Fly Daddy Fly

Writer: Based on a novel by Kaneshiro Kazuki (Japanese born Korean Novelist).

Director: Choi Jong Tae

Cast: Lee Jun Ki, Lee Moon Sik

Plot Synopsis:

The movie starts off showing us the daily life of Jhang Ga Pil (Moon Sik). Jhang is a salaryman in his 40's and is married with a 17 year old daughter. The family are seen to share close relationships and Jhang dotes on his daughter. One day he receives word that his daughter is in hospital. He rushes there to find her badly hurt... the victim of a brutal assault by a group of young men.

In the hospital, Jhang is approached by a man who claims to be an official of a prestigious school. The man offers him money and tells him that he will also pay the hospital expenses in full if Jhang Pil overlooks the 'indiscretion' of one of his students. The student in question happens to be a rising star in the world of boxing and is also from a well connected family. The man warns Jhang that if he 'raises a fuss' then it would only lead to defamation of his daughter and that they could easily create rumors that would ruin her public image and credibility.

Jhang is forced to accept this deal under duress, but he vows to take his revenge. To prove that he is not a coward and will do anything for his family, he decides to physically attack his daughter's tormentor. When he approaches the offenders school, he drops the knife that he was concealing and causes a ruckus by brandishing it at random students.

Jhang is then accosted by Go Seung Suk (Lee Jun Ki), a rebellious high school student with talent for fighting who proceeds to knock him out. When he awakens, Seung Suk chides him for his cowardice in bringing a knife to the school and sends him on his way. However when he encounters Jhang once more trying to attack the offender, Seung Suk offers to train him so that he can have a face to face confrontation with the boxer.

The movie follows his training and leads up to a final confrontation between Jhang and the assailant. It also focuses on the growing bond between Jhang and Seung Suk...

My Thoughts:

Acting: Well there was a fair share of overacting at times, but I thought most of the actors did a great job and the cast was supremely well chosen since they all fit their roles perfectly, both in terms of appearance and acting ability. Moon Ski did a fine job portraying the emotions of a father who is enraged but at the same time helpless to persecute his daughters tormentor. There were many scenes in the movie where he made me empathize with him. The final scene where he tosses an envelope of money in the face of the school official and tells him exactly the same thing that the official had said to him in the hospital was EPIC! Well... I thought so anyway...

Story: I loved the story. Sure its a bit cheesy and follows the formula of an underdog overcoming the odds, but it was well executed. It appealed to me... it was an example of an ordinary man deciding to make a stand against a powerful foe and deciding that "Enough is enough" even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds..

Overall Score: 85% I would say.

How to Train Your Dragon

Studio: Dreamworks.

Voice Talent: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, and David Tennant

Plot Synopsis:

In the village of Berk... where Vikings have lived for 7 generations... fighting dragons is an everyday occurrence... Hordes of dragons often swoop down on the village to carry of the livestock, people and any other food they can find whereas the Vikings band together to try and fight them off. The leader of this village is the mighty Stoick the Vast. A massive red haired warrior who dispatched dragons with ease.

Hiccup, Stoick's son, is not strong like the other Vikings, instead he has a keen mind and comes up with inventions which are geared towards the capturing and killing of dragons. Sick of the constant teasing and the overall bullying of the other kids and adults, Hiccup decides to venture outside during a dragon raid to try and catch or kill a dragon. Hiccup sets his sights on the rare and dangerous Night Fury: a breed of dragon that has never even been seen. using the catapult that he invented, Hiccup manages to shoot one down but is unable to convince the other Vikings that he has.

He decides to try and find the dragons body to prove that he had indeed brought one down and discovers that the dragon had indeed been downed... but was still alive... Hiccup prepared to strike the final blow but in the end was unable to bring himself to kill the defenceless creature. He cut the ropes which tied the dragon up and released him. The dragon attacked Hiccup and knocked him to one side before taking off haphazardly and flying away...

Hiccup realizes that he is unable to become a dragon slayer like he wanted to and returns home dejected only to find that his father had enrolled him in dragon slayer training. Unable to protest Hiccup attends the training sessions only to be mocked by his classmates and also his love interest Astrid.

He tries to learn more about dragons by reading a viking manual only to find that all dragons were merely classified according to how dangerous they were and that all vikings were supposed to kill all dragons on sight. Te one exception to this rule was the Night Fury breed of dragon which no one had ever seen and lived to tell the tale... the manual advised that in the event of an encounter with a Night Fury... one should just hide and hope it does not find them. Intrigued by the fact that the Night Fury that he had brought down had not killed him, Hiccup returned to the forest only to find the Night Fury trapped in a canyon, unable to fly out since his tail had been damaged.

Hiccup tried to approach the dragon slowly and they soon built up a bond with Hiccup bringing food for the dragon (whom he names "Toothless") and Toothless allowa Hiccup to touch and stroke him. Hiccup builds a replacement tail section for Toothless with his mechanical knowhow and mounts it on him. However the tail is not perfect and Toothless is unable to fly freely. After several iterations, hiccup succeeds in making a design wherein he is able to ride Toothless and fly high in the sky and perform aerobatics and suchlike. In the meantime he has also been acing his dragon slaying lessons since his experiences with Toothless have taught him about the weaknesses of dragons.

However Astrid suspects that Hiccup is hiding something. How could a wimp like Hiccup become so good at handling dragons in such a short time? She follows him and discovers his secret... what will happen next? A grand adventure thats what! Watch the movie to learn more!!

My Thoughts:

Voice Talent: Nordic accents seemed a trifle forced... but I guess I can let that slide...

Animation: Top notch... there is a reason Dreamworks is one of the best studios in the business and it lives up to its name yet again...

Story: Based off a book which I havent read, but I loved it. An adventure of epic proportions and the coming of age story of a young boy I think this movie will be even more of a treat in 3D. Visuals were all stunning and even the end of the movie credit rolls had good art going into them. All I can say is that it blows every post Wall E animated movie clean out the water... a must watch by any standards.

Overall Score: 95% Cant find much of anything to take points off for, but I dont ever give out perfect scores either.

Green Zone

Writer: Brian Helgeland

Director: Paul Greengrass

Cast: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, and Brendan Gleeson

Plot Synopsis:

Matt Damon plays the role of Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller serving in Iraq as part of a WMD search team. He is frustrated by the faulty intelligence that he is being fed by his superiors which always leads him to sites with no visible evidence of ever having been used to produce or store WMD's. He becomes convinced that the intelligence which they are being given (supposedly by a high level Iraqi general codenamed "Magellan") is fake. At a debriefing, Miller (Damon) brings up the point that the majority of the intel given to him is inaccurate and anonymous, stating that on his last three attempts to find WMDs, his team had come up with nothing. High-ranking officials quickly debunk Miller's theory about the intelligence being false.

During one such wild goose chase he is approached by a handicapped Iraqi man who calls himself Freedie. He informs Miller about a secret meeting of high level Iraqi generals taking place nearby. Sick of his fools errands... Miller decides to go off mission and try to capture the generals.

The meeting happens to be that of General Al Rawi... a top Iraqi general and his aides who have been in hiding in Baghdad. Many of his aides propose fighting other Iraqi forces and American forces, however Al-Rawi suggests that they remain where they are and wait until the Americans arrive and perhaps make the Iraqi army an offer to join their forces.

Miller raids the meeting... but nearly all of the high ranking generals (Including Al-Rawi) escape... Miller recovers a booklet from one of the captured men (Syeed Hamza) and is interrogating him about the booklets significance when a special forces team arrived and summarily takes custody of his prisoners and demands that Miller hand over all materials recovered from the prisoners. Despite Millers protestations the Special forces officers persist in trying to search him. A scuffle ensues where Miller manages to hide the book in Freddies pocket.

The Special Forces team had been dispatched by Clark Poundstone, a high ranking US official who was supposedly the one in charge of Magellan.

Miller reports the happenings of the day to Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) a CIA officer he had met after the briefing where he had been reprimanded for questioning the intelligence that was being given to him. Miller gives him the booklet, and Martin confirmed that the booklet contained the location of the safe houses of Al Rawi and his aides.

Martin was of the opinion that Al Rawi would be useful in reestablishing order in post-war Iraq... he felt that the erstwhile Iraqi Army had to play an integral part in any post war system of government... Miller was mortified by Martins idea of dealing with someone like Al Rawi who had been responsible for thousands of deaths under Saddams reign. Martin told Miller that he should not be naive and that hard choices had to be made unless he wanted the situation to deteriorate further and for more people to die. He suggested that they contact Al Rawi and make a deal with him to find out the locations of WMD caches and promise him a role in the future Govt. of Iraq.

Poundstone however tries to stymie their plans and forcibly takes possession of the booklet from Martin. He viciously hunts Al Rawi and all his aides with orders to kill and not capture. Why is he willing to kill someone who could be such a valuable source of intelligence... perhaps better than "Magellan"? Watch the movie and find out!

My Thoughts:

Acting: Well... there is so much action in the movie... that there is no real acting going on...

but there were intense scenes and Damon and Gleeson did a fine job IMO. Kinnear was okay... he made his character look like a douchebag like he was supposed to... The actors who played Al Rawi and Freddie did the best work IMO... that meeting scene was superb...

Story: Dont know how well it will be received by the American public... I liked it. Truth be told I was always skeptical of the WMD claims. Powell talking about WMDS being made in the back of trucks which would be on the move in the desert seemed to be far fetched to me. The story also didnt meander at any time. It was tight and kept you riveted to your seat the whole way through. Shame that I was able to predict the ending though my friends all cursed me for a full hour after the movie.

Overall Score: 75% Points off due to the fact that I wanted to see more of what happened in the end... but they sorta just fade out and allow us to assume what may have happened... then theres other minor stuff... plus the fact that Hurt Locker really kinda makes every other Iraq War movie look mediocre by comparison... if you read worse reviews elsewhere... its probably because some people really get offended by the conspiracy theories that this movie puts forward...

Bollywood...

This here is a post I had made in a forum where we were talking about Bollywood... To get a timeline... Love Aaj Kal had just been released... Like... about a couple weeks before this post was made... Tops... So heres my take on the great Hindi film industry.....

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I see movies like Love Aaj Kal and think... nice packaging and editing and filming and whatnot... but missing a story, and mediocre acting at best... then I see stuff like Chandni Chowk to China and I think... crappy everything... then I see a movie like Straight and I am like... Awesome... Its hard to pin down what I really think about Bollywood... but having lived in the US for as long as I have... I realize that Hollywood is not that much different... there are crappy movies being made here too... just not as many and they never get screened overseas... so you get a skewed perspective... try watching the umpteen number of Saw movies and you'll get what I mean...

Overall I would recommend this for Bollywood.... when making a movie....

1. Get a decent script... preferably one which is not ripped off from Hollywood... Cmon... theres a billion people in our country... cant one of them have a good original idea? I hear the ripoff of Juno is coming to Indian screens soon... or is it already there?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Try to cut back on the songs... sure they can be entertaining... but randomly sticking in item numbers/romantic songs really does not sit well with me... this is not to say that you should go the Hollywood way and get rid of them entirely... but just insert them in appropriate places... a song playing when the actors are in a disco makes sense... not when they're in college or a hospital or other such places...-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Limit the actors wardrobes (and save a fortune!!) Stop changing their outfits at the drop of a hat!! And give them decent outfits... I mean the getup that Big B had on in that movie.... Jhoom Barabar Jhoom... yeesh!!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Limit the locales as well... going from Mumbai to Zurich to Kuala Lumpur and back within 3 minutes is expensive and pointless...---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Cut back on the overacting... Actors who I once used to like are seriously pissing me off these days... Some will crucify me for this... but there used to be a time when I liked Govinda... (I actually kinda-sorta liked his performance in Salaam E Ishq... but thats about it... in the last decade he has not been a single film that I remotely liked)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. I realize that sex sells... but come on... have some pride... dont you want to be able to say that your film did well because it had a plot and good acting and not because of that item number by XYZ-hot-actress.... or the fact that she had next to nothing on for the entire movie?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Let our heros be human... a guy gets shot... at least make it so that he looks like he is hurt... and let him run out of ammo once in a while... and dont go around showing stuff like (excerpt from Fanaa: Tabu blows up an enemy chopper with an automatic pistol while wearing a saree I think...)------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Try to give the actors a realistic looking 'home environment' in the movie... eg An entry level worker in some company should not be able to afford an awesome apartment overlooking the city and drive a Lexus, wear a Rolex, Armani, Gucci etc... unless they explain it somehow... rich dad or what not...

Another thing which bugs me about Bollywood is the low level of professionalism (supposedly improving). You will often see the shoddy CG in a few films which looks very fake and negates the very point of having CG in the first place. You will see crappy performances where the actor does not get into the role, or care enough about it to refuse some of the more ridiculous whims of the director or whoever (Again... I will refer to the example of Big B's outfit in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom... a man of his experience and influence should have demanded a wardrobe change...)

Then there is the prevalence of nepotism... the star-parivars... which can be easily likened to political dynasties... People get in and get umpteen chances to 'prove themselves' simply cause they're the sons/daughters/relatives of someone in the industry, or someone who is otherwise well connected...
This is not to say that one can get a break anywhere without some kind of connections either; but what generally happens is that a struggling actor (not well connected) will only get one chance to prove himself.... whereas the well connected son/daughter will get umpteen chances...

The film Luck by Chance illustrates many of the flaws I have listed in a generally candid manner... but I still see no 'response' from the industry.... one of the few 'truthful' films made in the last decade which they are treating as an 'escape from reality'....

To the more rabid detractors of Hindi cinema... before you go off and talk about having every one of the actors and directors shot and restarting from scratch... here are some movies I think you should see... a selection of some Hindi movies I have enjoyed and consider worth my time (and money)... yes... I would BUY these movies... I am sure that there are those which have slipped my mind... but I think these should suffice... also I dont think any of them goes too far back beyond the mid nineties... except perhaps Satya... which means that there is still hope....

1. Satya: Words fail me... gripping stuff...
2. Company: Vivek Oberoi really shined in this one... as did Devgan... tight execution and no real flaws...
3. Apharan: Devgan again does a fine job here...
4. Sehar: Warsi unexpectedly slides well into this serious role... very refreshing... but Sushant Singh was the surprise packet...
5. Omkara: Back to the Devgan-Oberoi pairing... and a similar(ish) ending too... but really well done...
6. Shool: I had expected even greater things from Manoj Bajpai (Satya) after this movie... but he has not really delivered...
7. 1971: Manoj Bajpai brings back my hopes that he will deliver another jewel... this one was another stellar performance...
8. Rang De Basanti: Aamir Khan... I think an appropriate nickname for him could be 'The Tom Hanks of Bollywood' his films generally do not disappoint me... even if I dont always consider them to be masterpieces or 5 star material... I don't recall too many movies with him in them where I have walked away feeling murderous intent for the directors and everyone else associated with the movie... Excellent script and execution...
9. Dil Chahata Hai: Aamir Khan.... and a combo of some other promising talent... Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan... lighthearted and superbly executed...
10. Straight: Vinay Pathak once again proves why he is ready to take over the mantle of 'King of Comedy' with this one...
11. Khosla Ka Ghosla: A low budget wonder... this film exceeds expectations in every category... brilliant stuff...
12. Bheja Fry: You could call this a one man show.... Pathak hits a homer again...
13. Jhonny Gaddar: Great film...
14. Mithya: Interesting concept... well executed overall... no real flaws... Ranbir Shorey and Pathak really work well together (again!)
15. Namastey London: An unexpected winner... what makes this one great is that the cast is extremely well suited to their roles... someone either put a great deal of thought into it... or just got plain lucky... but casting Katrina as an NRI and Akshay Kapoor as the goofy !!!! Punjabi dude was an excellent idea...
16. Bhool Bhuliya: I realise that this one is a ripoff... but it was well executed... and everyone played their parts perfectly...
17. Dev D: Makes you wonder why more Hindi 'romance' films cant be like this...
18. No Smoking: Interesting concept... some over the top moments.... but very well done...
19. Luck By Chance: One of those 'truthful' films that actually tries to tell the truth without idealizing anyone... there are no 'heros' or 'villains'... just people... and their circumstances...
20. Lakshya: I liked this one cause Hrithik did a fine job of portraying his character and his growth from boy to man... and the director at least let him get shot a few times... and put his arm in a cast at the end...
21. Jab We Met: Another film which makes you wonder why more rom-com's cant be like this... a rare gem in a heap of rubble...
22. Jodhaa Akbar: Superlative music, great costumes, a decent script... and great acting...
23. Guru: Powerful.... Abhishek finally proves that he has Bachan blood in his veins by carrying this film practically entirely with his own acting... Mithun helped... but really... it was Abhishek all the way...
24. Sarkar: The 2nd iteration was not bad... but nowhere near as good as this one... Riveting stuff...
25. Hazaaron Khwaahishei Aisi: Shiney does a great job... as does Kay Kay... great film...
26. Munnabhai MBBS: It was over the top.. and yes there were the hospital song and dance sequences... but you will agree that this movie is supposed to be that way.... also... Sanjay Dutt really shines in this one... as does Warsi.... the same chemistry is also seen in Anthony Kaun Hai... but the execution is nowhere near as good...
27. Hera Pheri: ONLY the 1st iteration is worth your time... over the top towards the end... but the beginnings are firmly rooted in reality... and the combo of Rawal, Kapoor and Shetty really took comedy to the next level with this one...
28. Cheeni Kum: Big B proves that he can still bring it... Tabu is not half bad...

There are many other Hindi films which are good... in the sense that theyre not... terrible... theyre passable... average... decent... worth-a-watch... (whatever you prefer)... and these films also contain some stellar performance and excellent scores and whatnot... but are bogged down by other flaws...

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Now this here is a response from one of my friends.....

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Quote:

but having lived in the US for as long as I have... I realize that Hollywood is not that much different... there are crappy movies being made here too... just not as many and they never get screened overseas... so you get a skewed perspective...

Very correct. Only a handful of the Hollywood or foreign movies make it to India. And the ones which do make it are commercially or critically successful.

Quote:

Get a decent script... preferably one which is not ripped off from Hollywood... Cmon... theres a billion people in our country... cant one of them have a good original idea? I hear the ripoff of Juno is coming to Indian screens soon... or is it already there?

Copy-paste was/is favourite pastime in India as we tend to get "inspired" very often than others. So it would be wrong to blame just to Bollywood, its everywhere...

Quote:

Try to cut back on the songs... sure they can be entertaining... but randomly sticking in item numbers/romantic songs really does not sit well with me... this is not to say that you should go the hollywood way and get rid of them entirely... but just insert them in appropriate places... a song playing when the actors are in a disco makes sense... not when they're in college or a hospital or other such places...

Bollywood is very innovate, at least in this case. So what if they're in college or a hospital they can of course "dream" xD

Quote:

Limit the actors wardrobes (and save a fortune!!) Stop changing their outfits at the drop of a hat!! And give them decent outfits...

With corporate funding, there is no need to "save". Plus, there are "sponsors" of these wardrobes. Look at it this way, for a few seconds of TV commercial they pay lacs and here you get the entire 2:30 hours+ of time to showcase your collection.

Quote:

Limit the locales as well... going from Mumbai to Zurich to Kuala Lumpur and back within 3 minutes is expensive and pointless...

Atleast they are not visiting Nebula... after all one can visit anywhere in their "dreams" right?!? reminds me of Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne hey even that was based on James Thurber's novel lol!

Quote:

Cut back on the overacting... Actors who I once used to like are seriously pissing me off these days...

Don't blame them... blame the script and the director (or the actors love for $$$) I simply can't understand how actors like Anupam Kher, Om Puri agree on acting in movies like Buddha Mar Gaya (2007) ...

Quote:

I realize that sex sells... but come on... have some pride... dont you want to be able to say that your film did well because it had a plot and good acting and not because of that item number by XYZ-hot-actress.... or the fact that she had next to nothing on for the entire movie?

Who defines that the film did well?? The boxoffice?? As long as the movie is able to rake in moolahs who cares??

Quote:

Try to give the actors a realistic looking 'home environment' in the movie... eg An entry level worker in some company should not be able to afford an awesome apartment overlooking the city and drive a Lexus, wear a Rolex, Armani, Gucci etc... unless they explain it somehow... rich dad or what not...

Doh!! But that's how the 'home envoirnment' are "supposed" to look!!

Quote:

Another thing which bugs me about Bollywood is the low level of professionalism (supposedly improving). You will often see the shoddy CG in a few films which looks very fake and negates the very point of having CG in the first place.

CGI/Animation was never a strong point in Indian movies. Plus, CGI/animation costs $$$, and the producers would rather spend that on a foreign locale that on animation (which very few people appreciate)

Quote:

Then there is the prevalence of nepotism... the star-parivars... which can be easily likened to political dynasties... People get in and get umpteen chances to 'prove themselves' simply cause they're the sons/daughters/relatives of someone in the industry, or someone who is otherwise well connected...

Again its not unique to Bollywood, is everywhere in India ...

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After reading that... I decided to take things up a notch... LoL... Heres my final shot...

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Gah... I figure I could be a bit more elaborate....

I know that copy past exists everywhere.... but Bollywood takes it to its utmost limit.... on a personal level.... I find it sickening.... Its mass media.... something you are going to show to hundreds of millions of people... and many people use it to pass judgment on Indian culture as a whole.... people should have the decency or pride to showcase original work... It leads to people ridiculing the entire Indian entertainment industry (refer to one of Omkars comments... whether in this thread or another I forget... where he quotes some jackass 'Professor' from some university)

Dreaming is good... but seriously... I dont ever remember my dreams having high bit rate audio and certainly not synced with another person.... thats ESP shit there...

When I say wardrobes.... I am talking about the 10-15 times that actors change their outfits in the middle of a song sequence.... often wearing clothes that no sane person would wear in public... Wonder how much 'showcase time' they get when the audience misses an outfit change every time they reach for their popcorn?

Again.... dreams are good... but its just plain unnecessary.... and often there is a complete disconnect from the 'scenery' and the 'vocals'.....

One more thing about these 'dreams'.... why in Gods name does it never seem like a dream anyway? At least make some effort to tell the audience that this was just the characters imagination at work... usually it seems like the hero takes the heroines hand... they hop on a flight to some place halfway around the world.... arrive there in the next few minutes completely refreshed and not jet-lagged... wearing new clothes.... no need for Visas.... none of that random checking (which is common for men from India / Subcontinent area).... and when they 'wake up' life is fine and dandy and no one gives a hoot that they had been 'sleeping' at work, while in the hospital... while in class.... whatever.... heck.... come to think of it.... that must mean that almost no Bollywood couple in the past couple decades has been awake during a single one of their 'dates'....

As for the actors and their love for $$$ and whatnot.... like you said... it completely escapes me why veteran actors... people who have done some excellent work in the past would be willing to act in some really disgusting movies and take on roles which I find demeaning.... both to them as actors and me as a viewer... refer Bachchan sahibs role in the movie Jhoom Barabar Jhoom... which I have actually not seen... but have heard only terrible things about.... his prodigal son didn't do much better either...

Sex Symbols selling movie tickets? Sure... they dont care as long as they get their money... but I care... I care about the declining standards of what people define as entertainment these days.... horrible really.... show enough skin and you have a blockbuster.... does not matter what the story is.... assuming there is one...

Reality is tough... but thats what it is... an impressionable youngster might actually believe what he sees and think that working as a BPO employee is enough to be able to afford those kinds of luxuries....

CGI is my nitpicking... I wont fault them too much for that.... but seriously.... why are they so willing do a half assed job? No matter how much it is.... I refuse to believe that decent CGI is more expensive than hauling an entire film crew and their entire entourage and all of their 'supplies' over to another country.... getting accommodation and renting the locations and whatnot...

Nepotism is everywhere.... but seriously.... Bollywood again takes this concept to a new level....


Oh yeah.... and this is the part where I laugh the hardest in almost every Hindi movie which has the 'warning'....

".... any resemblance to real people or events is completely unintentional...."

What real people?? What real events?? Are you freaking kidding me?

The few movies where these warnings are actually applicable are often the good ones.... or the better ones at least...

Mass Media: A Boon or a Curse?

Mass media is (according to wikipedia): A section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries.
Mass media includes Internet media (like blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing) because individuals now have a means to exposure that is comparable in scale to that previously restricted to a select group of mass media producers. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.

So my little blog is also a little piece of the mass media pie. But my question is this... is it a boon? Or is it a curse?

In my opinion it has the potential to be both... and indeed... it is living up to its potential... but not only its potential for being a boon... but also a curse...

The positives of mass media are many... and are of great significance... but its the negatives which I want to discuss here... because it is those negatives which have been gaining momentum over the past few decades...

I am talking of the evils like media bias, glorification of immoral and illegal behavior, sensationalizing ordinary events, invasion of privacy, perpetuation of certain superstitions etc etc.

People have told me... if you dont like it... dont watch/read/listen to it... i.e. pretend to be a Deaf-Mute (Credit GITS and the late Salinger). I have tried... Really... I have tried to ignore some of the worrying trends I have seen in the youth of the world today... all a result of the pervasive nature of some of these aspects of the mass...

UNDERAGE DRINKING/SMOKING

I see larger and larger numbers of underage teenagers drinking and smoking everyday... a combination of a multitude of factors... easy availability of tobacco and alcohol notwithstanding, there is also the peer pressure they must deal with... the "everyone who is 'cool' must do it syndrome" as I sometimes term it...

But who are the ones who made smoking and drinking 'cool'? Who defined that? Mass Media... in the form of movies, TV shows, sometimes books... (sorry bout this Salinger... but you did it too...)...

I am not asking everyone to stub out their cigarettes and pour their drinks down the drain... I am asking them to think about why they chose to pick them up in the first place...

CASUAL SEX

It is now considered uncool not to have had a multitude of sexual partners before marriage... again... a trend which was popularized by mass media... particularly western media... which the Indian media has been trying to emulate... (truly a sad state of affairs that...)... This is something I am not as much worried about... so long as it occurs between consenting partners... who really are 'into' each other... but often times I see couples which are formed simply because: "well... all my friends have a girlfriend/boyfriend... I didn't want to be left behind"...

There is a growing trend of competition for the number of 'conquests' that have been made (this holds true for both for men and women)... which is something I cannot bring myself to accept...

Again.... a trend popularized by the mass media... and again... I am not asking all of you lovers out there to run away and elope and get married or practice celibacy before marriage (assuming you ever get that far)... I am asking you to think about why you are doing what you are doing... and think about whether you really want to do it for yourself... or just to be considered 'cool'... and to consider how any insincerity on your part could cause significant emotional damage to your partner...

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Like they say... all things in moderation... unfortunately the spread of mass media has caused the spread of the "instant-gratification-culture." Everyone wants everything to move fast and to get instant results/pleasure... Not a bad thing to want... but it should set off alarm bells when we see ourselves completely forgoing... even deriding all other longer paths to the same goals...

Relationships used to be built up over time... nowadays its more like a collection of one night stands... Any sport where there is no heavy hitting real time action is considered totally boring... Test Cricket... Baseball... etc etc... The trend of moving towards having everything done in shorter and shorter times is not new, and is certainly not a bad thing... it is part of human nature... It is a good thing to increase efficiency... but sometimes the price we pay for that efficiency is terrible... and we often times dont even realize it...

CRIME/VIOLENCE

People nowadays are exposed to so much violence via the mass media... its phenomenal... I wish I had verifiable stats.... but I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that more people see more violent scenes in one form or another everyday these days... than they did before the advent of mass media... and this is having a startling effect on our youth... even children...

I heard of a terrible case (Thankfully not in India) where a young boy was killed by a couple of 10 year old's in a pretty gruesome manner... I believe it was in the UK...

But even in India... I have heard of several disturbing cases involving teenagers and young adults... rape, kidnappings of friends, beatings, murders even... This is not normal... and it IS a problem we need to face up to... I am glad that we don't have as many guns floating around in India (in the hands of private citizens) as there are in the USA... In the USA... school shootings occur every few months...

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The fact is mass media is so pervasive and so powerful that everything they project has a significant impact on us all psychologically without us realizing it.

Mass media (intentionally or not) implants images in impressionable young minds... when they are not mature enough to make educated decisions about their lives... when they are in their rebellious phase and do not want to listen to their parents even... Now there is the potential to implant both good and bad things... and it is my hope that we are able to get mass media to focus more on the good rather than the bad... It is not a question of age restrictions on media... because its a well known fact that the more you try to keep adolescents from getting/doing something... the more likely it is that they will go to extreme lengths to get/do it...