A peek at our Celebrity Worship

For a nation with innumerable obsessions, doting over celebrities and their lives is nothing startling. But the extent to which fandom has driven people in our country is a largely depressing grim picture. When viewed through glasses of common sense and education, the whole affair looks nonsensical.

For me to even speak along these lines is a blasphemy for I come from a State where electing cine actors to offices of power is quite a habit, not that we've always had better candidates. Tamil Nadu's obsession with its cine stars is like the prima ballerina of the ballet. No wonder, the country's biggest stars emerge here.

Setting up cut outs outside theaters as large as ten times life size, showering litres of milk over it and dedicating garlands to the posters; these are scenes common place in any popular theater during a big star's movie release in Tamil Nadu. Fandom does not become a point of concern as long as it stops here; it would harmlessly be termed idiotic. The problem dawns when violence comes to play.

It's not unlikely to witness a fight erupt over the argument of which actor is better. In fact, it is quite common. From hate messages on social media to real fist-to-fist encounters and to even gang wars (of minuscule level), it has all happened.

This is just one side of the coin. Obsession, mania, frenzy, call it all and it would suit this well.

The flip-side is as disagreeable as the other one. Relating a dialogue that an actor speaks on screen to his personal life is as crude as it can get. ‘What did he do for our cause when we stuck by floods last year? Why does he speak like he cares about our race?’ That’s what they say to even their biggest star. It's funny as invigorating to look at reality through eyes of these people.

‘How much money did they donate to this cause? How much to that? Were there any empathetic posts about the earthquake in Nepal? What about the floods in Andhra?’ This is another way celebrities are measured. Playing the devil’s advocate, I am wondering why none of the Americans were outraged that Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt never tweeted about the school shootings or drug abuse.

I would not point at lack of education to this cathexis on celebrity obsession. This is merely because of my personal experience with several acquaintances that are well educated, yet a complete halfwit when it comes to idolising celebrities and participating in crusades for them. It would all boil down to maturity. And in this case, all the maturity has to do to the individual is to make him understand that a celebrity is also just another person who exhibits his talent for money. Show love but do not obsess!