1. Pedagogy & Cinema:
A study of select Bollywood Films
Radhika Khanna
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication
School of Media and Communication
Pondicherry University

2. Pedagogy and inclusive education
• Inclusive Education is flexible and individualized support system for children
with special needs. In a democratic country like ours, every child has the right
to education and enjoys equal opportunities for unfolding his/her potentialities
to the maximum. Equality in education requires personalized pedagogy and a
careful investigation into individual aptitudes.
• With its undue emphasis on cognitive learning and performance, important
processes of learning and transformation have been overlooked. This paper
looks at the role that media can play in education and the role of popular idiom
of cinema in personal and social transformation.
• The possibilities in terms of findings that this study offers include the potential
of films as a media of mass communication, i.e., being powerful pedagogical
tools in and outside the classroom; an understanding of effecting change and
reform in the practice of education at all levels in our country; and be an aid in
the field of teacher-education and parent-education.

3. Bollywood Films
• An informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry
based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Bollywood is the largest film
producer in India and one of the largest centres of film production in
the world. Bollywood is formally referred to as Hindi cinema.
• Reach - Besides being popular among the India diaspora, such far off
locations as Nigeria to Egypt to Senegal and to Russia generations of
non-Indian fans have grown up with Bollywood during the years,
bearing witness to the cross-cultural appeal of Indian movies. Over the
last years of the twentieth century and beyond, Bollywood progressed
in its popularity as it entered the consciousness of Western audiences
and producers.
• Number of films produced - the industry has been producing over 200
films per annum.

4. Methodology
• Textual analysis of the moving image content of three films.
• Interviews with people involved in the production of the films such
as script writers, directors etc.
• Interviews with teachers, parents, and people working in the areas
that have been represented in the films.
• Interviews with film critics and other Indian film makers.
• Audience responses through interviews and responses posted
online.

5. Films studied
Three films produced between 2005-2007, which focus on the teacher-student
relationship with representation of socialeducational contexts:
• Taare Zameen Par - The film explores the life and imagination of eight-year-
old Ishaan, a boy with dyslexia.
• Chak de India - The film brings out the making of the Indian women’s
hockey team.
• Black - A story of a blind and deaf girl loosely based on Helen Keller and an
earlier film - The Miracle Worker.

6. Research questions and findings
Chak de India - 2007
• Has sports training improved - especially for women? Any positive
changes for women?
• Audiences felt that it has brought out the importance of values of
team work, dedication, and acceptance of differences and unity in
diversity. Also, many women have been inspired by the film.
Black - 2005
• Representation of differently abled - was it appropriate and how
was it received by the audience?
• Mixed response from the audiences. Many felt that the film was too
melodramatic and focussed on the stars.

7. Taare Zameen Par - 2007
• Studying the representation of pedagogy and its impact on personal
and social transformation.
• A special presentation by screenwriter Amole Gupte of Aamir
Khan's super hit film Taare Zameen Par took place at the UNESCO
headquarters in Paris on Feb 3, 2010 as a part of UNESCO’s first-
ever World Dyslexia Forum Feb 3-5.
• Taare Zameen Par has made the parents, teachers and the students
to think and act differently towards a dyslexic child. Seeing the
popularity and the storyline of the film, it was made a ‘must watch
film’ at all the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) – Central schools.

8. Prof. Krishna Kumar
Former Director
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
“Children’s introduction to reading should enable them to expand the
scope of their innate linguistic competence, in an atmosphere of joy and
encouragement. That is the perspective of National Curriculum Framework
(NCF 2005) which recommends a language-across-the curriculum perspective.
To talk about a higher or lower standard syllabus is to miss the heart of
a child-centred approach. There is so much stress on our children today
precisely because we don’t recognise individual differences and we want every
child to be taught and examined the same way. No wonder our system is
actually as cruel as Taare Zameen Par shows. NCF asks us to take into account
the child’s perspective and see what knowledge, which skills should be offered
to children at what point in their lives. I am very happy that a popular film like
Taare Zameen Par is spreading this message, but the system of education has a
long way to go in the NCF direction.”

9. Audience reception
• Amole Gupte, researcher script writer and creative director of Taare
Zameen Par shares:
‘‘I had confessions of hundreds of fathers who said I am sorry I
just missed the point, I have begun looking at my child differently.
The ease in the pressure after the film is evident. So there is a
social reality which is happening after the film.’’
Let us look at some parts of the film which
have had a tremendous impact on
audiences.

10. Conclusion
• Cinema can only throw light on a subject, it cannot change the
subject. For this to happen, we must act upon the subject.
• Portrayal of problems has been done sensitively and dramatically
but unless people work to improve the conditions, the situation will
not change.
• Taare Zameen Par demonstrated that films have the power to bring
in social change on personal and societal levels.
• The portrayal of various issues related to education in these films
has definitely triggered a wide public discussion. This indicates that
popular forms of communication such as films can cause a shift in
audiences and also in educators’ practices.

11. Pedagogy & Cinema:
A study of select Bollywood Films
Radhika Khanna
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication
School of Media and Communication
Pondicherry University

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