{"id":3529,"date":"2017-03-19T12:04:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T06:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=3529"},"modified":"2017-03-20T20:13:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T14:43:07","slug":"bollywood-films-raees-kaabil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/bollywood-films-raees-kaabil\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebration of Moral Decay in Contemporary Bollywood Films: A Critique of Raees and Kaabil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Raees\"

Shahrukh Khan playing the role of a gangster in Raees<\/em> who justifies every single action with his questionable philosophy of corruption and violence<\/p><\/div>\n

Bollywood is currently vacillating between the two extreme polarities of wholesome entertainment and films that brazenly project negative values and decaying morals and celebrate them as celluloid symbols of the heroic and heroism. The two, contemporary big banner films that immediately come to mind are Raees <\/em>and Kaabil.<\/em> While the former is an unabashed and almost embarrassing celebration of diabolic killing acts like the smuggling and wholesale business in spurious liquor, the latter justifies the cold-blooded, carefully planned killing of those responsible for his wife\u2019s death and rape by the blind hero who uses his blindness as a weapon for this revenge.<\/p>\n

\"In

In Raees<\/em>, he plans a diabolic exercise for his own benefit and makes it appear like philanthropy<\/p><\/div>\n

At the other end are entertaining films like Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya<\/em> and Running<\/em>shaadi.com<\/em> that claim to offer undiluted entertainment for the mass audience where for two hours, the audience can forget its troubles and problems and come out of the theatres ready to face another gruelling day. But are they truly positive stories with good values? Let us get a closer look.<\/p>\n

The question that arises in the midst of these \u2018anti-social\u2019 films that make a mockery of the values our parents taught us on honesty, ethics and industry is \u2013 is this moral decay reflective of the moral decay in the world we live in today? Or, does the real world derive both inspiration and justification for violating the principles of good over evil which remains the same across time, place, culture, history and language. Murder is always evil never mind what motivates you to take the life of another human being. Stealing, smuggling, inflicting violence and torture and earning one\u2019s livelihood through devious, illegal and illicit means have always been considered immoral while living a good, simple and honest life has always been perpetuated as the ideal way of living.<\/p>\n

Kaabil<\/em> and Raees<\/em> are the latest films that have used the most graphically violent visuals and sound, editing and other techniques to get their message across. The message promotes and almost motivates violence among the viewers. Shahrukh Khan who is always identified with a very positive image of love and romance and everything that goes with it, slowly shifted his stance with Fan<\/em>. In Fan <\/em>however, he gave himself a \u2018double\u2019 to pit what in the end turned out to be evil against the real hero who is good in every sense.\u00a0 But in Raees,<\/em> he justifies every single action with his questionable philosophy of corruption and violence. He begins apparently through harmless Ponzi schemes but surely and steadily graduates to pre-planned rackets to become the top bootlegger of his town. Raees forms a nexus with politicians, who fuel his business, but he soon becomes the thorn on their side and they want him out. All said and done, he is a gangster.<\/p>\n

The most horrifying part of the script is the way Raees conditions himself to believe that he is generous towards the poor and the oppressed when he orders the out-of-work women in his neighbourhood to stitch 10,000 cloth bags which he will pay for. He tries to make it appear like a philanthropic exercise but the bags are later used for carting his illicit liquor! In other words, he plans a diabolic exercise for his own benefit and makes it appear like philanthropy. Later, when his life and business are under threat, the same women roll hundreds of liquor bottles down the street to block the way and save Raees from being attacked!\u00a0 The only positive point lies in his death in the end.<\/p>\n

Trailer of Raees<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n