Understanding cultural cringe among the youth of india (Age-18-29) with reference to bollywood mainstream cinema

Abstract

An Australian writer, critic and teacher A.A. Phillips coined the term 'the cultural cringe' in 1950 to describe an Australian tendency to identify our literature and art as inferior to work produced overseas, particularly in Britain and the United States. The presence of cultural cringe in nation can disrupt the values and norms among the public and lead to cultural alienation. Cultural alienation in turn means abandonment of one’s own culture. The study therefore focuses on the role of Bollywood Mainstream cinema in shaping the attitude and beliefs of today’s youth towards Indian culture. The idea behind taking the crux of mainstream cinema was to understand how it affects the masses compared to art cinema which is viewed by only some classes of society. The researcher chose to study the youth population as they are the majority audience which consume the film medium. A total of forty samples were collected based on their reaction to some popular Bollywood hits and their scenes depicting a general cultural view of India. The objective behind this study was to understand if cultural cringe does exist in the minds of the youth of India and if it does how cinema is giving a boost to it.