Of movies and messages

Every time I watch a movie, my constant cribbing has always been about, how every moral or sacred institution (as per “erstwhile” society) is under attack from the so called “rebel” movie makers and how they repeatedly stress on their viewpoint over the audience as it is something derived from the society and not forced by them. For example, the concept of marriage and the societal norms around that institution has been the most violated one since the beginning of this millennium. When Mani Ratnam, who has made a name for himself by churning out successful hits based on fragile relationship between husband and wife, launched Alaipayuthey, it literally took the attack to the next level. Till that time, it was about interpersonal equations and how two people in an incompatible relation, survive, and struggle and eventually succeed. If we take the timeline a bit further back, Balachander, Sridhar and those famous directors of that era, milked this theme to the extent possible, victimizing one side and deifying the other. Mani simply encashed the success of such ideas by glossing them with his making style. But Alaipayuthey, stretched the limits when the lead pair get married without informing their parents, yet stay with them as singles. What happens when they are found out makes the rest of the movie. He pushed the boundaries a bit further in Ayutha ezhuthu, where Live-in relationships became the defacto setup for 2 of the 3 characters. He kept pushing the limits and in almost every other movie of his, the hero would either have 2 wives or a live-in relationship or at the least not having faith in the concept of marriage.

Cut forward to Circa last year, when “Love today” became the most successful movie of the year. Considering the cost and cast, it was a super duper hit on the money invested. The concept was literally about present generations (2K kids) approach to relationships, their concept of morality and stuff like that. The characterization of hero, his friends, the things they do in the name of entertainment/timepass may make one puke. The movie felt more like a clarion call for parents on raising their children and the potential dangers lurking from within their own pockets in the name of mobiles. Cut next to a more recent movie, released a month or so back, “Dada”. This again is a decent hit at BO and though might’ve not set the cash registers on fire, it has seen some nice reviews and word of mouth publicity. The lead pair get into a physical relationship before marriage and the girl ends up pregnant. On the day when she delivers the baby, the guy is out and not reachable. She leaves both the kid and the guy and what happens next forms the rest of the movie. The ease with which such a topic is introduced and taken to audience is what concerns me the most. There are hardly any melodrama or grief around such situations and in fact, the entire movie taking a soft tone, makes it watchable is a different thing. But the sad part being, how relationships are relegated to matters of ego and seen as a psychiatric setup requiring counselling rather than lessons by life. There is a ready-made solution for every issue and ready-made response for every scenario which is shown as the ultimate answer that would resolve all problems. Such themes brainwash people into a false sense that getting out of a relation or getting into more than one relation is the answer. We might’ve moved several light years away from the concept of a joint family and might’ve become more nuclear than North Korea. But putting every move in every relation under a microscope, generalizing relationships by demonizing what our parents and theirs went through, are definitely not in the best interests of the society.