Are we learning our politics accurately?

Jayashri Ramesh Sundaram
3 min readJan 9, 2019

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Its the season of politics and the public eyes are not only the campaigns but movie promotions. With movies made on political leaders and their parties lined up, it is only Utopian to think that this will not influence the elections and the voters. Politics in movies is not new or unique to India alone. World over movies have been seen talking politics in between the lines and most of the times with direct references as well.

Having the ability to entertain audience by engaging the audience’s senses and reflecting human emotions on screen, movies certainly carry the ability to instill an idea or even to say ideology in people. However, this does not come easy only using science technology such as sound and vision. A huge segment of film making is devoting to script writing. Even a ‘based on a real life story’, goes through an immense artistic structuring hence at the cost of the true event.

Although both broadcast news mediums and movies are engaging the audience’s eyes and ears, it is the art of offering a personal identification with a character helps movies stay a step ahead in conveying messages. This emotional quotient paves way for the audience, who are watching at a cinema theatre or even on a television screen to empathize and take a side. This is not to say all the viewers take sides or get emotionally involved. To those, for whom it does induce extreme emotions such as fear, anger or disappointment, it hinders critical thinking process putting the audience at a risk of emotive reactions even while voting.

By contrast, conveying political happenings through journalism is full of loose ends, with no closure or moral for the reader to carry forward. News, even if concerning the same issue is put out everyday, it is majorly disorganized, fragmented thus lacking a thread for a common person to remember. Studying the authenticity of news mediums is beyond the scope of the article.

Another form that cannot be ignored at the junction is non-fiction non academic books.

Why do movie biopics create more curiosity among people over books?

There is no denial that books face no controversy. We are familiar with books such as The Satanic Verses by Salam Rushdie, Nine Hours to Rama by Stanley Wolpert and Understanding Islam through Hadis — Religious Faith or Fanaticism? by Ram Sawrup that ……..

In India, while television penetration through which movies can be accessed stands at 54 per cent of the population as of 2013, more than 60 per cent of the population can read at least one language.

Although the number of literate people looks overwhelmingly positive, the reach books can have is pretty much disappointing given the availability of stores and the cost of books.

Know your political leaders and Politics right

In a time when political news can be manipulated to a larger extent and fake news propaganda, being political aware is hard but not an impossible task.
Take steps such as knowing your local leaders in your constituency or district. Self educate yourself on the claims your leaders make. Check for figures from authentic sources. Understand the politics of the time then and now.
Read more than one newspaper/news portal. Learn more about the author of a book you are reading. Know where the base story of the movie that is entertaining you is coming from. Most of all, be open to your stereotypes being challenged and be ready to unlearn.

Respect freedom of speech. Be entertained but keep your guards up. Do your research before your buy the narrative. Know well! Vote smart!

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