I had quite an interesting conversation with a friend recently. We were talking about the need to convey a message through cinema. Is it correct to expect cinema to convey some message, does it really have an impact on people, if so, on what section of the population etc.
We first started discussing about when people feel the need to go to watch a film. Often, it is boredom. Also, nowadays, it has become sort of a habit for people to go for movies. Just like the way we go to the beach, park or the shopping mall, cinema is one of the time pass destinations. The theatre is one place where one can spend 3 hours, seated comfortably, in a make believe world populated with beautiful people (actors). We get lost in their travails and tend to forget our real life tensions for some time.
Do people really imbibe something after watching a movie? Does cinema affect them? Should it?
Cinema, according to me, should provide something people can relate to and take back home... Something to cheer them up, inspire them, something to think about, or something to seriously change in themselves. The common perception is, that cinema is taken seriously only by the middle and upper class population but I feel that when an uneducated person watches a movie, it has a greater impact on him because the movie is one of the very few sources of exposure for him.
One more issue remains and that is – Is it correct to try to convey a message through cinema? Will a film maker be doing something right by trying that, or will he be leading people from one wrong thing to another? After all, what is correct from one point of view may be wrong from another.
The conclusion that we came to, after discussing was that human beings generally have an illusion in their minds that it is something outside them, that influences their moods and actions, whereas in reality, it is their mind that changes and governs their actions. Most of us are used to reacting to the various stimuli that we come across everyday and thus shaping our lives. So, when that is the case with the majority of the population, when a film maker takes a film that provides a stimulus for people to stop something bad or encourage something good, then so be it!
