How many more years are we going to entertain with the concept of " love" in tamil cinemas. We all agree love is an essential part of our lives. But the way love is being portrayed in tamil cinemas and reducing the age for falling in love on a rapid basis is not going to do any good for our future generations.
Tamil cinemas and dramas started well over a century ago approximately around 1880. Then people started creating story lines with our great itihaas, scriptures and vedas - primarily to showcase our tradition and to demonstrate our rich culture and our devotion to the Almighty. Later around 1930's when India started fighting against British rule, focus changed in cinemas/dramas and they started emphasizing the importance of Indian Independence and need for Mother India to be free. In fact many of our great leaders used this as a means to wake a sense of independence among Indian people. Sure enough, it contributed a great part in doing the same - India was free on 15th August 1947.
After India's independence the cinema/drama makers changed focus back to our itihaas, scriptures and vedas for a while. Dramas began to slow down and Cinemas started to grow at a rapid pace. More and more Cinema theatres were built. Till about 1985 Cinemas played a very dominant role in entertainment in India. Not to mention Television was not a part of every household at the time and so Cinemas/dramas dominated the field. When the number of cinemas started increasing Cinema makers wanted new ideas or themes for entertaining people. They jumped to the concept of "love" and making it the main theme for stories thereafter.
Although love was a part of Indian cinema for a long time, it wasn't the essence of the story. But slowly things started changing. Each cinema started to portray love as the backbone of the story. I am not against falling in love. Ofcourse love is the basis of human life. But the way it is being portrayed in tamil cinemas these days is wrong. One can understand my frustration if you go to Chennai and gather a bunch of First Grade kids and ask them "What love is?". This exercise will show us how much we had spoilt our young generation who are going to be the next leaders of our country.
Although love existed in Indian cinemas even before 1985, majority of the focus was on love blossoming in adult age. But after 1985 trend started to change. Cinema makers wanted to make a few changes so people don't lose interest in cinemas. So they started making cinemas that showed college students falling in love and then moved on to school kids. It has been getting worse in the last 10 years. Kids these days learn so much from movies and I don't think this is something we should be teaching our kids. Indian censor board is generously issuing a Universal certificate for all these cinemas. In India it is very common for parents to take their children to the movies more often than they would to a park, beach, zoo, games, etc. Kids these days don't seem to understand the meaning of love. So my dear tamil cinema makers, please start making more sensible cinemas and stop corrupting the minds of our children. This issue has already started to show the symptoms - there is an increased number of minors involved in sexual harassment and rape cases. If you want new movie ideas, you can focus on Indian economic reform, problems faced by youth or kids in the country, improvements in science and technology, etc. Few of the recent good movies along these lines are Ko (politics/economy), Kalyana Samayal Sadham (Stress in young generation), etc.
Another monster issue of tamil cinema is smoking/drinking. Today, Smoking/drinking is shown as a major activity of most of the students in colleges. By showing this in a U-rated cinema, we are letting our children think it is okay to smoke/drink when they get to college. Popping a sentence on the screen "Smoking/drinking is injurious to health" in a movie does not help much especially if it runs for the entire length of the movie. What is worse is that they show actors drinking while driving and youngsters these days think it is cool to do that. Tamil cinema audience consider their cinema stars as Gods - No wonder our state is being ruled by cinema people for many decades now. Cinema makers should have a better sense of social responsibility while making movies.
Obviously the cinema makers are going to argue that they have to give what the audience wants. Stop and think for a minute - they did not ask for you to show kids falling in love or students drinking and smoking. Audience want change but let the change should be good for the society. There should be some serious changes - the sensor board should be more critical about giving Universal rating for the movies. Change will happen slowly but surely- remember when the tax benefits were announced for cinemas which carry tamil names. Although it was badly criticized at first, now it is well established and accepted by all. People talk about tax reform, foreign policy reform, etc but they forgot that there is this deadly poison of a thought being infused into our heads in the name of movies and it is trying to destroy our culture and our future. Now its time for reform in Cinemas - Cinemas which show drinking/smoking or featuring item songs should be certified as Strictly Adults and should be levied heavy tax. Change will not happen overnight but implementing few measures to reform Cinema will gradually slow down this issue.
There are many ways to earn money in India. Please don't use this Almighty source (Cinemas) to seed unhealthy thoughts in the minds of our Children.
Tamil cinemas and dramas started well over a century ago approximately around 1880. Then people started creating story lines with our great itihaas, scriptures and vedas - primarily to showcase our tradition and to demonstrate our rich culture and our devotion to the Almighty. Later around 1930's when India started fighting against British rule, focus changed in cinemas/dramas and they started emphasizing the importance of Indian Independence and need for Mother India to be free. In fact many of our great leaders used this as a means to wake a sense of independence among Indian people. Sure enough, it contributed a great part in doing the same - India was free on 15th August 1947.
After India's independence the cinema/drama makers changed focus back to our itihaas, scriptures and vedas for a while. Dramas began to slow down and Cinemas started to grow at a rapid pace. More and more Cinema theatres were built. Till about 1985 Cinemas played a very dominant role in entertainment in India. Not to mention Television was not a part of every household at the time and so Cinemas/dramas dominated the field. When the number of cinemas started increasing Cinema makers wanted new ideas or themes for entertaining people. They jumped to the concept of "love" and making it the main theme for stories thereafter.
Although love was a part of Indian cinema for a long time, it wasn't the essence of the story. But slowly things started changing. Each cinema started to portray love as the backbone of the story. I am not against falling in love. Ofcourse love is the basis of human life. But the way it is being portrayed in tamil cinemas these days is wrong. One can understand my frustration if you go to Chennai and gather a bunch of First Grade kids and ask them "What love is?". This exercise will show us how much we had spoilt our young generation who are going to be the next leaders of our country.
Although love existed in Indian cinemas even before 1985, majority of the focus was on love blossoming in adult age. But after 1985 trend started to change. Cinema makers wanted to make a few changes so people don't lose interest in cinemas. So they started making cinemas that showed college students falling in love and then moved on to school kids. It has been getting worse in the last 10 years. Kids these days learn so much from movies and I don't think this is something we should be teaching our kids. Indian censor board is generously issuing a Universal certificate for all these cinemas. In India it is very common for parents to take their children to the movies more often than they would to a park, beach, zoo, games, etc. Kids these days don't seem to understand the meaning of love. So my dear tamil cinema makers, please start making more sensible cinemas and stop corrupting the minds of our children. This issue has already started to show the symptoms - there is an increased number of minors involved in sexual harassment and rape cases. If you want new movie ideas, you can focus on Indian economic reform, problems faced by youth or kids in the country, improvements in science and technology, etc. Few of the recent good movies along these lines are Ko (politics/economy), Kalyana Samayal Sadham (Stress in young generation), etc.
Another monster issue of tamil cinema is smoking/drinking. Today, Smoking/drinking is shown as a major activity of most of the students in colleges. By showing this in a U-rated cinema, we are letting our children think it is okay to smoke/drink when they get to college. Popping a sentence on the screen "Smoking/drinking is injurious to health" in a movie does not help much especially if it runs for the entire length of the movie. What is worse is that they show actors drinking while driving and youngsters these days think it is cool to do that. Tamil cinema audience consider their cinema stars as Gods - No wonder our state is being ruled by cinema people for many decades now. Cinema makers should have a better sense of social responsibility while making movies.
Obviously the cinema makers are going to argue that they have to give what the audience wants. Stop and think for a minute - they did not ask for you to show kids falling in love or students drinking and smoking. Audience want change but let the change should be good for the society. There should be some serious changes - the sensor board should be more critical about giving Universal rating for the movies. Change will happen slowly but surely- remember when the tax benefits were announced for cinemas which carry tamil names. Although it was badly criticized at first, now it is well established and accepted by all. People talk about tax reform, foreign policy reform, etc but they forgot that there is this deadly poison of a thought being infused into our heads in the name of movies and it is trying to destroy our culture and our future. Now its time for reform in Cinemas - Cinemas which show drinking/smoking or featuring item songs should be certified as Strictly Adults and should be levied heavy tax. Change will not happen overnight but implementing few measures to reform Cinema will gradually slow down this issue.
There are many ways to earn money in India. Please don't use this Almighty source (Cinemas) to seed unhealthy thoughts in the minds of our Children.
