Sanjose A Thomas

Modern era is of media activism and a long time involvement of almost all people, men and women, children and the aged in different platforms of social media with an unending list of social media outlets ranging from WhatsApp to FB and from Instagram to an unending series of social networking sites many of which we haven’t even heard of. The term ‘media sabotage’ becomes more relevant and equally controversial in this new age of media activism and proliferation of information which is nothing but an information superhighway. Malayalam film industry began its saga from the late 1950’s and it evolved into one of the best in terms of literary resourcefulness, technical quality, viewership across the country and undoubtedly it made a deep and an indelible impact on the lives of many millions of people and is giving livelihood to many stakeholders both directly and indirectly. Malayalam movie industry always had a passion for the good in 1960’s,70’s and even till late 80’s and despite being commercial it nourished and sustained certain values and ideals which became the basis for its development in the years to come. After the dawn of the 21st century almost all media platforms got variegated and the priorities changed especially in terms of social, technical and cultural requirements. The Malayalam movie industry was one amongst this which underwent drastic changes and this change never missed any domain including the representations of various social entities including religion.
Religion is a social institution and just like family, marriage and education it also came under the influence of all waves of social transformation especially after the onset of liberalization, globalization and the changing value themes and priorities. As a result of this materialism grew and material pursuits became more prolific and more common even in the religious arena which gradually led to moral repudiation and turpitude in certain segments including the arena of spiritual engagement. But at the same time good models persisted and they persist even now despite the fact that there is a minority setting bad examples. In reality, this minority existed even before but usually it didn’t come to the limelight due to the absence of a powerful fourth estate.
Malayalam movies in the yesteryear times always projected Christianity and Christian values in high esteem and always attempted to give due expression to our values like sacrifice, affection, truthfulness, honesty and simplicity through various movie depictions and characters. Our institutions were also shown in a good light and often showcased the multitude of charitable and social initiatives we manage and the multifaceted services we render. But in the new era especially in the first decade of the 21st century this started changing and many often our religious vocations and values are projected in a bad light and taste. This new trend even went to a drastic extreme that the recently released mega hit movie named ‘Bheeshmaparvam’ even portrays a priest as a villain who schemes to kill his own siblings and depicts Christian families in a poor light. This is not an altogether new phenomenon, but this narrative is slowly growing over a period of time in Malayalam movie industry and is gaining ground slowly. Our Christian families directly come under the influence of these movie platforms and many often they have a direct impact on our family ties and relationships. We should definitely examine or should be seriously concerned about two dimensions primarily we must how these movies influence our younger generation who are following them strictly and believing them as true to life realities. We must also ponder very much on the models we are giving to others or the larger public both in the spiritual, social and in all domains of action. This self retrospection is very important as it will definitely help us to figure out what is going wrong and how we can correct the same. At the same time we must show great vigilance in handling with the message conveyed by these movies over a period of time and how it is taken or absorbed by our younger generation. Prevention should happen along with ample cure and this alone can help us handle our movie platforms better.