Introduction:
K. M. Munshi is the founder of
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. In this essay, “Indian Cinema” he talks about the evils
that have plagued Indian cinema, and expresses dissatisfaction at the growth of
cinema in India. He choses the Hindi movie titled “Hunterwali”, a 1935 film
featuring Nadia as the heroine, as representative of the malady of Indian
cinema, and how Nadia makes a mockery of Indian womanhood in the film.
Sweet Sixteen without its Sweetness:
This wandering homeless orphan
girl, though by appearance thirty, tries to play the pranks of ‘sweet sixteen’
but without its sweetness, charm or modesty. She rushes about on horse-back, and
then goes around performing stunts like jumping over a moving carriage and then
defeating 20 soldiers in one sweep with an irritating style.
Disgusting and Indecent:
A zamindar’s son, also looking
about thirty, attracted by her, acts like a vagabond. They are shown as making
love to each other, but without charm, grace or dignity. Their love-making
takes the form of shameless freedom of bodily contact, difficult indeed to find
in real life, except among the ill-bred. They both jostle each other, throw
each other down, fling sand in each other’s eyes. In short, they do everything
which would be enjoyable if they had been a boy and girl of eight; it is
disgusting to adults, and unthinkable as a normal relation between men and
women of decent upbringing.
Imitating the Mannerisms of an American School Girl:
Later, the zamindar’s son
secretly enters the room of the princess as a teacher of manners in a clownish
dress of a ridiculously bearded ustad. He starts teaching her the mannerisms of
an American school girl, carrying a book on her head. Again, they start their
athletic variety of love-making in the palace.
Absolute Ugliness vs Absolute Beauty:
The whole film, according to
Munshi, was too absurd for words. Unable to stand the scenes any longer, her
came away very sad. Quoting Plato from memory, he says that, men go from:
beautiful things to beautiful
ideas;
From beautiful ideas to beautiful
life;
From a beautiful life to absolute
Beauty.
But such decadent exhibition of
vulgarity, in imitation of an ugly aspect of the Hollywood tradition, leads us
from:
ugly things to ugly ideas;
From ugly ideas to ugly life;
From ugly life to absolute
Ugliness.
Money-making by Pandering to the Basest Human Nature:
He also wonders if the men and
women who participate in this ‘immoral racket’, many of them who are decent,
cultured people in private life, realize what a degrading picture of life they
place before people and particularly young men and women? And the answer is, to
make money by pandering to the worst human nature.
Crime and Violence are made to Look Attractive:
Yet another sinister aspect to
the menace of cinema is that, it makes crime and violence look attractive. In
our culture, the value of truth and non-violence is supreme. Gandhiji made of
them the foundation of our new strength. Even Panditji (Nehru) a recognised
champion of peace and justice, warns the nation against the cult of violence.
But, in Indian cinema, day after day, in a thousand theatres, hundreds of
thousands of people are educated in the ingenious ways of crime and vulgarity;
their finer sensibilities, which crave for decency and beauty, are being
undermined. Even many of the comic strips in our newspapers in which shooting,
murder, kidnapping and house-breaking are almost accepted as a normal condition
of life, tend to develop this crime and violence. This is the main reason for
the spreading of crime and violence all over the country.
Conclusion:
Cinema, by altering the
traditional forms of narration, has threatened the literary and moral framework
of society. Cinema, therefore requires careful interrogation before being
assigned a proper place within the domain of cultural production. If good
cinema were to be made in India, it is necessary to develop a critical approach
to the medium. This in turn would restore the balance between cinema’s quest
for providing healthy entertainment as
well as realising its educational goals.
Works Cited:
Manju Jain, Ed. Narratives of Indian Cinema. Delhi:
Primus Books, 2009. Print.
Munshi, K. M. “The Indian Cinema.”
New Vistas. An Anthology of Prose, Poetry
and Writing Modules. Chennai: Department of English, Madras Christian
College, 2013. Print.
Image courtesy: commons/wikemedia
No comments:
Post a Comment