Tamil films encourage suicide: Malaysian minister

[podalangai]

From the BBC:

A Malaysian minister has called for suicide scenes to be cut from imported Indian films, amidst concerns that they are leading to copy-cat incidents.

His remarks come days after a young Tamil mother threw herself and two of her children in front of a train.

Sadly, suicides among Malaysia's Tamil minority are reported all too regularly in the local media. The Tamil community is the poorest of the three main ethnic groups here, and many Tamils face severe hardship.

But G Palanivel, deputy leader of the Tamil-dominated political party, the Malaysian Indian Congress, thinks movies are partly to blame. Suicides are said to be a common dramatic feature in Indian films, especially those made for Tamil audiences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5153376.stm


Is it really the movies which are to blame? I know they are more gritty than the happy-dancy Hindi films, but do they encourage suicide?? I don't think we have this problem in Tamil Nadu.

[dsath]

Don't know about suicide, but politics and hence the whole state is directly or indirectly influenced by Tamil Cinema.
Who knows if a research (like the ones BBC comes up with all the time - as they have lot of spare cash thanks to TV license) is conducted it may well prove that Tamil cinema influences suicides.

[Querida]

I think if one was to look into the lives of the suicide victims there would less instances of watching movies with suicide endings and rather hardships that they have suffered that has brought them to their self-demise whether it be poverty, depression, abuse or whatever other tragedy/issues they were dealing with.

If there was less time spent on pointing fingers at media and more time and money spent de-stigmatizing the perceptions of mental health and encourage counselling programs and further support for low income families...the suicide rate itself would show the difference

I read of many cases here where tamil/indian men and women having suffered depression and too ashamed of taking their medication or discuss their problem with family/doctor have ended up committing suicide. I am glad to say that since then, there have been more effort to reach those who need help and lessen even the language barriers and stigma of depression.

[solona]

i don't think that Indian movies push people to suicide, on the contrary Indian movies are full of color songs and dance etc.

Of couse the ideas they put foward are traditional, with lots o moral stuffetc (like thali and amma sentiments)
I recently saw a french movie the theme was so black that I felt really bad for two or three days

Scream and all the hollywood stuff creates serial killers etc but tamil movies are films i can even show to my kids(except the recent ones with all those vettou kuthu stuff)

[NOV]

it is just the typical sweeping-under-the-carpert syndrome of politicians. since he was newly elected at the recent dubios elections, the politician probably wanted to be recognised.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/n...le/local1_html


Censoring movies 'will not curb suicides'

KUALA LUMPUR: Censoring suicide scenes from Indian movies will not prevent women from taking their own lives.

Era Consumer Malaysia counsellor Nanthini Ramalo said censoring such scenes would not help women deal with their problems, which was the root cause of suicides.

She was commenting on a suggestion by Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk G. Palanivel that suicide scenes in Indian movies should be banned as they were a bad influence on viewers.

Palanivel had made the comments in relation to the suicide deaths of K. Sangeetha and her children, Sagaria Johnson, 6, and Easter, 3.

The three were killed when a train ploughed into them in Sungai Gadut, Negri Sembilan, on Tuesday.

Her seven-year-old daughter Victoria managed to wriggle free from her mother’s clutches and pulled her five-year-old brother, Jason, to the side before the train hit them. Jason, however, suffered serious head injuries and had been admitted to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

Sangeetha had apparently committed suicide with her children following an argument with her husband.

"From our experience, movies alone cannot cause suicides. It is probably only a minor contributing factor as a suicidal person would have attempted suicide a few times before. From the earlier attempts, they get the courage to finally carry it out," Nanthini said.

Relating her experience at Era Consumer’s 10 community centres nationwide, she said the main cause of suicide was the lack of someone whom the women could talk to about their problems.

A total of 3,289 women have received counselling at Era Consumer’s community centres, which were set up three years ago.

Of this, 352 were attempted suicide cases. All of them were Indian women.

Other causes of suicide, Nanthini said, include a loss of confidence, a loss of trust and their spouses’ extra-marital affairs. Physical and mental abuse and financial reasons have also driven women to commit suicide.

"For example, Sangeetha took her children with her to the railway tracks to commit suicide as she had lost her faith in everyone.

"No mother will kill her children, so she must have felt that there would be no one to take care of her children if she was no longer around."

Nanthini said that it was not easy to convince someone not to take their lives and this sometimes could take hours of counselling.

"We sometimes get calls at 3am, and if the situation warrants it, staff members from the nearest centre would visit the distressed person, no matter what time it is," she said.

Nanthini said women should also be made aware of the many counselling services provided by non-governmental organisations and government departments.

One of the problems, she said, was that many Indian women did not seek help due to language barriers.

"As such, we need more Indian counsellors as well as awareness programmes and advice columns for women in Tamil dailies," she said.

[nms]

i don't think that Indian movies push people to suicide, on the contrary Indian movies are full of color songs and dance etc.

Of couse the ideas they put foward are traditional, with lots o moral stuffetc (like thali and amma sentiments)
I recently saw a french movie the theme was so black that I felt really bad for two or three days

Scream and all the hollywood stuff creates serial killers etc but tamil movies are films i can even show to my kids(except the recent ones with all those vettou kuthu stuff)

....WELL SAID...

I wud suggest you that you don't show many of our tamil serials(killers ) to your kids..

[podalangai]

Actually, on the train from London today the conductor told me that four people had killed themselves on that line in the past six months. I don't think it's likely that English people are being influenced by Tamil cinema, so as we all seem to agree, it is probably the minister kicking up a fuss just for the sake of doing it.

HOWEVER...

I wandered into the Tamil Films section of the Hub today and read some of the xxxxx v xxxxxx threads. I now think that even if Tamil Films do not increase the chance of suicide, it is highly probable that they (or discussions about them) increase the chance of MURDER.