Hazy Subtlety

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: Subtlety resides in the subliminal private garden of every person. Subtlety introduces an element of elevation into society, it contributes to a civilisation’s refinement. Empowered sections such as entertainment, politics, journalism, industry and religion that help to form and influence public opinion usually need to exercise subtlety to gain credibility.

Entertainment: Participating in different creative seminars in the West I’ve had occasion to mingle with film directors to cameramen, effects men to actors and actresses. I’ve always heard them say that technique is a mere slave of the storyline, that subtle expressions or undisturbed narrative is more memorable than on-the-face usage of effects. Yet their motion picture industry has undergone immense innovation in effects to create gripping suspense and spectacular drama.

Bollywood and TV serials drive the common man’s entertainment. So they bear a certain moral responsibility to induce knowledge that can improve or contribute to people’s thinking process. Bollywood’s ‘angry young man’ theme connected in some way to the situation of unavailability of everything in the pre-liberalised era. But today’s films spend so much money on effects and foreign locations that it is unclear whether they are made for Indians or NRIs who want exotic melodrama not seen in the Western films, from the country of their ‘native roots’ enacted by performers they can identify with. Today’s young in India have this motto: ‘earn more, work more, enjoy more.’ The entertainment media takes them into escapades replete with effects and décor, but when the workplace is shown it is actually an advertisement camouflaged to be part of the plot. For example, a specific insurance company may be used as the hero’s office and those insurance products named in the film. Where is that subtlety the mass entertainer should be exercising to uplift society?

Politics: Most politicians often forget to address subtlety. TV captures them holding forth abrasively against an opponent, or very irresponsibly, just switching off when someone else is talking. I’ve observed male politicians tend to make chauvinistic and snide remarks about women politicians, harshly disrespecting societal codes of conduct in addressing women. This sets disgraceful examples of lack of subtlety in the modern democracy.