Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
Looking at the role, affectivity and penetration of the world media in manufacturing the public opinion, it is surprising to know that the bigwigs of Pakistan are terribly unconcerned with the ever-deteriorating industries of Pakistani cinema and Pakistani films. This article compares what a film can do with what a diplomat can do; and through this comparison, highlights the importance of filmmaking as an effective means of media.
The government should realise that the media are no more a tool. Political economy theory and media hegemony theory suggest that the media are a weapon in the hands of the haves. They manufacture consent according to their desire. They marginalise the dissents. The recent history of the modern world has a lot of stories to tell in this regard.
Just have a look at the media owners of the west. You shall come to know that these are the very people who own weapon factories as well. Once the factory has produced enough ammunition, it has to be sold out in order to keep the factory running, adding capital to the surplus and sustain the monopoly. Therefore, already inclined and volatile countries are persuaded to start wars. The company which has a lot of vested interests in the war desperately wants to, number one, perpetuate the war as long as possible, and number two, win it in order to attract the new customers. Sadly, the benchmark of an ammunition factory is the lethality of its products. More the weapons are lethal, more desirable the products of the factory would be.
The sparked-out war by the tycoons who simultaneously own the weapon factories and the media outlets start propaganda through their TV channels, radio channels, newspapers and movies. Thus, a war is not fought between the two countries. It is fought either between the two rival tycoons who own media and weaponry, or the same tycoon who first sparks out a war between two countries, and then funds both of the countries with the weapons; and stages fake rivalry over his media outlets.
Owing to the power of fiction and drama, movies are the most effective propaganda tool, because a drama offers an emotional appeal to the viewers. It tries to convince the hearts first. Frankly speaking, a warrior is an emotional creature by design; and so are the under-developed countries’ masses.
If you look at the he-men of Hollywood, Bollywood and Lollywood, you will find no potential difference in terms of talent and diversity of ideas among them. That is, Rambo, Dharmeendra and Sultan Rahi’s skills of killing the bad-guys are unparalleled. Put this way, John Woo, Rakesh Roshan and Masood Butt have the similar mindset. The only difference is the way the available technology is used to tell the story. They, the Bollywood and Hollywood filmmakers, successfully prove the labelled bad guy a real bad guy and inculcate a believable impression in the viewers’ minds that the story told has a great relevance with the world outside the theatre.
Remember Air Force One, Executive Decision and True Lies? The villains are either the Iraqi Muslims or the Russians. They tell the story through films in a so undeniable way that no other effort of the brainwash could easily work then. The surrogate parents of the young generation are the media, says Dr Mughees. The youth receives the image as reality whatever is shown through films.
Can’t Pakistan make movies to effectively counter the Indian or any other enemy’s propaganda?
Instead of wasting money on the pathetic propaganda-films like Bol and Khuda kay Liyay, the powerful of the nation should take some practical measures. Allocation of special funds/subsidiaries for both cinema industry and film industry and setting the creative and professionals of the field free to produce whatever they want to shall bring tolerance in a pluralistic society like ours.
