An open letter from Mr. Ram Gopal Varma?
Received this letter in our inbox. I’m not sure if it is really RGV or someone impersonating him or perhaps this is a marketing ploy. It could be anything. I haven’t seen Agyaat yet, so have no idea why he is so mad about, assuming this email is sent by him and not an impersonator. It could be one of his fans though, chewing through reviewers like meat through bone… His email id mentions it all: RamGopalVarmaReviews… O boy!
Update: The content of this email seems to be published verbatim on his old blog address.
Tags: agyaat, ram gopal varmafrom Ram Gopal Varma
to ramgopalvarmareviews@gmail.com
date Sat, Aug 8, 2009 at 11:45 AM
subject The Real HORROR
mailed-by gmail.comGoing by most of the reviews AGYAAT seems to be the worst film ever made since the invention of camera.
Some Peppermint Tejpal wrote a review in Mumbai Mirror, that is if it can be called a review, posing as if he is the world expert on cinema. If the only qualification of a reviewer is to just have an opinion then I would really like to know the process of a paper selecting and employing a reviewer out of millions of opinion makers. If it’s not about his opinion and it’s about expertise then what is peppermint’s expertise. It would be nothing but him being in love with himself the way he can rip apart a film much more than even his actual hatred for the film. So a Mayank Shekar leaves for a higher salary or some other reason and they fill his space with peppermint who nobody knows and after the reviews of 2 or 3 films he becomes as popular primarily because of the brand of the newspaper and the more nastier he becomes the more popular he becomes because instinctively this breed of reviewers understand this from the popularity of their predecessor Khalid Mohammed.
Twenty years ago Khalid wrote a review of my first film “SHIVA” calling it a piece of junk which is considered to be a cult film by most today. And believe it or not the same Khalid referred to it as a cult classic in a certain context of a review he wrote for some other film 10 years later. So does his mind work 10 years slower? After being kicked out and down the ladder from TOI to Mid-day to DNA, to HT to Asian Age, I hear that he writes for some obscure website which I doubt even 5 people will read. Also I hear some horrifying news that he is making another film and that news I think is more horrifying than any horrifying film I ever made. To fund him after those 3 or 4 fantastic masterpieces he made, his investors have to be one hundred time more dumber than any of my investors.
Also I have no problem in getting one star from sweetie cutie Anupama who thinks “Eklavya” is a classic and the lesser said about the Buffalo Bumzai the better. (I have gone this personal taking a leaf from them). I can’t get over the glee in Bumzai’s eyes when she is ripping a film. But I feel also that the psychology of these critics pales in comparison in negativisim to the psychological aspect behind the point of criticism by itself.
The purpose of a review could be to warn a viewer of how a film is and probably to prepare a mindset. But does anybody believe that this alone would be the intention of any of the reviewers. Eventually a film is a commercial product in a consumer market sheerly because so much money and so many people’s efforts, careers and businesses are linked with it. A car manufacturer comes out with a new model, it’s fair enough that some relevant expert can give his views on the car’s good and bad points to an ignorant customer. But he cannot go on a trip of a personal attack on the manufacturer and to having his presumptions on the intent of manufacturing the car.
So why is this discrimination against the cinema industry alone? Every other product put out there in the market gets a chance to be judged by the consumer directly whether he likes it or not, whereas only in the film industry’s case its products are constantly judged, ridiculed, made fun of, misinterpreted in the eyes of the people by using the platforms of mass mediums like newspapers and television channels.
It is not realized by many that hundreds of people and their families livelihoods are dependent upon a films run. To indiscriminately run down a film in a glee to hit at the maker will result in lot more hurt to many other people associated with the film in various others ways namely the actors, technicians, distributors, exhibitors etc who primarily have no way of controlling how a film will shape up but yet will bear the brunt of its failure in many cases much more than the maker.
Having said all this, more than the critics who enjoy trashing films it’s us film folk who relish a bad review as long as it’s someone else’s film and not our film. I think it is human nature to enjoy negativity. We like to hear bad things, we love to hear failure of others so that by default we feel successful. As long as it is in the realm of fantasy and wishful thinking that’s fair enough as like I said it is human trait which we can’t escape from but when it is implemented in a practical aspect it can damage the whole system.
The whole film industry literally celebrated the trashing of KAMBHAKT ISHQ as each of them would be jealous of Akshay’s raise and the brand of the film. The fact that they feel so small in front of that picture in the pre-release hype gives a high to them when it is being ripped. I hated KAMBHAKT ISHQ myself but I don’t think I or anybody have a right to come in between that film and the guy who wants to see it. If I go to a store to buy a shirt after seeing an advertisement by the manufacturer, the shop keeper has a right to display his goods in whichever attractive manner he chooses and I and every single customer have a right to choose whatever we want to buy depending directly on our individual tastes and sensibilities etc. But I would not want a guy to be at the door psyching me and influencing me on what to buy and what not to buy.
So as long as this discrimination is only on film products, unless we film folks take time off from enjoying other’s films being trashed and realize that the species of critics are becoming a disease to the film industry and its objectives after expending months and years work, we still would be continuing to be at the mercy of a few uninformed idiots who have nothing to loose and with zero accountability.
Also I respect a media enterprise for the intention of its creation and as a system in whole. But I would like to ask them to question themselves if the likes of peppermint are really worthy of representing their system.Why AGYAAT?
I believe that a film is an emotional experience. It can make you laugh or cry or make you scared or thrill you. AGYAAT was designed as a concept on whether I as a director can through the use of just sound efx, background music and camera movements create a being just in the imagination of the audience and not show it at all. Apart from this I wanted to play with the changing mindsets of people who are in a stressful situation. Fair enough a few liked the concept, few didn’t, few thought I should have shown and others thought I did the right thing. This reaction is expected for anything which has not been done before and tried for the first time. Yes, everyone has a right to feel what they felt. Not only me no filmmaker anywhere will ever do a film which he thinks will not be accepted by the audience, but what they will accept one cannot know unless tried and only that’s how advancement in narrative styles and film techniques will progress.
Financials of AGYAAT
AGYAAT is made on such a small budget and because of that it’s a hit on financial terms even before it released on account of pre-sales because of its potential in various markets due to the universality of the genre.
As for the individual members in the audience are concerned some liked it very much for its various different aspects and some others didn’t for the same and I appreciate and respect both their views equally.
As for the pepper-mints and sweeties and buffalos you can look forward for my next horror.- Ram Gopal Varma
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
its so funny I had dream yesterday,about RGV & Michael Jackson having chat, and RGV with all white hair and all.
anyway
I’m going to watch ‘Agyat’ tomorrow at ‘Jayashree’talkies,
(30 bucks only)
I didnt go,
saw Nisha Kothari on Poster,
and loose my appetite !!
Doesn’t look like an article from RGV himself, but whoever has written this has raised some very valid points. The only reviewer, employed by any newspaper, worth reading is Baradwaj Rangan. If he doesn’t like a movie he shows his displeasure by writing only a few lines about it. Even for movies like Luck, he has tried to show the positive aspects of the movie. Everybody has the right to an opinion but trying to influence the audience is not justified. But the one’s to blame the most is the audience who rely on the judgement of the reviewer more than their own judgement. I know many people who pretend to like DevD just because it was given 5 stars. These very same people would have hated it had TOI given it 1 star. I personally liked it, but I hate it when some one likes it just because they were conditioned to like it. I like to believe that reviewers dont decide the fate of the box office, but many a times they have proved me wrong.
Its by RGV re. Its available on RGV’s old blog site (rgvarma.spaces.live.com)
Whoa! I’m reeling under the impact!! Got to admit, I do agree with some of the things he had to say. Peppermint Tejpal, Buffalo Bumzai…ha ha ha. Some reviewers are indeed becoming too big for their boots and derive some kind of a sadistic pleasure in massacring films/ movie makers/ actors etc with words dipped in poison.
It certainly is RGV himself, i have been a regular reader of his blog for a long time and can attest that the writing style, concepts and tone is none other than his alone.
I am sure he will talk about this in his blog in the days to come.
Sir, few years back if an RGV movie was being released; without waiting for review/trailer/hype, a million fans like me would have queued up to watch the movie. Not because we knew for sure that movie would be a “hit” but because we trust RGV, the film maker, to entertain us. Today I will still watch the movie but with reservations…
I choose to read Bharadwaj Rangan’s review and ignore the rest. Similarly someone else might read only Khalid. This process of picking the reviewer that you want to read is pretty much how I choose which film maker I prefer to watch. So a person who reads Sweetie or Mintie probably was never your audience at the first place.
Again sir, your point about reviews becoming personal is valid and I completely agree with you. There are people out there who think that just because they have the microphone in hand they can shout anything.. for this, as a film lover, all I do is ignore them or comment saying why I don’t agree with them.
I have not watched Agyaat but will definitely do so not because of the review or the financials.. simply because it has your name on it.
And as a fan who has watched every movie, if I come out of the theater and say on my blog that RGV has lost it in this movie then the movie may have really missed your stamp on it.
P.s: As you said, there are not more than 30 people who read them anyway so you can choose to ignore them. But please do hear your fans. We truly believe there are better things that can come out of RGV factory.
Give me a break! RGV getting so senti about his film? Worrying about people’s lives, efforts, and careers? This was the man who promoted Darna Mana Hai using all the negative reviews he got!
The impersonator for one needs to get a life, and secondly if you’re gonna impersonate someone, give me a little more than just aping their writing style!
I think it is written by him only.
http://rgvzoomin.com/2009/08/09/the-real-horror/
It is just defence of a director which is losing touch with his skills. Reminds me of Norma Desmond of Sunset Blvd.
I have only one advice for Ramu: Lion will always eat you even if you are vegetarian. You make what you want and people here will write what they feel. Let us see who will influnce [
]mango people…
It is not written by him, it is apparent as he uses a different syntax. It is a inverse marketing ploy. Used by Hollywood in the fifties to combat television reviews that mauled films.
ha ha ha.. its def rgv thoughts. could be written by someone else. the best part about the man is that he calls a spade a spade and more importantly can laugh at himself and can makeothers laugh..he should consider making comedy again
RGV has a great sense of humor
I hate RGV now !!
Sir.
With all respect: Hate or love affects the capacity to judge movies or person unbiased. We all take sides unconsciousaly but why make this case more like prejudice now.
What RGV really needs is a real writer. Shiva was written by him, or at least the writing was credited to him. But he has never really whole-heartedly written since to my knowledge. Satya – AK & Saurabh Shukla, Company – Jaideep Sahni, Rangeela – Sanjay Chel & Neeraj Vohra, Drohi – Aakaash Khurana, Raat (I liked it) – Vinay Shukla (whatever happened to him. Was one of the most talented writers. He wrote dialogues for Virasat & directed “Godmother”)
Is that ‘obscure website that Khaled writes for’ PFC? :D
No Tejas. He has his own website. I cannot remember the name. It actually has some interesting reading but not enough content on the whole.
its www.aslibaat.com vijay
Its a true letter. I just spoke to a few media ppl. and they have got this mail as well.. wonder if this is the way Ramu wanted to spread out his angst on the Reviewers which is more or less justified…
I said it before on Arati’s article. I say it again. I agree with RGV that reviewers/critics should not be allowed to decide a film’s box office fate. They are nobodies who dont have a stake in film’s actual making.
Reviews in newspapers/portals should be delayed by 1/2 weeks so that the producers would get back some of the money they invested, in case the film’s a dud. That way reviewers/critics will be rendered powerless, the way it actually should be.
Naah!!
I would consider good early reviews like a Early warning system for a bad film and an early encouragement or word of mouth for a good film. Only a maker with extreme loss of confidence would write such a letter asking people who are doing their paid job(magazine reviewers) or passion (bloggers) in a free country.
Consider once that you have made a bad film (A film maker always makes movies assuming its good and will be lapped up by the audience)
Now the producer spends crores on the movie and advertising. He should get atleast an early run, so that he can salvage some part of money spent; before the critics run down the film.
Agreed that you need an early warning system. But this system has to be developed by yourself or a friend who matches your sensibilities. Not critics. Because critics opinions will be matched by a miniscule amount of people. So one person should not be, in any case, allowed to voice an opinion in a national daily/portal. More so for a film. And especially when the reviewer has not spent even a drop of his sweat in making the movie.
what crap. All over the world reviews come out on a Friday and some times even before the movie releases.
There should be a rule that a movie should release in only 1 screen in a city. That way bad movies don’t make all the money by fooling the audiences.
Word of mouth will make sure that these movies end up in huge losses and these producers will be out of business and the audiences will be spared of their crap in future.
Its sheer arrogance! How he continues with his hackneyed craft and not revive even when he is losing the essence of cinema. I am not saying he needs to suck up to audience tastes completely, no artist should do that but if you’re losing your craft you better revive it. Thats why you exist right. His protégées like AK and all have long outdone him. Its time someone tells him, his background score is over the top, his angles,forced sepias and his no-conversation-only-dialogue concept is becoming bigger than the script/narrative/plot/direction. I really used to like him but now posts like these make me want to kill the last shred of hope. I really am hoping for a miracle because I genuinely want this man to resurrect, someone who inspired so many of us here.
Quite a number of funny words are floating around this movie- ‘Ramu’s borewitch project’, ‘Ugghyaat’, ‘Ram Gopal Varma ki ‘aag’yaat’, ‘Aghast’ etc. Apparently, the same letter was also posted on Khalid’s blog and words are being exchanged there. Seems like such a waste of energy. But I do strongly feel that the reviews should come in later and should not be generic, as if pssing a court judgement on the movie. Individuals have the right to state their opinion but they should speak for themselves, not for the public as a whole.
Well..well-if this isn’t this the Desi version of the Crying game?
If Ramu had spent half the time he’d spent in dictating this defence for Agyaat in actually putting together a credible screenplay, people would be tempted to go watch his film.
Everyone now knows that Agyaat is an instant cold Turkey. No explanation is offered in the film as to what’s rustling under the dry leaves and separating life farces from bone marrow. Then Ramu has the audacity to promise an explnation in the sequel! What a sorrow!
I think RGV is perfectly right in asking for the credentials of the people who are passing judgement upon him and other filmmakers and films. Agyaat may be crap but the man makes a valid point. How qualified are these people to tell the wheat from the chaff? I know a lot of people who go by “star ratings” in newspapers and base their decision on spending money on a ticket solely on that. That’s one of the sole reasons why people didn’t even give films like Hulla a chance. So why not get people with actual qualifications on board?
I think criticism in itself is perfectly fine. But do we have random fans ranting about books they didn’t like? Will anyone take them seriously? No, you have people who have an understanding of literature and who have the required credentials writing about books and this gives their opinions a little weight.
A film critique requires a lot more skill and one needs to know a lot more than camera angles and background music to get paid for doing that job. You need to have seen more than the top 250 films on imdb and need to have a basic understanding of the craft. It is a craft in itself. No film “critic” today has it and none of them deserve their paychecks. Gone are the days of people like Chidanand Dasgupta, who used to be admired by filmmakers for his criticism inspite of being so scathing about their films.
Kiku, going by your logic that people without credentials should not be reviewing films, I would say PFC in that case needs to shut down right now along with every other film-related blog.
I don’t think audiences will shy away from a film just seeing how many stars the reviewer gave it. Going by that logic, films like Welcome and No Entry should have been box office disasters.
Personally, I really do not mind if the reviewer has absolutely no knowledge about cinema. That’s perfectly alright. What’s important is that the critic does not pretend to have that kind of knowledge. Review it talking about aspects that the average viewer understands instead of concentrating on aspects that a filmmaker would understand.
At the end of the day, no matter how qualified a reviwer is about cinema, whether or not he/she has seen IMDB’s top 250 list, whether or not one knows more than camera angles and score, a critic can only review a film subjectively. There is no objective way to review and aver whether or not a film is good or bad. We in India love Lagaan. Certain highly regarded filmmakers and critics in the US panned it as a fancy knock-off of “The Air Up There”. Critics and public in India panned Eklavya, and some highly regarded critics in the US loved it.
We read reviews to get an idea of whether or not a film is worth paying 150 rupees for. We take a particular critic’s opinion seriously when we see that he or she is giving fairly accurate recommendations. I have some friends who think Taran Adarsh is the best critic because in their opinion when he says a movie is good, they usually like it, and when he says its bad, and they happen to still watch it, they hate it. I also have friends who think the opposite of Taran Adarsh, and prefer Raja Sen or Mayank’s or Bharadwaj Rangan’s views.
I don’t think we need an understanding of the craft to review a film. We just need to be honest and talk about whatever it is that we understand from the film.
PFC is different. There is a whole range of opinions here. You guys aren’t paid to write what you do and if it’s just an opinion and some random person like Minty Tejpal gets paid for his, I don’t see why you or anyone else who writes a blog shouldn’t. That’s not the point.
The point is, an opinion is different from criticism. When you criticize, you judge and if you’re judging, you better know what you’re talking about before taking cheap shots to show how cool you are. Almost all the film “critics” in the press and TV do that these days. They may not really matter to the general public, but I do miss the days of good critics when I used to wait for the sunday paper of the times or the hindu for the review of the latest film just for the thrill of reading it.
Point taken. A local newspaper editor told me – a negative review gets way more readership than a positive one. People take a sadistic pleasure in reading how a critic has trashed a film. I wonder if a statistical analysis of online reviews might show the same. One can argue that cinematic literacy is not as important for the job as an acerbic mind.
Ramu managed to get away in case of Phoonk- which in my view was a joke of a horror film.And he wanted to make a sequel of it.Now again he’s trying the trick with Agyaat, but I dont think the people are taking kindly to it.I seriously wonder what UTV saw in this movie to back it up.
And the letter/mail is kind of genuine since its there on Ramu’s blog itself.So what if he got it put up by someone else, credit still goes to him- but why would he want to do something which is unlike him- beats me!!!
I don’t agree with ur view of Phoonk..It may not be a great movie,but it is a honest attempt on his part and I feel he has succeeded to some extend..
Sharath- I guess to each his/her own.Phoonk had nothing in it.The only scary/thrilling moment was the scene in front of the mirror.otherwise it was hogwash.its just that the publicity gimmicks paid off.
OZ bhai…its great that you haven’t seen Agyaat yet. Let me sum it up for you.
5 Mins of actress exercising, 20 mins of jungle shot, 15 mins of jeep running in the jungle, 18 mins of people running halter shelter, 15 mins of walking (trying to escape from the unknown), 5 mins of stupid fight btwn Sharman and Raka, 5 mins of Jai Mata Di chanting by the sharman’s servent, 13 mins of self killing (DOP, Sameera and Sharman), 5 mins of jungle camp (Useless), 19 mins of Agyaat (WTF???), 7 mins drawing the river, 21 mins of Songs (???), 3 mins of title credits and 7 mins of end credits. OOPS…i have calculated more thn the actual film time.
Damages:- INR 300 (ticket for 2) bucks in tickets, INR 200 in pepsi and popcorn, INR 30 in parking, INR 82 for a pack of Classic, INR 10 for a strip of Disprin, INR 176 for 4 Pints of Fosters.
Total Damages:- 798.
Fig. rounded off:- 800
Total Earning:- A WTF movie.
Summary:- The direction was pathetic, almost no dialogues, and whatever minimum dialogues were there seems like a hindi dub of a South movie. Long (Read Time wasting) scenes of actress exercising, actress checking jungle ki hariyali (And suddenly she came out of her bathroom in a bathing gown…only Gawd and RGV knows how she goes thr), out of the 10 people 3 killed themselves (DOP, Sameera and Sharman (Raka kills sharman), and 2 escaped. So in all agyaat killed only half of thm, An outdoor shoot with only 10 – 12 people???. A naamcheen director and producer and a Naamcheen Lead pair…in a jungle without any proper accommodation, vanity van, makeup man, food etc. And a one Man Army called Sethu (Read Jungle ka Rakhwala)
In all a learning – You can escape the unknown…just dont go and watch…and you can save yourself from Agyaat.
Jai Ho !!
~Cheers Ashu Bhai MAPRM Wale.
PS: All reviewers are requested not to review this movie and save yourself from creating a sin. How can you review a film which is yet to see “THE END”.
hahaha. frigging awesome ashu. i appreciate ur guts. u actually went to see this movie. as much we respect rgv, but ho gaya yaar… he has already redeemed the brownie points he earned with his initial films. now its time to give him the middle finger. RAMUGIRI NAHIN CHALEGI. LOL. my sympathies bro.
Excellent comment especially your line about the film being incomplete.
AN OPEN RESPONSE TO RAMU
Dear Ramu,
With all due respect-how would you like to buy and read a book about a serial-killer on the loose that ends with not telling you who/what the killing force was? What is its motive? What is its modus-operandi? What if the last page of the book ended with a teaser that promised more of the same wild-goose chase in a Sequel? Wouldn’t you feel cheated? And what guarantee that the sequel won’t end with the promise of the killer’s identity being revealed in the next sequel?
Trying to work up fear/claustrophobia/panic about an undisclosed evil force is one thing but what say about not bothering to let the audience in on the malevolent force’s resume’? Doesn’t that tantamount to taking the audience for granted?
If you care to reflect on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (copied from your Agyaat in 1999)-you will note that the same trick(AN ANONYMOUS EVIL FORCE) worked for BWP because it was fashioned and promoted as a faux documentary.The original budget for BWP was $20,000-$25,000. The producers were clever enough to publish an allegedly non-fiction book with the same premise( that the Blair Witch existed, that the witch had taken away people from the forests of Maryland before). The ‘actors’ who shot BWP took 2 day crash courses on how to operate a camera. Some of the villagers of the adjoining forests who were interviewed in the film didnt know that was going to be a part of a film.
Etc-Etc-Etc.
You can find the rest on wikipedia. What you cannot find there is a Lead weight to bring your massive ego back to ground. The great Manmohan Desai had once said that a Filmmaker shouldn’t cheat the audience. (It was his apology for not wavering from his lost-&-found formula).
Would you care to clarify how you have NOT done that with Agyaat?
Well, I believe RGV was very honest while promoting agyaat. He had clearly mentioned that there is no bhoot or deadly creature in the movie.
Wrong analogy
I think RGV is wrong to compare movie reviewers as someone standing outside the shop from buying you a certain brand of shirt. A person can walk into the store and try out for free and then decide not to buy it, but with bad movies you lose the moment you buy the ticket. If Shiva was successful inspite of bad reviews, why is he bothered about Agyaat. The fact of the matter is that Agyaat has been butchered in all the reviews and not one person seems to be happy at spending his or her hard earned money at this junk.
Interesting point you bring up about having the choice to buy or not. On the same lines, the ArcLight Cinemas in Los Angeles has a wonderful policy wherein if you dislike a film and have not watched it beyond the 30 minute mark, you can leave and the theatre will refund your money.
If this rule is brought to India, I wonder how many films without content, which depend on a kick ass opening alone will bite the dust.
Interesting trivia, I did not know about this and if brought to India, a lot could change, the entire economics of film industry
To all the people ranting against critics and how the reviews should be delayed by a week or more …
The film maker has the resources to make fantastic looking trailers and do everything possible with money to market his film pre release as well as post release.
I as a viewer am spending money to go watch the film. Why am I interested in the film ? maybe i like the directors last work or i have been hooked by the marketing of the film.
So shouldnt I have the choice to read something about the film which may be negative ? I am about to spend money (i need not get into how expensive tickets are today) , I have every right to know whether it will be a good buy or bad buy ?
Whose review i trust is also a personal choice and that develops over time … There was a period when i was completely in awe of Khalid Mohammed … slowly over time i saw his biases and flaws … and then came films he made … and i lost any faith in him. today my choice of a film is not decided by Khalid Mohammeds view. Similarly my views about other reviewers have been formed based on movies where i have read reviews and compared the same with the feelings i have had post watching the film myself.
Look at it this way … there are trailers , appearances on reality shows , music releases , etc which are pulling me to the theater but they are biased in favour of the movie maker and the marketeer. Similarly i have reviewers who are giving their opinion on the film which if bad is pushing me away from the theater. What do i do , is my personal choice.
If you are asking me not to read reviews , then as a maker , you should refuse to make trailers or tv appearances to promote the film.
Is that a fair ask ?
1.”Every other product put out there in the market gets a chance to be judged by the consumer directly whether he likes it or not, whereas only in the film industry’s case its products are constantly judged, ridiculed, made fun of, misinterpreted in the eyes of the people by using the platforms of mass mediums like newspapers and television channels”
and also
“I believe that a film is an emotional experience. It can make you laugh or cry or make you scared or thrill you”
i’m confused…which one is it?
2.if you are so sure that the movie has done well,”hit as you claim” then why this outburst on the sweenie todds?
3.people still watch an RGV movie despite the fact that you have completely lost it. why? because they are hoping against hope and think that one day this clouds will disappear.
4. no film reviewer can pursue a single person to watch a movie. he might add on to the viewer’s doubts whether he liked it or not but not actually bring him to a hall. that audience decides whether they’ll watch a movie or not just by looking at a trailer.
5. they came for jews but i was calm because i was not a jew.
then they came for muslims i was calm because i was not a muslim.
then they came for christians i was calm because i was not a christian.
then one day they came for me and there was nobody left for me to look around.
AN OPEN REPLY TO RGV
Haven’t seen Agyaat, I do not intend to. And that doesn’t have anything to do with most reviewers having trashed the film. You are so full of himself that it is sickening. On your blog, you pretend to have a great sense of humour. Sir, you will be surprised to know that the days of Shotgun kinda nonsense on the back cover are over even in the Filmfare. There was a time when you stood for a new, sensible kinda cinema. And just because you are taking an about turn, doesn’t mean that audience will follow you like blind shee?, does it?
Why spew venom on reviewers? The problem with your theory that films are like any mass marketed product has a fundamental flaw. While it is faceless factories and corporations that are behind those products, films are little more personal than that, Sir. There is a human director, a human producer, a human scriptwriter and human actors behind the film. A film is a product of all their abilities. So it is only natural that the bouquets as weel as the brickbats will both be personal.
Trust me, Sir, that it is easier to take crappy cinema from non-pretenders who are honest about what they are making, than from a “beacon-of-a-new-kind-of-filmmaking-turned-megalomaniac”.
Yours disdainfully,
Saurabh
Almost all critics are bad at reviewing movies. Some are trade analysts who give 4 stars and 4.5 stars to horrible movies just because they have a tie-up with the movie for its promotion. Others have some issues where they hate every movie and then give Tashan 4 stars. There is another one who can’t stop gushing like a little kid and who gives 4 stars to JA just because it has great sets and good looking actors.
RGV has no right to complain against the critics when he has made a bad movie. If his Satya/Company had got bad reviews then he surely can complain. RGV ki Aag and Agyaat are bad movies. So was Saawariya and all of recent Akshay movies like KI and CCTC.
RGV has been always taking potshots in his movies like Rangeela (at the producer, director, the actress and her amma) or some music director (Satya) and Karan Johar (Company). But if some reviewer takes potshots at him then it is not ok. Now we have to think about all the people whose livelihood depends on the movie because he made it. What about the people who worked on those Karan Johar movies (agree that they are crap) and the movie that he worked as an assistant director for. Obviously he is taking at potshots at the cast of that Telugu movie he worked for. Its pure hypocrisy.
Akshay Kumar lies in a TV interview with Rajeev Masand that reviews come out for Hollywood movies on Monday. Just because some body spent a lot of money in making a crap movie every one has to just roll over and let the movie makers make as much money as they can before every one finds out?
Mr. Varma must have regaled in the glory of good reviews he got for Bhoot, Rangeela, Satya, Company etc but now has a problem when the same reviewers don’t tow his line when he makes Aags/Agyaats/phoonks/darlings etc.
The critics are spewing venom only because he is RGV. In a country so deprived of good filmmakers it’s not surprising that he gets the flak for creating deadbeats because he is expected to fill that void. Does it really matter what kind of films do Dharmesh Dharshan/Satish Kaushik/Sajid Khan make? No. Who cares? But RGV matters. So I think he should take it in the right spirit when he’s blasted and hopefully rise up to the occasion.
I really wonder if Raj Kumar Hirani has a similar uneasiness with the critics? Your guess is as good as mine.
RGV has written it for sure but certainly he hasnt sent it – somebody has copied it from his blog and sent it