Educating Mr. or Ms. Sri Lanka

By Madhubashini Ratnayake

At a time when leaders of our region are meeting to discuss profitable exchanges between the countries - it is opportune that thought is given to cultural exchange along with the economic and trade ties. Perhaps right now, the need of the hour is to give more thought to what not to exchange, because no one seems to be in charge of that. Cultural Centres are more or less responsible for the visitors from their countries and think of getting the best ambassadors of their culture to travel overseas.

But a danger lies in the exchanges of the more unrestricted media - like that of the television - for those who operate these exchanges do so on a commercial basis and have no other thought than money when they choose what to import as entertainment.

The cultural giant in the region being India, there is much of the Indian culture that comes in large doses to its neighbours, and in the case of small countries like ours, often in overdoses. A cursory channel surf on any afternoon will get you-a Hindi movie; Raj T. V. Hindi songs; and perhaps later in the day Indian soaps; Indian (English) soaps; - all given with a liberal sprinkling of ads made in India.

Of course this writer has nothing against India. I would even be an Indophile had I not been a Sri Lankaphile first. There is much wealth that India has given and is still capable of giving us. However, given our proximity to India, our smallness in size, and our mistrust of the strength of our own roots, shouldn't some danger signal be going off in all of us?

And the commonest fare that we are regularly supplied from India does not in the least calm unsettled nerves. The continuous exposure the younger generation of this country has to 'Bollywood' and all the 'Hindi' Songs' it brings with it - perhaps requires the attention of all of us without further delay. Had it all been harmless fun, there is probably nothing much to complain about (-unless of course you are a Sinhala film or teledrama maker!) and this would all be just wet-blanketting.

Yet it is exactly the harmlessness of this that should be questioned. Instances are becoming rare when a woman (it does not have to be a young girl any longer) would be allowed to go by a group of boys without a comment.

This is true of white clad boys in uniform too. And why shouldn't they think that this is not the norm? How many handsome heroes have you seen in these movies, going behind pouting, huffing, sulking damsels who pout, huff and sulk till the last verse of the song and then fall starry-eyed in to the arms of the man who really should have been booked for harassment? Young ones learn through imitation-and movie heroes are most likely to be followed.

If any parent has laid his/her mind at rest thinking that the vigilant censor is going to protect the child from obscenity on the little screen perhaps they should start deciphering the actions/movements performed in the course of most modern commercial Hindi songs. The censor cuts the kiss - but leaves most of the post-kiss suggestions intact. So the message to the child reads - kissing is not natural but jerking any part of the body that can be jerked before a mate, is! Again, this should not be taken as wet blanketting some fun - it could be fun, and even hilarious, for adults - but there are kids out there who are going to be our future, impressionable young people waiting to follow, to learn. Should we not be more careful in what we are telling them?

The other disturbing element found in commercial Hindi movies is the image of the 'man' it gives. (Not even an attempt is made in this article to analyze the artistic merit of these films, like characterisation, plot etc. This is concerned only with the impact of these movies on social behaviour.)

A terrifically warped image of Duty, Loyalty, Honour etc. is given so that at the end of the movie, not only was there violence but also there was the justification of violence . Vengeance is almost holy- almost duty. Not to avenge is cowardly - and we have the courageous mother inciting the son, the helpless sister inciting the brother, the 'nation' inciting the loyal citizen-to violence. How many times a week do these movies uphold their own version of 'manhood'?

And in Sri Lanka, we wonder how on a mass scale violence has crept into our villages. How 16 members of the same family came to be killed in a village; how death and robbery have become so simple.

Of course all our ills cannot be laid at the door of these movies. Sri Lankans were not a nation of saints before the advent of Bollywood. But what should be stressed here is that daily in almost all channels - a new vision of life is being given to our youth and the indiscriminating viewer. A powerful, false message.

India itself is not free of the problems caused by its own commercial productions. There is plenty of 'Eve-teasing' and violence there to prove it! (But again, these movies, while obviously not the cause of all of it, certainly do nothing to aid in minimizing it).

However, one feels that India is large enough to suffer any blow it is given and rise up again. The deluge of cheap (not in any sense monetary) films will not make its culture go under. But though we have almost as ancient a culture as India, we willing as we are to disregard our own heritage, do not have the strength to sustain it. Even in number we are very small. In size - a small island. What do you think happens to an island in a deluge?

But let us think of strong defences before we are driven to think of life boats! Censorship is in itself such a frightening concept and can be carried to such self-serving lengths that one is apt to disregard it as an option even in cases like these. What might be more advisable perhaps, is to appeal for more common sense from those responsible for bringing in these films into the country.

India has so much to offer us - so much beauty - so much knowledge. Even in movies, there are so many good films that could be shown here. Why bring in a film which shows a village being wiped out as a part of a goonda's daily routine, when a film like the Malayalam Piravi- which shows the loneliness and pain that one old man suffers waiting in his village home for his missing son to come back- might as well have been shown instead?

Perhaps that kind of film might make a young mind think and realize that death is not just one man shooting another-that it does not end there.

It is thoughtful young men and women we need now. Not gun-wielding macho men. Decency and respect in dealing with each other. Much harm has already been done to us by the lack of it. We must be careful in what we expose our youth to. We are too small a nation to think that anything harmful will leave us unscathed.

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