The Bolly folly
By: Sabnam Sultana
Tags: Bollywood

Movies can be great teachers. Well, at least some can be. But how do you define a good movie?

A good movie is a movie which depicts reality. A good movie is a movie which doesn’t show unrealistic behavior or stunts or responses. A good movie is a movie which clears us of societal myths. But unfortunately, such movies are in woefully short supply. These great movies are the ones which fade into oblivion and instead the movies which don’t deserve anything get all the nourishment. But which are these movies that get all the fame and popularity? These are the worldwide loved Bollywood movies. But what is wrong with Bollywood movies?

There are a lot of things wrong in Bollywood movies. Lets list them down.

(1)Wrong impression of love

Wrong sense of love or wrong sense of life?

They met for the first time. Their eyes met and they fell in love. ‘Love at first sight’ and ‘happily ever after’ is what most Bollywood movies show. These scenes deceive the watchers into marrying the perfect person with whom they fell in love at first sight believing that they will live happily ever after. And this, later, results in years of marital conflict. Very few Bollywood movies depict reality like the aftermath of marriage or how relationships can ruin our lives.

2)Unrealistic scenes and the consequences

One thing the Bollywood movies are famous for are the songs and dances. The actors start dancing and singing at any possible moment, (and that too in a professional-like voice) without preparations. Not only do they dance and sing but they also travel around the world in that 5 minute song, (around the world in 5 minutes). However, we mustn’t forget the back ground music and dancers who are always waiting for the chance to pounce behind the actor and start dancing leaving their daily work.

Surely, songs have no harm? But if you have been observant enough you must have realized that each and every Hindi songs’ lyrics are always talking about the good looks of girls which furthermore promotes the societal myth of girls to become fair and hence they buy all these fairness creams. Also, it also make the dark skinned people feel under-confident, many of whom finally commit suicide. Not only that, the fact that girls try to become fairer encourages cosmetic companies to produce more products and as a result more advertisements.

No wonder why the TVs, magazines and newspapers contain so many advertisements.

Provoking dangerous acts

This is a thing that all Bollywood movies have in common. Jumping from roof to roof or car to car. Action scenes are full of such nonsense. But nobody is going to do something so foolhardy, are they? Sadly, there are such people, too. They are the same people who ride bikes fast on busy roads and highways. They are the same people who sit on the benches on the side of the road, eve-teasing women or smoking.

The root cause of all these behaviors are Bollywood movies. It is not as difficult to understand.

The women in these movies are impressed by the heroes who do such dangerous stunts. Common people think that is the correct way to impress women. As a result, they do these stunts which later results in accidents.Even then nobody is taking lessons from these accidents.

Great going Bollywood!

(3)A distraction

Another sly method used by politicians to distract us from the real world is Bollywood. But how?

The problems of our country is very depressing. To take a break from the real world, we watch Bollywood. In these movies, we find a world we would like to live in. A world where the evil always loses. A world where money just flows in. A world where there is no tension or worry about the future. We find pleasure in watching these movies and as a result are addicted to them. And so, politicians find it easier to loot and cheat us without effort if we are distracted. Not only that, it also rusts our ability to analyse news and as a result benefits them.

The Bollywood benefit!

What should we watch

These Bollywood movies have cleverly manged to insert societal myths in our brains without our acknowledgement. And now to do its biding blindly without thinking even once whether what we are doing is correct and sensible. But however there are few good Bollywood movies from which we can take real life lessons. And once you watch these movies, you are bound to feel strongly for them. For example-:

Running an obstacle course or an obstacle life?

Knife in hand or hand on knife?

In India, even Justice needs justice

These movies explain the difficulties of life. These movies make us socially aware. These movies don’t have unrealistic songs and dances and fierce dialogues. These movies don’t propagate myths. These are the movies which we have never have heard of. These are the movies which government doesn’t want us to watch. These are the movies which fade into oblivion.

So why not? Why not watch such great movies instead of Bollywood movies? Why not open our eyes and ears to the real world? Why not light a bright candle in the dark?