child labour, honour killing, kidnapping for ransom etc etc….

Take 3:

A school boy madly in love with his classmate convincing her that love is supreme to everything and both deciding to elope…

A boy who is madly in love with a girl becomes a psycho and ends up murdering a big list of people starting from her society watchman to his own grandmother and stuff (refer dhanush movies in particular) because he is justified about his completeness of love for her and nothing else can hold him back…

A girl would rather tease a boy who is not so good looking by acting as if she is in love with him and finally ditching him as well as ridiculing him publicly resulting in this boy taking vengeance by killing or harassing her in multiple ways etc etc…

Reality: So many cases of eloping in teenage in everyday life, many many cases of hardcore love even before either of the boy or girl having even got into a job, circulating or publishing obscene pictures or porn videos of girl friends or lovers or partners, attacking the girl to maim her or destroy her beauty are reported from almost every part of the country..

Take 4:

A fancy jobless group of youth led by our much acclaimed hero plan a bank robbery or diamond heist and use technology matching the likes of NASA. They also succeed in their mission after lot of chase & action, finally share the booty and are happily settled for life.

A hero who is a hardcore rascal & rogue suddenly becomes a changed man because of his love interest or some close relative’s death and turns the heat against the same group for which he was working earlier.

Group of people with different backgrounds, skills & lifestyle forge an association to carry out a common robbery & become rich quickly but betray & counter-betray each other and either fail in mission or hero takes all in the end.

But surprisingly in all these above depictions, not even once the so called hero or his coterie is put behind bars or punished for their illegal, immoral, unethical act. Hence what movies are trying to convey is someone can even plan a bank robbery with a good intent and get away with it as well as become rich quickly. By committing one such anti-social act one can remain happy & rich without even having to work a single day for the rest of their life.

So we get to see thousands of ATM break up incidents every day, attempted bank robbery, group of friends or youth involved in theft or cheating. More of, we have those Chit funds and Multi level Marketing or Money multiplying schemes ending up as sheer frauds every second week.

So many incidents that happen in society have a deep rooted link that comes from movies……movies have mostly remained as elements of connect with ones inner-self whereby everyone enacts their favourite role & live in their subconscious mind sometimes as voluntary imaginations or mostly as dreams & unconscious thought process. These invariably have a telling effect on individual’s psyche and also play an important role in one’s shaping up of character as well as its reflection in the form of behaviour.

Do we really need to encourage or relish such depictions in movies which have only contributed in instigating people for worse…..we have witnessed a number of gang wars of goons on the streets only after movies started hyping them…we have come across killings for ransom or business competition only after movies have blown such things out of proportion….are we looking to progress as civilized or are we receding to our good old jungle days?

Are we not witnessing bitterly fought love marriages that materialise only to end up in divorce or separation in matter of months or haven’t we seen love marriages that don’t materialise, lead couples to commit suicide or harass their later partners with whom they were forced to marry.

Are we still not realising the fact that so many witnesses in every popular case has either been threatened or successfully eliminated or backtracks from his / her statement….and where from did we learn all this??? Are we turning a blind eye from those ever increasing rapes that happen in every city & village of India?

If we speak out & express our concern openly we will only be bullied and threatened in the name of challenging artistic freedom, curbing creativity, being insensitive towards youth & their feelings, perpetuating the evil of caste or community bias etc…

But any sane person would obviously raise objections to such portrayal atleast within him or her and by raising so, he or she is not to be construed as anti-love, anti freedom of youth or anti intercaste or anti inter community relationships or anti triumph of good over evil…..but those who object to such objections have completely failed to visualise that movies and such extreme portrayals in social media are the actual trigger or ignition point which culminates into a real life act of crime or cruelty, let alone failed marriages, or so called divine love affairs among school students and road rage incidents or gang wars in colleges….

The larger point here is, we as society give credence to such depictions in movies and watch them with interest. We appreciate glorification of violence, criminals & bank robbers because these deeds & roles are enacted by our superstars & megastars. In the bargain we fail to speak up against such portrayals thinking that so long as my family is not into anything of that sort and it is my hero just doing for entertainment, I don’t have a reason to complain…..but we fail to understand such eventualities are psychological disturbances unknowingly creeping in and we never know when or who will exhibit such aberrations and what things will be destined for thereafter.

Further, movie making has increasingly become a viable business gamble that with 30 – 40 crores of rupees investment, you can just double or triple it in a matter of few months with a colourful story and team of professionals….hence film industry is focussed on how much is the money that comes and not on how that money comes….they know it is like feed too much of sweets & savouries and make these people obese and craving for more of junk….because if these people caught up with good diet and healthy living in the form of cinema then film producer’s margins might come down drastically…so they portray all rubbish that is eye-popping, brain moulding, disturbing to watch and instant masala stuff, but have never thought about their responsibility as that most gifted medium that cinema is and why should they play a role in guiding the society and not ruining it.

Infact, movie or any art industry for that matter is nothing but an element to provide the concoction of entertainment laced with moral values and flawless social outlook. The same industry until a couple of decades back was still holding the very same ideology of social welfare and responsibility of a social guide. While some good films do come even in current scenario and a section of film society has not lowered their guard towards social responsibility still, of late, be it bollywood, kollywood, tollywood, hollywood or any wood has become more of an evil trying to guzzle everyone into its folds by vulgarity or igniting passions wrongfully and churning them out back as someone completely disturbed & distorted, just to make some quick bucks through movies and be in limelight.

I think it is now or never for us to take up cudgels against this deteriorating standards of Indian cinema. No matter whatever their logical or intellectual reasoning will be to back their flaws and no matter whatever the so called artistic freedom coterie might try & speak ill of our movement, we must stand up and speak against this muck or else we are going to have a disaster brewing in catastrophic proportions when our next generations start to bud. We are already a party to the pathetic situation of growing unrest, intolerance and egoistic behaviour amongst youth of current generation. We are already witnessing a sharp increase of people visiting a psychiatrist or seeking professional help. We have a redundant censor board which is sleeping or acting like sleeping on these issues. We have our state & central governments doling out sops and concessions to cine industry with an eye on votes, but have remained unbothered to monitor and exercise control over them where they trip out of social norms or cultured exhibition of art.

I request all readers who find substance in my expression to like, share & reproduce this article in social media to help me forge people’s voice into an association and bring in some effective steps to control and condition this menace from taking a toll every single day. Also we shall work on ways & means to instill a mechanism of sorts to consistently monitor, moderate & modernise our cine industry in a positive manner and to serve & benefit the larger interests of our society.

As a concerned & responsible parent or elder or citizen, you may write to me in private by email to ramsreerams@gmail.com  or you may reply below about your suggestions, ideas towards forming such a forum and help me consolidate on this.

Thanks,

Ss