This article is part of The Citizen’s archives and was originally published in January 2014. It appears on the Young Citizen page.

Exorbitant amounts of money, much ado about nothing, and a sorry end result: this sums up the Indian Cinema Industry and the Indian government, all in one. A couple of weeks ago, I made the fatal mistake of going for “Dhoom 3: Back in Action” with a few of my friends. As much as I would enjoy decimating this excuse of a movie scene-by-scene, I write this article to showcase a more interesting link, so I better stay on topic.

“Dhoom” grossed 3,00,00,00,000 rupees (yes, those zeros are in numerical form for emphasis) in the first month after its release. That is a lot of innocent taxpayers’ money wasted on buying tickets. The script of the movie was a mix and match job: structures of a few Hollywood blockbusters intertwined with inane sections of Bollywood scripts. The product after investing crores of rupees into the project was average at best. It was almost as if they wanted to insult the Indian cinema goer’s intelligence by showing him this film. Everyone went because the movie was the talk of the town, with “Kat’s” never-ending legs and Aamir Khan’s powerful acting, the main selling points. Yes, I fell for it too.

Bollywood produced nearly 800 movies last year. So really, movies are like scams. All the scams our Public servants get caught with probably amount to around the same number over time. Scams, like movies, cost a lot of money. Most importantly, they grab the Indian citizen’s attention. Be it in the newspapers, or the cinema halls, people just have to read, watch, laugh and cry over them!

From giving “Cash for votes”, “Oil for Cash” and buying treadmills for an international sports meet at false rates, our adventurous politicians have experimented with it all. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is a scheme made to provide affordable healthcare to rural areas. Instead, the Mayawati government took it upon themselves to siphon off 100 billion rupees from the Mission’s fund. When the Union government was supposed to distribute coals blocks to private firms, it decided to allocate them instead of auctioning. This led to a loss of 10,000 billion rupees for the government. Because of middlemen, lobbyists and some money that changed hands in the process, our government lost the opportunity to gain this sum of money. This money could have been used for other productive… Okay, who am I kidding, it would’ve been poured out of this sector and into another equally fraudulent one.

Another link between Indian politics and cinema are the role of dynasties. They’re started with powerful, charismatic figures but almost always outstay their welcome. Established production houses and political parties throw around their weight, refusing to take criticism regardless of their flaws. The shocking number of Khans and Kapoors in the acting scene is a testament to this dynastic functioning. Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi, Sukhbir Singh Badal are their political counterparts: second and third generation politicians that have slipped into the system. In a dynamic country such as ours, these families fail to meet the ever changing needs. Yes, at times they do succeed (Badal Junior managed his father’s Campaign for Punjab flawlessly), but it is a practice that’s unethical in a democracy.

Do you see it now? The similarity is uncanny. And the worst part is, the common man sits in between this circus, paying for the senseless movies and the governmental fiascos. However, in the quagmire of wealth, deceit and lies, there sits a glimmer of hope. New and unorthodox movies like ‘Ship of Theseus’ and ‘Lunchbox’ and dynamic politicians like Arvind Kejriwal restore faith for the Indian citizen. The Indian holds cinema and politics close to his heart. These new people and films answer the right questions, and ask the correct ones too. Intellectual curiosity and political activism have been slaughtered. The fact that AAP is currently receiving more than 15 lakh rupees a day in donations is a sign: our country is trying its best to change for the better. Indian cinema’s centennial year has arrived but there’s not one renowned film school in the nation. Indian politics is 65 years old and a majority of what we have amassed is a long list of scandals, scams and rapes. It’s time to change this, and that.

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