Our obsession with making entertainment educational  

Shah Rukh Khan once quoted Samuel Goldwyn, who famously said, "Pictures are for entertainment; messages should be delivered by Western Union."

With the recent surge in fixation with messages in TV dramas or cinemas in Bangladesh, the quote somehow makes more sense than ever.

With a boom in the entertainment industry coupled with changing audience preferences, the portrayal of characters has changed over the years. Creators are now bold enough to write characters that are more authentic, real, and human. That's when characters start to trot around the greyer aspects of humanity, in contrast to the black-and-white portrayals of protagonists and antagonists in the past.

In recent years, accents on screen have become more authentic and natural. Sure, the authentic accent might sound "uglier" than the formal socially-accepted tone, but that's a compromise necessary for the sake of realism. If a director is dealing with characters from regions other than Dhaka, it is only fair that the characters will talk in the local dialect.

When the character of Chan Majhi from Hawa, played by Chanchal Chowdhury, cusses his subordinates, it aids in building the world of fishermen in the Bay of Bengal and one that is honest to its roots. However, the dialogue was deemed to be crass and inappropriate for audiences, which resulted in backlash for the movie.

Similarly, when a protagonist has anger issues or emotional baggage like that of Afran Nisho in Kaiser, the creator is not necessarily telling you to idolise these aspects of Kaiser. Rather, these are tools to make the character more compelling. These traits also help the audience to understand Kaiser's state of mind and sympathise with the character in his state of vulnerability.

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In the web series Mohanagar, OC Harun, played by Mosharraf Karim, is a corrupt police officer who is willing to compromise anything for the sake of his greed, until his morality stands in his way. The display of OC Harun's greed, hypocrisy, and evil intentions was necessary for the audience to realise the gravity of the decision he took in the climax. But the portrayal was met with some negative reception due to his obscene nature.

That brings us to our blindness as an audience. Are we truly delusional enough to censor everything that portrays human beings as the vile and obscene species they are? If the characters are human, they are bound to have flaws, vulnerability, lust, greed, and everything evil that may be ingrained in human nature.  

Maybe all forms of entertainment don't necessarily need to have a message in them.

Additionally, the censor board should, for once, just be a board about film certification and not unfairly ban whatever goes slightly against societal sensibilities. If a movie is deemed to be inappropriate for the younger audience, it should be certified accordingly, rather than be censored or banned.

Lastly, when it comes to entertainment not being watchable with the entire family, there's a very simple solution to it rather than wanting to cancel the show.

Just don't watch it with your family.

Remind Ifti to be quieter at hasiburrashidifti@gmail.com