content-politicians women and doctor in our films
politicians-the far bollywood theme changed from patrotism to romantic melodramas to angry men to slick action.the vamp and heroine meged into same character;the hero hero morphed from patriotic bharat to furious vijay to suave raj.with new govt being formed at the centre..one chracrter has witstood the rabages of time over six decades--The Politician.
from ardhsatya,aakhri raasta,inquilab,raam teri ganga maili ho gayi,saaransh,new delhi times of 1980s to shool,hututu,nayak,yuva,gangajal,apharan,rangde basanti and dev the politicians in hindi films has failed to shed his wicked,two faced image over the decades.one may presume that indian audience needs someone to hate and to criticize and the politicians considered the WORST SPECIES but this alone do not justify the double standards.
while afilm like leaderwith dilip kumar highlighted vested interests in politics was madeas early as 1960's it was in 1980's that the politician got etched in public memory as te villain.
ardhsatya and inquilab were among the first films t5o create the stereotypical iamge of politician in rama shetty essayed by sadashuiv amrapurkar and shankar narayan played by kader khan.the protogonist in both the films kill the politician in chilling climax.popular mainstream cinema all over the world is rooted in its mythology..there is good and evil and the people want to watch ram triumphing over ravana,at this point of debate the potrayal of politicians as villains at one level may bre considerd as reflection of reality.audience has also formed a naive opinion of politicians which leads to his cliched representataion.
indian audience has matured to alevel to understand politics,reel and real world.films being critique of power and political structure in positive light.it is the role of cinema to articulate vierwer's aspirations also.The defence mimnister in rang de basanti wasn't very different from politician bhattacharya essayed by om puri in yuva,both paint the picture of stereotypical corrupt politician.both films were away from reality as niether we do have our youth shooting politician nor we have majorly joining politics.rahul phenomena and the youth wing of political parties however is positive in this part.aamir starrer rang de basanti and mani ratnam's yuva depict two completely different ways of dealing with same problem.both succeded because they were able to articulate the desire of audience for resolution of problems of corruption and manipulative politics
cynism agianst politicians in films is stronger as he is rarely redeemed at the climax since it is understood there is no explanation for his greed.fils like rang de basanti gulaal,mission kashmir the villain is howevwer redeemed at the climax but they leave the audience hating and the stereoypical bad image of politicians remains there.anil kapoor starrer nayak reminds us of politicians andpolitics has inspired youth joining politics to curb the oppostion force of bad politician.now there is good and bad politicians.
WOMEN
women in contemporary arts has become terribly unsophisticated sloppy and on screen smooches,prancing about in beach in abikini and having anextra marrital affair are not signs of changing women.if anything she is consatntly being used to selll everything fro haute coutre to shoes but come time to taslk about rape,dowry,ads,forced female circumcision,prostitution and all sorts of viloence meted out to women, and we clam up.ew refuse to talk.
globalization has exposed us to several influnces while we cold blodedly steal scenes ,plots from hollywood,it will take decades to make afilm like million dollar baby.sadly enough even when women are offered pwerful roles,they prefer to stick to vacuous scraps.stereotypes have become so entreched i popular culture that we have internalised them long before we even realise it.
bollywood excuses itself claiming it is the true agent of fantasy,but waht excuses does television have.every battle for equality,time and again has proved that sometimes the worst enemies come from within.often women are one holding other women back.people who have power to change the thinkimg are not doing it has nobody wnts to take risk because success,however shallow it may ahve to be emulated.if art imitates life then something something is definately is amiss here.fashion people take the concepts of women empowerment asd gendetr equalty in the wrong roite of ramp wals and fashion shows.when ABCL and godrej arranged miss world contest in bangalore,controversy ignited in the name of ethics.the beauty market,flambuyont in india's mall culture forcibly fuses female beauty and sexuality,two very different values.the lust that parodes s beauty in ads ,films and music videos leaves women aspiring for cosmetic instead of real.
great purchasing power combined with commercial TV feed the industry's quest to feed the popular has centralized and hemoginised the parrot potrayal of women in our films.
DOCTOR
Inhe dawa ki nahi dau ki zaroorat hai-says the man in white coatwith depressing finality. With these words, the doctor is handlingover the baton to his immediate GOD.THE DOCTOR is otherwise bastion of absolute knowledge, allpronouncements as he rushes from one operation theatre flashing redlight to another.The doctor as CHARACTER in Hindi films especially of sixties andseventies. His persona lie embedded in many a popular motives aboutthe idea of fate; health and its differential impact on people. To thepoor, he is VOICE of doom that circles their lives. He spells outgod’s miserable plan for POOR and serves to squeeze out whateverlimited opinions that exist. The doctor here represents theunreasonable unfairness of FATE; his knowledge is immediate in face ofentreaties of the unfortunate.For the RICH he is shown as the VOICE of the well trained consciencethat knows the limits of truth it is supposed to tell. Rich men haveheart attacks and need rest. Their health is an enabler; it allowsthem to force their will. In the world of rich ill-health magnifiesthe power of their way to go-off. FATE as seen through the lens ofhealth is manipulability for the rich and is.The DOCTOR character appears as part of STORYLINE. His role apart fromplaying the rich man’s hag was to function as white collar relativeoccupying a grey space between friend, employee and relative. Thedoctor in our conception, the doctor is one who is closest toanswering questions that only GOD has answers to. the doctorprotagonist tended to be depicted as one who carrying a heroic burdenof knowledge.DR BHASKAR of ANAND portrayed by amitabh bachchan,evenas anand lay dying, he was looking for an injection that could avoidthe inevitable.The idea of difference between life as seen in medical terms and lifeas it can be lived is explored in MUNNA BHAI MBBS.
