Discussing films with my cousin
He: Media is a very passive form of consumption, there is no interaction - when you are sitting in a movie, there is no social interaction. People interact after the movie, right? During the movie, you don't interact with each other in a theatre. So movie going is a social experience, movie watching is a especially a very personal experience. In the home it is different, you can pause, you can discuss, you can do everything...in a theatre, people will be... "shhh..." and then you are just watching the movie. So that's why when we go for team activities, we never go to movies, We are like, it is almost an anti-social thing, because all you are doing is sitting for two hours watching a screen and not talking to each other. So that is why we have stopped going to movies with office going people.... and that's when I started realizing that movie watching is an extremely anti-social experience.
Me: No, but going back to the earlier point . The point I was trying to make was not for choice or angst or something, the point I was trying to make is how movie shapes the society. how they influence the society.
He: There is a huge influence of movies in society. All these Disney movies are. . .you want your life to be perfect, right? Now this Barbie doll, why barbie doll? Why don't you give somebody something else, a girl, why don't you give a girl a circuit board? why do you give her a barbie doll? Why that stereotype? May be the girl does not like the barbie doll, may be she likes something else. And where did barbie come from - it was a Disney character.
Me: Exactly, people start identifying themselves with the stereotypes. And sometimes people assert their identities through stereotypes. They get more and more legitimized.
He: I mean I hate Hollywood movies, the mainstream Hollywood movies are very stupid. I mean I can watch a bad Hindi movie, but I cannot watch a bad English movie. The movies that they make, the studio movies are so pathetic...so everybody is like "have you seen transformers..." I have no interest in transformers." Some Hollywood movies, as much as I can. And the trouble is that all these big Hollywood producers are coming in India and they are going to bring in the same kinds of movies in India.
Me: Yeah, but the verdict is that the Indian common man is so frustrated by his own life, that he wants to escape from reality.
He: Yeah, you know for example the movie Gaban, is it is about hardships in city life, the one of the 1970s that has the song "seene mein jalan...." Why will a common man want to go and see it? Why would I want to see the misery of my life on screen?
Me: I don't know why, but see, when you see such movies, the screen suddenly becomes a reflection...
He: Yeah so he is like "why do I want to see the misery of my life on screen? I am living it, I dont want to see it over and over again. I am living that misery right now."
That is what I think goes on in that person's mind: "I am living this miserable life, I know how bad it is, why do I want to see it?"
Me: Of course, certainly, but the thing is that it is meant to make the person question oneself.
He: When the stomach is full, you will think about these things!
Me: No but that is not always true, because that is to say that the common man does not have any common intelligence.
He: No, he may have it, but I am saying that his time is limited.
Me: No, I don't mean to say that he does not have the time to invest in reflection. I don't mean to use reflection as a way of intellectualizing, but as a way to recourse your own life, or your own decisions.
He: y--ea--h. The thing is that people are so caught up in living their lives.
Me: The whole idea of a mirror is that it takes you out of yourself so that you can look at yourself objectively.
He: Holding a mirror to yourself is the most frightening that that you will ever do. And that is why people don't want to do it. They don't want to know what they are going to discover.
Me: Oh that is a very well put ... idea.
He: So you may want to, you may think holding a mirror to oneself is what you should do to your life, but it is very hard to do.
my cousin is a computer engineer.
anti-social: he meant socially passive
He: Media is a very passive form of consumption, there is no interaction - when you are sitting in a movie, there is no social interaction. People interact after the movie, right? During the movie, you don't interact with each other in a theatre. So movie going is a social experience, movie watching is a especially a very personal experience. In the home it is different, you can pause, you can discuss, you can do everything...in a theatre, people will be... "shhh..." and then you are just watching the movie. So that's why when we go for team activities, we never go to movies, We are like, it is almost an anti-social thing, because all you are doing is sitting for two hours watching a screen and not talking to each other. So that is why we have stopped going to movies with office going people.... and that's when I started realizing that movie watching is an extremely anti-social experience.
Me: No, but going back to the earlier point . The point I was trying to make was not for choice or angst or something, the point I was trying to make is how movie shapes the society. how they influence the society.
He: There is a huge influence of movies in society. All these Disney movies are. . .you want your life to be perfect, right? Now this Barbie doll, why barbie doll? Why don't you give somebody something else, a girl, why don't you give a girl a circuit board? why do you give her a barbie doll? Why that stereotype? May be the girl does not like the barbie doll, may be she likes something else. And where did barbie come from - it was a Disney character.
Me: Exactly, people start identifying themselves with the stereotypes. And sometimes people assert their identities through stereotypes. They get more and more legitimized.
He: I mean I hate Hollywood movies, the mainstream Hollywood movies are very stupid. I mean I can watch a bad Hindi movie, but I cannot watch a bad English movie. The movies that they make, the studio movies are so pathetic...so everybody is like "have you seen transformers..." I have no interest in transformers." Some Hollywood movies, as much as I can. And the trouble is that all these big Hollywood producers are coming in India and they are going to bring in the same kinds of movies in India.
Me: Yeah, but the verdict is that the Indian common man is so frustrated by his own life, that he wants to escape from reality.
He: Yeah, you know for example the movie Gaban, is it is about hardships in city life, the one of the 1970s that has the song "seene mein jalan...." Why will a common man want to go and see it? Why would I want to see the misery of my life on screen?
Me: I don't know why, but see, when you see such movies, the screen suddenly becomes a reflection...
He: Yeah so he is like "why do I want to see the misery of my life on screen? I am living it, I dont want to see it over and over again. I am living that misery right now."
That is what I think goes on in that person's mind: "I am living this miserable life, I know how bad it is, why do I want to see it?"
Me: Of course, certainly, but the thing is that it is meant to make the person question oneself.
He: When the stomach is full, you will think about these things!
Me: No but that is not always true, because that is to say that the common man does not have any common intelligence.
He: No, he may have it, but I am saying that his time is limited.
Me: No, I don't mean to say that he does not have the time to invest in reflection. I don't mean to use reflection as a way of intellectualizing, but as a way to recourse your own life, or your own decisions.
He: y--ea--h. The thing is that people are so caught up in living their lives.
Me: The whole idea of a mirror is that it takes you out of yourself so that you can look at yourself objectively.
He: Holding a mirror to yourself is the most frightening that that you will ever do. And that is why people don't want to do it. They don't want to know what they are going to discover.
Me: Oh that is a very well put ... idea.
He: So you may want to, you may think holding a mirror to oneself is what you should do to your life, but it is very hard to do.
my cousin is a computer engineer.
anti-social: he meant socially passive
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