Cinema has been in our lives for the last hundred and odd years. However, today it is somewhat losing its value for a multitude of reasons.
For this reduction of interest in the cinema the causes are not far to seek. The first and foremost cause of the decline of the Indian cinema is the very obvious decline in the substance of the cinema. Though during the last few decades there has been a tremendous technical advancement in the production of the cinema, it fails to attract a class audience due mainly to the phenomenal rise in the standard of vulgarity and violence.
There is an absolute lack of a good theme or a catchy story in any movie of today. It is only very occasionally that films like Roja, or Hum Apke Hain Kaun are turned out, and these do see a great viewer number. All the others that are produced are, either carbon copies of some other movies somewhere else in the neighbourhood or from the west. Where has the original thinking of moviemakers disappeared? If the movies are not copies of some other movie they are repetitive in nature.
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The same standard story of a love triangle has lost the interest of the cinema goer. Besides the general standard of the cinema having gone down, the entry of the television on the entertainment scenario has further displaced cinema from Indian society. There are so many movies being shown on the television that, who would like to go out of home to see them when they can be seen in the drawing room of one’s own home? There are not only pictures but also many cinema-based programmes that capture the interest of the viewers. The entry of the television in the Indian home has made cinema going redundant. The Television has an added advantage against the cinema.
For cinema there has to be a cinema hall which several of our villages do not have, but, the television has enteied homes in the villages also. This makes the television more popular than the age old cinema.
In urban areas also, the cinema has taken a back seat as, most people have no time to go to the distant cinema halls, and also the tickets of most of the new latest halls have become prohibitive for the middle class. Just one outing for a cinema for a family of four costs the family Rs.600/-. How many people of the urban areas can afford this expenditure on one cinema?
In the times gone by, it was for this very reason that cinema was popular as, it was then, the cheapest mode of entertainment for a family. Now, seeing the same movie at home in the home television has thus caught up. Now, since enthusiasm for seeing a cinema in a hall has reduced, we see several cinema halls closing down. Films being produced are mostly trash and that fails to attract any good gentry. It is the lower-class only that now goes to halls mostly, as, the pictures cater to their tastes, of seeing vulgarity and violence.
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For the better classes of gentry, the cinema has become a thing of the past. With a onetime major expenditure in purchasing a television set gives them an entertainment as good as for free. Besides the television caters to the tastes of all the members of the family. Cinema based programmes, sports, news, debates, and talks etc. give a wholesome spectrum of knowledge and entertainment in one’s own home.
Thus, as the Indian cinema has made great advancement yet, it is losing on its popularity due to a variety of reasons. Having started from the movies, it became talkies then colour entered the cinema, then further advancement in the technology and yet, it is all gone to waste because it has not been growning in all its aspects. The industry has only grown in financial jugglery but, the in depth acting and dramas are all lost.