I always get torned in this debate. Should movies take responsibility of what message they are giving out in society? I don't know, maybe they should, but then all movies will come under Sooraj Barjatya genre. I think glorification is the main problem here. But what glorification really means? For some people Khilji might be glorified, though he was shown as complete evil, but the character still looked cool. Is it right to make baddies look cool? People didn't hate him in the end like they are supposed to hate a villain. Again, why are we even supposed to hate a villain? No one is complete evil in real life, why make villain a complete black character who has no relatibility. He can have a likable human side. But I guess that will be glorifying his deeds.
Movies make smoking look cool, because they always show some rebellious guy or girl smoking in movies. It adds more personality to their character, but it also makes some nincompoops think that they too will become cool if they smoke. Swearing too is cool, though it should only be in English. Revenge is glorified in Hindi cinema since decades, but is it right to break law to take revenge? There are too many grey areas here.
What I do know is that a movie cannot always be about the good guy. Lead characters can do questionable things and can still be leads, and it's not necessary that there always be repurcussions for their actions. Because that doesn't always happen in real life either, does it? But I guess it should. No one is going to like it if the lead protagonist of a movie rapes a woman, and her family gets her married to him. That too happens in real life and is shown in movies of 80s. Now people call it regressive, but it's considered okay to swear, smoke, drink, even murder and stealing is kinda glorified in films.
I think this is where we draw the line. Misogyny is a problem, rape is a problem, terrorism is a problem. They are not shown as cool in movies because India has suffered alot by it. We hear about rape daily. Misogyny happens everywhere. Terrorism causes massacre. Anything which has affected our society to a large extent since decades or centuries is strongly discouraged to be glorified in movies. Though it's okay to glorify murder in name of revenge because not everyone is out there doing that and it's not affecting society alot.
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