Generation GAP and Cinema

I had a course on Consumer Behavior (CB) this term and in the end-term examination of that course there was one question “Write and explain 5 values of Indian youth and what implications do they have on product consumption?” I remember in the course there were several chapters on how the consumer attitudes are changing with time and all sorts of terminologies have come up over time, ‘Baby Boomers’, Generation Y and Generation X etc. Though these terms are used for US population in general but the notion of changing customer attitude towards cannot be denied in Indian scenario and its implications are quite visible.

I was listening to Hindi songs after the CB exam and I generally keep my winamp on random mode with the entire hind songs collection put in the list. The songs that was played was ‘papa kahate hai’ from QSQT. The next song that the winamp played was ‘Koi kahe Kahata Rahe’ from DCH. ‘papa kahate hai’ start with “……Doston…. Shukriya…..party…..humare liye college ka yeh aakhri din hai aur mein jaanta hoon ki aane wali zindagi ke liye sabne kuch na kuch soch rakha hai……’ and then the songs starts with ‘papa kahate hai’ which says that ‘koi engineer ka kaam karega, koi business mein apna naam karega’. Now recollect the starting of ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ from DCH, it starts with “….. who the hell cares where the hell we land up……”. Recollect that just before these lines the hero starts by saying that college passouts will go for higher studies and some will join their family business, some with start their own ventures and the response that the hero gets the crowd is a BIG BOOOOOOOO, he suddenly change the track and says “….who cares where the hell we land up…. Lets party……..”

Now let me talk about the commonalities in the context of these two songs, both the songs have a background of college graduates in their final graduation party and partying ways from their friends. Apart from diametrically apart attitudes of these two generations there is another thing common to these two songs which rather struck me a little late, and I want you to think of it till I finish my main story. So the main story is how cinema is sometimes a true reflection of a society or as the CB book put it cinema forms a part of cultural gatekeepers who screen the fashion and decide which trend gets a representation in the wider communication to public. The attitude towards life is definitely changed over the period of time. From ‘papa kahate hai’ to ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ Indian youth has become more adventurous and risk taking, do not want to really lose their freedom so early by committing to job and increased responsibility. You can find out several contrasting themes from early 90s to early 2000s in Indian cinema and figure out yourself how the contemporary Indian youth is very different from its previous counterpart. These differences results in changed preferences towards many products, need for new products and services which the marketers constantly look for. Now that was a part of my answer that I wrote in the end-term examinations and I surely do not want to pen it down here.

Well, before I end the post, I hope you figured out the other similarity between the two songs I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Yes, both songs feature Aamir Khan!