Would you dare to see -
- Daily Television Serials where there are no conflicts? The mother-in-law is nice to the daughter-in-law and vice versa?
- A Social Media Platform where everyone is nice to each other?
- Instagram videos of husband and wife not fighting?
- YouTube videos with good and meaningful messages?
- Happy and helping people in your real life?
Do you remember the golden days when your grandmother told you bedtime stories? Why did you like it? Try telling your kids a story without conflict.
There is a boy in the town who always gets good marks, respect elders, is a friendly person, is obedient, funny, and so on. Your kid would tell you that there is no juice in your story. They will never enjoy it. Neither we did in the past for the do-gooder stories.
There is no antagonist in the Tamil movie 96' yet the audience enjoyed the movie. Everyone in the movie is a do-gooder and doesn't harm others. Then, can we say that this is a successful movie without conflicts? No. you mayn't have an antagonist in a human appearance. But the inferiority complex of the protagonist creates several complex situations. Hence, it becomes the conflict of the film. An introverted boy never has the guts to open up his heart in situations that demanded him to act.
In the family stories, sacrifice, coping with different types of family members, their activities and emotions become the major crux of the story. Automatically, the wishlist of each family member becomes a conflict with the other. Movies like Vanatha Pola, Samuthiram, and Aanantham have do-gooder siblings. But the conflict is that each one is nice to the other. Their love for the siblings becomes a natural conflict.
Conflicts are the base of the character arc. It helps us to learn the moral at the end. It pushes the character to acquire new traits and survival skills.
Stories without conflict are like a documentary. We hate to be in a conflict. We avoid conflicts to the core in our personal life. But we ignore contents that don't have conflicts because it will not interest us. Movies need strong and relatable conflicts. Without conflicts, movies will be like a newsreel or a documentary.