How to stop cinema from having negative influence on youth

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Tamil Cinema is notoriously famous for one brand of story being told, again and again.  A very ordinary looking "hero", who would actually be serving tea in a roadside tea stall, if he were to sheer luck not enter  the film industry, would fall in love with a very beautiful girl, and chase her all over town to even the forests, and propose his love.  The girl would naturally frown at him, but later "realize' his "true affection" for the hero, and eventually accept his love.

One horrible actor, Dhanush is guilty of bringing this theme, and there have been others who have faithfully imitated this formula.

However, in a State where the Cinema has a huge influence on youth, particularly men, the worst has recently happened -- a very ordinary looking Ramkumar, who had not even completed his Engineering degree, try to woo a girl called Swati, working in Infosys Technologies, in Chennai.  The girl seemed to have mocked at his physical appearance and our hero had gone to ridiculous levels to look good.  But the girl had just accepted him as a friend.

Unable to win her "love", this rascal has murdered her in broad daylight in the ever busy Nungambakkam station.  

How should we go about reforming the society and stopping the bad influence of cinema?  It was the case of this Ramkumar, obviously taking lessons from Tamil Cinema, but the same could be true of Telugu Cinema or even Kannada movies.

The point is, apart from moral education that is nowadays neglected badly, what are the various remedies possible, to reform young men and their fickle minds?  How do we ensure that another Swati is not killed in the very same fashion?

 

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It is not just Tamil films but recently even Marathi films have sadly gone the same way. What is most shocking is that top hits in the last 2-3 years have featured and promoted love affairs between underage teenagers, in which invariably the girl is shown from cultured, educated families and the boys from lower class, living in settlements etc. Following these films, a few cases happened where girls from good families foolishly fell for uneducated, uncouth boys working in garages and other such places and had to be rescued and  counseled after significant emotional damage and in one instance, even physical abuse by the boy!

I doubt if we can do anything to stop such films being produced because sadly, these films get a large fan following and these people flock to cinemas to see them.

The influence of Cinema on the public, especially on youth is not a new thing. This trend is there even in AP. Kannada Cinema and Malayali Cinema are better than AP and Karnataka. 20 years ago the movie madness and craze was not this worst. I know Balachander of Tamil Nadu, Girish Karnad from Karnataka, Sethu Madhavan of Kerala and K. Viswanath of AP produced Memorable movies.

Today's trend is quite different. Most of the Movies produced are business oriented. Youth of today find pleasure in imitating Mediocre movies and the Heroes.

There are several road accidents caused because of  youth imitating their Favorite Movie heroes riding a Bike on the Public Roads.

Youth should know that the movie world is " make believe " world.

Ramkumar's case who is involved in Swati's murder case is not an exception.

 

 

Madam, why not promote some debates on local electronic media, even with the help of the police. so that this horrible trend can stop?  In fact, some debate is already on in electronic media, though there are some stupid souls who say that the boy was innocent, he "thought" that the girl would love him, because she had always talked very well with him and so on.  She had even explained that she was just a friend, but our boy went to the other ridiculous levels.

Only a huge amount of debates and some serious counseling of girl children in terms of being discreet in dealing with any man, can possibly help.  But we seriously need far more reforms and one wonders where to start and how to go about it.

ABSIVAKUMAR wrote:

Madam, why not promote some debates on local electronic media, even with the help of the police. so that this horrible trend can stop?  In fact, some debate is already on in electronic media, though there are some stupid souls who say that the boy was innocent, he "thought" that the girl would love him, because she had always talked very well with him and so on.  She had even explained that she was just a friend, but our boy went to the other ridiculous levels.

Only a huge amount of debates and some serious counseling of girl children in terms of being discreet in dealing with any man, can possibly help.  But we seriously need far more reforms and one wonders where to start and how to go about it.

The problem with such debates is that they simply remain debates and nothing happens from it, it is all futile. I tried broaching this topic in the group of moms of my son and some of his classmates. We are a group 8-9 moms who frequently meet and discuss things and generally do something with our kids. There is a recent Marathi hit called Sairat which is again a story of underage love, the couple elopes, marry, has a kid and then one fine, the girls brother arrives and killes them both. It is a very big hit and just yesterday, one youth was arrested for burglary of lakhs of rupees simply because he needed money to go and see this heroine in real life. She is a 10th std student!!

'So when I broached the topic and tried to present my views against such movies, only one mom agreed with me and others were all quite fascinated by the movie! So I feel it better to keep my thoughts to myself and limit my education to my son and whoever agrees with me! Electronic debates are pointless, I can see no way it can ever reach any conclusion or positive outcome as far as such films are concerned.

@ AB

I don't think  any number of debates will solve this problem. Because Movies are meant for in expensive entertainment for majority of the people. In this scenario, youngsters are bound to be influenced by these movies.But News Channels are condemning such heinous acts of youth. Swati's case has been highlighted in both print and  Electronic media.

I agree with you that we need far more reforms on such issues.

 

it is very hard to stop the influence which one gets from seeing a film but if he/she will understand that bad or wrong deeds will always result in negative for them.

It is wrong to blame films for wrongs in the society. Does it mean before films were invented nothing of this sort was happening. Let us not become prudes.

All Cinemas will not have a  negative influence on the people. It's up to the people use their discretion.

 

Sir, I do agree with the view that all movies will not have a corrupting influence.  The main point is the movies that show how a very ordinary guy with very modest background, goes about chasing a very educated and cultured girl, literally buying her "love", stage after stage, through sympathy or whatever.

Most Tamil Cinema heroes look like servers in hotels and roadside romeos who have no other work, except to chase girls.  This is the kind of movies that I am talking about.  We should do something to ensure that such harmful movies with a hugely distorted, unnatural and totally male-dominated view of "love" do not get released at all.  Perhaps some social organizations can even go to court to stop this menace.

Only then can we open up the larger debates of how such ridiculous movies badly influence young men.  I hope I have made the point very clear.  In fact, in one of my articles I had talked about how movies such as "Kakka Muttai", which is a superbly crafted story about two slum children wanting to eat a pizza, are exactly the kind of realistic movies needed to at least keep society from taking to bad habits.  Reform of society may not be so easily possible, but let us do our best.

 

 

Reforming the Society is possible only when YOU set an example. Charity should start from Home first. In my case, I see Movies of yesteryear. Even though I do not know Tamil. Malayalam and Kannada, I go all the way  to view Vintage Movies made by Balchander, or Kodiyattam or Movies made by Syam Benegal.

 

rambabu wrote:

Reforming the Society is possible only when YOU set an example. Charity should start from Home first. In my case, I see Movies of yesteryear. Even though I do not know Tamil. Malayalam and Kannada, I go all the way wherever they are screened  to view Vintage Movies made by Balchander, or Mani Ratnam or Movies made by Syam Benegal.Even I see Bengali movies made by Ritwick Ghatak.

These movies are well made with realistic touch without any fabricated fantasy.

My Children, who are well settled in different places too view the movies made well directed by eminent directors of Yesteryear.

 

 

Film is just one media. The other media- internet and paper magazines also contain lot of lewd and obscene material. Before the arrival of internet on the scene, there were many footpath stalls selling adult content novels and books. However the youth are not really spoiled as we fear. They also know that such material is just a small enjoyment and that too not healthy. The youth are involved in cultural and sports activities in spite of such material. It is more necessary to promote healthy literature and movies rather than blame the particular segment, which is also bound to stay and cater to interest of some.  

It is sanitised persons like Rambabu who feel that youth will get spoiled if they see what he does not want to see. Imagine in today's times not watching current movies but going all the way to see already seen yester year films. Do what you like but why preach others.

It is not fair to blame movies for behaviour of young. It is depends on person how they are taking cinema. Cinema is only for entertainment. Only healthy sacraments can stop negative effect on youth of cinema and all other things..

vijay wrote:

It is sanitised persons like Rambabu who feel that youth will get spoiled if they see what he does not want to see. Imagine in today's times not watching current movies but going all the way to see already seen yesteryear films. Do what you like but why preach others.

I'm not Reformer committed to save the people from the the negative effects of Movies. It was a suggestion from me. There is no use of reading in between the lines.

 

But you said reform must begin by setting up self example. So you wanted to reform by seeing in today's times old movies. Hence my comment. In modern times modern entertainment is best. But yes exceptions will always be there.

The word REFORM was used by the thread poster of the thread.. Hence I used the word reform. Why should I reform the Society ? There are many Social workers and NGOs to do the job.

 

Who ever used the word, meaning does not change nor the intent.

You blamed me for using the word Reform. Though I used it as a response to the post and relevant. If my response is liked, people follow it. Otherwise throw it. It's not necessary to follow my response.

beside negative influence let me discuss the good part of cinema and which is too very good for the society, film like Baghban starring AMITABH which is one of the master piece in film industry, i think it is a good lesson for the society. But whatever we do it depends on ones mentality to observe and do in their real life. 

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Created Tuesday, 05 July 2016 05:56
Last Updated Tuesday, 30 November -0001 00:00
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