We went to watch the movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (BMB) last weekend. An awesome movie but that’s not what I want to dwell upon here. After the movie we were discussing about it and that was when my 6 ½ yr old daughter realized that what she had watched just now was a “real” story, not fiction. Even after repeated assurances she can’t believe it. I didn’t say anything to her but it set me thinking that unbelievable stuff is what real heroes are made of. And she needed to know about more such tales to believe it and get motivated and inspired in her own life.
That’s when I felt we need more such biopic on Indian heroes for our young audience. Today’s kids hardly know about people like Tilak, Gokhale or Veer Savarkar. Or Maharana Pratap, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Kunwar Singh, Panna. The list is endless. There is lots of literature available on them but I find the kids lacking in the patience to read them and recreate them in their mind like we used to do. Gitapress books and Amar Chitra Katha comics had a lot to do with shaping up our personalities in our growing years. Not so now; the kids today prefer the fast paced visual medium.
That the children should develop reading habits from childhood is another matter. I feel they should first be fed on stories of our heroes in whatever medium they want. A series on Bheem or Hanuman is much more preferable than the all-consuming attention kids pay to Chhota Bheem. Chhota Bheem is a character even my 1 yr old daughter identifies. I’m not sure I’m proud of it.
In the recent years, there has been a spate of movies on real-life characters, like Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, Gandhiji. There is an upcoming one on Mary Kom too. Many movies have generated storms over authenticity of events or depiction of characters, but children, thankfully, are unaware of such things. They watch a movie and remember the story. In my opinion, something is better than nothing. They at least get to know about the great people and when the right time comes they will be able to form their own opinion.
And we adults would not mind watching great movies on the side!!!
