Many times, movies tend to shape some of our perception of everyday life even when we are aware that it is fiction. One of them is college life. We often end up imagining college life to be the ideal world of fun, romance and action when it is actually much more complicated. This gives people a wrong depiction and false hopes. As Anjitha M notes,
“Remember how in “2 States”, college life is filled with all kinds of celebrations, from holi to the new year to what-not. Sure, we celebrate at my college too, but there’s a catch. You get the celebrations done by 5 pm and go home to do this thing called “study”.”
Bollywood movies often depict college life in unrealistic terms. One example is the depiction of pressure and studies. Some movies have done a good job of portraying the stress faced by students. Most movies, however, have no mention of the fact that creativity is dying in education. They tend to ignore the very reason that makes students take admission into colleges- the need to survive in the rat race. Most of the movies fail to portray the stress of entrance exams- an inevitable step before getting admission into colleges. Neither are the deadlines, assignments, attendance etc. ever brought up. According to Saranya Subramanian,
“[C]ollege is actually a really hard, serious time in most of our lives. It’s when we study the most and when we have to make serious life decisions about what we want to do with our lives and our futures. So when all these ‘hep’ college students just get through their academic lives chilling, playing guitar, chit chatting at the canteen, breaking out into song and dance, or scamming millions into making a fake college, it’s unbelievably false.”
Students are often trapped in this false portrayal of college life. They hope for and imagine impossible things but are met with a reality that is different and dispiriting. Movies only present an abstract depiction of wholeness but don’t provide any concrete method to reach that wholeness. This makes students pessimistic and cynical about the reality. It leaves them with no option but to take a passive and defeatist stance.
We, therefore, see that popular cinematic representations contradict the reality of neoliberal competition. Movies offer nothing but a fantasy of wholeness when there is fragmentation and isolation in reality. People become passive consumers of a false idealistic world and cannot think critically. People consume them to escape the oppressiveness of reality. Therefore, they become a source of escapism. For them, movies are not mediums that enable them to have a drive for social change.
This is not to say that movies should not be a form of enjoyment for the people and should strictly stick to reality. Movies can depict enjoyment while at the same time moving away from the deliberate concealment of social antagonisms. An example of this type of movie is Three Idiots. This movie, like many other Bollywood movies, has its fun moments, and some over the top scenes too, but it stills enables the viewer to critically look at the education system and leaves them with a clear progressive message.