Chennai: The Madras high court blaming films for occurrence of social evils and some recent crimes in society, evoked mixed response from the film industry.
“Gone are the days of actors like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan whose films and characters portrayed by them went a long way in reforming the society and inculcated moral values in the minds of the public, lamented Justice N.Kirubakaran.
Supporting the judge’s statement filmmaker Leena Manimekalai said populist films feed on insulting women to boost patriarchal values. “It is pathetic that the ‘filmoholic’ Tamil society is happily drunk on the idea of commodifying women”, she said.
While a section of society blames commercial films for glorifying some crimes and thereby wrongly influencing audience, film actress and Congress spokesperson Khusboo said each film has got a certification based on its content and people should follow that. “People need to understand what is good and what is bad and we can’t blame films for all the bad that is happening in society”.
Contradicting Khusboo’s statement, Nikhil Murugan, a mediaperson representing films and film stars, said film industry must exercise some self discipline and avoid roles and scenes that could negatively influence audience, especially youngsters.
