About Film

Satya Prakash's POV

Film & Ideology 

Cinema in terms of Art and Aesthetic seeks ideological contemplation for engrave a particular society of world in tune of its contemporary and historical position. Society has a series of contrasting ideological moorings which produce  many upheavals in its development.

 Italian film maker Fedrico Felini's say of movie is

" The picture that moves is called movie".    

 What sort of picture moves in movie, brings back the question of ideological mooring of movie. What sort of pace of movement of picture,brings back the question of technological as well as ideological mooring of movie. A character in film raises a series of questions about his/her association with various aspects of society like caste, class, clan, elitism , aristocracy, serfdom, feudalism, feudal monarch , monarchism, democracy, socialist democracy, capitalism, capitalist democracy, dictatorship, social democracy and other various social-economic-political philosophies that affect human lives to live in their sorts of ideological mooring. In such a wave of thoughts and dialectic situations , film making or film can not be kept isolated from churning of society. In these whirls of social churning, writers catch the story of human lives of all shades.Romance, love, separation , crime, ferociousness of rulers and Samaritan sorts of rulers become the parts of story that has spread like a novel into a script for film. Technically, script is moving in a series of logical progression from fade  in  to  fade out. How the film makers use the technical know- how in the film, raises a series of ideological muse. So film goes ahead with thoughts that attack upon another existing thoughts that come into agitation and collision.Should a film go ahead with a story line that has mindless action and hilarity in terms of exploitation of woman's body to lure the male's erotica ? But is it isolated from a particular " point of view"? This is also a prejudice opinion of male gender to satisfy female as commodity. This film is ideologically against woman as human-being.

Few films have been placed as examples to    

The recent movie " Masaan" unfolds many layers of Indian society. A voluntary love between two young boy and girl mesh up the life of a boy with his forced end in a hotel's room. This film exposes the police atrocity on a retired and respected teacher and his young daughter.This film says of love between untouchable boy and girl from upper caste.After stating his social untouchability in social order of India ,educated engineering state suffers from the dense state of distress and distraught without taking sleep in night.The girl accepts the boy, confessing that her family will never accept him but she is ready to go with him.However, this love story ends up before arrival of social storm in Benaras( Holy city of Inda) because the young and courageous girl departs from this world in a pathetic bus accident.Both the love stories have lost their respective counterparts. They come to another Holy city of India: Allahabad for their job and further study.They meet at the bank of Sangam ( meeting of three holy rivers Ganges ,Yamuna and Sarswati in myth).Film fades out with sowing a new love story between untouchable boy and pious Brahmin girl.

The movie " Pyaasa" unveils the seemingly- looking-harmonious - Indian society that is nothing but inhumane greed that puts love in triangular conflict along with nudity of human relation in a state of highest degree of popularity of a poet.Social status emerging from power of money  dominantly becomes a cause of assassination of ethics, love and human relations. 

Director Rakesh Roshan's mega budget film " Karan Arjun" is a revenge movie in successive two births of two brothers Karan and Arjun as protagonists.This film screens out the grotesque face of a man who kills his own brother-in-law and his two maternal nephews, strengthening the meta physique theory of existence of God, rebirth and physical entity as world created by God.So the film " Karan Arjun" exposes despotic cruelty of human, establishing invisible power of God and that is ideology in the film.

The film "O MY GOD" progresses with the assumption of  "World without God" but film fades out with strong assumption  of  "World with God". However, the leading male character inflicts attack upon dogma and superstition ,donation  borne out  off  religious practice of God in temples.Character sues God,making film interesting. Thought works here obviously in safe guard  of existence of God who runs human world.

The recent controversial film " PK" goes against God and their false incarnations, dogma, superstitions and religious bigotry of all religions of the world that are invented and created by men. The protagonist says that the people do not worship the real God and that's why ,their prayers do not work.He says that this is wrong number. Above all, this is a reformist film that says of  impious  religion that  is impediment  of  progress of society. God and religion must be there on  right track.

Bollywood was influenced with noir cinema of France and it has a series of films that reflect social and political churnings like " Paar","Ankush" Ardh-satya,Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro etc.

  

Therefore, film cannot be kept away from social upheaval and churning. Film is made male-centric or woman-centric or for working class, for bourgeoisie class or for dominant Indian caste for vice versa. 

These challenge to easy generalization raise significant questions about ideological determinations and aesthetic value. They cast doubt on the notion that any film, however Romantic or innovative or radical, must produce certain influence at another., more controlling level that may provoke others..They also help  to remind us  that art gets lost in the rush to theory. This menace  is deep-rooted in mind of film makers. And this is the challenge posed before them  to entertain the audiences with provocation. So, content must travel with life without compromise with immense passion to the script, film makers transcends the ideology of writer through  their film making commitment.

Generally and traditionally, film critics regard the influence of a text ( script) as dependent on  its distinctive qualities. When this influence is cast in terms of "Textual System", as Metz calls it, "tension may well remain between textual analysis and general theory or between ideology as a function of an overarching system or apparatus   and as a function of a specific textual instance".

The literary critique Terry Ellington does not convince himself, declaring sharply that art must avoid ideology because the ideology prevents the flow of art from being nourished with various ways of thinking. Ideology is like a forward walking of eye-fenced horse that pulls cart on the road .The horse is compelled to see ahead on the road because of side- covered fence on its eyes. Terry's example is right in case of animal world. Film makers are not slaves like animals.Art makers and film makers are the part and parcel of production, evolution and development of society or they are revolutionary to change the society through their arts.

"Art is for art" is an ideology that makes human society inert and fatigue that make the entire society detrimental to change. Such art or cinema serves the capitalists who pump huge money into film making business.

Therefore, thought and ideas work to shape the film with sense of imagination. Greater the thought, greater would be imagination and vice versa. So the art and cinema would be greater and realistic to shape the society in a creative and intellectual way.