CRITIC RAJ

BY BISWADEEP GHOSH

RGV has turned into a critics’ critic in his blog. Does he have any business to massacre those whose job is to dissect a film thoroughly? What gives him the right to say that our critics don’t know their job, or that they write pompously worded sentences which convey nothing at all? Why is he getting personal with some of our critics, who may or may not made films but have acquired some sort of recognition as an analyst of the audio-visual medium?

Without taking the RGV route – don’t think am good enough to make a film, so cannot –let me say that the one problem Indian criticism suffers from is that of inconsistency. Indeed, inconsistency is like a chronic disease which few have been able to get rid of, resulting in wrong films getting the sort of treatment (five stars, stuff like that) which they simply do not deserve.

If Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag was a colossal tragedy – even RGV agrees – it is wrong to brutalise Sarkar Raj in the same tone. For, Sarkar Raj deals with a tricky subject, and the director steers its plot very well. There are some weaknesses, no doubt about it, but then no film can be completely flawless. Besides, what we perceive as a shortcoming is a subjective view. What one thinks is a pothole can be Taj Mahal in the eyes of someone else. That is the essence of all criticisms of art, whether or not we want to accept it.

Having said that, Sarkar Raj would have been a watchable film even if the plot had been really vague. The reason: the Big B’s extraordinary performance. A couple of decades later, many critics might actually term this one as Bachchan’s greatest performance ever. Talking about cricket, the Indian batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar had once said that the toughest cricketing shot is the one that you don’t play. As an actor, similarly, the most difficult moments are those in which you don’t talk, in fact, do nothing at all except look, listen and react. It is in such moments that the Big B takes the film to a different level. Being a music lover, I heard the Sounds of Silence. And, rest assured, I wasn’t the only one.

That Sarkar Raj has a convincing story, a fairly decent performance by the Small B and the presence of some interesting minor characters makes it a very good watch. It also has some highly imaginative lighting, good camerawork, smart editing…what else can one ask for? May be, Aishwarya needed a meaty role. Perhaps, there should have been much less emphasis on Govinda, Govinda, Govinda…. Some of the minor characters were irritatingly theatrical. However, even if many critics hated the film just as many film viewers like yours truly loved it, is it fair to say that this is one merit-less film that should not have been made?

It is high time we took a compassionate and genuine stand on films coming out of Bollywood. Let us not forget that the maker spends more time in making a film than we do while running it down.