Watching a film is one of the easiest means of transcending the limit tins of one’s mean existence and participating vicariously in lives of char caters who are larger than life.
Living in one part of the city and limited in one’s action by scarcity of money and finances, most of us lead a life of constant struggle to keep our body and soul together. Added to that, the societal norms hardly leave us any scope to indulge the fancies of our mind – be it an urge for a romantic relationship or an adventure in the hills or the sensuous pleasures of eating or drinking in luxury hotels. While we are watching a movie, we forget the grim realities and drudgeries of the work-a-day world and are transposed into a romantic world where heroes and heroines are bestowed with extraordinary energy and mental powers to enable them to live according to the dictates of their fancy.
While in real life, we find ourselves handicapped to change even petty things in our environment like a strict teacher or a disagreeable driver of the school bus, we find the characters in the films shifting from city to city as easily as we change our dress. As the film progresses, our identification with some characters become deeper and deeper and we forget our actual selves and the real world we live in. We partake in the make-believe world of the heroes of the film, sing and dance with him and also suffer the pangs of unrequited love or torture at the hands of heartless villains.
There is a lot of truth in the statement that a film transports us from a world of grim reality to an enchanting world of beauty and glamour. It is equally true that many a film makes us laugh and tickle our sense of humour.
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But there are other kinds of movies which artistically depict the agonies of unfortunate lovers, trials and tribulations of old and lonely parents and the misunderstanding between bosom friends. Such movies have always had more lasting effect on me than thrillers. The lovers in “Quay mat Se Quay mat Take” who were dreaming of a life of eternal bliss fall victims to the ferocious hatred of their respective parents nursing family enmity for two generations. It shows that children do suffer for the sins committed by their parents.
The few moments of idyllic love stolen by the lovers from th inexorable time leading them to a tragic finale are pregnant with breathless excite mint. Our moral feelings get relieved when we see the enemity of the feuding fami lies being buried with the death of their young children. ‘Sparsh’ is a masterpiece o Hindi cinema depicting with stark realism the dreary’ life of old parents who are pass ing each moment of their old life waiting for some good news from their child. Tht agony which we bear with the old characters is a significant emotional experience one never remains the same after an experience of a great work of art. It enriches ou emotional repertory. It sensitises us so that we respond more sympathetically to olc people in our real life.
Characters in a film exercise a more lasting effect on one’s mind if the growth or development of a character is unfolded by the director with psychological insight. “Gandhi” of Attenborough impressed me much more thoroughly than even the Gandhi of Autobiography. Verisimilitude with which Attenborough has depicted the times and a situation of Gadhi’s charisma makes tremendous impact on the spectators. After seeing the film, I was emotionally convinced of the moral powers of Gandhiji on the masses whom he could dissuade from violence by undertaking a fast unto death. Mehboob’s great classic “Mother India” is a powerful portrayal of the bad world saturated with the evil genius of a money lender. But it also shows in bold relief the nobility and perseverance of mother who is unbending even in the worst circumstances while personally undergoing all imaginable torture and hardship.
A film is, thus, not only an escape from reality; it is also an ordering of reality. The maker of film selects only those episodes of the life of a character which are purposive and significant, which impart authenticity to his character and are essential to the plot and movement of the story. A successfully portrayed character fires our imagination, inspires us and emboldens us to strive for a better life. Our own experience of life is very limited and circumscribed. Through films, we can make others’ experience our own. We can vicariously participate in their joys and struggle, their trials and tribulations and their fun and excitement. Films unfold multiple dimensions of human existence.