APPARATUS THEORY

Christian Metz gave a clear definition of what cinema is and how it actually differs from any
type of art. In his post-revolution film studies, cinema is a signifier whose presence is
absence. When viewing takes place in real time, the viewer is actually viewing an object or
scene from the film that is pre-recorded and thus is already absent. He even added that
cinema involved us in the imaginary. it gives us the ability of perception over it's own
absence in which that absence is the only signifier present.
Watching a film generally needs an instance of identification, since when there is no
identification, meaning cannot be generated for the subject. Instances of identification are the
characters itself in the film but Metz points out that not all film contain characters and that
identification is not always in the characters. Even in instances in which characters are
present, there cannot be total identification. the screen is a mirror, but not in a literal sense.
Metz concluded that the view should identify the apparatus itself and its recreation of the act
of looking.
Identification mainly happens in the cinematic screen, the apparatus. The projector duplicated
the act of perception by originating from the back of the subject's head and presents a visual
image in front of the subject. Though, until now in various or majority of movie houses, film
is still projected through film because film makers still use film. Various shots of the camera
are similar to the movement of the head of the spectator, thus making him the character itself.
While pictures and shots are projected through the apparatus, symbols and imagery are
introjected through the person's mind.
However, Metz does define cinema as characteristically imaginary, since the object projected
in the screen is already a reflection of reality. The film The Matrix can be used in this
situation as a reflection of the real world though how it is shot, edited and organized is not
real. The matrix is reality itself in a sense that it is project in an unrealistic way.
From this theory, sprung different theories that support the real-unreal perception of film.
From literal objects the spectator sees, comes out symbols and signifiers that constitute a
deeper meaning, a technique of using the imagination to realize the reality it tries to depict.
Examples of this theories is the Male gaze theory and the later Feminist theory. It can be
concluded that for Metz, the sense of psychoanalysis promoted by Lacan would be nothing if
the apparatus does not project it in the way it should be understood. Identification of the
psychoanalytic message comes out as the screen/projector projects the image intended.
Cinema then, is a kind of language that is not just heard but most especially its absence is
viewed.

Indian Cinema and Its Impact on Society Film Studies Essay

In our society there are many practices and traditions which are based on ignorance and
which have withheld the progress of our society. Rigidity of caste system, untouchability,
dowry system and purdah system have done enormous harm to our society. Cinema films can
do a lot to eradicate these evils. They can be used for promoting national integration,
Prohibition, intercaste marriages, family planning, eradication of illiteracy, etc. Such themes
can help the transformation of our society. The cinema can be used as an instrument to help

people get rid of obscurantism and also to guide them along the right path. It can help in
remov-ing ignorance from our society. Not only this, several much needed social reforms can
be introduced and brought about with the help of the cinema.
There are variable views about the effects of cinema. Producers and financiers consider it as a
tempting and lucrative business. For actors and actresses, it is a means to earn money and
popularity among masses. The director, story-writer, song-writer and cinematographer take it
as an art work. To some, it is an audio-visual translation of literatures and has its own
message. As for government, it is a potential source of revenue and employment. For
majority of cinema-goers, it is nothing but a cheap and interesting form of entertainment and
pastime. Whatever may be the reason, cinema has occupied a major share of market for its
cine lovers.
Indian Cinema:
Since its beginning with the film 'Raja Harish Chandra' (1913), the cinema has remained the
most powerful media for mass communication in India.
Since its beginning with the film 'Raja Harish Chandra' (1913), the cinema has remained the
most powerful media for mass communication in India. Cinema has the ability to combine
entertainment with communication of ideas. It has the potential appeal for its audience. It
certainly leaves other media far behind in making such an appeal. As in literature, cinema has
produced much which touches the innermost layers of the man. It mirrors the episodes in
such a manner that leaves an impact on the coming generations. Cinema presents an image of
the society in which it is born and the hopes, aspirations, frustration and contradictions
present in any given social order.
In the present era, cinema is getting replaced by small screen productions. Televised serials
and programmes are replacing craze. They advertise and earn revenue for industry. Thus
films telecast has become a source of further income for the industry and trade.
Man has instincts, different thoughts flow which leave an effect on the minds. The person
laughs with the films and tears with them. Scenes of 'Shaheed Bhagat Singh', a film by Raj
Kumar Santoshi and Manoj Goswami makes people national-minded and sentimentally
involved in the film show. The fim dialogues are occupying places in our real life. Dialogues
of Mugle Azam found place in the normal interaction of people for a long time. People talked
and walked like Prithvi Raj, the great king Akbar. In the same way, plays by Agha Hashat
and Devdas by Sharat Chandra left a deep impact on the masses. In the same way, film
'Sholey' created an imending effect on so many.
Example of Bengali Cinema and how it portrays:
Realism and Modernity are two words closely associated with Bengali cinema. Some of the
greatest and among the most popular filmmakers of Bengal took realist genre of films to a
new height, alongside reflecting modernist ideas. Realism and modernity go hand-in-hand in
Bengali films, especially in the work of greats like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak.
Although defining 'modernity' would mean at least a few more pages, for the sake of this
essay, we would deduct it down to merely social, political and artistic modernization. Satyajit
Ray's magnum opus 'Pather Pancheli' is one of the greatest examples of realist films
portraying various elements of 'modernity'. Inspired by Italian neo-realism (especially

Vittorio De Sicca's Bicycle Thief, 1948), Ray created his first film and a masterpiece
reflecting the evolution and social change in Bengal and a modernization of ideas and
concepts.
In Pather Panchali, Ray talks about leaving old ideas behind and moving on. He talks about
how over time, old ways of living, ancestral ideas and traditional lifestyle has become stale
and needs to be changed. Apu, with his family, leaves his home and village at the end
because the ancestral house held them behind. They moved to find a better way of living.
They moved to get rid of the old house which couldn't help them in any way, but instead took
their daughter's life.
This whole film is a transition from pre-modern to a modern way of living. Ray distributes
several metaphors throughout the film - metaphors of modernity and need for change. One
important character which served as a metaphor for me was that of the old aunt. She's old,
tired and just wanders around the house doing nothing. She's often told to go indicating she's
not wanted in the house. The family is fed up of her just as they're fed up of traditions and the
same lifestyle they'd been living - in the fear of famine, poverty and survival. The old aunt
wanders, trying to find a place for herself, and when she doesn't, she dies. Ray shows death of
old ideas. Ray wants change. He shows a need for change and a breakaway from traditions
which are holding you back. He wants to show there's always a need for change. The old aunt
is a mere metaphor for him to show how traditions have become stale.
'Charulata' (1964), another one of the great films by Ray, also talks about change. But here,
he sets it in an upper middle class Bengali society where a lonely housewife falls in love with
her brother-in-law while they both encourage each other to write. He puts two different ideas
of home and desire, literature and politics, pre-modernism and modernity face-to-face.
Ray's films have a humanistic touch. He uses his 'craft' to get to the deepest part of human
heart and extract out the emotions from there. Scenes like Apu throwing away the necklace
Durga had stolen, Amal leaving home to avoid being unfaithful, Durga stealing food for her
aunt add to the humanistic approach of Satyajit Ray's work.
Neo-realism is another thing that inspired Ray. According to me, it's mainly because his
stories were about society. He couldn't have made them in a fictional style because then they
wouldn't be relevant to the society. His stories were not meant to be mere films, but a reality
somewhere in time which needed to be imitated in Bengali society and which was a reflection
of the same society he lived in. His characters were sketches of real people. They were close
to real. For example, when you think Durga, you don't think of her as a two-dimensional
good or evil character, but as a girl who existed and had different attributes to her personality
just like everybody else. She wasn't a puppet.
Similarly, Ritwik Ghatak's films introduced different modern themes to the evolving society
of Bengal such as alienation, isolation, need for home.
In one of his most 'personal' and also socially relevant films 'Ajantrik', Ghatak introduces the
concept of alienation and isolation from the society. He shows a man's attachment to his car,
an inanimate object and a troubled social life where he can't connect well to the people
around him. Scenes like where the character Bimal is talking to his car, the car responding to
him, him taking care of the car like a companion and not caring about what his society says,
show how important a character Jagaddal (the car) is. Ghatak doesn't treat the car as a prop,

but as a character itself. He tries to show the car's point of view; he wants to make us feel its
presence thus implying the fact how relations have also evolved along with modernization of
ideas and society; how people have become more involved with their property rather than
fellow human beings.
Similarly, in Subarnarekha (1965), Ghatak reflects on the feeling of home (along with many
other sub-themes such as happiness, relations). His work has been about change, modernity
and its effects and mainly, how partition has affected society and Ghatak himself.
In Subarnarekha, he tells a story of a family moving to the bank of Subarnarekha River after
the partition and how the girl Sita seeks happiness throughout the film. Moreover, he tells of
her feeling at the new home. The river becomes the new home for her who she confides in
her secrets, woes and happiness.
From what I observed in Ghatak's films, he believes that society has changed from being a
'community' to more of a collective living of different individuals. I observed individualism
in his work, and how people have turned from their fellows to nature or man-made beauty
whether it is mountains and rivers to cars and property.
I think there are many modernist elements found in both Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak's
films ranging from their content and themes (home, anthropomorphism, modernity itself) to
their craft (use of POV shots, different style of cinematography, manipulating space and even
the use of Brechtian elements).

Conclusion
It is always good and well groomed to see good subjects on cinema. They have a very
positive and long-lasting effect on the minds whereas cheap and shabby movies affect the
tender minds of audience very badly. There is general feeling that present day crimes are all
due to effects of cinema. Besides open and demonstrative subjects throw tarnished messages.
They spoil our culture, and society. Cinema and TV badly affect the health of the youngsters.
They neglect studies and physical games to spend more time on this entertainment. Schoolgoing children and society children fail to make use of good impacts and are influenced by
the bad part of the programmes on the air.
The motive is not to discard cinema or TV telecast so easily. The desirable act will be to
selective and choosy for programmes. Good movies should be seen by the students. The
movies of TV shows should be very much restricted and for a fix time.
The cinema exercises a great influence on the mind of the people. It has a great educative
value. It can achieve splendid results in the field of expansion of education. There are certain
subjects, such as science and geography, which can be more effec-tively taught with the help
of talkies. Lessons on road sense, rules of hygiene and civic sense can be taught to the
students and the ' public as well in a very effective manner with the help of cinema pictures.
Many successful experiments have been made in various countries on the utility of films as a
means of education. Feature films have been produced for school and college students and
students are being benefitted by them.

Cinema films have the power to influence the thinking of the people. They have changed the
society and social trends. They have introduced new fashions in society. They may be
described as pace-setters. They can create a direct impact on our social life. Films can go a
long way towards arousing national consciousness and also in utilising the energies of the
youth in social reconstruc-tion and nation-building by a skilful adaption of good moral, social
and educative themes, and by introduction of popular sentiments, films can, to a great extent,
formulate and guide public opinion