CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Through this study, it has been possible to understand the mindset of the people towards the portrayal of mental disorders in bollywood feature films. A special case study was conducted on the recent feature film – ‘My name is Khan’. To understand the mindset of the people, a quantitative analysis involving survey using questionnaires was followed. The questionnaire was distributed among 200 students of undergraduate and postgraduate streams.
Also the very term Bollywood, its history and its impact on society, and its significance as a medium of communication have been touched upon. Special attention has been given to the movie – ‘My Name is Khan’ which has been taken as the topic for a detailed case study.
The objectives and research methodology has been discussed in detail, providing insight into the way the research has been conducted and the methods employed – Surveys, Case Study, etc. The research design has been of a six tiered structure involving the selection of the topic, content analysis, planning samples, collection of data, analyzing the data, and finally preparing the report.
As a review of literature, four books have been taken as a source and have been analyzed for the content, mainly pertaining to cinema in India, and how it has originated, developed and carved a niche for itself on not just India, but the world map as well. The findings and research of various authors have been gathered and presented in a systematic manner. The four books are ‘Brand Bollywood’ by Derek Bose, ‘Indian Popular Cinema’ by Gokulsing and Dissanayke, ‘Abnormal Psychology’ by Barlow and Durant and ‘The Essential Mystery’ by John Hood.
Any data collected in the process of a survey needs to be analyzed and tabulated in a proper way and presented in a comprehendible manner. For this purpose, the data has been tabulated in a manual manner, re-checked by manual verification and presented pictographically using bar graphs and pie charts, clearly depicting the segmentation of data.
The results showed that there is more number of students who came to know about the syndrome after watching the film. The majority of the students agree that the film portrays the real symptoms of Asperger syndrome. The results indicate that there is more number of students who think that in the film-My Name is Khan, Rizwan Khan has been portrayed positively which means his role is not exaggerated. The data collected show that there are majority of students who think that marriage with a person suffering from mental disorder is not possible in reality. The reason for this could be because of the mind set in the society. In contrast to this there are few students who think that marriage with a person suffering from mental disorder is possible. All the students, PG’s as well as UG’s think that films do provide social awareness and messages. Majority of the students appreciate films which provide social messages or awareness. Most of the students think that films have been successful in communicating social messages and social awareness.
5.2 Implications
Through this study, it is possible to get valuable insight into the feelings and attitude of the public towards people suffering from mental disorders. The study provides an in-depth analysis into the way these mental disorders have been used as a theme in various Bollywood movies, and whether it has been able to successfully and effectively act as a strong medium of communication. Also the findings indicate that the attitude of the students have been changed for those special people after watching these kinds of films. This shows that film has been an effective and deriving means for changing attitude or stereotypes that exist in the society. But there is still more scope for improvement because there are many other disorders and problems existing in our society of which the audience aren’t aware of. Therefore, films can still continue to explore different concepts and health problems by inducing such themes in the films.
5.3 Recommendations
The surveyed people feel that though an effort has been made by the film producers, it is not quite making the impact that it should, and hence suggest few ways to make the impact much wider. Firstly, it is to be noted that such matters may have human sentiments attached to it, and hence must be approached in a careful manner. Deep research by the film makers is necessary as factual errors in the movies may lead to uncertainty and confusion between facts and myths regarding the particular disorder. The directors who make films on the themes mental disorders and the like should have read about the disorder and made research. There shouldn’t be exaggeration which is found in the film like ‘Krazzy 4’. The films are not only part of entertainment but also powerful means to communicate social messages and the directors should aim for this. Also, the film should aim at primarily educating the audience, and not concentrate on being a hit in the box-office taking advantage of the theme evoking sentiments among the masses. The findings suggest the response from the students mostly youngsters who watch films more compared to other age categories. So, still further research can be carried to study the perceptions or the response from other age groups and their reasons.
5.4 Limitations of the Study
Even though the survey was a quantitative survey, the limitation was that only 200 people took part in the survey, out of millions who watch Bollywood movies in India. Hence only a miniscule audience has been involved in this survey, making the acquired data quite insignificant. Also, the survey was answered mostly by people of the age group 18-28 in Mangalore, again making it very selective and constricted. Thus, the viewpoint of a larger section has been shrouded. Also, as the study involved a particular film being given top priority, the results again become shrouded. The study was made only on one film- My name is Khan and in the survey one question covered the movies related to mental disorder which were released after 2006. But only one question was regarding the change in attitude of these films. So again the results are constricted, not many films were covered comprehensively. Nevertheless, the focus was only on Bollywood films and not on Hollywood or regional or foreign films.
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