Indian films have always reflected the mood of society: Javed Akhtar

Veteran writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar said on Thursday evening that Indian films have been faithfully reflecting the sentiments of the society. “Indian films have always depicted and reflected what is happening in our society. The cinema comes from the society. It is the same with dreams. What is there in the conscious and subconscious mind will get reflected in dreams as well,” Akhtar said at the launch of his book, ‘Talking Life: Javed Akhtar in Conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir’. Akhtar said that in the 1930-1940s, when K.L Saigal essayed Devdas’s role, the ‘khansi’ (cough) had become a virtue and fashion. “Self-destruction had become a virtue because of Saigal. However, as the society grew, this self-destructive virtue also vanished,” he said. “When the Nehruvian era came, everyone thought that soon things would be fine,” Akhtar continued. “But as people felt that not much was changing, cinema gave society the ‘rebel star’ in the form of Shammi Kapoor. Who was this ‘rebel star’ fighting? He was fighting against his parents and society. In most of the cases this ‘rebel star’ was fighting Lalita Pawar. So, here the virtue was the negation of the feudal system.” He said in the films of this generation the villain invariably used to be the mill owner or landlord.