Critics: The New Celebrities ,Does criticism serve a purpose?

Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

Critics must have done something very good or very bad; that is why within a span of around ten days they have come into relief and are being talked about by the celebrities like Karan Johar, Jaya Bhaduri, Rakesh Roshan, Rakeysh Mehra, Raj Kumar Hirani, Kunal Kohli, etc. Incidentally, the critics have been talked about in the show Koffee with Karan in two consecutive shows over a spread of one week. Jaya Bachchan lamented the absence of critics and commented that do the critics exist in India. What is being seen in the business are the critics commenting upon the actors, actresses, directors, but nobody seems to talk about the craft, the quality of camera work, usage of lights, etc. Rakesh Roshan was of the opinion that the critics do not know how to distinguish between a body language of the actor, when he is portraying a role and who is playing it. It is the body language that ought to be understood by the critics and then they should make comments about the film. Kunal Kohli expressed the opinion that for him the critics do not matter at all, and it is the audience that ultimately counts. Kunal Kohli seems to have forgotten that when he was anchoring Chalo Cinema on Zee TV he had made mincemeat out of many movies.
The filmmakers may be peeved at the films being panned by the critics and therefore be crying hoarse and questioning the credibility of the critics to make a comment about the film. Critic as it is defined involves a total introspection of the subject matter involved, and to an extent the peers may be right that critics do not do a justice to their job. But the moot point whenever they try to do it, it is which the audience may not understand and therefore does not merit a consideration. Karan Johar may have tried to bring into relief the role of critics but is it not being viewed in the light of the fact that critics panned his last film KABHIE ALVIDA NA KEHNA. But why was it panned, was it not owing to the fact the idea did not prosper and so it was panned. The role of critics comes into play especially in films that are offbeat, which do not get a hand-in-mouth publicity to sail through, OMKARA being a live example of a film that got its success as all the critics praised it universally.

It is always easy to criticize the critics, but is there one school in the country, which teaches a course of film appreciation and criticism? Whatever the critic learns and comments upon is owing to his passion for cinema and through the deconstruction of film world in his own adaptive manner. If the industry feels that the criticism as a job is not being done judiciously, it is for the industry to come up and extend a helping hand.

Hollywood has facilitated conductance of various studies and thesis on films produced there, but there is still to be sanctioned one authentic study. Whatever work comes out is more through one’s interpretations and without getting an insight into the characters, so the interpretation may be static. With Hindi film industry having a history of more than seventy-five years, it is high time, it comes forward to facilitate initiation of processes to open the door for study of film craft and its nuances. Kunal Kohli is a live example of a critic crossing the Rubicon, and it was primarily because of his passion for cinema, and there is an urgent need for more such passion people, then only can criticism evolve, or else there would continue to be positioning between the industry and the critics.

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