What appears fascinating to us is a preplanned scripted life,
We are putting at risk is a life we ought to live!
Most choose the former and fall prey.
Bollywood– a dream industry for everyone. Even the youngest fascinate to be a part of this industry let alone the adults.
Indians may not discuss the world affairs, the political issues or the ongoing communal or liberal war but discussing Bollywood has always been a priority of the people. From discussing the plots of their desired actor’s personnel life Indians have left no sphere untouched. There are shows that talks about Bollywood ‘Nagri’ and not so surprisingly they nurture high TRPs. Bollywood appeals to people and making it a part of the life is somewhat justified since the stories, the graphics, the humor and the entertainment helps one escape from the day to day stress, supplanting it with an imaginary world to reside in. But is that world really been considered as Reel by today’s generation?
Since the past decade, Bollywood took a leap and now theatres are available in almost all parts of the country, promotions are being done on large scales, promoting movie in the college campus, malls and reality shows is quite common and the budget used for creating a movie often crosses Crores. These changes have a long-lasting impact on the viewers as media is easily available to them. From toddlers to oldsters everyone is fascinated by the movies.
Parents find it completely normal and have no issues if their child is watching a romantic movie or an action movie. Parents feel so much safe with Bollywood that they even let their child get influenced by the character or the story. But haven’t we all noticed how Bollywood is selling lust these days?
So, the question arises- Whether Bollywood is the legalized porn site? Porn sites are considered inadequate for a child’s mental development. Families often opt for parental control and try their best to keep their child away from it, but aren’t the movies supplanting pornography? I mean from two flowers meeting to two partial nude actors onscreen!
Today we are encircled with media in form of web series, short movies, Youtube videos or the movies. The influence of this media is so much that the language used by youngsters has an influence of their favorite character. The reel world has two characters and it is obvious that they will get along together in the end but is it so in the real life? Then by the youth in the reality desire for the same response? The use of abusive language, the items songs, the lyrics of a certain songs all of it seems to have an impact on mind, less positive and more negative. They consider it to be the reflection of society and follow it.
Movies are but a result of the writer’s imagination with an aim to deliver a message through their work of fiction. But considering the fact that the human mind always needs ‘Mirach-Masala’ or hot gossips they often add some absurd scenes and use inappropriate language and the youth gets influenced by observing it. (Observational learning refers to modeling, shaping and vicarious reinforcement. And it is most common during childhood where the child observes and learns from parents, authority or any influencing character. Psychologist Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment supports social learning theory, which emphasizes the influence of observational learning on behavior.)
Let’s take a look at a recent release. The movie had a romantic plot, a strong story, remarkable acting and a great climax but it received hate for not being pro-feminist. But the question here arises is that whether we Indian’s took that movie as a movie or we made it a topic of discussion. Instead of praising the movie’s plot we were discussing about the ethics of an alcoholic doctor, the scene in which the lead actors slapped the other etc. Fiction became a topic of debate for months.
And why did this happen? Why do the plots in which a boy follows a girl for days, troubles her, propose her in front of the whole college becomes so influencing? Why the use of abusive languages in the web series has become so common? (Social psychologist Craig Anderson and colleagues found in their research that even short-term exposure to violent media significantly increases the chances that children will engage in both physical and verbal aggression as well as aggressive thoughts and emotions.) The answers lie in our very conditioning. Children learn by the process of conditioning, social cognitions or by observing models. And we as a child are never taught the difference of the real world and reel world. We are never told about the real purpose of the cinema. And we often perceive it to be the real world. Even the roles played by the actors appear real to us and we forget that acting is their profession.
Bollywood is so much in our roots that when Deepika Padukone, a Bollywood celebrity came in support of the protest then people started talking about her publicity stunt and her movie promotions instead of focusing on the protest. It’s just one example of many where we as an audience take things personally and forget the bridge between the Reel and the Real world. But every problem has a solution. Don’t it?
Parents need to make sure that their children know the difference between the Reel and the Real world. It is time that with the change in the industry we also change our perspective towards it. It’s time that we realize the importance of talking about reel media with our children. Letting them know the difference of Real life principles and Reel life principle. Let them know that the purpose of the reel media is entertainment and teach them to grasp the good out of it. The reel reality should now be considered as an important part of the child’s early conditioning lessons because it has become one.
The sun might look beautiful on a cold day
but
too much of sun can ruin the fields.
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