Film Critics

It is really annoying how bad most Indian film reviews are. I was reading Raja Sen's review of The Social Network and he actually called the lead actor Jesse Eisenstein! It's Jesse Eisenberg, if you don't already know, but more than the really idiotic mistake with the name it's the extremely unoriginal reviews that these people seem to write that gets me.

If you remotely follow the spectrum of film 'critics' in India you would know that Raja Sen is probably among the better and more informed of the clan. Which does not say much at all. Almost all of the Rediff reviews while Sen was on a sabbatical made me feel like strangling myself. And my opinion is not very different when it comes to most of the other morons selling their wares on TV and on the net.

Nikhat Kazmi has been the butt of everyone's jokes for a long time, and it's fascinating how thick her skin must be to get to work everyday despite all of it, but it speaks more about how utterly pedestrian even the best-selling English newspaper in India must be if it still continues to employ her. But, that does not in any way mean that the other 'experts' are any less stupid. That Masand chap and that Chopra woman are not any better and their animated commentaries on cinema only make me shudder with fear. If these are the chaps people are going to look up to, film criticism in India is born dead.

Even though it's very offensive when someone like Sajid Khan abuses film critics, I do not feel completely surprised. Almost all film critics in the media today deserve the derision. They are leeches who probably do not even understand the import of words, let alone a camera frame.