Monday, December 14, 2009

Reality Bites

K was upset last night when I observed that he seemed to be having fun watching films like 'Mumbai Meri Jaan'. It wasn't meant to be taken personally, of course (although my bluntness always does end up making things sound offensive). What I was trying to understand was why we think we're doing something commendable by watching these serious 'arty' films when we end up miserable and disillusioned at the state of things in our country.

K, after calming down, considered. He was of the opinion that he personally felt the need to know what was actually going on around him currently. The point then is that are these films are realistic as they seek to be or is reality cinema a carefully packaged product to assuage our aesthetically sensitive yet coercively conscientious minds ? Are we not perhaps unwitting voyeurs of the filmi version of someone else's actual grief ? Would we actually be able to digest the raw uncensored truth underlying incidents and issues that make headlines every often ? Or is watching such films just a consolation to our nuclear-family oriented, flat-residing, basically narcissistic selves : aiding our attempts to go to sleep each night knowing that all we are doing each day is mostly catering to our personal needs, our carefully cordoned-off solipsistic planes of existence ?

6 comments:

Neil said...

Few more paragraphs plz... Why K came to terms so soon.... we missed the debate....!!! Thanx a for liking my little scribbles... Your words are like COMPLAN... (Dekho ami barchhi!!)

Sandy said...

Good blog. Enjoyed reading it. Easy comfortable flow that kept me reading to the end.
Cheers
Sandy

Sujoy Bhattacharjee said...

The questions you ask are compelling indeed. The films themselves are not at fault here. The voyeuristic 21st century viewer rarely misses the opportunity to peek into the lives and sufferings of others just to find a reason to console himself himself that his own life is not as dysfunctional as it seems. The greater tragedy, however, is the fact that instead of looking around his/her surroundings in real life, the said viewer has to be fed in with the 'realities of life' in a properly packaged way with appropriate commentary or background score.

aayanman said...

It is therefore a good thing that such movies are being made at all....should dare to scroll back a decade or so more, all you ll see is complete trash being churned out irrespective of the mood or sentiment of the country.

Given a choice I d always want to see a Mumbai Meri Jaan vs Ram Janey, economy,sentiment or status of the personal mind notwithstanding.

Scribbler :) said...

Well, people enjoy such movies for two very opposite reasons:
1. Thank god this has happened to them and not me
2. Gosh! This could happen to me too!

Funny as we humans are, somewhere in our subconscious mind, both these thoughts brew a concoction that tastes "familiar" but is at a safe distance. That is the appeal of reality cinema.

Scribbler :) said...

Well, people enjoy such movies for two very opposite reasons:
1. Thank god this has happened to them and not me
2. Gosh! This could happen to me too!

Funny as we humans are, somewhere in our subconscious mind, both these thoughts brew a concoction that tastes "familiar" but is at a safe distance. That is the appeal of reality cinema.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin