Not another apocalyptic movie.

Okay I understand that this is the year 2012, the year as predicted by the ancient civilization Mayan, the year of the end or as many would like to interpret the year of a new beginning. Astrologers or rather the forecasters appear to have mixed reactions on such events many dismissing the hype altogether and many calling on to their savior for mercy. Despite the dichotomy prevalent in the opinions, the Hollywood directors definitely take the pleasure of using this opportunities to rake the mullahs at the box office.

Pictures of meteors or balls of fire attacking the earth, the target essentially New York or any other American city as believed by all Americans, or maybe alien attack again zooming down to the earth picking on the Americans again or maybe a super duper Tsunami pouring into the empire state building and the very favorite of all ‘The statue of Liberty” lies tattered in an abysmal condition.

 The very dramatic entry of the super heroes either knocking out the meteors or  bombing the aliens have already been tried and tested for decades in the film industry, yet every time the viewers weakness towards fear appeal and hunger for the unnatural makes these film makers remake their own emulated apocalyptic movies.

 Banashree Chowdhury, a faculty of Film studies from a city based media institute says, “The movies exaggerate the events and are definitely urban centric which makes it hardly any correlation with the reality.  Even if the world is really coming to an end, these movies don’t really make it any better.”

 Better or for worse, apocalyptic movies could definitely take a toll on the average persons nerves as many of these movies claim to be futuristic and inspired from scientific findings.

 Karabi Goswami, a management professional says, “Y2K came and went without much ado to it, due to proper planning and prepared anticipation. Possibly 2012 would also come and go without any major up haul but these overhyped fear can lead to a lot of disturbed nights for many.”

 According to many movie buffs a similar disturbing feeling mixed with fear was generated during the screening of the movie ‘The war of the worlds’ n 1953. Many people were scared and some had even begun taking precautions for the days to come.  These scares and movies have since then become the order of the day. Though the movie itself was inspired from the scare generated by H.G.Wells story told on radio of the invasion of Earth by Martians. The radio broadcast itself had literally brought the people out on the streets, packed with bags all ready to flee off towards a safer shelter which they themselves were unaware of.

As the very precise and impeccably calculated Mayan calendar ceases to exist after December 21^st 2012. Many liken it to just another calendar that cease to exist because it has just ended, not even remotely implying to the end of time rather indicating that it is time to switch or get a new calendar.

Despite these clarifications, the changing climate along with the string of natural calamities be it the Tsunami in Japan that nearly wiped away two towns or the series of tornadoes and twisters occurring in parts of America or the very destructive floods of Thailand seem to be giving people a lot of ideas.

And here the ever sermonizing cynics find reasons to believe that it is the end of times. “We are on the edge of it, at least in terms of the climate. The peaking temperatures during the summer which has broken previous records or the very frequent occurrence of floods in many low lying areas of the world”, said Puja Baruah.

She further added that though she personally did not believe in the occurrence of such drastic climate change as depicted by the 2004 American science-fiction disaster film depicting catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events yet what she believes that climate change can definitely lead to catastrophic consequences in the near future, that of a different kind.

But does that really give the license to the very assuming Hollywood production houses to churn out films, one after the other in the form of apocalyptic movies.

“ These movies could be watched for entertainment from time to time but the problem lies in the fact that many viewers literally try to relate the movie concepts with reality and start to panic which could lead to misinterpretation of facts”, added Banashree.

Well despite all the odds what still remains apparent is that these trend will continue to be ruling the charts of the multiplexes who will  also find sufficient takers, munching popcorns and exclaiming in wonder while staring at the magnanimity of the events, secretly hoping that he/she should probably not live to see the day.

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