Are REELS really REAL?

- Srishti Singh

Have you ever thought that why are your preferences for movies so different from those of your
elders? Has it ever happened that the storyline of a movie makes you vulnerable to emotional
breakdown? Do you prefer to spend money on your comfortability or entertainment while
watching movies?
So if your answers to these questions make you confused, then you must think to understand a
more about the cinema culture and its impact. Cinema has never been same throughout the
cycle of changing times. It has been the trend that from early stages of profounding the culture
of expressions, it has become a part of entertainment for us. There was a time when movies like
“Guide” etc used to become a source of guiding lights for people to learn more and more about
life but now, the shift has become to the understanding of actors/actresses than the acting.
Have you ever thought why? The answer is simple with respects to the association of cinema to
a profit oriented market culture. Since 1990s, the culmination of modelling within the cinema
world has led to the oversimplification of business. Nowadays, the questions come on movies
that how do they enjoy this popularity of profit generation than to the audience who are only
concerned about their “entertainment”. The shift in cinema has come a long way till the time of
its advancing and enchanting outsourcing within the social media boundaries as well. The
concept of modernity and westernised moderation are becoming a ladder for artists to move
ahead in making what’s pleasing to eyes than to mind. The only concerning shift of cinema is
not befolded within the circumstancial boundaries of one’s perspective to see a problem but it
lies in maker’s way of presenting it to the audience. Recent controversies over the changing
wave of patriarchy have become a mass oriented campaign to save the cinema from it
dismantling phase but we need to understand that who led this “market” to influence the society
so much? The answer is a simple ‘we’.
This surrendering of ourselves to some other entities over our mental preparedness have
majorly become a cause of how cinema plays with the minds under the word “eyes”. The culture
where cinema is not just a part/way of entertainment but a 2-3hr long brain-washing of our mind
is a new problem that this generation is facing to understand where the major problem comes
when we/the viewer starts to imagine themselves in that situation doing the same or the other
thing down the line. This over-imagination because of the social media profoundity have been
the underpass of such shifts in cinema when we are connecting to actors than their roles on the
screen. Nevertheless, the shift in cinema have majorly become on the verge of some good and
some bad productions, no mediocrity is essentially being the major cause of its backlash. The
need for the generation is to stop this over imagination of themselves into others shoes and
understanding these “reels” as NOT “real”.