Indian Cinema and Social Irresponsibility-2
- Ankit JHA
The Saga Continues
From Parrot in a cage to Tandoori Murgi: Depiction of women in Hindi Cinema..
Do anyone remember the era of Indian Cinema when leading ladies in a beautiful Sari and always ready to avoid fun with the hero? That was the time when a woman in society had to put a veil in front of their Father in law and many a times even with their husband. But time has changed, so the condition of a woman in society has become lot better, so the depiction of woman in Indian Cinema has changed. It looks more or less inspired by the global dung. Today an Indian Girl in film, proposes a man almost double his age, because girl in Indian Society feels more independent. If an independent woman is to be depicted then certainly it wouldn’t be lady her 30s, who along with her husband works, and successfully nurture their generation next, rather it will be a woman, in her 20s, who drinks, wears dresses which reveals more than protecting, smacks with the guys, goes for a Rave and many more to depict. Makers can’t escape by saying it is the part and partial of new Urban India. Urban India has somewhere adopted this culture from the cinema. And no fact can deny this, there are several realities which do not need proof, it is better known as Axioms.
It certainly has affected the condition of woman and crime against them. If we look at the data, from 2009 on, almost every 3 out of 5 movies released in India had at least one item song. Item Song be better defined as Musical performance in a film, that has a little to do with the story plot of the film, performed by actor, male or female, to increase marketability of the film(Barrett, Grant 2006,The official dictionary of unofficial English, McGraw-Hill Professional. pp. 189, 190. ISBN 0-07-145804-2. ). The archetypal meaning of "item number" refers to highly sexualized songs with racy imagery and suggestive lyrics, picturised especially on a girl. Release of song “Fevicol se” and the infamous incident of ‘Delhi Gang Rape’ on December 16th 2012, song was brought under the huge criticism. Peppy and provocative lyrics influence crime in society. As rape cases has increased from 19348 in 2006 to 21937 in 2009 and 24923 in 2012, a growth of more than 10%.(NCRB, Government of India) Likely Kidnapping and abduction has increased from 17414 in 2006 to 38262 in 2012, which was 25741 in 2009. Reasons for the kidnapping are more perilous; 24781 kidnappings were done for the marriage where as 2999 were for the illicit intercourse. Thing to remember is that, the cases were registered for Kidnapping not Illicit Intercourse or molestation. 523 Kidnapping was also for forceful Prostitution, which is worth mourning condition.
The next big issue is protection of modesty of a woman, where Indian Cinema and its consumers lack far behind, so the society. The origin of the term "item number" is obscure; it is likely that it derives its meaning from objectification of sexually attractive women. This is because item in filmy Mumbai slang is a sexy woman. (Peter Morey and Alex Tickell, ed. Alternative Indias: writing, nation and communalism. Rodopi. p. 221,178. ISBN 90-420-1927-1.). With each passing Item Song, modesty of a woman is brutally hurt by us. But data say some other story there has been just 9173 cases of Insult to women modesty, which used to be 11009 in 2009. However, Around 62 Crore Women of India feels humiliated when they are asked ‘Choli ke Peechey Kya Hai? Or Pinki hai Paise walon ki.” These are the cases unregistered and will always be.
And depiction of a woman has shifted from a parrot in a cage to Tandoori Murgi, who is ready to be served, what you need is to have a glass full of Alcohol. Any hesitations? Tune to Fevicol se, Dabangg 2, 2012.
Pack Shack tey Chicken Khurana: Behind the prominence of Gym:
From Bruce Lee to Dwayne Johnson, Syslvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Films produced outside had a history of well built or well crafted heroes, many a times even a heroine. But for India, it was introduction of Dara Singh, a wrestler by profession in the hindi films. Then, Dharmendra and now there are various hunks in Indian Film Industry like, John Abraham, Hritik Roshan and Vidyut Jamwal to name a few. After the presentation of a Shirtless, 6 packed Salman Khan in a song of 1998 Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya, whole depiction of a man in Indian films started to change. Now a hero like, Sanjay Khan or Manoj Kumar were not neede, who could smile and create a charm or Rajesh Khanna who could express even an ant’s smile, or Amitabh Bacchan whose gaze was enough to provoke audiences and to get prejudiced of his power that he even can triumph a gang with revolvers in their hands. So has changed the fitness habits of youth in this country, the traditional Ghee, Malai formula has gone and new formula of Gyming, Sugarfree and cyrup, Capsules has taken their place. At any cost they want a shape like Salman or Hritik.
Influence of Cinema and the entry of international fitness chains such as UK's Fitness First and US-based Gold's Gym besides expanding footprints of homegrown Talwalkars has given a facelift to the Rs 500-crore gym industry. Even the girls do ot lack behind, they too need a perfect shape, at any cost. Something like, Kareena or Priyanka.(Kareena Kapoor Khan and Priyanka Chopra). According to Fitness First managing director Vikram Aditya Bhatia "they are adding close to 800 people every month, The UK-based chain has around 10,600 users in India, of which around one third are women. The number of people using health clubs in India currently stands at 0.23 million. Of this experts say, 40% are women. Fitness freaks in the age group of 20-35 years alone constitute around 65% of total members in Talwalkers across India.
Take any random movie and you will find a hunk playing actor. The 6 pack Ram on television or an 8 packed 45 years actor in a Hindi movie is the result of social appeal of an Indian movie. From metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi to smaller cities like Indore, Ludhiana or even smaller cities like Saharanpur or Jalgaon has adopted this gym culture. Consumers in the country with a monthly income of Rs 75,000-Rs 1.4 lakh spend anywhere between Rs 1,000-3000 on health clubs per month. As per several industry estimates, people dropping out of membership on a monthly basis in India would be 3-5% of the total number of users, while globally it is around 4 %.(http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-08-14).
World of Cuss & Fuss words: Rise of Profanity and 18+ movies:
Profanity and Indian Cinema, two brothers lost in some fair in their infancy and now have they met. The strict Censorship norms have been well modified to be lenient enough to allow Abuses on screen. The biggest example came last year, when in the month of June released ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, a revenge saga of Querashis and Pathans of Wasseypur near Dhanbad in Jharkhand. There were more abuses than normal dialogues; Ch****a, G***u and Bh**** K* were too common to be heard. Indian Society is one of those civilizations of world which uses to abuse most. But certainly you come to have so much of cuss words on screen that you can’t enjoy a movie with your family. There are plenty of such movies after 2009, examples are Gulaal, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, Delhi Belly,Ye Sali Zindagi, Murder 2, Jannat 2, Bhindi Bazaar Inc, Shootout at Wadala and Gangs of Wasseypur, to name a few. Dialogue writers defend themselves by saying that, when there are real locations, wardrobe then why dialogues should be modified? As in the case of Delhi Belly or recently released Go Goa Gone or Grand Masti, abuses have been used to show the real face of India Urban Youth.
There was a time when Veteran Director Mahesh Bhatt had to get ‘A’ certificate from Censor Board for his movie ‘Zakhm’ just for using word ‘Ha***za**’. But now an actor abuses even Mother Sisters of villain and it falls in the category of ‘A’ Certificate. In 2013 there are some 20 films which were certified “Adults only” certificates and as many as 60 films with U/A certificates till the month of September, which was 21 & 56 in 2012 till December.. (wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bollywood_films_of_2013). The craze of genres like Adult Comedy, Black Comedy and Adult Crime Thriller is increasing significantly. A crime thriller like Don in 1978 was a family entertainer whereas a family entertainer like Bol Bacchan was U/A certified. It is almost impossible to think of a crime thriller without cuss words something like Teesri Manzil or Zanjeer. They give it a name of humour where as it is simly a manipulation of reality. It is affecting society in the manner that 27,936 cases were registered against juveniles in 2012, in which 66.6% cases were against the age group of 16-18 years(NCRB, Government of India).Somewhere down the line certification matters. From 2011, crime rate has increased by 2.41% in 2012 (NCRB, Government of India), like number of U/A and A certificated films has increased.
The tale continues......
