It's a vicious game. I belong to Bombay (Mumbai) and see a similar deal in 'Bollywood'. The way I see it:
- it's typically, a 'kick' to see someone fall (especially, as majority of us don't have it in us to make it, or...to strive)
- the 'professionals' (journalists in this case), don't want to work hard enough to get to the 'truth', or opine with honesty, even if that subjective 'honesty' maybe in contrast to other's take-away from that object/film; Scott Peck said, 'Man by nature is lazy', and that kinda applies every where.
- my impression of the powers-that-be at most of the places is that they want something big and yeah...the 'stars' are easy prey.
I also have a problem with the opposite, when sometimes stars are praised for their 'superlative' performance (of course, that's my 'subjective' opinion!) But there is a sense of exaggeration - to build the Gods; I can understand for the star-value they bring-in, but when they relate it to acting, which is wanting at times, it seems weird.
Like in Bollywood, it's interesting, how a 'social' film, with lot of messages, move the audience; i realize they have a history for that; films with 'sermons' can move them a lot; more interesting is how in that scenario...appears good.
But then...the Box Office does tend to reveal the true picture eventually. Opening-weekend is almost like a sham, and I find it amusing how 'smartly' the distributors and producers celebrate the success of their film based on that, and sometimes even before the 2nd weekend, the film goes down under.
(Just discovered your blog on Sita Sings the Blue; since am in usa for some months, i was fortunate to catch it in the Denver Fest, and it was interesting to note that the best 2008 films on India, were not by Indians! This one and Slumdog. The irony is that Sita Sings...will not be released in our country; i hope not, but i know that no distributor will have guts to play a film that shows one of the true sides of the Lord Rama. Well, that's the way it is...)
Ebert: On the other hand, some of the best English-language novel of recent years are by Indians. There's much disagreement among my (surprisingly many, nearly 16,000 last month) Indian readers about whether "Sita" is affectionate or disrespectful.
It's a vicious game. I belong to Bombay (Mumbai) and see a similar deal in 'Bollywood'. The way I see it:
- it's typically, a 'kick' to see someone fall (especially, as majority of us don't have it in us to make it, or...to strive)
- the 'professionals' (journalists in this case), don't want to work hard enough to get to the 'truth', or opine with honesty, even if that subjective 'honesty' maybe in contrast to other's take-away from that object/film; Scott Peck said, 'Man by nature is lazy', and that kinda applies every where.
- my impression of the powers-that-be at most of the places is that they want something big and yeah...the 'stars' are easy prey.
I also have a problem with the opposite, when sometimes stars are praised for their 'superlative' performance (of course, that's my 'subjective' opinion!) But there is a sense of exaggeration - to build the Gods; I can understand for the star-value they bring-in, but when they relate it to acting, which is wanting at times, it seems weird.
Like in Bollywood, it's interesting, how a 'social' film, with lot of messages, move the audience; i realize they have a history for that; films with 'sermons' can move them a lot; more interesting is how in that scenario...appears good.
But then...the Box Office does tend to reveal the true picture eventually. Opening-weekend is almost like a sham, and I find it amusing how 'smartly' the distributors and producers celebrate the success of their film based on that, and sometimes even before the 2nd weekend, the film goes down under.
(Just discovered your blog on Sita Sings the Blue; since am in usa for some months, i was fortunate to catch it in the Denver Fest, and it was interesting to note that the best 2008 films on India, were not by Indians! This one and Slumdog. The irony is that Sita Sings...will not be released in our country; i hope not, but i know that no distributor will have guts to play a film that shows one of the true sides of the Lord Rama. Well, that's the way it is...)
Ebert: On the other hand, some of the best English-language novel of recent years are by Indians. There's much disagreement among my (surprisingly many, nearly 16,000 last month) Indian readers about whether "Sita" is affectionate or disrespectful.