“They are representing my struggle, yet I can’t relate to it. Why?” This is the subconscious reaction of our mind, when we watch most of today’s cinema and television shows.
Credit must be given where its due, and I must admit that to some extent, our reel world is now trying hard to shape itself as per the aspirations of our society. And to a large extent, it has have achieved a decent feat.
I don’t think so. I do believe that if we analyse the gradual change in the cinema story-line, the representation now is more reasonable, loosely based on true stories. But still, the faces shown in most of the reel versions of real-life stories are not even close to ordinary.
I am not only referring to the set standards of beauty. If we assess today’s cinema objectively, we’ll understand the dissonance between an actor’s personality, and its relevance to the real story plot. Though make-up departments are doing wonders to achieve this glory and in bringing in the radical change in the appearance of actors on screen, there is still scope of more improvement in this regard.
And it is not only about the face, but also the entire personality that an individual carries. It’s difficult to imagine a fair, handsome, well-built chap playing the role of a man doing ‘menial’ jobs. Also, the dialogue delivery of actors is extremely important in impacting the mindset at large. So, maybe it’s the stereotype hardened over generations or just the harsh truth of our life, but it is how it is.
Well, a piece of good news is that now film industries have finally started signing up faces that that look more ‘ordinary’; the normal faces resonating the extraordinary struggles through their art, that is what we need. It gives me immense pleasure when I see the portrayal of a student’s life by a medium-built, simple looking boy, than a tall hunky-bearded gentleman.
I am also glad that not every single movie today is a heroic tale of a rich classy casanova, or a sassy woman who had it all, or nothing at all. Now many of the stories are more localized and sourced in the roots, where no one is a hero or villain. Everyone is just playing his or her part as per their needs from the society. That is the also the hardcore reality, folks!
This complete harmony of story-line and appropriate casting, is the key to people’s heart. No wonder movies like Stree, Sui dhaaga, Lagaan etc. succeeded because of their vivid liveliness of ground reality. The cast of these movies not only tried its best to fit in the roles of ordinary people, but the way they delivered dialogues was also pretty much in tune with the common dialect of the masses.
So yeah! That is how I want the future of cinema to be. A truthful experience of people’s struggles. Now I don’t mean to say that fairytales and unrealistic dramas shouldn’t be made at all. They should be, because such cinematic experiences provide an escape from the usual mundane lives. But if someone’s going to direct reality into art, it should be done right.
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