Indian Cinema and its Metamorphosis

A much contended topic as it is, it is very interesting to analyse how Indian cinema has effected and influenced the current society, and at times vice versa. For years we have come across various types of movies, which range from family entertainment to comedy. Most directors aspire to create something that would question social protocol, make people contemplate on who's right or who's wrong while questioning the course of conduct with which people usually interact and socialise. Director's used to show how at times the youth have to struggle to choose their own way of life, choose the right person as his/her spouse or choose one's own profession. The struggle would usually be portrayed as dramatic and seditious. A movie that shows rebellion tends to always attract attention especially of the youth, who for some reason always believe that they can enact and bring about change, but rarely manages to do so.

                                                                                           Movies in Bollywood gradually changed its primary genre from being focused on family entertainment and youth themed love stories to a mix of variety of genres where director's focus was on presenting a theme that has never been portrayed before in Indian cinema. Whether be it Anurag Kashyap's  Dev D or Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday, movies started to focus on influencing day to day lives of people by trying to present their eminent problems in the best way possible. This idea managed to work a lot, and inspire a lot of directors to present their ideas on the main screen. A lot of amazingly scripted movies, although did not manage to come on to the main screen as the director's couldn't find the right producers. Nonetheless mainstream cinema managed to bring about a lot of movies that portrayed rebellion, change and the need for a revolution.

                                                                                               The present generation cinema has gone through a  lot of metamorphosis throughout the ages, and by watching just a few movies any sane person can infer that Bollywood cinema can be classified into two sections, the astute and the nonsensical. The nonsensical movies cinema comprised of movies that focused on entertaining the public by whatever means possible, whether it was logical or not. The director expected the audience to basically 'leave their common sense out' before entering the hall. So, basically people could easily understand through trailers and posters whether a movie was sensible or not. This categorization began when basically Bollywood realized that their audience required either pure entertainment which comprised of uncanny and hilarious action scenes or movies that made sense and had a profound theme. It seemed like the Indian audience was gradually maturing and started accepting movies that made more sense to them and to their society. This proved to be a good sign, when movies like A Wednesday, Taare Zameen Par, Peepli Live started receiving positive criticism not just form critics themselves but audiences alike. With the current trend one can only hope for more sensible movies in the near future, and less of nonsensical one's although the latter would always manage to gross the highest with regard to box office records.

Top 5 Genuine Youth Icons

1.Tarun Tejpal-

                                  Although his name might not ring any bells to many, his ‘sensational’ magazine Tehelka(literally also meaning sensation) has done wonders to try and cleanse the government from all immoralities. With its unique undercover expose style of journalism, from exposing match fixing in cricket to unveiling all clandestine methodologies of the state, Tehelka has proved to be the single most powerful tool in exposing scams and controversies. A sting operation popularly known as ‘Operation Weekend’ exposed corruption underlying defence contracts, which gained international recognition and led to the resignation of the then Defence Minsiter George Fernandes.   After a failed assassination 8 years ago, Tejpal is now trailed by six bodyguards from the government. But don't think he'll stop raking the muck: "India needs professional dissenters," he says. With such bravery and tenacity, he cannot be disregarded as one the most prominent youth icons.

2.Anurag Kashyap-

                                     With an outstanding number of critically acclaimed movies from Gulaal to the unparalleled Dev D and of course the controversial Black Friday, Anurag Kashyap is without doubt one of the most prominent auteurs in the country. His movies have received international acclaim, and have won several awards in various national and international film festivals. Listed as one of the top 50 influential individuals in the country by DNA, he also scripted the story for Water, which went on to become a nominee for the academy award.

                              

3.Rahul Dravid-

                               Patience, Tenacity and pure persistence are characteristics with which one can easily define Rahul Dravid on the pitch. Little do we know that he is all that and much more outside the pitch. Well educated, Dravid has graduated from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce in Bangalore. Without the glitz and the glamour that cricketers usually encounter, he is the most consistent performer in the history of international cricket for India. He is a youth icon for many reasons, not only is he the ‘wall’ for most bowlers but also for most critics whose comments just did not matter to him. Modesty is almost impossible to find in the field of sports, especially if one has such grace and talent, and that is something I personally believe the youth should learn.

                                

4.Kiran Bedi-

It is very cliché to hear from women that they can always stand head to head with men, if not ahead, few women although are out there to prove that point. A retired IPS office and activist, Kiran Bedi is probably the most ideal person to be called as a ‘role model’, for the youth. Scrapping the notion that women have to follow any kind of protocol in the society, she joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC), did her Masters in Political Science and Ph.D. in Social Sciences from IIT Delhi. Winning the Magsaysay award among many others, Kiran Bedi is also a prominent member of the IAC(India Against Corruption) along with Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. It is pretty evident from her personality that she is not going to stop until corruption is completely eradicated from the government. For such resilience, she should be considered one of the best role models.

           

5.Nitish Kumar-

                                    In a situation of political turmoil, it is very rare that one witnesses a vigilante like Nitish Kumar. To change the basic notion that Bihar is a violent, communist state run by a caste brethren society and notorious gangster’s, about which Lalu Prasad Yadav did nothing was a seemingly impossible task. Modi did not just accomplish in changing the notion, but also made sure that there will be no family, no godfathers and nothing communal said or done. Completed his engineering, he was also involved in various political campaigns and parties, and had also been arrested during the emergency. In the age that we live in, it is very rare that a youth finds someone from a political background as a role model, and Nitish Kumar is a perfect person to change that notion.

Media Sencynicism

The contemporary media in this country has always been popular for unearthing scams and controversies suo moto.  But what proves evocative is the fact that how all those revelations have changed the mind-set of the common man. Truly, it is because of the media that the ‘common man’ is aware of institutions such as The TRAI, CAG and PAC. It is of utmost importance that the working of such institutions and how they exactly carry out their tasks be published and that is something the media does impeccably.

                                                                       So how would a common man react? Join the Anna Hazare movement probably? Or support Aruna Roy’s NCPRI and believe in their slogan of reclaiming democracy and challenging corruption. It might be a ‘hard choice’ for people, but then again it is fortunate that at least we have a choice. Regarding the government and their popular ‘scams’, most of the present society has virtually lost hope, and how can one argue with that?  For the common man getting up every morning, and reading the first page of the newspaper, he gets to know how well his government is performing. Every day he/she is up for a surprise. It might be the Prime Minister appointing a corrupted bureaucrat  to head the institution which addresses corruption( P.J Thomas a CVC head, later being quashed by the Supreme Court), or MLA’s watching porn while the House is in session.  With all this, there can be only two outcomes, people losing hope completely or anarchy, the latter being an ephemeral possibility.   So, when the common man does lose hope, he doesn’t care about anything that will not impact his day to day life. He is not willing to act against any kind of injustice, since he doesn’t believe in the judiciary. When he realizes (from the media) that justice, if at all served to the protégé, takes more than a lifetime; he loses the basic zest to even try and fight for justice. In a situation like this, it is almost impossible to get rid of all immoralities prevalent in the society. And why should be the media be blamed for this? Let the state of Gujarat be an example. If asked about the state and its history to the common man, he/she will be well aware of the Godhra riots, Narendra Modri’s list of controversies and issues as such. But what are the chances that he/she knows about the effort put forward by social activist Medha Patkar and others during the Narmada Bachao Andolan?  Now why is such news not glorified? Is it that ‘positive’ news gains less attention that scams and controversies? We know more about the controversies celebrities get into, rather than know their positive works. Is it the mind-set that has to be changed? As for now, the only thing the media has done to influence the mind of the ‘common man’, is turning them to cynics, and I thought the teachers of my college were good enough for that.

NGO’s, Ethics and Greenpeace

How easy, is it to manipulate someone in this corporate world we live in? That depends on the information that we are provided with from the media, friends, acquaintances etc. Even information can be manipulated to fiddle around with the mind-set of people. In the fast-paced life we live in, we barely have time to do our research on the information that we receive, and in such scenario information remains information and not ‘knowledge’.

                                                                     Very rarely do we know about the clandestine methodologies that corporates use to manipulate the minds of the public. But in this capitalist world that we live in, such approach is almost inevitable for corporates. Almost every other corporation* tries to    give the impression that their products are more trustworthy, durable than others, which may or may not be true. This is achieved through intense marketing and business tactics. None of this can be termed as ‘unethical’ though because after all they are corporates, and it is the duty of the customer to research through external means about a product before purchase.. Competition is now a metonymy for ‘war’ in the capitalist environment that we thrive in, and as the saying goes everything is fair whilst a war.

                                                                But what if this capitalist artifice is taken to a whole new level? What if an organization gives the impression of ‘doing good’ for the society or the environment, without actually doing anything?  Can that be called ethical? Corporate Social Responsibility is probably the biggest venture that organisations undertake to give the impression that consumer’s money is spent on ‘ethical’ grounds. The idea of philanthropy and altruism has, as and until now been successful enough to make people donate enough to sustain hundreds of NGO’s and corporates that employ thousands to spread the ‘idea’ of altruism and not the actual thing. . In recent years, many large corporations have increased their corporate social responsibility departments in an attempt to pre-empt NGO campaigns against certain corporate practices. As the logic goes, if corporations work with NGOs, NGOs will not work against corporations.

                                               Non-profit organisations in India (a) exist independently of the state; (b) are self-governed by a board of trustees or ‘managing committee’/ governing council, comprising individuals who generally serve in a fiduciary capacity; (c) produce benefits for others, generally outside the membership of the organisation; and (d), are ‘non-profit-making’, in as much as they are prohibited from distributing a monetary residual to their own members. Now all NGO’s need not be non-profit organizations, but is it ethical for them to market themselves as one? More so, should it even be considered legal? Can it be considered legal to give an impression that monetary donations are ‘not distributed to their own members’ to the public by having the pseudonym ‘not-for-profit’ organization. Under section 25 of the Income tax act ‘not-for-profit organizations involved in relief work and in the distribution of relief supplies to the needy are 100% exempt from Indian customs duty on the import of items such as food, medicine, clothing and blankets.  Other exemptions may also be available.’ With all such exemptions and hefty amount of donations from corporates and high-class individuals, can NGO’s be regarded as different from corporates? Or should It be considered even ‘worse’? NGO’s don't even have to worry about the quality of their products, they just have to worry about the ‘quality’ of marketing.

“It does not matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”

– Dr. Patrick Moore, President of Greenpeace Canada 1981

Pretty Convincing, IS it not?

                                                                               NGO’s around the country and the world, deploy almost the same tactics to attract customer’s .Many host high-profile parties for celebrities and politicians and spread the message that all the ‘funding’s’ are to be spent for ‘relief and rescue measures’ wherever required. 

Blog- http://typingisnotactivism.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/greenpeace-is-lying-and-stealing-your-money/

                                                                  

Like in a 'Dream'...

An idea is like a virus, resilient and persistent.

                                                                                        - Leonardo DiCaprio

                                                                                      Inception, one unique psychedelic thriller. The movie revealed a lot about how complex the mind is, and how intriguing a dream can get. But I’m not going to talk about the movie,or even about the ‘idea’ which was referred to before. This blog is about what a ‘dream’ is all about.We mostly just have one perception about a dream; mental images occurring during sleep, but if we think of it the way how Christopher Nolan  wanted to depict it, a dream can be defined as ‘A state of mind characterized by abstraction and release from reality’. Whatsoever may be the definition, we can very well know that a definition for such a complex state of mind is nearly impossible.

                                                                                              Practically, I’ve done a lot of experiments with dreams,but whenever I do desperately hope for a dream, I tend not to have one.I although did successfully conduct one experiment.I could prove that  what you dream can be altered by what is going on in your surroundings while you sleep.For example, if you are amidst a wonderful dream and someone starts to play somewhat of a high pitched sober tune, loud enough for the mind to detect it, but not loud enough to disrupt your saccadic rhythm, as in get you awake, the dream can turn into a nightmare. This is something I personally experienced. I always did wonder what part of the brain actually functions during a dream, and moreover how it functions, evidently I never got any answers. Even Science, to be more apt; Biology has no answers to how or what causes dreams.

                                              

                                                                                                The perception of a dream can vary from person to person.Thats what makes a dream so unique.Obviously one cannot argue to the fact that the mental state of a person just before he goes to sleep  immensely effects the nature of the dream. Depression, excitement, exultation, everything matters; There is no veracious way to judge the nature or trait of a dream. Even hoping for a good dream, cannot assure anything. So even when hope is of no avail; we can rightly judge that a dream is entirely involuntary. We can just define it as an experience, an anarchic experience rather; without much knowledge about it, a fallacious conclusion is the only thing one could hope for. 

                                                                                                        An Illusion, as most people perceive it, is the most apt definition one could give about a dream. But what kind of an illusion is it. What or who controls it. Its definitely not us. Its more like we enter an entirely different world, everytime we dream.If one does intend to soliloquize on this matter a lot, he or she should be ready to be lost in a state of dubiousness.But setting aside facts and figures, if we contemplate a lot on the subject, we can perceive that there isn’t much difference in a dream and in reality. As like in a dream, we cannot control what happens in our surroundings, the subconscious might be the one controlling the ambience whilst a dream, but we do not control the subconscious. So what if we ourselves are in some dream, a very long tedious dream. Reality itself can be interpreted as a dream.We indulge in our daily activities so much that, we tend to ignore such thoughts.Just beacause there are no answers does not mean we should give up searching. In my personal view I think that we are lost in a dream called reality, indulging in various mundane activities just to wake up one day and realize, IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM….

THINK ABOUT IT….

Fact-The scientific study of dreams is called . ONEIROLOGY.