FROM FAKE FANTASIES TO HOLLOW HEROISM by Dr. Jernail Singh Anand

Films are generally referred to as  entertainment industry. Nobody expects much from film makers whose major professional commitment is to churn out blockbusters. How to bust a block? There have been formulae like the angry young man phenomenon, lost and found, family reunion, dacoity  or sometimes, social reform too.  Now a days, the major issue with industry is hard-core entertainment of a public thoroughly bored with life. Therefore, they take to crime thrillers, blood and gore, and villainous gangs thirsting for revenge. Bed room scenes, rapes are stock in trade to make films highly entertaining. Entertainment has gone to the head of the upcoming generations and even the universities where authors like Shakespeare were dropped to entertain  authors who write of sexual escapades reducing literature learning to the level of platform thrillers. If the people lap up only such stuff, that is the reason enough for writers to go for writing which respects no boundaries.

The Operative Word: Entertainment

So far as the film industry is concerned, the operative word is Entertainment. There is nothing wrong and no accusing finger can be raised, because even if film makers take to moralistic enterprises, the eye is on entertainment and wealth creation. Even in literature, stories of steaming love affairs, killings, broken marriages, rapes and court proceedings - are best entertainers, which soon touch the top of the charts.

The point to worry is that this entertainment mania has stormed our normal world also. The society where things happen in reality, and people suffer and die in reality, has been overtaken by the film mania. Social media has broken the barriers between the real and the unreal. In fact, society has lost its sense of the real, and has gone over to the world of the make belief [read entertainment].  What are the people doing in Tiktok? Showing off their physical dimensions? In advertisements, where falsehoods are a sacred text, people of high social standing are found selling chocolates. They laugh silly laughter, and try to make you laugh too, and take you to your ruin laughing. In advertisements, stars are shown telling lies with aplomb, and when they say something, we are bound to accept it without anyforethought. This is the business world which takes full benefit of our craze for entertainment and our love for our heroes. [film heroes, I mean].

Isn’t it intriguing that you find heroes only in films where unreal stories are told, and unreal feats are performed, and in such a way that ordinary men look like great heroes. If you put a film hero to contest an election, he can easily defeat the social activist, winning by a great margin.

Hollow Heroism

This craze for unreal life of entertainment and fake joys has taken the society by storm, so that what we witness in our society is not only disturbing, but devastating. Our leaders turn buffoons to entertain the masses, and make them utter slogans in a frenzy. This craze for flimsiness, and fake heroism has entered even the places which merit seriousness.  The entertainment industry depends on drama, and people in academics and social sphere have now taken the ‘nautanki’ route.

Serious scholarship, thoughtfulness, commitment to values, a faith in honesty and humanity, - every good thing which made the society move forward with dignity and pride  has taken wing, and has been replaced with a spurious pride in culture, fabricated truths, and falsehoods which are being propagated like gospel truths. This is how the film industry has invaded politics and our society. Everyone is an actor now, and they know the value of the movie camera.

We are all now playing to the gallery. Doing everything to show it off on the face book. If someone has died, he will not die so long as there are a thousand messages of RIP. Your marriage anniversary will be celebrated only on the FB screen, or Instagram, or if you are very important, on X.

It seems we have ceased to be human. We believe only in show biz. Life is a show-biz. Heroism is show biz. You do not exist if you are not on FB. Hail hollow heroism! Hail fake fantasies of greatness! Hail our indivine passions! Hail man who has lost his sense of himself!

Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, with an opus of 180 plus books, is Laureate of the Seneca, Charter of Morava, Franz Kafka and Maxim Gorky awards.  His name adorns the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. Anand is a towering literary figure whose work embodies a rare fusion of creativity, intellect, and moral vision. He’s not just an Indian author but a global voice, challenging readers to confront the complexities of existence while offering hope through art and ethics.   If Tagore is the serene sage of a colonial past, Anand is the fiery prophet of a chaotic present. Recently he dedicated ios collection of 12 epics Epicacia Vol 1 and Vol 2 to Serbia and Dr Maja Herman Sekulic.