There is a lot of debate on the influence of movies in our lives. Can violent movies or games be responsible for increase in crime?  There are people who want a complete ban on such material. But then there are those who support these citing freedom of speech. The struggle between them has a long history and is not going to end any time soon!

In India, attack on freedom of speech is much more violent and is on the increase. As you can guess, every movie is going to offend someone. If the villain is of a specific color some people get offended. If the hero is muslim some others get offended. There are even guys who get offended when they see love between a man and woman!. There is no end to such madness

I am always on the side of freedom of speech. But when you see all the latest english horror movies (for example - saw series or hostel series) I get doubtful. These take violence into its most vulgar form. Most of us may see it and then just forget it. But there could be psychopaths who would want to simulate the movie and that isn’t pretty.

That is exactly the problem with freedom of speech. Above I have written that I somehow find Saw and Hostel movies repulsive enough to warrant a ban. But another person might find other movies equally repulsive. See? It is a catch 22 situation.

Movies have affected my life in various ways and mostly it is in a positive sense. My career in software development is a direct result of the movie terminator 2. I still remember staggering back home after watching T2 lost in thoughts about artificial intelligence. It has motivated me to jump into programming and soon I realized a machine like terminator is not going to built in my lifetime :-). Another movie that left a lasting impression is American Beauty (especially the character Ricky Fitts).  If you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you rent the movie for this weekend.