I'm watching "Kadaisi Ulaga Por" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32991468/) at the moment and it does make me wonder about how the everyday Indian, or specifically Tamilian, on the street views the world. Is the movie a true reflection of how they perceive the world? Or is that how they are meant to think the world is after watching the movie?
The movie is set in the near future and sees India as surrounded by enemies. China, Russia, and the Middle East breaks away from the UN and sets up their own rival organiztion. Sri Lanka and other nations join them. India stands as the last holdout in the region.
In several scenes, they have a "war criminal" from Sri Lanka attacking and killing Indians as this new group invades India.
I have to wonder — is this how India sees itself? The one lone holdout against enemy forces in the region? Or is this propaganda to get people to see themselves as such?
If this was one single example, I wouldn't have thought so. But in addition to the constant anti-Pakistani imagery in Indian movies, I've seen emerging anti-Chinese messaging in Indian movies in the past few years.
Sure, this also mirrors what you see from the US, which also appears to be upping its anti-Chinese messaging.
But in a world where everybody seems to think that getting the message out to the most number of people, whether it's true or not, is the most important thing, how do I determine what really is true? How does the general person on the street learn to differentiate between propaganda and entertainment?
And how much do these entertainers care about the messaging they disseminate?
#Movies #Tamil #India #PropgandaOrEntertainment
@f
At the most abstract level, I think every piece of fiction contains an intentional part that is purposefully crafted to contain some sort of message, and an unintentional part: the bits of the story written without any particular intent and consequently using whatever the author believes is "normal".
Using this framework, I think that much of what you question in this movie is intentional propaganda. If you set your movie in a distinctly fictional future, the views of that future are clearly things you put in yourself.
As for the other movies I have no idea, I'm not Indian nor follow its culture closely.
But I do know that the BJP is an ethno-nationalist/far right party at heart, so I wouldn't be surprised if the trend you observe is them spreading their views of international politics.
