There was a time when reviews decided the fate of films. If the review was very bad and the critic gave “very poor” rating to a movie, you could bet that it would become a big hit. Thus Amitabh Bachchan movies attracted bad reviews but each of them became the biggest grosser of all time – Sholay, Zanjeer, Amar Akbar Anthony…. They are re-run even today on television. Then there were those tiresome Shabana Azmi movies which the critics loved and gave five stars to, but never attracted big audiences; you would be hard pressed to remember the names of these movies today.
Something like this seems to be happening again today. It is fashionable to deride movies that appeal to large audiences and to praise badly made movies. If critics, online or otherwise, are ecstatic about a movie, you can bet it is horrible, and the reverse is also true.
Sometime back I was enticed to watch Omkara as it was supposedly an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Right from the first frame you could make out that it was not an adaptation but a corruption of the great play. The basic idea was intact, but the characters were rather stupid, mouthing abusive language and going on a needless violent rampage.
The movie was also strange. So a girl is kidnapped and the hero sleeps with her and starts living with her. Then the whole village gathers for their wedding. The director seems to have no idea about Indian rural society. Get a girl in your house without marriage and the panchayat will probably stone you to death. So the movie was jarring and obnoxious at the same time. The director probably thought that abuse was literature. I wrote as much in a review of the movie.
The comments on my review were amusing. People thought that the movie was great. One fellow said he wasted ten minutes reading my review. Another reader said that she did not feel embarrassed with the abusive language, forgetting that she revealed more about her background than anything else. Another fellow said that I was not mature enough to write reviews of Omkara and that I should stick to Karan Johar movies instead. The logic probably was: when you run out of arguments, make personal attacks. And when somebody suggested that the abusive language should have been censored, some fellow commented on that too, saying something like enjoying the abuse.
But then Omkara became a flop, with collections dropping right from the first week. Trade journals pointed out that by the second week collections had gone down to a dismal 40%. By the time Karan Johar’s film started its publicity, nobody wanted to see Omkara anymore and it was reduced to two shows at the local multiplex. My guess is that by next year people will not even remember that such a movie was ever made.
So why did so many reviewers get it wrong? Also, why do so many commentators look down upon Karan Johar’s movie even as it breaks box office records?
The answer probably lies in snob value. Or perhaps the illiteracy of the present day audience. Abusive language in films – that too words that degrade women – should not find place in mainstream language. The fact that many people did not find it offensive showed they were probably used to hearing such words in their homes. Is it a wonder that in a survey of 34 cities Bombay was found to be the least cultured city in the world? Keep the “spirit of Bombay” for the TV channels, I am glad not be living in such an uncouth city!
Let me thus say that Omkara is worst of Bombay cinema. It deserved to be a flop that it was. It should be nominated for the worst movie of the year and I hope Outlook gives it that award. I am glad to be on the side of successful movies and yes, I am not mature enough to enjoy such movies that everyone else is enjoying too. As for Omkara, great movie in reviews, but the real life audience did not think so. Nor did I.