Cinema And Politics The Biggest Crossover Ever!

With politicians raising the decibel levels in the streets and political films at the movies, India is getting geared up general elections 2019. This year (2019) has seen a lot of political films and this sparked many debates. But often people fail to realize that this isn’t the first time, it goes back to the pre-independence period.

India is neither the pioneer in both but in due course it has made a mark for itself on the global level if not for the quality at least for the mass consumers.Cinema is not just the movies that are screened in the big screens but also the theatres. These theatres were an integral part in forming of democracy itself. Satyagrahaencompassed of songs and plays urging the people to rise up. Since then cinema used politics as the material and politics used cinema as a medium.

Both cinema and electoral politics follow a similar process; everything that needs to addressed is first made a note of, the steps involved are figured, the audiences are identified and it’s presented in a way which is widely accepted (even if it is not correct). In the end there are always a set of people who are disappointed.And despite the failure there is a cult following endorsing the brand to others and urging them to follow. It is the cult following that ensures tea breaks and late night debates are never boring. Apart from creating ruckus this “Cult following” ensures the guilty is punished.

In due course after embarking their individual journeys the roads crossed each other; after all it is the same set of audience. Cinema and politics met. The one’s who ruled the box-office went on to form the Government; officials from the Government used the medium to reach public. When two mass mediums meet a tussle is expected, not for the front page of the newspaper but something bigger.

Individuals from both the medium fought against each other. People from cinema used pen to battle the ones in throne, the latter suppressed them. This fight didn’t stop the relationship between the two but it gave a different dimension. The filmmaker’s vented out their frustrations through movies and the “smart” politicians used the same movies to endorse themselves by playing “Ads” before it. The relationship between the two kept evolving. The next dimension both these mediums are going to take leaves us all intrigued.

Fought for each other, fought against each other, what does the future hold?