Every Friday there is some move or the other releasing. While fans of actors and actress watch the films of their favourite actors irrespective of how the movie performs at the box office, there is a good number of people who wait for the reviews and decided whether to watch the film or not. These critics influence the audience and now that we have social media, the good or bad spreads really fast.
It happened with Thugs of Hindostan. The movie was trashed by the critics – who did not like the movie for their own reasons. I however watched the film first day first show before the verdict was out and I liked the movie for what it offered. Imagine my shock when I read reviews which described the movie as one of the worst of 2018. Specially in case of Thugs of Hindostan I felt there was a campaign against the film.
The critics advised against watching the Hindi film Aashiqui 2. Instead, they suggested watching the old one again. Some reviews said the male lead Aditya Roy Kapoor was pathetic and had not so encouraging words for the female lead Shraddha Kapoor as well. Even the music by Jeet Ganguly was strictly ok. All in all this was not the movie you should be investing your money and time. So the ‘critics’ said.
Now, the problem with our so called critics is that they have seen the world’s best and compare our products to them. They find all the loopholes in our stories and none in the cinema of the world. They want our movies to be like theirs. Sure. Do they insert songs in their movies that is being released in India?
Our movies are unique because of so many reasons with music being just one of them. Our treatment of movies is different from theirs and should remain so. How many of the mainstream Indians have seen Wong Kar Wai’s classic In The Mood For Love? Our esteemed critics go gaga over movies like this which if released in India will be pulled out after first day itself. But our esteemed critics think otherwise. They see our movies from the perspective of world cinema.
The critics want so many script changes after watching the movie that the director may even refuse to call it his film. Mind you, none of them will like a similar suggestion about their articles. They will fight with their editors if the paragraphs are even interchanged. Changing the intro of the story will actually need no less than the owner calling them personally. But that does not stop them from suggesting a similar thing to a film director.
It\’s tough being a critic. More so when you have movies like Golmaals, Housefulls or Bol Bachchans or the recent Himmatwalas to review. But look what they had to say about these gems and you know where our critics are heading.
As for Thugs of Hindostan or Aashiqui 2 or so many others go watch them and decide for yourself. I enjoyed Aashiqui 2 for the pure, unadulterated romance. That is as rare as finding non-sensical debate on TV shows. The lead pair looks good and the music is excellent. Unlike the music these days that come with a life of 3-months, this music will proudly find a place in my library of evergreen music. And so will the DVDs whenever they are out.