Representation basically defines how age, gender, social problems, gender, race, sexuality etc.

are shown or dealt with by the media and in what perspective they are presented to the audience.
Infact this representation is very influential not only in how they display something but also how
it manifests itself in the audiences understanding and opinions about particular groups,
ideologies and communities. This representation is so important that it can also help shape new
realities.
Cinema is one of the most powerful forms of media, most of how society is perceived is through
what people see on screen and relate to. The problem lies in the fact that the many times
representation causes more harm than good due to inaccuracies in portrayal and a biased or
negative image.
Taking into account the topic of race the majority of positive protagonists shown are straight
white males, while people of other race are mostly displayed as either villains, flat background
characters or comic relief. Using tropes like these creates stereotypes which in turn creates a
general negative image of that particular group. This also falls in relation with a term know as
‘symbolic annihilation’ which basically means that if a particular group, community or ideology
is not represented enough that group, community or ideology is not important. Actually, this not
only influences the way society perceives them but how they perceive themselves.
People of other race are just one of the underrepresented categories, having the lead character be
a different sexuality or even a different gender is very rare. Sometimes just to compensate for the
lack of diversity on screen a random character is put to balance out things in a blatant use of
tokenism. One of the most recent uses of this was in the new avenger film where they had a gay
character seemingly just to have some sort of representation for the LGBTQ community.
Yet on the other hand the movie Black Panther did show representation in terms of race on a
much larger scale using a cast that was all almost entirely black and giving all the major
characters actual power without having a white man come rescue them at the very last moment.
Another aspect the movie represented well was having strong female characters.
In terms of sexuality being represented while there are quite a few representations in mainstream
television, mainstream cinema it doesn’t seem to have improved much. In this area especially
tokenism is rampant using non straight or non cis characters just to show some representation.
Yet what is neglected is the fact that representation does not just refer to just showing or
portraying a character from a community or group but also the fact that the character is
potentially a person that someone from the audience could identify with and therefore essentially
the character is taking their place on screen. This may also help audiences who haven’t had these
particular experiences understand a different worldview, fundamentally broadening their
perspectives and ideas.
Just observing an Indian perspective on the kinds of films prevalent today reveals similar
structures even here with quite a few problems of their own. The knight in shining armor trope
prevalent everywhere takes on some rather dark shades here, where the main protagonist exhibits
increasingly problematic behavior just to try and get the girl he “loves”. The ranges all the way
from stalking, blackmail and also harassment. The most prominent example of this is the movie
Darr which has the main protagonist stalk and harass his lady love long after she has told him
she isn't interested, going so far as to carve her name on his chest in the name of “love’’. Yet this
film is actually hailed as the tale of a misunderstood hero instead of actually being accused of all
the problems it has. This trope goes hand in hand with another one the damsel in distress both of
these working together to reiterate the concept that women are the weaker gender always in need
of being saved by the stronger men. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that female centric films
like Kahanni, Queen and Neerja were made allowing women to essentially take the lead in their
own stories.
Even so this is just one aspect used to portray the female identity in films, another much more
commonly used plot device in films is rape. The way this works is to basically kick start the
“heroes” journey, boxing the character into the stigma of being a victim and making this the
central aspect of the characters identity. In the movie Bandit Queen, the film continuously shows
rapes being committed multiple times especially in one gruesome sequence where Phoolan Devi
is gang-raped and which is cited as her main reason for having a vendetta. Doing this the director
strips away all other aspects of her character reducing her to again another victim. Another
example is the film Mom where again the whole plot revolves around the rape that takes place
and the revenge vented out for it. In majority of all these films the main concept reaffirmed is
that the biggest tragedy that a woman can suffer is rape. Making her a victim and then tying her
identity completely to the incident and giving her no other traits and in doing so also allowing
the audience to forget about her as a person as through the majority of the film she is used as a
prop to the power struggle of all the characters surrounding her.
Still this is not the only problem with the way representation works in Hindi cinema using
minorities in the country as a form of tokenism is a very common usage. With comedic relief
being the predominantly used format. Where all the characters introduced have stereotypical
behaviors or set character traits. One example of this is in the movie Chachi 420 where are the
characters introduced from different religions are shown in the most stereotypical way possible.
Even for that matter a movie like Amar, Akbar, Anthony shows Akbar and Anthony in positions
of lesser powers with more stereotypical characteristics associated with their characters while
Amar is show as the way India audiences perceive their protagonists.
These examples might in fact give a relatively good idea as to the minds working behind the
content that audiences consume. Most of them seem to come from the prevalent ideas of society
today or even more importantly the people in place of power today. While representation of
people who do not fit into the norms is either comedic device or in a negative way. Whereas it
would probably be a better idea to show society as it could be instead of just sticking to
culturally appropriated norms that seem to do more to restrict the way we interpret and look at
the world than broaden it.
Everybody deserves to see their lives mirrored on screen, doesn’t matter how simple the concept
or role, the important part is the way they are shown. Flat characters just sticking to clearly
defined boundaries does nothing for the story and doesn’t allow the audience to identify with
them. This is why representation matters; it is especially important that characters are
represented as accurately as possible with a better portrayal of their identity so as to create a
positive and more enriching impact on audiences.