Race …Raja Sen and more
I don’t have any issues with films becoming hits ….but the concern is , what signal do the makers get when such movies become hit …that they did a good job and they should continue doing that ….I won’t be surprised if we see 2008 and 2009 full with senseless movies like Race …..
Raja Sen is the only one of the few sane men who criticised the movie but in doing so he revealed the “twists” …..He was then as expected on the receiving end of the director duo….you can read his review Here…Now the question I want to ask is , Is it fare for the reviewers to give away the plot even if the movie is as bad as this one …..does a movie being bad justifies a review revealing the twists …..Here is the justification given by Raja Sen ….now btw Rediff has added a spoiler alert which was not present earlier and also they have modified the review, which by the way looked like :
————————————————————————–
Okay, I’m going to do you a huge favour here.
Highlight the following area if you want to read the film’s ridiculous and completely irrelevant climax:
Akshaye Khanna [Images] and Katrina Kaif [Images] die, and Saif Ali Khan [Images] and Bipasha Basu [Images] split the cash with Anil Kapoor [Images], after giving him a death threat.
————————————————————————–
Earlier you could read it but now it seems rediff is trying to cover up their mistake .
Also when do you think will these kind of movies stop becoming Hits or is it fine if they become hit ???
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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
Raja Sen committed mistake in jest. While he could have written his verdict that film has no thrilling mystery to be solved his job as reviewer was justified. Its now between film and audience whether they wish to believe a reviewer and decide not to watch a weak thriller or they still want to watch it.
Though truth remains that very few might have cared for what Raja Sen had revealed as very few go to watch a film for ending only but Raja Sen played with ethics of his profession. It does not suit a reviewer to start his review with those kind of lines.
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Remember a case told to me some years ago. some boys had gone to see film Bees Saal Baad and there after buying the ticket these boys somehow fought with tea vendor boy and slapped him and he ran away but from a distance he shouted.
“Manmohan Krishna, the father of Waheeda Rehman is the killer”.
Raja Sen also did same. It was not a sensible thing to do and making it first portion of an article is even far less sensible thing.
Perhaps he was not in right kind of mind set hence did this. It has nothing to with the fact whether film was good or bad.
RK somewhat agreed with your point ….have u seen the movie ?? the movie is so damn bad ….some part of me says he did the right job …..but being a proffesional reviewer he should have given a thought before writing the review …..btw loved the bees saal baad stuff …
Yeah, its a sad reality…Welcome, Hey Baby and Race becoming super hits…Akshay Kumar being touted as the Superstar for mouthing dialogues that have to do with (most of the time) shitting and farting…look at the 2008 YRF calender…its nauseating…but as long as these movies are becoming hits, there is no escape from them…I feel bad for those who really want to make some difference to the industry thro’ their out-of-the box thinking. But I am optimistic too that all the new and young breed (Khandoori, Rajat Kapoor, Navdeep, Onir, Shimit) take up this challenge and change the scene. Amen!
And how I wish RGV gets his form back!!!
Hey,
The movie was Horrible … It was not even Passable …
How can Saif do this to himself after Omkara …
The only time I laughed during the Movie was when R.D. Says — ” Choosenge Aap … Poochnaa achcha nahi lagta … ” < :-p
China Town, Naqaab and Now RACE … What happend to these Baazigars of thrillers and Khilaadis of Action …
adhik …yeh some hope from the guys u mention …but their movies don’t work ..they are good but don’t become hits…….even i hope RGV strikes back with a bang ….He is one of the few guys who stayed mainstream ..made good movies and on top of it the movies were hit….
Avi,
Abbas – mustan are copy cats …even Baazigar was copied …speaking abt the dialogues here’s the one at the start :
Akshaye : yeh hasta bahut hai
Saif : jos hasta hai woh rota bhi bahut hai ….
WTF
quote – ..Also when do you think will these kind of movies stop becoming Hits or is it fine if they become hit ??? – unquote
race hit ho gayi
hurrrreeeeeeeey:)>-:)>-:)>-
ab sab samjhdar log apne bal nochenge
~X(
=))
race becoming hit is superfine with me :d:”>
“One can tolerate Heyy baby or a welcome ”
Really? I couldn’t but I did manage to sit through Race.
What is worse, a bad comedy or a bad thriller? :-?
Did not rediff make an ammendment in the review of Raja Sen? Is not this highlighting the “climax” a new change. Perhaps earlier it was clearly visible. If its a new change and If Raja Sen thinks he was right then he should not have accepted this change and there was no need to publish justification, separately. He also was knowing it that somewhere he was playing with professional ethics.
A paid professional reviewers have to stick to certain guidelines. This “Tarantino films” styled review may not do good for him. He could have done his job with linear writing and quite successfully he was able to say what he has done now in a wrong way.
- – -
re: Film, will say once see it. But considering track record of Abbas Mastan Duo, no matter they make copies of hollywood films but they have their audience and they are making their films hit.
Audience always have different level of understanding, todays wise and informed and learned audience might have jumped feets in air after watching Bazigar because they did not know it was copied version. They liked some things in the film. Same way again some section of audience will be there which is makiing film hit.
Only audience of thriller portion may get disappointment. But their hit films were never totally relied on mystery factor only. and for that additional thing they might have earned audience.
- – - -
Anand , whats the problem in the dialogue you have mentioned?
RK, that dialogue was just bad ….no justification … most of the dialogues were pathetic
Neeraja ..both are bad ….
also …what i meant was ..i can somehow tolerate welcome becoming a hit (not that i want it to be)..but movies like Race ..no way ….
Yeah,the damn movie’s been running to packed cinemas the past week here in Mangalore. Went for the movie on Monday expecting it to be somewhat watchable,but was as bad as Naqaab,only redeeming factor being the absence of Bobby Deol
Anand… see the thing is, just because one person didn’t like the film doesn’t give him/her the right to ruin it for another.
For example my wife knows I’m crazy for hindi films and my birthdays coming up. So she has gone through the efforts of calling up my friends and arranging a movie/dinner night. Only good hindi film playing in theatres is Race…
So when I read Taran Adarsh’s review I thought “ok, it must be a decent entertainer… maybe not a great film, but an entertainer nonetheless”.
Then I read Masand review and it encouraged me. I thought “Chalo, its my birthday, will be there with my wife and close friends. We’re there for a good time and a good time will be had”.
Then, you guessed it, I came across Raja Sen’s review. And I was pissed off. Why the fuck would you do that? Its inexcusable, unprofessional and completely out of line. Raja Sen is not writing this on his personal blog with spoiler alerts.
He’s writing to an international audience and that carries a certain responsibility to the readers. If you don’t like the movie, give it 1 star. Give it 1/2 a star. Tear it apart in your review so that like-minded people will think 2x of going to watch it. But don’t ruin it for the people who may still be interested, for whatever reason, in watching it.
The other point is, as RK has said, Abbas-Mustan have their audience. And that audience knows what to expect from an A/M film. They know this is not going to be a Mithya or Manorama or Johnny Gaddar. This is going to be a MASALA HINDI FILM THRILLER.
My expectations were a Dhoom 2 style (mindless) action film w/ some thriller elements, star power and eye candy. That’s all.
And judging by the box office, enough people understand that and apparently enjoy it. Nothing wrong with that.
Mr. Sen’s method of dealing with pathologies of this type that bases itself on the solitary belief that glaring twists, turns and thrills can compensate for any bit of mediocrity is the apt way to combat them. Just show them how redundant their tricks are.
Fim writers are someone who are expected to put their passion for the medium b4 anything else . That passion for me in the truest sense exemplifies their oft-mentioned professional ethics.
I was in no mood to watch Race, but still was disappointed with the review of Raja Sen. It’s no body’s business to dictate to the audience regarding the kind of movies they should be watching.. And revealing the end is like spoiling the party. And this holds true not just for thrillers, but any movie with little bit of twist as well. When you are aware of the ending, you forget to enjoy the movie and keep waiting for the things to happen.
And if Mr. Sen finds it hard to curb his dictatorial feelings, he should post his reviews on his personal blog and not on the space provided to him from rediff.
Tony Mera Naam ..hmm agreed on most of the points you mentioned ..btw how was ur birthday then….and belated happy Birthday …
RK…hav u seen the film ? if yes, great. if not, PLEASE PLEASE do watch it. after u hav seen the film, you u will undersatnd n enjoy raja’s review.
and so am with raja on this one. the film is thriller ??? huh ??? its just funny. dont think it will matter to anyone what the end is. more than that,this kind of shit surely dersves this kind of reviews. if i had the money n energy, i would hav put big hoardings n posters across the city with the climax written in bold. n now they r getting ready for race 2..so which film r they gonna copy now ??
(sticking two fingers in his ears and watching the spring break-light salsa in miniskirts and boots song featuring all the cuties from the movie.
but the way rediff has changed the text…hav put a spolier alert…earlier it wasnt there in the review…so have they realised their mistake and found an intelligent solution ?
Anand-bhai, my birthday is still coming up in the next few days. I haven’t seen the film yet. So you can imagine how frustrating this can be.
Thanks for the belated wishes… Ek dabba mein daal ke sambhaal ke rakhoonga. Birthday ke baad dabba khol ke smile karoonga :D
Phoenixnu, I still don’t see that as a solution. Why post the review at all.
Here, let’s put it this way. Let’s say someone like a Taran Adarsh, didn’t enjoy Mithya (btw I loved it), and they wrote on how they thought it was a “twisted copy of classic bollywood thriller Don” and how
And then revealed the ending. Because for me, if i had known the ending of Mithya before watching it, it would have taken a considerable amount of the excitement away. They whole “what the fuck is going to happen to this guy? How’s he going to get out of this one?” feeling would be gone.
How would we react? Could any sort of addendum be justified? Just because we at PFC generally loved Mithya, would be react differently for the same infringement or would it be a much harsher reaction? Just because most here don’t like Race doesn’t mean what Raja Sen, a normally reliable and entertaining review, did was alright.
Tony Mera Naam,
btw the ending of the movie would make no diff to the movie ..seriously …..and happy birthday in advance …
I think Raja Sen just spoke his mind on a platform which allowed him to.
There is no harm in stating what you feel. Purists may feel that as a professional reviewer, he shouldn’t have given away the ending of the movie, but if you guys remember, a seasoned journalist like Khalid Mohammed resorted to character review rather than a film review for Anurag Kashyap’s ‘No Smoking’.
At least, Raja Sen did not deviate from the job for which he is paid for and talked about the movie rather than how Abbas – Mustan are in real life!
Take a chill pill. It’s not as if people are not going to go for the movie if they know the ending beforehand?
producers pump in fuckin crores to make a movie… raja sen was totally against the ethics of his profession to reveal it… man let the movie be as bad as it can get… but u cant spoil the producers share cuz of ur one irresponsible line. n talking about race… though i didnt like it, the whole theatre was whistling at saif’s re-entry… n abbas mustan would think that they have done a graet job for that reason. they have that right… if the chaiwalas in meerut whistle for the “superstar” akshay kumar in bhool bhullaiya, its his right… n the producers… audience is happy… actor is being paid crores for it… director gets 3 more movies to direct. so they continue doin what we people on pfc think is crap.
Noopur Bora
Take a bow!
I agree with Tony Mera Naam in that just because u have a space to write u shud not spoil the fun of others. Most poeple here in PFC has hated Race but that doesnt change the fact that its going to be a hit.And there holds a large populatation who prefers masala movies than sensible and quality movies. Tony has given a classis example(of himself) how it spoils the fun. He will be watching this movie coz his wife has planned so for his b’day. I remember a similar case. After watching movie Kaun(Urmila, Manoj), somebody in my place put a poster saying “Found Found Found…urmila is khooni in Kaun”.To me it was still great watch coz movie was superb, loaded with great screenplay and fantastic acting of MB.But i cud not convince one of my closest frnd to watch it, he said “yaar jub suspense hi pataa hai to 2 ghante chutiya kya katwana??”
So dont say it does not matter. It matters.
And i have a strong feeling that reviewers are not always impartial. They do settle personal scores in their columns.This might be a case of that only.Who knows?
Abt the movie.Till date..nothing fetches more money than a masala entertainer.Good and refreshingly new work of cinema(Mithya, Johny Gaddar, Blue Umbrella) may fail commercially due to one or two shortcomings of its, but a masala entertainer will fetch bags of money though its a “cinema ke naam pe kalank”.So..i m guessing here, after giving sereise of flops(36 CT,Tarzan Wonder Car, Naquab) decided to travel secure path.So in his next film they choose huge star cast, lot of(may be illogical) twists/turns, sexy heroins, steamy scenes, and dedicates a huge energy in promotions.With the advent of multiplexes, weekends-for-fun culture, if a movie is well implanted(with hot and happening promos) on viewers mind before its actually released, its surely going to fetch most of its money in first 2-3 days.And thats what they did.(Though the greatest example is OSO).
I havent seen the movie, and i dont intend to see it now as most of the PFCians r bashing it.I find myself mostly agreeing with PFCians, with little differences at time.
So lets accept that lot of people make movies for making money and not for satisfying their creative-appatite.And let those people enjoy such movies who wants to enjoy them, by not writing anything against their interest.This may also stop people reading their posts as well.
H’Bday to Tony bhai..
Areh thank you Abhishek bhai.. and thanks again Anand Bhai.. the commercial vs. sensible cinema argument will continue… but ultimately the formula for success is still Starcast+Masala+Music=Hit.
I know… script is missing… I know… I know..
Well, thats the difference between a Raja Sen and a Baradwaj Rangan, who called the film’s pretensions without having to resort to cheap gimmicks like Sen. Sen knows whom to pick on, though. Its not as if Abbas-Mustan are Yash Chopra or Amitabh Bachchan. He is just a i-have-seen-many-foreign-films-so-i-am-a-great-reviewer-great-cinema-thinker type of guy who has got an apt platform in that portal of the stupid , rediff.
Well, in a way, I am glad because this exposes Raja Sen’s pretensions to being a ‘great’ critic, a term tht can only be applied to Baradwaj Rangan in India today.
actually not just raja sen but even abbas mastan were giving away the plot instead of revealing it.
suspense-thriller this? cummon…
its either “don’t tell me..i don’t wanna know yet” or ” damn why did i read the review(s)”
or perhaps even “wot nonsense, the film is nothing like what the review says”
:-?
how bout just going and watching a film if we really feel like watchin it…
how bout readin reviews before watching a film and thinkin “ok this is what this guy has to say about the film..now its up to me to decide, do i go by what is written, and talk to someone who has seen it and then take MY OWN CALL…or just go and watch it coz i want to watch it…or despite great reviews/feedback, am not gonna spend my time wathing it coz i DONT want to watch a film like this one and would rather see any of the zillion films still pending on my wanna-watch list” :w;
Is Raja sen == Jaydeep Sen, the director of Krazzy 4?
Yeah, I think a spoiler warning is almost mandatory especially for a site like Rediff or any other news portal.
I do read reviews linked from Rotten Tomatoes. I don’t remember any time, the reviewer gave away the suspense part.
Seeing such things it reinforeces my belief that (most of) reviewers/critics in India are not mature enough to handle the power of journalism.
“Criics are retarded” said some one..(I am trying to avoid commments on who said it :-) unlike the previous PFC posts )
guys, i did not found Race so pathetic. at last tolerable in comparison with Welcome and hey babby.
Well I dont understand what the fuss i all about. I am dead sure all the sickheads will go & watch Race even if they know the so called Bloody Suspense.
why are people after raja sen’s head. taran adarsh all his life has been giving out the entire storyline of movies relentlessly. just because adarsh uncle gives 4 stars to all movies which have star power in them, no film maker seems to mind his mindless ‘reviews’
@vishesh
Raja Sen is not Jaideep Sen..just another dude who has a similar alias.
Sudhir @34,
Thanks for clarifying.
I never read Taran’s review completely (unless I have seen the movie, if at all). But even he does not mention the spoiler right in the beginning. He has his own structured way of writing. So normally, I am able to skip the spoiler part.
RK @ 1,
The same stuff happened in our college days.
Somebody put up on the notice board that Kajol is the killer in Gupt :-).
Oh btw, did I have to put up a spoiler alert in my above comment for Gupt (grins). Life is full of contradictions, I say.
All this conversation got me thinking and I scribbled something on my blog:
http://saranghere.blogspot.com/2008/03/chak-de-india-life-of-reviewer.html
Hope you guys have fun!
I agree that a spoiler warning should have been put!
“neTri KaNN tiranthaalum kuTram kuTrame”
(Trans: Even if you open your 3rd eye, the fault remains!)
Abbas-Mustan have always been copycats….but I think in case of Race their script is original..
Its hard beleive that a movie this “twisted” (for lack of a better word) already exists and it inspired them to copy – paste it….:d
sougata …read Raja sen’s review ..Race is also copied ..its copied from more than one film …
Sudhir Nair ,
Yep Taran adrash gives away the story / plot most of the times …..the classic one being that of Darna zaroori hai in which he has given away the endings of most of the shorts ….
I think thats irrelevent to the issues of whether the reviewer can be so irritated with a film that he can “out” its bad ending.
IMO, i see raja sen’s act as an emotional impulsive one that needs no defending, but really there should be rules for people not to do this because tomorrow some one might just do this for malicious business reasons. what would the sixth sense make if people knew its ending?
@Neeraja- I completely agree with what you say about Race vis-a-vis the other two terrible films. it’s what I always say- the worst kind of film is a bad comedy- you may be atleast able to laugh at a bad thriller/drama- a bad comedy doesn’t even give you that little comfort.
I think Race sucks. So did Independence Day, Jurassic Park, National Treasure et al. They are supposed to be mindless blockbusters. Period.
Raja Sen should stop masquerading as a movie critic because of this immature act of his. It was a totally bloody unprofessional thing to do.
People like Raja Sen want directors to make great films but can’t maintain high standards when it comes to their own work. What a retard. And on top of that, he hasn’t even seen enough good movies. I have no idea what his claim to being a critic is.
yup Jahan bad comedies are worst kind of cinema.
Nope worst kind of cinema is torture porn like “I spit on your grave” and “Men behind the Sun”.
Bad comedies are a walk in the park compared to shite like those.
Then I am glad I haven’t been exposed to the worst kind yet
wtf! an actual autopsy?…and I thought Sin City was gory!
(Was just checking the movies you mentioned on wiki)
Checked the wiki entries too…methinks my stomach just did a somersault…. this is freaky stuff!!:o@-):-ss
The best part is even I spit on your grave has been adapted into a hindi movie. Red Swastika which released last year was a remake of the movie :D
Holy Shit !!! Is it as nauseating or have they toned it down ? Why would anyone want to remake that ?
(rubbing hands in glee) Am I really reading the posts of blood and gore virgins on a cinema forum?
tell me no one here has seen house of a 1000 corpses. go on, tell me!
after watching 36 china town or wtever, wtf were you guys expecting???
shitty movie..
The ending could have Manmohan Singh joining BJP as a twist..
F’in idiots.
Anand, i think the only reason Race is a hit, is that there is no other movie at the B.O. which is a worthwhile opposition.
Honestly i never expected Race to be Chinatown or French Connection, but even compared to other A-M movies like Humraaz, Baazigar or Ajnabi, this movie falls flat. And its sad, coz they had a good plot and 3 really good actors in Anil, Saif and Akshaye, but they messed it up with an inconsistent screenplay and some really lame dialogues.
Check this for my take on the movie.
http://scorpiusmaximusindicus.blogspot.com/2008/03/of-studs-and-bimbos.html
well, it is wrong to give off film’s plot. that i snot job of reviewer.