Hit Movie Material

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India makes great movies with the hero fighting the corruption and bad guys (probably in about 99%) in just about every story. The fight against the bad guys and corruption in the society is glorified with gory and great detail in just about every movie in every language we have in India. We are celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema, and also we celebrate the bashing of the bad guys along with the celebration 100 years of Indian cinema. Not just Indians but world over there undeniable connection to cinema and fighting the bad guys, and in almost 100% of the movies the good guy comes out clean (unless you are picking off-beat movies or someone who is making them for other than masses).

It is not just the movies, but our literature and folk lore to our history and philosophy; all of them typically uphold good verses evil, and the good guys although, might suffer temporarily, always come out well at the end of the story. The irony of today's life in the great nation is that these good guys are continuing to remain in fiction and celluloid and have not been appearing in real life. While we love to compare someone to Rama for displaying virtues which are uncommon to the society, and constantly name children with names of great souls, we simply don't live or let other live in virtues we expect from others. It is simple to say no one else is following the rules and why we should follow the? The virtue of truth and applying rules of truth to life is difficult when the whole society is simply not paying attention to being truthful.

We read about Rama and Gandhi and many thousands of our mythological and also contemporary leaders who have lived on our great land. Whenever we get a chance we will use their names generously, but when the time comes to application of their life and times and ideology; we will simply leave it to the others to follow them and not us. Just that everyone in the country think the same and no one wants to follow the path to a successful and principle driven life. The life and times of our past (great souls) is simply relegated to discussion and prayer and is never applied to real life.

One of the greatest example of the 20^th century outside of Mahatma Gandhi life and times is of Shridi Sai, his life and times. Sai has millions of followers who sing and pray multiple times a day and hear his life stories of simplicity and sacrifice with great reverence. Just that once they come out of the place of worship the simplicity and sacrifice are quickly forgotten. Mahatma Gandhi has his name on a road in just about every city, town and dwelling all across India, but none seem too bothered about his examples of sacrifice and simplicity. Great nation with great examples of leaders and gurus, and people showing great reverence to their life and times, but none following the footsteps of the great souls.

We definitely make great movies and television series on the life and times of our ancestors and men of great deeds and just about all of us watch them with great devotion and excitement and anticipation, and definitely take the celluloid to heart. But the 100 years of Indian cinema has not brought positive changes to our hearts nor to our society, rather the systems, politicians, bureaucrats, managers and just about everyone who has the power to just do their job have only become more and more insensitive to their responsibilities and encourage corruption. Each year the instances and value of the corruption becomes greater and great, while the common man suffers from the stolen prosperity and also the accountability of those who are in positions of power. Unfortunately our saviors are relegated to the silver screen or the small screen, and our prayers remain in the place of worship.

In a culture that has history of the glory of peace and prosperity, the rationale of a society without prejudice and a place for communal harmony and life of tolerance has been relegated to celluloid. We pray and reminisce and we take the name of the great souls as if we believe in their life and time, but we simply leave it at that and for the silver screen, but seldom attempt to practice their preaching's in real life. It is too easy to watch the tales of virtue and elimination of evil on screen, so very difficult to follow in reality.