Free sample essay on Indian Cinema and Society. Cinema is a powerful visual medium. It is one of the most popular means of mass communication. It has tremendous potentialities to entertain and educate.
During the time when one is watching a movie, he is so engrossed with it that he forgets the real world and he becomes a part of the story. Naturally, this intimate association has a lasting impression on the mind of the viewer. It has a significant role in shaping and molding his life. The actors and actresses become the role models particularly for the younger generations. Films, it is said, provide a mirror to our lives. They reflect the hopes, aspirations, frustrations and contradictions of society.
Cinema has different meanings for different people. It is a lucrative business for the producers and financers. It is a source of good earnings for the actors and actresses. For artists and directors, it is merely a form of art. Many people take it as an audio-visual translation of literature. It is a big source of employment and revenue. For common man it is a big source of employment and revenue. It is a cheap and easier means of entertainment for the masses. Whatever cinema may mean to different people, it is undoubtedly, an art form which can entertain and educate as well.
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Cinema has wider mass appeal. It has great potential to influence society. Hence certain social responsibility is attached to it. Cinema should not depict such stories which may lead to erosion of social morals and values. Cinema is said to be the reflection of society but at the same time society is influenced by cinema. Being an audio-visual medium, it is all the more powerful. It has the power to mould and shape the society. It is a form of visual education. Its utility is great in India as a big portion of its population is illiterate.
However, cinema over the years has lost its educative and social aspect. It has become only a commercial object. It has ignored its educative values. Now films are produced just to earn more and more money. The producers and financiers are merely concerned for the commercial value of the films. Driven by this desires, they pack the films with the ingredients of sex, violence, etc. It poses a challenge to the social fabric. It leads to the decline of moral values of society. This tendency is not good in the larger interests of society, and nations as well.
Films are a major source of inventiveness. One directly imitates what one sees in films. We owe a great two films in terms of fashion. Our dress, our hairstyle, shape and design of our footwear, even manners and habits are influenced by cinema. All these things first appear in the films with glamour and attractiveness and are followed by common man. Thus, it is important that cinema should depict something healthy and keeping the larger interests of society.
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The portrayal of women in cinema is a cause of great concern. She is presented merely an object of entertainment. She is required to merely dance, sing, expose and vanish. There is a little film in which she is depicted in influential role. This gives a message to society that women are weak and unimportant. Eve-teasing, physical assault and many other crimes have become an integral part of cinema. The depiction of such scenes is so glamorous that it produces in the viewers a tendency to commit such crimes. Such irrational portrayal of various scenes leads to the increase in violence against women.
Cinema has great responsibility to give proper direction to the society. Unfortunately, in recent years it has deviated from its social obligation. It is causing great harm to social responsibility. This needs to be checked without any delay. Cinema has a major role to play in a country like India. The need of the hour is that it should be exploited as a power tool to educate, inform and aware the masses apart from entertaining them.