Indian cinema is 100 years old. The anniversary coincided with the celebration of the 60th National Film Awards ceremony. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the awards. There were 500 entries, a jump of 25% from last year. The President urged film makers to produce morally relevant films for the audience. Indian cinema earns a fabulous amount and a considerable amount of foreign exchange. But commercialization of Indian films is not what matters. Cinema is a media with a great impact on the public mind. It is considered literature on celluloid and as it gives a three dimensional effect to actors and scenes, its appeal enhances. Unfortunately, the President’s appeal often goes unheeded. Scenes of rape, violence, drunkenness and other forms of debauchery are shown and this has a debasing effect especially on the younger generation. The surge in the incidence of rapes and growing addiction of young people to drink, drugs and other kind s of lawlessness are said to be the result of irresponsible cinema. Sometimes good cinema, nationally acclaimed, also has an overdose of eroticism and explicit sex.
But moral relevance does not mean avoidance of love and passion and stories of human interest. The recent trend in Hollywood to make films which plunge into absurdity with a bit of pseudo science fiction injected into them is not a healthy sign. It is good the Bollywood does not show overindulgence in it. A team has been set up to educate censors. Censorship should be rational and not unduly conservative. It should not cut out the seamy side of life. For instance, films condemning rape and violence have a moral relevance but lurid details are unnecessary. Big money is less important than sensitive creativity shown by directors like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha, Govind Nihalini, Shyam Benegal et al.