Sunday, January 10, 2010

How Contemporary are movies today!


I always believed that everything (particle based or otherwise) has a life cycle, i.e., history repeats itself although not in exactly similar fashion. The difference in history and its presumed repetition is similar to that of a circle and a spiral. Just like spiral always evolve, life cycle is evolving and shall more appropriately be termed as life spicle.
Don’t worry guys! I am not here to coin new jargons but to share my views on the few of recent movies that would have a long lasting impact! Yes, that’s true. There have been so many articles on how our movies are being more realistic now. Actually, they are just part of being spicle. Yes, we are back and evolving. Look at the movies in late 1990s-mid 2000s, simply reflecting the melody and romance of mid 50s to early 70s. This was followed by angry mid 70s to early 80s, which at that time was termed realistic. Off late, we have been calling our cinema as more matured cinema. However, since the media and its medium have also evolved in last 30 years, our ways of representation have also changed. The frustration and articulation of movies in 1970s is now reflected in movies such as 3 Idiots, Rang De…, Munnabhai series, Wake-up Sid, TZP, etc. Clearly, the focus has been realigned with the media and entertainment industry gunning for more glaring issues. However, not to ignore that much required mix of fantasy in movies, important just like rest is important for a warrior. This trend is not only in Hindi movie industry but also in American Movie Industry (so called ‘Hollywood’). Look at the glaring similarity between 3 Idiots, 2012, and Avatar. All are set differently, however, all deal with contemporary issues. One deal with pressure on human resources and the other two with pressure on natural resources. All lead to desperate measures. When people commit suicide as shown in 3-Idiots (cowardly act or not is not the point here), its there way of retaliating or looking for hope in next life. Similarly, nature’s retaliation in ‘2012’ is similar to that of a mother whose children just believe in taking away from parents and not giving back. Those who believe that parents always love their kids no matter how bad they turn out to be might disagree with the argument here. The human race in ‘Avatar’ is nothing but representation of a selfish race who have robbed its mother Earth of most she had; when she says ‘No more’, they turn to other source. Other than its similarity to Ramayan’s characters (such as Jatayu), I found the aggressors reminiscent to what East India Company and other European companies (termed as traders) did in 18th and 19th century.
I can’t praise more of the contemporary issues these movies are handling and that too in a hard hitting manner. The huge response to these already proves that. However, I sincerely hope that the genuine issues being raised by the media and entertainment Industry would be followed by better awareness and genuine action by the human. Also, bigger hope is that this artistic phase would be prolonged making the next phase reminiscent to madness of 1980s (expected by 2018-2020) shortened. Kudos to this contemporary phase! Lets make the most of it and learn to be more humane.