“All art can be a tool of social change,” Shekhar Kapur, whose gut-wrenching Bandit Queen is on our list, declared on his blog in 2009, adding, “Before cinema became so popular poetry was a great tool for the mobilization of emotion and sentiment. While in one sense these commercial stars have served as social catalyst, there’s no knowing how much real change they have been able to inspire on the ground.Īt the height of Satyamev Jayate’s popularity, the media hailed Aamir Khan as ‘India’s conscience-keeper.’
Jokes aside, between Khan and Kumar, thanks to their outsized influence and mass following, a spate of issues like female feticide, honour killing, casteism, open defecation, menstrual hygiene and sanitation have got mainstream impact. If ever the government decides to initiate a ‘Patriot of the Year’ award, Bollywood’s two powerful Ks would be front-runners. As far as box-office goes, the timely switch in image has paid off for him, as the success of Gold, Padman, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Airlift proves. In recent years, the action star of the 1990s has transformed himself into a go-to ideologue, giving us moral lectures on what it means to be an Indian. 3 Thunivu reeks of ignorance, what’s Ajith Kumar doing in this movie?Īcross six degrees of separation lies Akshay Kumar.2 Pathaan’s success is India’s answer to hate, a love letter to Shah Rukh Khan.1 An Action Hero: Like Ayushmann Khurrana, the film is completely clueless about what it wants to be.
When asked by Time magazine about his role as an entertainer, the star replied, “It’s to bring grace to society, to affect the way people think, to make the social fabric stronger.’ Khan starrers such as Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots and Dangal prove that if you give audiences dollops of sugar in the form of entertainment, it’s likely they will swallow the bitter pill (read: social message). From a 2012 Time magazine cover profile on Khan, you can discern his bleeding-heart interest in cinema as a medium of social change. Even though Khan sometimes strays into the ‘activist’ territory, no viewer can deny his deft appropriation of what appears to be ‘cinema of conscience.’ No coincidence then that, some years ago, at the height of Satyamev Jayate’s popularity the media hailed Khan as ‘India’s conscience-keeper,’ a mantle one isn’t quite sure if the perfectionist star worked methodically at acquiring or if it happened purely organically.
When talking about socially relevant cinema - stories with a social message, directly or indirectly - in the modern context, one name immediately springs to mind.
0 kommentar(er)
