Biographical Movies of the Criminals..

The movies “Haseena Parker” and “Sanju” were released a few years ago, which slowly climbed the charts and went on to become blockbuster movies in Bollywood.
While “Haseena Parker” starring Sharaddha Kapoor is based on the life  of Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar. “Sanju” is based on the life of a highly controversial actor Sanjay Dutt. From his early adult years to his mother’s death and its effect on him, to drug addiction and various high and lows in his career including his arrest under TADA. There are various questions that have come to fore with the release of this movie. Important ones being, with all the legal past that he has, do we really want the children of today to watch such a movie and take a cue or two? Another question that arises is whether this was a publicity gimmick to make a person into a hero after what all he has done in the past and what all he did to rectify his past?
Before answering these brain scratching questions, let us first get privy to some other biographical movies and what did each  of these gave us. The earliest to mention among renowned biographical movies is the Bandit Queen, which was based on the dreaded female dacoit of her times, who was very active in the hinterland of central India. This movie portrayed Phoolan Devi’s journey through various incidences that made a vulnerable young girl into a fearsome leader of Bandits. The movie invoked strong sentiments. This movie became the highlight of a landmark judgment in the Bobby Art international, Etc v. Om Pal Singh Hoon & Others where the Court took a lenient way about the explicit scenes in the movie and stated that ‘the scenes portrays the trials and tribulations and the various humiliations (mental and physical) heaped on her (Phoolan           Devi) from childhood onwards, which          out of desperation and           misery drove her to dacoity and the revenge which she takes on her tormentors and those who had humiliated and tortured and had physically abused her. Adding further that ‘The tone and tenor of the dialogues in this film reflect the nuances locally and habitually used and spoken in the villages and in the ravines of the Chambal, not bereft of expletives used for force and effect by way of normal and common parlance in those parts; these expletives are not intended to be taken literally. For the movie the Court also remarked that "There in nothing sensual or sexual about these expletives used as they are in ordinary and habitual course as the language in those parts and express as they to emotions such as anger, rage, frustration and the like, and represent as they do the color of the various locales in this film. Here in this case the Artisitic expression of the event was upheld and not curbed on the basis of obscenity under restrictions imposed with respect to Article 19 of the Constitution.
The other cases where movies have been made on negatively popular personalities are Veerappan and most recently that of Arun Gawli,while the former was a very famous dacoit and sandalwood smuggler in southern India the later was a dreaded gangster in Mumbai. Their actions were glorified on the screens. These movies laid bare the supposed truths which made them what they were.
While discussing these movies it does strike ones mind that what are we achieving by making cinema on such people who have nothing to teach us rather they justify their overtly illegal acts for whatever sufferings they endured in the past. Should we really make these movies successful by giving them unwanted publicity or just let them wither away? 'The more they see the more they get' is how the film industry works upon. Apart from being a publicity gimmick, the current reality is, people rather the audience likes all spiced up things, they want to follow the notoriety and be cool about the violence and criminalities shown in movies like Shoot out at Wadala, Rajneeti and Vastaav.
Another angle to this escalating number of cinema on the criminal world is, the involvment of black money invested by the underworld gangs and white collar criminals to make it white. It serves two purposes, filmakers get their investements and the underworld gets its money into circulation along with a lot of limelight for their by-gone heroes.
In the same light I ask why the movies on Ramanujan and Other such scientists dont get made, even if they do, these movies are barely watched by anyone or spoken about with much fanfare.
All is not lost as in recent years we have seen some phenomenal autobiographical cinema, be it Chak De India based on the life of Mir Ranjan Negi , or Mary Kom based on world renowned-Olympic medal winner, female boxer Mary Kom or Dangal based on wrestling champions Phogat sister's lives, which got a decent opening. Of these Negi got the most limelight as even his story was for warding of the accusations made upon him, where in the Asian games, he was accused of tilting a fortune changing game for benefit of the rival team, but in the later years as a coach he helped the women's hockey team to glorious wins. Such movies do motivate the newer generations to the righteous paths, instilling nationalism in them, wheread movies based on notorious people set bad examples and precedents to follow for the younger generations.
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It is on us as to how we want to develop our demographic dividend, is it by making them follow the ideals of goons and dacoits by showing their glamorous lives, money, drugs and women filled lives as shown on the 70 mm screen with catchy music on which scantily dressed women dance or we give these youngsters some food for thought by showing the rags to riches stories of decent people who really worked hard, were honest and focussed towards their goals to achieve something big im their lives and make it fruitful.
Stringent Laws to reulate such movies must be made by the government to prevent children below the age of 18 years from watching these violent movies. In the United States, around seven states and two local governments have enacted laws that prevent access of minors to violent video games and moviesto prevent negative impact on children in their growing up years. India should take a cue from various laws across the world and come up with appropriate Laws in India where even though the creative freedom is given under Article 19 of the Constitution of India yet, movies that promote violence and are based purely on lives of Peoplr with strong Criminal history, should be regulated especially for the minors and young adults of imprintable age.

Author Name: Kalyani Buche