A lot of conversation is happening on Twitter over the latest movie of Shahid Kapoor – Kabir Singh. As soon as the women group started pointing out the problems of the male protagonist in the movie, people started calling them “Feminazi’.
I am not here to write about Kabir Singh, he has got enough coverage. What made me write this blog was a certain tweet I came across. It was from a man who said that if you think Kabir Singh will make us violent, then we saw Gang of Wasseypur too. But, we are still civilised.
So, my question is – Is there any influence of movies in our life ?
According to me, yes, there is a lot of influence of movies in everything that we do. It can do that directly or even subconsciously. Maybe, we think that we are mature enough to not get influenced by what we see on the movie screen. But, sometimes it happens so subtly that we don’t even realise.
So after watching a violent male protagonist, you might think that you won’t behave aggressively. But, then a lot of young teenagers, people who want to idolise others, look up to these characters on the big screen. During teenage counselling, a lot of cases come in forefront, where youth started smoking. It is because their favourite hero does that on screen and he looks cool.
Children hear songs that have lyrics like,
“Hai tujhpe right mera, tu hai delight mera
Tera rasta jo roku, chaukne ka nahin”
This makes young boys believe that it is alright to eve-tease a girl, harass them even when they say no, because “uske na mein hi toh haan hain”. The young girls also fall into the trap and start believing that they need male validation.
It is a deeply rooted problem and it just can’t be taken as a joke. We do get influenced by what we watch on television, advertisements and movies.
What can be done?
Everyone keeps talking about the problem. But, let’s talk about the solution bit also.
Watch good content
There are a lot of short movies releasing these days on social media platforms, which have an interesting storyline with a social cause. You can watch these movies on various video platforms, like YouTube, Hotstar, Amazon Prime or Netflix.
Have a gender lens
We should try to give attention to the lyrics or story of the movie by putting a gender lens and be aware of what is right and what is wrong?
Make a movie club
You can also make a movie club, meet every week and discuss the story of the movie with each other to get better insights.
Things can’t be taken lightly if you really want to bring some change in the existing social norms. Deliberate action needs to be taken by the youth, in order to make a better tomorrow.
We, at Patna Diaries, hope that you will enjoy the movie as well as be vigilant enough to not fall in the trap of the existing gender stereotypes shown to us.
Happy Movie Watching 🙂
