The movies we like to watch often reflect our morals.
At least, I think so.
Considering how violent I’ve felt after watching movies like Natural Born Killers, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, I’m glad I wasn’t brought up on a staple diet of movies like that.
Like many other Indians, I was brought up on a diet of Hindi films, for a major part of my life and upbringing. Yeah, it’s a chicken and egg story if you consider that films only reflect the morals of the society and the society follows morals from the films.
Not just films, even TV actually.
Thankfully, I was born in an era which has witnessed both the worlds — the holy world of Doordarshan and the globalised world post the cable and satellite revolution. Thanks to that, I know what we WERE, before we started believing that the guys in Friends lived no differently than us.
To test this theory, I considered a sample of people who grew up watching just cable TV alone… that would be people who are now 14-18. I’m seriously concerned about these guys. For they have grown up on American morals — Friends, Britney Spears, American Pie and hajaar other films and serials where sex is only the natural progression from dessert during a night out with a person of the opposite sex… at 16, do they know what they are doing?
Before you miss my point, let me clarify that I have no issues with consenting adults sleeping together, knowing exactly what they are doing and yes, as long as they are keeping it safe if you get what I mean. Yeah, like using a condom.
Keeping it safe is the last thing in the mind of someone who is 14 or 16 or 18 or even 20 in some cases. Check out the crowd at Bike and Barrel on Saturday nights and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Of course, thanks to the police crackdown, now they insist on ID cards before letting people in. But I think the damage had already been done. The young had already been introduced to alcohol, and now if one door’s closed, they are capable of finding another space (probably more private) to get together.
There are a few changes in the American society and the Indian which is why the morals from America cannot be applied here. The American society is a product of dysfunctional families, wrecked homes and peer pressure. The Indian society is still family-based protective and protected unit. If premarital sex is common in America, so is sex education and the quintessential free spirit. In India, sex means more than just an exchange of body fluids for pleasure. It’s a stronger bond that has to do with commitment and emotional dependency. Yes, there’s plenty of sex education happening in India, you may argue. True, there is. But how many people in the age group of 14-20 actually keep a pack of condoms in their pants? How many of these people actually have the courage to go to the corner store and ask for rubber?
But I’m digressing.
American films are the way they are, because of the lifestyle and the aspirational lifestyle the Americans have. Hollywood is steeped in American morals just like how Bollywood is soaked in Indian morals.
For example: Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is reflective of the morals of the nineties when Shah Rukh Khan changes a drunk Kajol’s dress and only jokes about sleeping with her and explains to her saying: Ek Hindustani ladka hoke main ek hindustani ladki ka dil kaisey tod sakta hoon! (How can I being an Indian boy break an Indian girl’s heart?)
And the popularity of a movie like Hum Tum suggests that it is reflective of the existing morals when again, a drunk Saif Ali Khan sleeps with Rani Mukherjee who does not regret it the next morning because she knows it was not just sex. It was about two mature adults making love. Our society sure seems to be changing, so are the morals and so are the movies.
Morals are a little complicated to understand when you’re still the rebellious adolescent, which is why I have a problem with the young who have grown up watching just American programming and blindly follow the lifestyle. I’m not really worried about the erosion of culture or protective of it for culture is indeed a changing set of rites and rituals. But yes, I think age has a big role to play when it comes to comprehension of what morals are really all about.
Which is why I think parenting in the 2000s is going to be one hell of a challenge. The movies and TV programming that your child is brought up on are going to define what morals he/she inculcates. Because today, media and movies influence children more than parents do.
Coming up next. My take on parenting for the 2000s. He He!
MADRAS INK. 
Yup, Suderman, that ****ing idiot box TV is to blame, in more ways than one – its killed the reading habit with kids too! Having said that, you’ll be pleased to know that in my house, NO TV! Just enough for news; else, everything is blacklisted. Even FTV! A sobbing Ravi 😉
The view points expressed are absolutely true. Am also the generation that has seen both DD and cable world. The programs in current TV world and movie dom lolls around nothing but sex. Are the current generation so much deprived and craving for sex? and violence? are we getting more civilized with education, technology and spohistication or moving more towards the cave-age world? becoming more barbaric, uncivilized and uncouth? No doubt TV is a major influence in that. Oh boy, I have a 7month old boy, and am really scared about his life in this make-believe world.
Indian Youth specialise in selective attention and distortion . Their attention is only to things like sex,dating, fashion etc. Their is considerable distortion of things like social /civic manners etc.
Please do “Kids” by Larry Clarke is a disturbing movie about sex, morals and society in US
Hey Ravi,
I’m looking at doing a story on families which have kept TV out of their lives. Do lemme know about households in the city which have survived without the TV watching habit over the last decade.
Guruprasad, I think there’s programming of all kind available on TV… there are a lot of useful channels out there too if you can exploit the child lock option on ur TV… but we get to watch more sex and skin on entertainment channels cuz of the Indian’s need to move closer to American ideals which are perceived as International standards as far as programming is concerned… which is why we find endless replicas of international programmes, reality shows and lifestyle shows. Besides, advertisers reaching out to the youth today account for a big share of ad spends… with so many of them requiring vehicles to reach the youth, more programmes are born and with more programmes, there is competition, need to stand out, need to be more radical, modern, bold which ultimately tends towards what is actually American!
i’ll check out that movie Sabs!
Thanks!
Hi Sudhish
I want to point out what i think is the major difference between american and the indian attitudes when it comes to dating.
Americans have to find their own partners, no one else will do it for them. They are under pressure(especially the unpretty, unwealthy ones) to look good, party and be alert so that they can find a partner somehow.
In India, every individual gets married by a gargantuan “teamwork”. So the indians are more keen in partying, having “fun” and then they can always go back and marry the one their parents choose. I don’t think these people have a commitment factor playing on their minds at all .So what we have is a pseudo-american culture which is even more dangerous cos it exactly pulls out the scum of the western culture.
And I’m a big fan of you and ur colleague Shonali Muthalaly. Does she have a blog too? Can you please post the web address?Thanks.
Dear Anon! Would have liked to know your name!
Interesting observation. But even in India, arranged marriages are no longer the rule…at least in the metros, that’s changing gradually…
but yes, there are many those who be American when it suits them and turn Indian when that’s convenient!
Thanks for reading us. Shonali has not started blogging. Will convey ur msg to her!
Thanks again!
dear suderman,
please stop writing for the hindu. when threedays o by without an article from you, I get my hopes up, but then things come crashing down when you get a front page spread. I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but please limit your writing to the internet, where the general public are not forced to read articles which are full of crappy innuendoes and crappier puns.
Here’s hoping you have yourself a yappy Diwali, Suderman! 🙂
http://drive.blogs.com
Re: “other families not watching TV” – I wish I knew, Suderman. All i know is that Radio listening is a much better form of entertainment than TV watching. Them are really idiot boxes, IMHO! 🙂 Ravi
dear anon!
*evil wicked laugh*
wat to do, u seem to be a nice person too… but you just seem to love the crap, so much that you take the pain to return to my blog again, again and again and even post comments again and again!
Nice guy and me??
*more evil wicked laugh continues*
And hey, now that u’re a regular here, next time, pls make ur hate mail a lil interesting to read at least…
thanks drive blogger! happy diwali to u too! 🙂
Ravi, radio is cool, isnt it?? (all india radio evening slot not counted as radio, terrible RJs!)
Suderman….my spirits soar on your comment about Radio being cool! Have been radio-active since a long long time! Can’t imagine life in Chennai without FM! Yup, terrible, terrible RJ’s AIR’s FM Rainbow, except Niladri – he’s the silver lining! 🙂 Ravi
Morals, like truth, by definition, is absolute. They never change. However, we people as agents of environment are not good with absolute, which is strange cuz most of us fear change as well – divine dichotomy i must say, seem to have this notion that morals are up for interpretation. Thou shall not means thou shall not, it is not thou shall not sometimes!
Also lets not be so critical on the ‘social’. It does not make you who you are. It might influence you, it might tempt you but what it cannot do is make you, unless ofcourse you give it permission. So, unless we see within, we will be with out!
And lets also not be so critical about America, the land of the free and home of the brave! After all they are the only super power created purely by democracy.
This is very true.. especially after the incident when the underage guys drove over a girl after they were drunk…. Pretty sad and also the Jesicca lal incident in Bangalore. Bangalore is becoming pretty bad , people getting caught in compromising positions everywhere around the city!!!!
Lets see .. its more like waiting to see such a thing to happen ( Shame on me!!!) or like OH MY GOD!!! LOOK WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!!! lets see which one happens !!!
Very Nice blog Suderman. you write so well, so why do you make such a concerted effort to write as if you are doing so for a bunch of juveniles when you write for The Hindu?
I loved your article on the driving down the highway and I went back to read your articles over and over but the fact is that while these articles are interesting, you just fill them up with the silliest of puns. I naturally assumed you were a bad writer, but looking at your blog it doesnt seem so.
Write as you are writing here, FORGET the puns. your articles are interesting and you dont need stupid puns to make it interesting.
Cheers
A Well Wisher
well, well-wisher-who-wishes-i-stop-pun-ishing-my-intelligent-readers…
🙂 its an incurable condition…
He he! I dunno wat puns u r talkin abt! Some stories call for puns, some dont… the story dictates its requirements… in the last five eyars, ive written over 1500 stories… with the average time taken to type per story being about an hour to 90 minutes max… sometimes u get a bad story to do and u have to do it… u cant just say ‘No’.
such are the demands of the job, sometimes its the mood, sometimes its the flow, sometimes its just the story… these arent machine made…
the thing abt puns or any style of writing when u develop one… some people just love them and i know some hate them but hey! u just cant please everyone, can u?
and blogs arent wat im paid for! i write here according to my mood, things i feel strongly about, not the case with my stories in the paper… they are manufactured for the lowest common denominator… sometimes u need to spell it out for them… intelligent readers form less than 5 per cent of our readership, so when we write for the common man, the approach is a lil different!
there are columns in my paper even I hate… columns i think with reek of bad grammar and the juvenile… yeah more juvenile than me… but u wont believe how many ppl like to read them!
Cheers!
and keep the feedback coming…