The menace of social media

Social media has become a powerful tool today in the hands of ordinary people. It gives opportunities to anyone to propagate whatever he wants. As a result, a lot of falsehood gets peddled as truths, reputations are more marred than made, and relationships may be ruptured.

I happened to watch a new Malayalam movie today on the theme of the menace of social media. I went to watch another movie in fact, but its timing didn’t suit me and hence I bought tickets for Vikruthi, Mischief.

The plot is based on a real incident that took place in Kochi recently. A man named Eldho who has a speech impairment suddenly finds himself in the centre of a whirlpool because of a picture of his that was taken while utter weariness had made him fall asleep lying supine on a row of empty seats in the Kochi Metro train. Eldho had spent the whole night in the hospital where his daughter was being treated in the Intensive Care Unit for pneumonia. But the social media picture lampooned him as a drunkard. He lost his job and, worse, his reputation. The plot hitches a lift on Eldho’s plight and moves elegantly and with tear-jerking sentimentality to a neat moral lesson.

The protagonist, played dexterously by Suraj Venjaramoodu, is also named Eldho. Soubin Shahir who is the mischief-maker plays his role exquisitely too. Their acting stays with you as you walk out of the theatre. The warp and woof of the plot are fairly well-woven though the shaft bars of the loom hit you again and again with blatant moral preaching.

The message that the movie tries hard to hammer down into the consciousness of the viewer is relevant and valid. Quite many of us make use of the social media without thinking of the consequences of our actions there. I have been bombarded with more falsehood than I can endure on WhatsApp groups particularly. I try my best to post links to the reality. People seem to take a particular delight in falsehood than truths. The movie is a remarkable attempt to draw our attention to this great menace.