IS CINEMA THE REFLECTION OF SOCIETY?

N.M.Leepsa, IIT Kharagpur

nmleepsa@yahoo.com

CINEMA ……..The Mirror to Reflect

A cinema is not an art but also a tool for humans to express their feelings and their contemporary

society. It provides a platform that reflects the growth of economy, politics, and technological advancements.

Films are useful for knowing the past, present, and future of the society. A movie is not only a visual treat to

audience but it is also an account of societal, economic, political set up in which a person is living. It reflects the

internal feelings and expressions of the public at large and compels the society to visualize its face in this

‘MIRROR’ called ‘CINEMA’.

INDIAN CINEMA ……..The Unforgettable Past

Before the advent of the television on the scene cinema was the one and the only means of the

entertainment for the elite as well as for the masses. It was virtually from the year 1913 that the cinema has its

history in India its initiation took place when on the May 3, 1913 Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, better known as

Dadasaheb Phalke released the first Indian silent film – Raja Harischandra.Then the conventional Indian

society could not tolerate woman to act on the stage and thus the men dressed as woman to play the part of the

female characters.

Cinema of that time portrayed our culture through concepts that were purely Indian at heart. During the

times of freedom, struggle, cinema was used as a medium to show anger and voice the opinion of our nationalist

leaders and parties demanding independence from the British rule. Indian cinema was fighting with social evils.

The Indian cinema fought against these evils and portrayed a society that was both desired and achievable. The

bright examples are Achuut Kanya, Chandidas, Punarmilan, Mother India, Do Bigha Zameen, and Karma etc.

Cinema of that time showed the India which was both rural and traditionally rich and vibrant. The traditional
values and cultural celebrations formed the basis of the conservative India of that time. Films showed

relationships, customs, norms, and ethics of our culture.

INDIAN CINEMAS…….. The face of Society So Far Revealed

Indian cinema has come a long way and continue to portray the changing face of our society. Taare

Zameen Par is a story that peeps into the mind and heart of a kid, his interests, his hobbies, his

strengths and weaknesses. The film is based on a dyslexic kid. It is one film that makes you peep into a

child’s mind and how some parents, in their pursuit to make them ’stronger’ academically, forget that

there’s hitherto untapped talent that needs to be nourished and encouraged. It drives home a strong

message, making you empathize with the kid, compelling you to draw parallels with your life, making

one realize that some of the renowned geniuses were once scoffed at, but the world had to bow down to

their intellect later. In a nutshell, Taare Zameen Par serves as a wake up call for every parent or parent-to-be.

“We are useless souls. We can do nothing. We worth nothing…….” cries Aamir Khan in one of the defining

moment in Rang De Basanti when he comes to know that his friends were beaten ruthlessly in a peace protest.

As the unbreakable Aamir Khan breaks, with him breaks the whole world because each of the audience have

faced such helplessness when their blood boiled against some injustice in the society. The movie reflects the

mind set of youth of modern days. Chak de India shows how in our country, hockey is treated as bad as it can

and how people consider women as weak as reed; but finally proved wrong. It is based on a real life character

called Kabir Khan who himself is an Indian hockey team captain which loses against Pakistan and he was in

turn made a scapegoat for that loss. Kabir Khan wanted to disprove all the allegations made against him and for

this he opts a daunting task as to coach Indian hockey team which is no where near the visible horizons. His

only aim is to meek Indian team to win the hockey world cup, which is next to impossible. Finally they have

tasted victory. The movie Swadesh is based on the concept of the brain drain from India to countries abroad. Set

in modern day India, Swades is a film that tackles the issues that development throws up on a grass root level. It

is to this India, which is colorful, heterogeneous and complex that Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan), a bright

young scientist working as a project manager in NASA, returns to on a quest to find his childhood nanny. The
film uses the contrast between the highly developed world of NASA, which has been at the forefront of

advances in space research, and this world back home in India, which is at the crossroads of development.

Mohan's simple quest becomes the journey that every one of us goes through in search of that metaphysical and

elusive place called "home". Swades is about an India most of us don?t know ? and probably don?t want to

know. It is an India around us that is very different from us. We cannot get away from it. It stares at us in the

form of children begging outside our car?s closed window and us wishing that they?d just go away. It is an India

that sits in between all those fancy high-rises and malls that are coming up ? we wonder if these eyesores could

be erased. It is an India that we encounter occasionally as we take trips to ancestral hometowns ? and leave

thinking how time has, for the most part, stood still. Even as Swades is about rural India, we cannot escape the

symptoms in the slums of urban India. It is as much about the India we did not build after Independence ?

poverty, overpopulation, illiteracy, malnutrition, darkness still reign across parts of India. Swades is also a film

about hope. It is about the difference that each of us can make in this other India. What this India lacks is vision,

will and co-ordination. People there have for the most part accepted that things will be the way they are. The

British may have left more than half a century ago, but large parts of India are still in a subjugation mindset ?

some of it forced by circumstances, some of it accepted due to ignorance. One of us can transform the lives of a

thousand. If Lagaan was about how a Bhuvan can bring about change from within, Swades is about how a

Mohan Bhargava can bring about change from the outside ? freed from the shackles of the past of tradition and

culture. Each of us has to do what we are best at and at the time of our chosing. This change in us has to come

from within. Some of us may accomplish this by being entrepreneurs, some by being engineers or doctors to

bring about innovations that can make a difference, some by adopting schools or orphanages in this other India,

and some by contributing financially. Swades is not about dramatic top-down change, it is about slow bottom-up

transformation. It is about many micro-revolutions which need to take place all around. Swades reminds us that

even as one India grows, there is another India that?s still far behind. And whether we like it or not, the land that

both occupy is the same. One India cannot go too far leaving the other behind. We are one nation of a billion

people. We are all part of one India. What the more fortunate among us have to do is to provide the leadership

that can help bring about change in the other India. As we think about the problems of the other India, there are

solutions that exist. But for making these real, we will have to leave aside some of our old mindsets. Atanu
Dey captures the essence of this one world: ?With maturity comes the realization that one is not just an Indian,

or an Indian with a bit of American thrown in, but that one is a member of the extended human family?Some of

us have more money, or are more educated, or have different pigmentation. But seen from a sufficiently far

remove, we are fairly indistinguishable. We have the same hopes and aspirations, fears and longings, desires and

dreams. Our station in life is dictated by a random draw that was made by forces beyond our imagination even,

leave alone our control.? Each of us (as the movie?s byline puts it ? ?we, the people?), wherever we are, needs

to make a commitment in our lifetime to bring about positive change in the land of our birth, one that was once

great. We have the potential to make it great again. But for that, each of us has to discover a Mohan Bhargava

and Ashutosh Gowariker in us to make a difference and ?go, light our bulbs.? Swades beckons! Lajya reflected

the problems of Indian women face in different parts from India. The movie Corporate reflected the inside

story of the corporate world including bribes, corruption etc. The movie Traffic Jam showed the real life of the

people on road side. The movies based on patriotism like Border & Loc reflected the hardships that the soldiers

took to protect our countries from enemy countries. The movie Black has delved into the psyche of a girl who is

not just deaf and dumb but also blind but finally had her education. Murali Nair’s ‘A story that Begins at the

End’ is a bizarre and macabre look at superstition. Gopal Krishna’s Shadow Kill is a layered film, at the core of

which is a hangman tested, and tortured by the guilt. It makes a strong plea against capital punishment. The

Rite, A passion a telegu based film by K.N.T Sastry explores myth and fallacy in a work that focused on a

corpse carrier and scholar who practices an outdated Hindu rite of accepting the sins of the dead in exchange for

food and money. The film is a powerful indictment against poverty. Mani Ratnam’s ‘A peck on the cheek’

(Tamil film) tackles the legal and social problems of child adoption. Madhur Bhandarker’s Chandnibar shows

the life of a young Muslim girl, who escapes from communal carnage in her village and reaches Bombay where

her lecherous uncles pushes her into strip tease bar. As the reels unwind, the film lays bare India’s outmoded

caste conflicts to reveal the murky world of female exploitation. A tale of a naughty girl is a Bengali film

which shows the young girl’s escape from potential prostitution. The film conveys a clear message regarding the

emancipation of women and optimistic outlook is underpinned by a deep sense of peace and tranquility. The

movie Chameli is based on girl who has a miserable past (abandoned at six, meets her first customer at eight)
and like any other sex worker is entangled almost inextricably with mafia and her dada Usmanbhai forces her to

go a powerful politician who she knows has a venerable disease. The movie has an AIDS message to the people.

INDIAN CINEMA ……..The portrayal of Indian Culture

Culture is the medium through which a society thrives on its values and ideology. Our Indian cinema

portrays the essence of our society i.e. our culture. The ethnic and traditional values of the Indian society, its

cultural diversity and above all, its unity among the varied cultural and religious sects, are highlighted in Indian

cinema. Indian cinema has been effective in promoting the rich heritage of Indian culture on the world map.

India cinema also reflects Indian dance, music, tradition. Indian cinema has universal appeal because they are

squeaky clean. There are no sex scenes, not even kissing. Every time you think someone is going to do it, they

will burst into song. Of course people kiss and of course people have a very healthy love life. This is a land of

kamasustra. But nevertheless in our society you don’t see people around the street corner kissing or being

extremely, overtly, physically demonstrative publicly. They do it privately but not publicly. It’s really a

reflection of our Indian society.

INDIAN CINEMA ……..The Concluding Remarks

Cinema is greatly influenced by society and our society is also greatly influenced by cinema. So let this mass

media portray true reflection of society to uplift the masses. Let some messages be conveyed to solve the

problems of society. Let the cinema contribute a lot to make a new vibrant India. Let the cinema act as a weapon

to fight against social problems like population growth, AIDS and other health hazards, global warming,

unemployment, illiteracy, female foeticide, corruption etc. Let it show the plight of farmers in the villages, the

people involved in corruption & crimes, the poor people exploited by the richer ones, the women abused in

working hours, the brutal fathers killing their own baby in its mother's womb as it is a girl. Let the cinema instill

within people the honesty, integrity, patriotism towards the country. Let the cinema continue to educate and

aware people so that when they get up in the early morning they find themselves more mature, more alert, more

responsible, more strong, and more conscious so as to face new challenges in more confident manner. Let the

cinema become the powerful source of knowledge, a vigorous critic of government, a social reformer, drawing
the attention of people towards the maladies and abuses prevalent in the society, as the champion of freedom,

justice, as the best tool of communication and information and play vital role in our lives in the society.