“At one time our society had a clear moral view. Today, we don’t have such strong moral concepts. We don’t have black and white views and moralities,” he said. Value systems are a constantly developing set of fundamentals, which play an important role in how a society evolves. The level of degradation or upliftment is a relative thing. Hence, the good or bad can never be defined or measured, says Air Force official Vikrant Dutta. “It’s not about black or white anymore but varying shades of grey which permeate every aspect of existence. Subtle and veiled bad is thus an accepted form under the cloak of good,” he says. Fashion design student at NIFT Vaishnavi Naidu says that all good is a myth and it’s almost impossible to be purely good. She says, “Films are a reflection of life. Even if there are movies with a clear line separating the good and bad, sometimes I like the negative characters as I can relate to them in some way. I feel that I will do the same when I am in a similar situation. Therefore, I feel that there is nothing wrong in being less right.” However author Arnab Ray believes that there has never been any distinction between the two. “Nothing has changed in recent times,” he quips and adds, “Evil is a natural state of human beings. I don’t agree that things have changed fundamentally. What has happened is that previously, audiences were happy with black-and-white villains. Today they want more nuanced antagonists, those that are relatable and realistic. The lines separating good and bad were always blurred.”
