Remember that iconic scene from 3 Idiots where Madhavan tries hard to tell his father how what people think doesn’t bother him but what parents think does? We could all relate to how the fear of disappointing our parents kept us from going ahead with several things in life. Exam pressure works in a similar way and this is exactly what a new campaign ‘Release the Pressure’ is talking about.
Produced by Shoojit Sircar, this short film features open letters by several students addressed to their parents to help understand how the pressure to succeed and score in exams kills spirit and enthusiasm. The touching film shows students breaking down under extreme parental pressure to study for long hours at a stretch and how it scares the living lights out of them.
We are not unaware of how several students have time and again preferred to end their lives over confessing failure to parents. While it’s fair for parents to want the best for their kids, whether pushing them to extremes just so they can top exams is fair is highly debatable. Even those among us who have been fortunate enough to have comparatively calmer parents are aware of the advent of paranoia upon them during exams.
Not allowing kids any time to go out and play, checking on them every half an hour and keeping a track of how many hours they have studied for are only some of the torture techniques parents have been known to use. Most do not even realize how such insane pressure does more harm than good to the kids. This campaign by Mirinda is Shoojit Sircar’s first short fiml and raises an issue that has long been ignored.
Indeed it’s high time kids stop throwing themselves off of terraces simply because their report cards are not ‘up to mark’. Honestly, what does ‘up to mark’ even mean?
