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When man comes home after day’s work, he needs some sort of entertainment and relaxation. Cinema has proved a wonderful and forceful means of entertainment and amusement. A young man of today can go without food but not without a film. The cinema is the cheapest and the most popular form of amusement. Laborers can afford to miss their evening meal, not their evening show. Students prefer films to reading books. Thus, cinema exercises a very powerful effect on society. Cinema is a universal teacher. It educates the people in different branches of learning.
Our film producers have made very purposeful films to collect public opinion against some of the social evils as dowry system, the labour exploitation. It can teach us natural history, geography, botany, chemistry etc. Documentary films lead us to a street in New York are to a park of Tokyo. These films increase our knowledge, broaden our outlook. Social pictures throw light on social evils as untouchability, casteism, unemployment and the curse of widowhood, etc. These films ripen our eyes and create in us an urge for improvement. Cinema has a great commercial value also.
It is itself a great industry, Lacs of men and women are directly or indirectly employed in this industry. It is a good and easy means of advertisement. Things and articles can be shown in practical use through the films. Most of the modern Indian movies ignore higher ideals. It is wrong to say that the public wants vulgarity. Too much cinema going is injurious to eyesight, health and purse. Bad films leave a very vitiating effect on the minds of youth. They give rise to different kinds of crimes. The vulgar obscene pictures should not be allowed to be exhibited. They cause morality in society.
The films which make the people gamblers, dacoits, etc. should totally be banned. The traders of film industry should not be ill owed to profit by showing sensual scenes and physical demonstration of love. These films effect the moral character of young boys and girls badly. Cinema, on the whole, is a powerful means of recreation as well as of education. It is not itself bad. The film producers should select good stories classical mythology, historical subjects and Indian literary master-pieces. Documentary films on scientific, historical and literary subjects should be shown to students.
The producers are misusing cinema for making huge profits. It should be moral duty of producers to produce noble and inspiring films. The Government should take care of this. If cinema industry produces noble and inspiring films, the cinema would be a true friend, philosopher and guide of the masses. Science has made spectacjilar advances. The twentieth century has many scientific inventions to its credit. The cinema occupies an important place among them. In the beginning cinema pictures were movies only i. e. there was only movement but no sound. Such pictures were called silent motion pictures.
The silent motion pictures were shown with the help of projectors. But with the invention of the photo-electric cell, it became possible to introduce the sound track in the films. The pictures thereafter were not only ‘movies’ but ‘talkies’ as well. The talkies became very popular within a very short time. Before the advent of the cinema, the drama or stage-acting was regarded as the most popular source of entertainment. There were apprehensions that stage-acting would be ousted by the cinema. There is no doubt about the fact that the drama suffered a setback for sometime, but ultimately these fears have proved untrue.
The drama still continues to enjoy its place of prestige, because the physical presence of human beings on the stage has a direct emotional appeal to the spectators. There is, however, no denying the fact that the cinema has acquired great popularity with the masses. The cinema is a powerful and effective means of com-munication. Because of its audio-visual character it has a great mass appeal. Such a powerful and effective means of communica tion can be gainfully utilised in a variety of ways. This most popular source of entertainment for millions of people can be used as an instrument for creating public awakening.
It can help to a great extent in enlisting public co-operation in the task of nation-building. In our society there are many practices and traditions which are based on ignorance and which have withheld the progress of our society. Rigidity of caste system, untouchability, dowry system and purdah system have done enormous harm to our society. Cinema films can do a lot to eradicate these evils. They can be used for promoting national integration, Prohibition, intercaste marriages, family planning, eradication of illiteracy, etc. Such themes can help the transformation of our society.
The cinema can be used as an instrument to help people get rid of obscurantism and also to guide them along the right path. It can help in remov ing ignorance from our society. Not only this, several much needed social reforms can be introduced and brought about with the help of the cinema. The cinema exercises a great influence on the mind of the people. It has a great educative value. It can achieve splendid results in the field of expansion of education. There are certain subjects, such as science and geography, which can be more effec tively taught with the help of talkies.
Lessons on road sense, rules of hygiene and civic sense can be taught to the students and the ‘ public as well in a very effective manner with the help of cinema pictures. Many successful experiments have been made in various countries on the utility of films as a means of education. Feature films have been produced for school and college students and students are being benefitted by them. Cinema films have the power to influence the thinking of the people. They have changed the society and social trends. They have introduced new fashions in society. They may be described as pace-setters.
They can create a direct impact on our social life. Films can go a long way towards arousing national consciousness and also in utilising the energies of the youth in social reconstruc tion and nation-building by a skilful adaption of good moral, social and educative themes, and by introduction of popular sentiments, films can, to a great extent, formulate and guide public opinion, Because of their audio visual appeal cinema films are the most powerful means of publicity and advertisement. Small publicity pictures or skits when shown on the screen easily catch the imagina tion of spectators.
The cinema has so far remained unchanged as the most popular audio-visual mass medium, but now with the arrival of television and its impressive pace of advancement, the cinema can no longer afford the luxury of complacence. It has, therefore, to improve its performance and to maintain a high standard. In our country cinematography has been developed as an art and the film industry is an organised industry. It is a foreign exchange earner industry. Many Indian films have won inter national awards. This gift of science has some disadvantages, too. It is a force and has the power to influence the society.
So a film which depicts scenes of moral degradation or which violates our moral standards does immense harm to our society. We know many young people have gone astray under the misleading influence of indecent pictures. Filthy, immoral and crime pictures very easily catch the imagination of impressionable youth. Such films can be accused of producing delinquency. The films produced on the western trends or the films which try to preach x western moral standards are producing a bad effect on our younger generation. So the producers of films and the film censors owe a great responsibility to society.
The film producers should try to resist the temptation to mint money by producing formula pictures ; they should rather produce good pictures of educative and reformative value. A good film is higher than any education and a bad film is more injurious than poison. Incoming search terms:impact of cinema on society (108)impact of cinema on social life (55)cinema as a means of education (47)influence of cinema on society (40)CINEMA IMPAct on society (26)impact of cinema (24)cinema and its impact (17)Essay on impact of cinema on social life (15)impact of cinema on the society (15)indian cinema and its impact on society (15)