Indian Films and Politics

Influence of Indian Movies, Religion, Politics on Indian People

There are four major catalysts of Indian society i.e. films, religion, festival and politics; they are the ones that influence a major section of population. As this statement being very obvious, hence it is important to offer a better and deeper insight to explore how striking the implications are. The post-independence era has been greatly moved and enthused by these four realms. Be it the role models coming out of the films or religious groups or even the political parties, the common people found their inspiration from them. This is perhaps one of the reasons that the issues in films, religion and politics come into context too frequently while analyzing the social, political and economic scenario of India.

Inspiration by the Indian Films:

From the time of Bimal Roy to the time of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, from the era of Dilip Kumar to the reign of Shahrukh Khan, the Mumbai film industry offered general mass a constant respite from the daily labored life to a world of fantasy. From these commercial success films, people have chosen their matinee idols such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmedra, Shaharukh Khan, Hrittik Roshan, Hema Malini and Kajol.

In the Southern part of India too, there is huge popularity of the South Indian actors, such as Rajnikant has reached the unimaginable height of fame among them. These stars have huge fan following, therefore, set a benchmark for the masses they crave to imitate whatever way they can. Their way of speaking, wearing clothes, preferences have spread with such a magnanimity to every household that the Indian economy, be it fashion world or the brands and products all enjoyed a profitable journey.

Finding Idols in Religion:

As India is the country with a history of foreign invasions, today there are people of different cultures, castes and religious beliefs living in the country. Hence, they also follow their respective religious leaders such as modern day Baba Ram dev, Shri Ravi Shanker Ji or the great Satya Sai; the followers of these leaders are huge. Many reports suggest the view that the lack of logic based education tended to play a role here, whereby people blindly accept the religious leaders as their idols. However, these reports have not marred the immense popularity of the different religious beliefs where both harmony and fanaticism are attached with them. As a result there are a number of things which influence people’s lifestyle, eating habits and human behavior. This is one of the reasons that the cultural variations are so clear, therefore various incidents and events also indicate that people are too emotional about the issues related to religious beliefs. Films, books and even artworks have been subjected to huge controversy that bore some religious contexts. There is nothing wrong in following spiritual leaders in the society. However, problem occurs when some fake godman get into bandwagon to preach righteous things. Lately many fake godmen are sent to jail.

Engaging with Politics:

It is better to assert in the very beginning that politics is the culminating point of the above two catalysts. The political parties have now stepped far ahead from the conventional dos and don’ts; hence all major parties try inculcating their ideology in public’s minds in order to extent their reach. Gone are the days when the people of the elite class used to discuss politics and the political ideology. Now the general people have become more and more aware of the changing political scenarios and how they are directly affected or influenced by it. Be it the meeting of Narendra Modi with Barrack Obama or if it is the speech of the popular leaders such as Abhishek Bandhopadhyay; they keep their eyes on all the aspects of Indian politics. At the same time the speeches of the leaders come to great value or consideration for the people. The chain of events that take place because of the decisions taken on the parliament, interviews of the leaders, the connection of the national and international affairs and their dependence on one another. All discussed factors people are trying to understand deeply, therefore making the best generalization in order to use their vote. At the same time they are also making their own opinions public, discussing publicly among all the spheres and areas by writing blogs and using social media platforms. In summary, people’s political engagement suggests that by all means people want to know about mainstream political affairs to play a significant role into democracy.

Indian people are Emotional

As this could be one of the notions, that Indian people are generally emotional and influencers such as politics, films, religions, cricket and festivals are sufficient to offer more air to elevate it. Especially religion and films have ample scope to raise emotions. However, emotions play huge role in terms of decisions making, at the same time they also can make country subject to many twist and turns. At times people’s minds are vulnerable, hence easily galvanized by leaders from films, politics or religion. Hence rationale approach can work as interjecting power to balance out belief system and emotional aspects.

Conclusion

The words of the leaders, actors and political parties are taken as the last words by many Indians and therefore a large part of them take actions based of the ideologies inflicted by them. Perhaps, that is why the time has come for the general people to be selective and at the same time quite realistic about the statements made by the leaders. The understanding between the rights and wrongs as well as whom to follow and whom not to, lies in the hands of the general masses, and that is why the proper understanding of these realms are required to have before taking any kind of decisions or choosing someone as leaders. This can offer a very fruitful practice for the betterment of the Indian society.