The level of Indian Cinema has gone downhill

I saw this short clip of an old Indian movie on Instagram, where a few veteran actors (then young) were discussing whether an artist must be politically motivated for his art to be relevant.

Nearly all the comments under that post were praising the level of dialogue, and comparing that to the quality of movies produced now, lamenting that the level of Indian Cinema has gone so terribly downhill, and how it’s a very sad state of affairs.

Perhaps true?

Where once thoughts and ideas were discussed on-screen, now its almost entirely about unrealistic action sequences and item songs.

But then again, it depends on how you see it.

Most of the people lamenting this apparent erosion of quality don’t seem to realise that the movies back then targeted a specific audience… rich urban/sub-urban dwellers. Elites of the society.

Cause they were the only ones with the money to spend on movies.

Bharat was poor back then. Not everyone had money to throw on 2 hours of amusement.

The situation is different now.

The people of Bharat are much richer in general, and the quality of life has drastically improved. Naturally, this means the movie industry caters now to a much larger audience… hard workers, who don’t seek intellectual stimulation from movies, but just a couple hours of mindless relaxation. Their lives are taxing enough. Let’s not judge them for it.

So, while for some this dilution of quality of movies denotes dumbing down of the audience and a fact to be lamented… it actually just denotes the nation getting richer as a whole.

And that’s something to be celebrated.