Songs and Films

Masses in India cannot imagine Indian films without songs. For them it hardly matters whether it is bollywood or other regional movie industry. Though its presence is significant in recent times in commercial context, its roots go to the ancient and historic era as well. Poetry was the major contributor in then time entertainment. In fact, in every kingdom, one honoured poet was the part of King’s council for general meetings. Even for general public, there used to happen street shows where story was explained in poetry. The reason for this is poetry conveys message effectively with few words as compared to story itself. The same thought was reflected in our greatest epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. After it, the tradition of “Sangeet natak” came and same legacy continued in modern version of entertainment, i.e. movies.
But there are so many differences in these two types poetry inclusion in entertainment. Obviously old is gold and that is true because poetry or songs of that era really conveyed the message which was well understood by those people. Even the content was related to day to day life matters of aam aadmi. Songs had meaning that time. But what do we observe today is totally different from its natural essence. The major difference is, today it became too commercial to digest. I accept that poetry is still alive in its natural form but what about its reach to the common man? Today’s poet write good but how many of us really read and appreciate that? Hardly few!! And this does not mean we should blame public. The world is fast today so the taste of the society has changed a lot. Today the mode of entertainment is movies rather than reading poetry. People prefer to listen movie and album songs because of there easy availability.
But here also the change is not satisfactory. The reason is large number of quality less songs in movies. In fact, 75% movies are waste for many but still they can have good songs and this is what is missing. The content of songs nowhere resembles to what is should be. Many songs are forcefully included in storyline and their music is altogether a different story!
Thanks to the people like Gulzar sahab and Javed Akhtar, their many songs are worth to listen. But their numbers are very few as compared to the whole. The lyricists and movies makers should realise that quality matters and not the quantity. Or else they should go without songs which anyways don’t contribute to the film. At least such movies can be finished earlier as well with lesser expenditure and even people can enjoy such movies without wasting their entertainment time. Because for them, it’s better to watch a complete story without hustle of pathetic songs and that is also within time. What else we want, everything within time with full entertainment. Or my honest advice to all, please read quality poetry, it is worth.

General Elections 2009

World’s largest democracy’s elections are over now and even results are out. The Indian voters showed their expectations from these results. It was no surprise that no single party will gain clear majority but still its quite surprising the success of UPA in 2009 general elections. The kinds of results are out clearly showed that society’s perspective towards government is changing now. If we are to discuss the outcomes of the election then situation seems to be promising now. With UPA gaining clear majority assures that for this term government would be more stable as compared to the last term.
The leaders of UPA really projected the good image of their alliance in the minds of voters. Mr. Clean image of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh clearly gave an edge to UPA over other PM hopefuls. Every party tried to suggest the names for the top job but for voters Dr. Singh remained the first priority. His good image in Indian politics, balanced nature, calmness, expertise in economics and his international image among world leaders were significantly helpful to the Congress and its allies. His nomination as the PM assured voters that they will vote for the right person. Not only had this but Rahul Gandhi’s charisma also helped the Congress especially in states like UP. But it was Sonia Gandhi who managed everything very well right from choosing allies, party’s manifesto and party’s attachment to voters.
Now what would be the future course of actions now? One thing is clear that economical decision process will become faster to recover the slowed economy. Same people will hold the power (with minor changes) so they will continue with reform procedures with more effectiveness. Decision making and implementation would be faster because government will have enough number of MPs in Lok sabha to avoid the threat of confidence motion.
I accept that new challenges will always be their but at least for this time the nature of challenges would be different from age-old and traditional challenges like maintaining power etc. In this election people refused the orthodox voting pattern and they really voted for party and its ideology instead of candidate centric voting. They sidelined many outdated issues and gave importance to economic development, good governance, social security, issues like energy deficiency, education etc.
Here I don’t want to discuss which the best party is and who is who. Rather for me, needs of the common man of this country are the most important. Leaders must understand the changing trends in society; they should be able to read their minds. Leaders should not focus on what they are offering instead they should realise the needs of the people and then try to fulfil them. Society changes as per the time and so the ideologies of parties must change according to that. Needs of the masses and not the classes should be taken in to account in party’s manifesto. Remember, we are a democracy where people have different perspectives on different issues. That is why it is important to build a common consensus. 100% satisfaction of 100 crore plus people is a dream but leaders should aim for that and proceed accordingly.
Someone will form the government and mobilise the development; that is their job but those who will be in opposition must remain alert to check on government’s behaviour. This I say because they are not sitting there for themselves. They should take care of sections which will be left out from the development process. Because in a true democracy, no matter where do you sit, your job to protect the interest of nation ant its citizens.