SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: Vishal Bharadwaj‘s latest film Kaminey has quarantined “film critics” suffering from “Fine Flu” to a port called Tizzy on a ship called INS Conformism.
Stars are being handed out in reviews as if the milky way is soon going to run out of them. Sugary-sweet profiles of the director are being blithely churned out without a health warning for diabetics. And the name of “the most overrated director of the nineties” is being been loosely hissed along side that of the boy from Meerut.
Have Indian film critics/reviewers become so starved of good stuff that they have lost the ability to judge a bad movie when it hits them between the eyeballs, asks Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr, in a DNA opinion piece titled “A pretentious film bambozles critics”.
Parsa writes that for all its hype, all Kaminey has are the stereotypical elements of a regular commercial film, but Bharadwaj makes a meal of it, turning it into a comical spaghetti-gangster film which our “intellectual rookies” can’t even spot.
“Good filmmakers are not conscious of their art. By that criterion, Vishal Bharadwaj does not make the grade….
“A handful of critics who make and mar cinematic reputations. That is why it becomes so important to challenge the assumptions of an existing group of critics who declare some filmmakers and some films to be of great importance….
“People who write and talk about cinema have started shouting that filmmakers like Bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap (Dev D), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Rang De Basanti, Delhi 6) are the new rebels who are subverting commercial cinema in a meaningful fashion.
“The critics’ verdict is patently untrue because these filmmakers remain on the margins. Popular taste refuses to be moulded by the self-appointed arbiters of taste. That is why it is so necessary to call the bluff of the critics when they anoint faltering filmmakers like Bhardwaj as the masters of cinema.”
Read the full article: A pretentious film bamboozles critics
Also read: ‘Bollywood: India’s most moronic cultural export’
‘Bollywood’s a scam. Farah Khan is a big, fat con’
churumuri 
This is more a review of the film-maker than the film itself.
Agree that commercial cinema has its limitations, so these critics should stick to their pet art house cinema.
Mr. Rao, Jr. should be reviewing “Gabhricha Paus”, who ever sent him to review Kaminey!
On one hand we have critics trying to do a trade analysis in the name of a review, on the other we have these orthodox purists mouthing exotic movies in exotic languages, what they make out of those movies, I don’t know. :P
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This is an interesting point of view. But why does somebody have to write such overtly figurative and laboured prose. Please tell Sharanya that lucidity is a virtue not a weakness. It takes so much of effort to wade through her opening paras. Look at this:
“Kaminey has quarantined “film critics” suffering from “Fine Flu” to a port called Tizzy on a ship called INS Conformism.
Stars are being handed out in reviews as if the milky way is soon going to run out of them. Sugary-sweet profiles of the director are being blithely churned out without a health warning for diabetics. And the name of “the most overrated director of the nineties” is being been loosely hissed along side that of the boy from Meerut.
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I think no amount of blabbering by these ‘critics’ will have any influence on the film (kaminey) nor its director (Vishal Bhardwaj).
I suggest Mr Critic to pick a DVD of Omkara and watch it before passing judgments like “And the name of “the most overrated director of the nineties” is being been loosely hissed along side that of the boy from Meerut”
As I see it, some secret envey has prompted Mr Critic to write whatever he has written.
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This view is also an individualistic view just like the critics. So ultimately it is the people who decide which movie is best, not sharanya not critics. To me both are same, they just have their views.
Secondly talking about Kaminey, its collections have proved that the movie is a hit and is liked by a “Lot of people” and hence successful and hence it is a good movie.
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I watched Kaminey with lots of anticipation. I found that it had excellent acting, excellent sets which felt so real, excellent camera etc. But some how the film didn’t make a mark, it didn’t flow well at all. Ingredients were excellent, but the result was not so much. Infact I felt like I wasted my time watching the movie.
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The film technique and treatment may be different. But it fails to touch the heart. YOu don’t feel anythign for the characters.
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The movie basically showcases black humour. It surely touches heart and brains too. Script, cinematography, screenply, direction, lyrics music and actors all fall in sync.
We encourage and welcome movies like Dev-D and Kaminey and the directors too. Cheers to the generationZ Bollywood movie makers.
There are movies like “Agyat” for the critics to show their writing skills and talents.
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Thank god or whoever it is, people don’t watch a movie based on one critic’s opinion. Read P.V.Rao’s article. He is not a critic at all. At least, the article which he has written is not a review. Otherwise, why would one devote just 3 paragraphs to talk about Kaminey and the rest 11 to talk about the director!
And worst of all, whatever little he has written on Kaminey falls flat. Sample this, “The hero & heroine dance & sing in AIDS awareness promotion procession”, factually wrong! The film will be well understood with some keen observation because the movie is set in such a fast pace that even if one misses few seconds, one might not be able to comprehend what is going on. Another one, “It is a film with all its stereotypical elements- hero, heroine, villains, songs, romance & fights”. Now, that is not stereotypical, but to write that it is so is!
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