Mass Culture

Day 3

A very distinguished guest was amidst us today, Ms. Jeroo Moolah.

Well we started with an audio recording of a Rajasthani folk song... to be honest; it was confusing and sounded strange to our ears.
As the song progressed the singer started singing something, which sounded like a film song… and that’s when we realized that it was the Original Sound Track of the “Nimbooda Nimbooda” Song. She proceeded by telling us about the kind of exploitation done by various Bollywood movie Companies when all they do is create a remixes of old Indian Folk songs!

Next we were given an introduction to terms like “Culture”(on which we had a good deal of knowledge), High Culture, Mass Culture or Popular Culture, and also Folk Culture. It has been seen as a trend in today’s entertainment sector that High Art is rarely showcased on Television and folk art has been swallowed largely by Mass culture which has gained popularity among the masses.

At the end of this talk we were shown some ads from TV, which widely promoted Stereotypical images via mass communication. What struck us remarkably was the kind of images portrayed for women in the ads as they were shown more as objects of fascination than human beings; they are shown as loose in character, blonde brained, made for housework exclusively, easy to attain… the list can go on and on…

We had a good time screening the movie “ Veer Zara” which was loaded with clichés, stereotypes, and obvious suggestions. We were made consciously aware of the usage of sound effects; lighting angles focus on characters, their postures, clothing, and voice modulation techniques to make a clear difference between the Hero & Villain (the Good Guy and the Baddies).

Overall it was an eye-opener to the vast Capital produced from a profit oriented consumer market. An exhausting yet incredibly wonderful session

Sony Varghese