Cinema is one of the most popular inventions of modern science, especially that type of it known as the Talkie. Now it has become a part of human life. It has great educational value. We learn many things from the cinema. It has come to be the cheapest and the most popular form of amusement. Nowadays the cinema has become very popular and it is a good source of entertainment.
While technology has perfected its imitation of life, it diminishes the human appeal. It helps to create public opinion. Since the cinema presents to us human dramas, its usefulness will depend on the quality of life that it seeks to dramatize. Unfortunately, cinemas often ignore higher ideals and motives to make it a commercial success, by screening dramas that appeal to the vulgar tastes. Sill, sentimental romance, impossible and absurd situations, corrupt music, scenes of crude sex appeal are often the stock-in-trade of cinema-pictures. If a person sees a bad film then he can adopt all the bad points of the film. It degrades the moral character of young boys and girls. Surely this does not mean that they want vulgarity or are unable to appreciate the great things. Again and again, it has been proved that for the right type of films, there is never a want of spectators. It has great recreational value.
Properly guided, cinemas might have an all-pervasive influence on national life and character. They might educate us by representing great scenes from history and biography. We have a lesson on History, Science, Hygiene and Geography in a very interesting manner. They might supplement the knowledge that we derive from books by illustrations taken from life. Cinema thus is a great teacher, a great preacher and a great social worker. They might even create fairy-world fantasies. It can be a unique medium of mass education and enlightenment if it is efficiently organized. In all developed and developing countries, the cinema is used for educational purposes. Films are specially made to present truths of history, Curie’s Radium has been depicted in a cinema.
Taking both sides in view we can say that cinema has a great educative value. In order to use the cinema to the higher needs of a nation, there must be a Board of cultured men ready to enforce a high standard of excellence. Educational films for the instruction of the young as well as the illiterate should be encouraged. The life of a great man on film will be more popular than that of the imaginary hero of a melodrama. Then the cinema must be made an instrument of culture, a moral force, and a standard of taste. We must avoid bad pictures. We should always enjoy good pictures.
