Yes – Movies encourage social evils:
- Most of the movies make us feel like taking alcohol is a casual thing. Lead characters drink alcohol and it is shown as a cool thing. Though there will be a warning line such as ‘smoking and drinking is injurious to health’, that can easily be ignored considering the influence heroes and heroines of Indian cinema have on youth. People justify their drinking and smoking habits by relating themselves to characters in movies.
- Some movies glorify anti-social elements such as dons and criminal gangs. These movies influence people to sympathise with the characters that have negative shadows. Glorifying robberies, smuggling and other crimes can influence people to become anti-social.
- In many movies, lead characters take the law into their hands and kill people in the name of revenge, which sends a very bad message to society. We, as a society should respect our justice system.
- Many movies add item songs or so-called special songs which objectify women and depict them in a derogatory way. And the female lead characters in those movies are loyal to male lead characters, whereas the male lead character flirts and passes lewd comments on the girl in special songs. This does not have any positive thing at all. It just perpetuates gender discrimination.
- Stalking and chasing women for love are generally shown as heroic in Indian movies. As a result, stalking and killing people for not accepting love proposals are common things in India.
No – Movies do not encourage social evils:
- Depicting reality cannot be termed as encouraging them. Most of the movies are generally made up of real-life incidences. Movies and society change with time. This can be observed by watching old movies. Movies reflect the reality of that time.
- Many movies are helping in making the socially progressive. For example, ‘Pink‘ movie depicts reality as well as influences people to stop judging women based on their lifestyle.
- Some movies show reality and help in addressing the dangers of social evils. For example, ‘Udta Punjab‘ influences youth to not consume drugs.
- These days, movies with positive content are attracting a huge audience. And movies that influence us to empathise with anti-social elements are not selling as much as they expected them to. This means that people have enough awareness to choose between good and bad and hence there is no need to worry about movies that encourage social evils.
Conclusion:
Movies and societal changes influence each other. Both witness changes with time. Many movies are bringing positive changes in society. And some movies are knowingly or unknowingly encouraging social evils. But the good thing is that the present society is much more aware of the impact of everything on people and is easily expressing views on something that does bad to society. And hence, there is freedom of expression and intelligent society – a combination of both is a sign of progressive society.
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