Of late, the cinema has become the most popular form of recreation and entertainment. Its charm is irresistible. The number of cinema houses is ever on the increase. Men and even women from respectable families are joining the cinema career in ever increasing numbers.
Though old people are not attracted by it yet it is the only amusement to which even the old go comparatively oftener. The cinema house is the favourite haunt of the youth. It would be no exaggeration to call it their Mecca. It is the college students’ paradise, the school boys dream and the working man’s much sought-after diversion.
Besides its amusement and entertainment value, the cinema has a great educative value. The cinema has a great part to play in raising the educational level of the country. It gives the masses the knowledge of many current and important subjects.
A picture showing the development of modern industry has a great deal to teach the ignorant passes. It adds a lot to our knowledge of history and geography. Historical and geographical pictures, jungle thrillers and documentaries are so gripping and interesting that no other kind of recreation can come up to their level of amusement.
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You may read about men and places in your books of History and Geography but when you see them depicted on the screen, you feel as if you have actually conversed with them and seen them. When a pious devotee sees the shrine of Shri Kedarnath at a height of 11,000 feet amidst mountain peaks of unparalleled sight and grandeur and when he sees thousands of pilgrims trekking their way up to the cave of Amarnath, pictured to him graphically and vividly on the silver screen, he feels as if he has actually visited those places. The impressions of a picture in a cinema are so striking that they go home. Imagine the breath-taking thrill of enjoying a film on the conquest of Mount Everest.
The documentaries on Bhakra Nangal Project or D. V. C. Project or fertilizer projects at Nangal and Sindri, or Chandigarh Capital Project, are most thrilling and educative. Mathematics, history, geography, chemistry, physics, biology and engineering can be best taught with the help of cinema slides.
No text book and no lectures can produce as deep and lasting an impression on the students’ minds as do the pictures in a cinema. Lessons taught with visual and auditory aids have an indelible impression on the mind.
To sum up, the cinema has unlimited possibilities as an instrument of education for our teeming millions, for the student community and also for the intellectuals.