Reel medium

New Delhi, June 18: Students taking admission to Delhi University this year have hailed the university’s decision to include films for the foundation courses, which all students have to take irrespective of their major subjects.

Vrinda Srivastava, an applicant from Patna, said she was quite impressed with the syllabi. “I am happy to learn that the DU syllabus has taken such a vibrant medium to teach students. Perhaps no other university in the country has taken such an initiative,” she said.

“Watching these films in a classroom will help us think and communicate rationally, understand and deal with emotions like happiness, love, anger and fear, and discover the paradoxes of everyday life.” In their first two years at college, students would have to take 11 foundation courses — seven in the first and four in the second.

For a paper on philosophy, psychology, communication and life skill has films like 3 Idiots, A Wednesday, Chake De India, Do Dooni Char, Dor, English Vinglish, Iqbal, Khuda Ke Liye, Lagaan, Life of Pi, Peepli Live, Rang De Basanti, Rockstar, Swades, Taare Zameen Par, Udaan and Wake Up Sid as resource material.

Similarly, students of business, entrepreneurship and management have The Social Network (on how Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook), Wall Street and Pursuit of Happiness, along with Rocket Singh, Corporate, Guru (based loosely on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani) and Any Body Can Dance. They would also see documentaries like Tucker: The Man and his Dreams, Pirates of Silicon Valley, An Inconvenient Truth and Start Up.com.

Though the jury is still out on whether the sage advice (greed… is good) of Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas in the iconic 1987 film, is ideal of students and the debate over the utility of the foundation courses continues to rage in the academic circles, students, teachers and university authorities are very happy about the inclusion of films in their courses.

Another applicant from Bihar, Mrinal Singh, agreed with Vrinda.

“The new courses will also enable students to relate to each other in a better way,” Singh said.