Swaraat / Venkatraman
Losing the field of creativity to the leftist ecosystem
There are many voices that bemoan the state of Indian cinema, more so the Hindi and Tamil movies. Many of the movies are seen as propagandist and have been called out for twisting the context or completely distorting the facts (in case of movies that are either biopic or are based on real life). No wonder that what was once touted as a so-called “soft power” has managed to raise the heckles of a huge number of moviegoers and also commercially become failures.
But before we go into it, let us take a step back.
Bharat has a very long tradition of storytelling, the land of Kavya, Drama, Dance and Music. We are the land where Sastras were written for these and commentaries written for these across centuries.
We had “Pouranika”, people whose profession was to tell the stories of our Purana and Itihasa and spread the stories across the nook and corners of this vast, diverse country. The story telling was not limited to Purana and Itihasa. The history of various kingdoms within Bharat, the trials and tribulations, the valor, the virtues, how heroes won against all odds were storied and those memories were kept alive orally across the land.
The tradition of such storytelling is not just to keep the memories alive, but to inspire, to honour the heroes and to reinforce the expectations of the land from its inhabitants, subtly reminding them of their duties to the land, their Dharma and to their society. To a large extent, this story telling traditions kept alive the cultural continuity, across time and space, providing a much needed relief as well as keeping alive the history of the land.
With the advent of the print media and then the audio-visual medium, the story telling shifted from oral to reading and then to visual. The audio-visual storytelling medium reaches far into the minds of viewers, captures mindshare, and influences them beyond the time spent in the movie halls. It stays with them through repeated reinforcements in the name of reviews, fan engagements and news cycles focusing on the actors or the creators of that medium. With television and OTT platforms, now they are ever present, available in your mobile phones whenever you want and are inside your homes and bedrooms.
Now, let us come back to the issue at hand.
Any mass communication medium, whether print or visual, is a propaganda tool as well. It can be used to influence, create doubts, reinforce specific stereotypes and in general mould the thought processes of its consumers. Whether it is the missionaries who came with the printing press or the Nazis or the Communists, they understood this very well. Why do you think organizations like Dravidar Kazhagam, Communists and so-called desert cult invaders or masqueraded traders always try to control institutions like school textbook boards, Film certification boards, etc and have problems when the true history of the land is spoken about?
And if you notice closely, in the recent past, atrocity literature has started becoming mainstream movies. Well, when the history of the land itself has been manipulated for more than 90 years, churning out generations who are lied to about their history or being lulled and guilt tripped about their own ancestors, what can one expect? Naturally, people tend to lose faith in their own identity and their past. And that is exactly the intent of the Left alliance that creates such propaganda.
There is no point in bemoaning the absence of good storytelling in movies or outraging about movies being propagandist. The Right Wing in India needs to realize and accept the use of a mass communication medium as a tool of influence. And take steps to create content, using these audio-visual tools to bring out engaging story content that can reinforce history of Bharat, subtly reminding the viewers of their expected roles in society.
What stops the Right Wing from producing movies through crowdsourcing instead of outraging and whining? Why not bring out historicals that highlight the glories of Vijayanagara Empire, Rajendra Chola’s conquest of South East Asia, Kanoji Angere defeating Portuguese & British or Marthanda Varma defeating Dutch at Kolachal? What stops you from producing webseries on Flight of Deities so beautifully detailed by Prof Meenakshi Jain?
As long as Right Wing thinks outrage and boycott will turn the tide, the tide will only drown them. If even after the success of Jhansi Rani, Kashmir Files, Sabarmati report etc , no concerted efforts are made, it is the failure of RW and not the success of the Left alliance. Produce webseries. There are so many techies in the RW world. If 10 of them join together, they can create content using modern tools. It can be animation series.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, wrote George Santayana in 1905.
If we don’t seriously attempt to remind our people about the trials and tribulations of our past, the glories and the failures, I think we not only prove above quote but also, we do an injustice to our future generations.