WE DON'T NEED KADHAL, 3 OR VODAFONE

Aishwarya Dhanush’s 3 that released last weekend was met with mixed response from the audience and critics. The feedbacks basically dealt with various aspects of film making encompassing the screen play, treatment of the plot, performance of the cast, entertainment value, directorial skills etc, to name some.

However there was this feature which had missed many but disturbed perhaps some was the sensation called love that was being shown in school going children in the film. Although the lead cast carried their roles with consummate élan and convinced us of the age that they were portraying, this aspect of LOVE in the young adult group stood out like a sore thumb to especially the parental group of the audience.

And of course by no means we can say that 3 has ushered (!) in a new fad as there are many predecessors to this in the annals of film history in all our languages.

Balaji Sakthivel’s Kaadhal was a hard hitting film and was a trendsetter of sorts narrating again about love or infatuation, whichever you choose to describe as, between a rich school going girl and a young but very poor mechanic. Although the film is supposedly an inspiration from a real life incident that was well filmed by the director, it certainly gave a wrong signal to young minds that it is ‘cool’ to be infatuated when you are in school and elope from the cozy confines of home and your loved ones succumbing to your hormonal demands.

When it comes to cinema or television or any visual media, there cannot be a second opinion about it being powerful enough to have an impacting and life altering effect on the impressionable minds. Testimony to this is the statements of most of the tortured souls who have been brought to the books in various cases that we come across in newspapers that they were inspired (!)  by cinema. And the cases don’t seem to go south.  

The recent Vodafone ad went one step further and showed ‘love’ in elementary school children! More than the films, it is these TV footages that incessantly throw their missiles at the unarmed ones in your very own drawing room and there is no escape even if you flip channels as it is a commercial that is bound to transcend all channels.

Romance is really pleasant, refreshing and is sure shot a feel good emotion but when this beautiful feeling is shown to be extended to an age group who are already battling with the play of hormones in their body, combined with parental and societal demands to do something worthwhile within the prescribed norms, there is every likelihood of this group getting misguided by what reaches them in the form of entertainment.

This is one domain where our film makers play a huge role in molding the next generation. There should be some kind of societal accountability on the part of every (ad)film maker as their product is going to have an impact on someone.

And finally, an earnest request to film makers - If you want to show romance or love in your films, please showcase the beautiful feeling in a fairly higher age group with maturity which is aware of what they are doing and please do not bring it down to school children.

Make an impact and let that be a positive one!