Prachi Pathak, Assistant Professor, KJ Somaiya Institute of Dharma Studies, Mumbai

Indian cinema has been a popular medium to express ideas effectively. Along with being an impressive tool of entertainment,it has also been looked upon as a way of setting examples, establishing the norms and at times also breaking the norms.

Indian cinema deals with diverse topics ranging from family dramas, social issues, real life events, historical or legendary stories, gang-wars and much more. Although, In India, cinema is watched and appreciated across the regions and languages, this article mainly focuses upon Hindi cinema as a common and popular medium of audio-visual expression.

Indian minds are largely cinema lovers and they prefer to watch the movies that they can relate with. They want the hero to speak their unspoken words, perform their suppressed actions, fulfill their incomplete wishes, and sing their unsung songs. The attributes of ‘Hero’ or ‘Heroine’ might have changed to a large extent over a period but they mainly reflect the mindset of the existent generation who is the target audience of that cinema. The treatment of morals and ethics is generally expected to be juxtaposed with the real society.

However, there are a few exceptional examples that make one review these definitions. These examples encourage the audience to think out of the box and analyze, understand, and interpret the conventional ideas of morals/ ethics. The acceptance or rejection of these new ideas remains subjective, but often cinema stands out as an influential instrument to lead to some revolutionary changes in the people’s mindset. This article focuses upon selected exceptional examples with multiple layers and shades of ethical and moral choices.

Social well-being over personal emotions

Mother India (1957)- This film portrayed how a mother shoots her own son who has turned out as a bandit and is dangerous for the village. Her decision to kill him is a gesture of a woman who sacrifices her personal motherhood and in turn becomes the mother (savior) of the entire village.

Breaking the stereo-type

English- Vinglish (2012)– The film spoke about a housewife cum entrepreneur selling homemade sweets. She is often mocked and ridiculed for her poor English-speaking skills by her husband and daughter. Her under confident and insecure nature is challenged when she must travel alone to New York for a family function. She decides to enroll for the English-speaking course and finds out people like her are undergoing similar stress. In this process, rather than just surrendering to the circumstances, she makes a choice to establish her identity. Her journey to learn English is also a journey of self-recognition and realization to herself as well as her family about her potential. The movie aptly talks about the changing image of Indian women in a positive and convincing way.

Three Idiots (2009) – This film comments about some of the flaws in the existing education system in a witty manner. It challenges the established parameters of talent, intelligence and knowledge gaining and highlights the importance of proper understanding and application of the knowledge rather than just being a part of the rat race in the field. The characters are seen making choices of their morality over pressure being given by the society.

Humanity over law and order

Do Ankhe Barah Hath  (1957)- This film presented a story of a warden of the jail who took on a task to rehabilitate 6 dangerous prisoners and successfully transformed them into sophisticated humans. When law had declared them as the criminals and society had rejected them, the warden could see the humanity in them and acted on them to make them socially acceptable. The choice of the warden reshapes the moral ideas and makes one think about the existing notions.

Right over wrong

Shree 420 (1955)– This film presented a story of a poor young man who comes to the city with a wish to earn money. The easy money-making tricks like gambling attract him and soon his earlier innocence fades away. He becomes a trickster and skillfully cheats on people. After a series of incidents where innocent lives and their assets are at stake, the young man realizes his mistakes and chooses the ethically right path.

There can be many more movies that can present the special choices of humans with regards to morality or ethics but not all can be covered in one article. There can also be a distinctly opposite picture of morality displayed through movies. Eventually, the portrait of diverse characters and their choices has impacted a lot to the Indian mindset.