Film as a pedagogical tool for geography during the pandemic induced virtual classes

Film has always been an important medium to disseminate social issues through imageries and imaginaries. The present paper examines the importance of film in understanding contextual, geographical concept-metaphors through virtual classes that can unearth the potential of the teaching–learning process in the COVID-19 induced lockdown situation. Qualitative techniques are used here to analyze landscapes, communication and actions to reveal the importance of a film from Bollywood, the world's largest film producing hub, in the context of teaching geographical concepts via online digital-mode classes in the ongoing pandemic scenario. Besides, Bollywood film has a wider and strong subliminal effect on the human mind. In this connection, the present work shows how a teachers’ team use geographic media literacy as a pedagogical tool to enhance their students' cognition in online classes. It further shows that film acts as a geographic teaching tool for making students aware of the subjective understanding of Geography through a sub-branch wise explanation of cinematic components. It is observed that, even in the absence of classroom activity, if the lecture/study materials are interlinked with film, it would render a good understanding of the required geographical know-how. This article thus introduces a new scope for devising a better and more resilient online teaching process that promises to enrich geographical studies’ digital pedagogy.