Why do we need film songs in school events?
The time when one goes though primary and High school students is a very impressionable one. Any seed that is sown, sprouts immediately. That soft ground does not know whether the seed would grow to yield good fruit or a bad one. Their minds are like soft surfaces that hold the impression of whatever is thrown at them, without any discrimination. It is impossible to undo their memories formed during this time.
Hence the atmosphere at home and school have to be really conducive for children to grow up. They develop taste, aptitude and inclination towards good things at this age. More than annual exams shaping their personality and future, annual day organized by the school shapes their senses even better. Annual events showcase the talent of students, thus making the day extremely special for them. Their joy and happiness knows no bounds on those days. Their true interests are on display on that very special day.
Sports and extracurricular activities are also held on the day. Those who are good at scoring, need not be great sportspersons too. Someone who does not score well, may be a good player who can earn everyone’s respect and admiration on that day by winning prizes! This annual school day often showcases many talents of students such as music, singing, art etc. But a few schools conduct annual days for name sake, creating only scoring students and leaving behind the creative side of students in total darkness. Students in such schools live a creatively dead life almost.
The cultural event in the annual day gets most prominent space. Children’s talent of singing, dancing and other forms of creativity is expressed on this day. But in many schools, the dance and song routine is failing to fulfil its very objective. Teachers believe dance is about tapping foot to recorded film songs. Hence in most schools film songs make for most of the entertainment programme on the annual day.
This does not mean film songs should be dismissed completely. There are many ways in which film songs can reach students today. Children watch them on social media, on television and on phones too. They try to imitate them. But the film songs hardly have any literary significance. Film songs may have counter effect on children since most of them are written with adults in mind. Imitating this would mean children are losing their innocence at very early age.
In the past, school events would have poems and folk songs to which the students either sang together or danced. These songs that could be seen only in text books, used to be children’s favourite after they sing and dance to them at school events. Since they used to listen to them for more than two weeks in order to prepare for the school event, they would be happy listening to them without any pressure of scoring marks at the end of this. Other would join them while they learnt the dance and every one would enjoy humming along.
They would then know about the poets who wrote these songs or the meaning of the folk song. They could imagine a village when they listened to a folk song. They would become familiar with hunting songs, kolata songs, varieties of folk literature etc thus understanding the social context described by the song. Their perception of the society would be shaped through these. Even dramas should be employed to introduce history and folk literature to children. This would lead to their personality development.
Unfortunately, in the recent times school events are reduced to just shaking a leg to cinema songs and enacting scenes from films. Looks like even teachers find it easy to make children imitate cinema since they can follow without any hassles. More than this, the new generation of teachers have no clue about poems and folk songs. Most convents and English schools have this issue since remain distant from the culture of the land. Which is why they make children dance to ready cinema songs. Even parents don’t bother much about this and in fact feel proud about their children perfectly imitating the actors. How does one create a sense of pride about culture in children when this is the fact? If children appreciate double entendre at an age when they can barely understand it, how do they grow as adults?
Media reports suggest the education department has sent a circular stating no film songs should be used in school events, and this is a highly appreciable move. Let the students choose what they want to do in college events. But at a time when they are still innocent, they should not develop a taste for crass. Parents have to stand by the institutes and government in this case, for the sake of their children. They need to understand that our culture has to be safeguarded through our songs that reflect the soil. We also need to protect folk songs and poems from being lost. Else, a day may not be very far when film songs may gain an entry into Kannada text books.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
