If an online critic reviewed ANR’s Devadasu in 1952 & why Southscope doesn’t review movies.
I got a lot of comments for my article on Leader. One of the comments, that totally caught my attention was by one Mr. Venkat. He mockingly pointed out how websites would have reviewed ANR’s classic Devadasu, if the 1950 was an internet era. Click here to read it, or read below – I have replicated it below.
“Talking about website reviews about Leader movie. As usual website reviewers play a spoilsport just like they did with Arya2. Reviews say that the whole romantic thread is unnecessary in the movie. Assume if Sekhar Kammula hadn’t had inserted a romantic thread in the movie and had dealt completely with the political drama then Reviewers would have told that the Glamour quotient in the movie is missing so its difficult to pull crowd to the theatre. Thats precisely why I feel that Reviews are never a benchmark to measure movie success. Reviews nowadays have become more of a personal opinion than a “thought process” with a whole motive of degrading the commercial success of the movie.
Just for some fun I would like to draw an analogy about what would have happened if website reviewers existed in 1950 and 1960 era.
For example if you imagine that website reviewers penning their opinion on ANR’s classic blockbuster Devdas
1. Narration of the movie is slow and it can hardly get any response in B and C centres
2. Hero dies in the climax of the movie. Need to wait and see how the response would be from Andhra cine goers who generally doesn’t digest a tragic ending.
3. Being such a Big hero, ANR shouldn’t have accepted such movies where he simply ends his life for a girl.This will create a wrong impact on present generation youth. Life is more than losing your love…Blah Blah Blah
4. ANR from now onwards should accept characters which will motivate the youth and should become a youth icon..Blah Blah
and the finally the rating would have said
2.5 / 5.
The commercial success of the movie depends on how B and C centres accept the movie.”
Almost all readers have complains on reviews, but can’t help from reading them. The movie-going audience in Andhra Pradesh are really review-proof. They rely more on word-of-mouth or “talk” as call it locally to decide whether they want to watch movies. The online reviews are more aimed at the overseas audience. Unlike in India, audience overseas have to spend more money, a lot more time and effort to go watch a movie. And they have more entertainment options, so would carefully review their options. Earlier, reviews on the internet had a huge impact on the overseas collection. Most of them relied on a single voice, Jeevi of Idlebrain. But, as the net grew – so did the numbers of voices. And all reviews are not a single mass with a same opinion. Their opinions are highly polarized. But, most reviews write like they’re distributors instead of reviewers. How much the movie cost, or how big a hit it will be is irrelevant to most people. People look to reviews to know about the cinematic merits of the movie. Those who are interested in the numbers have other sources for what they seek. Luckily today, with the social-media like Twitter and Facebook people have friends & family’s whose judgement they trust to know about the movies they want to see. Most websites have given Pokiri an average rating, when it released. I cant remember a review which stated it would become the highest grosser. But, the movie eventually did end up being that. Same case with Magadheera.
Why Southscope doesn’t do reviews?
The main reason is time factor. Ours is a monthly, and the public would have already decided the movie’s fate. The other factor is review is one person’s opinion of what he/she thinks of the movie – not necessarily the organisation. What if my Editor or I liked the movie immensely, and my reviewer felt it was awful? Whose voice should be the voice of the magazine? Hence, we approached our review section differently. Our review is more like a post-mortem on what worked and what dint. We break our reviews into two sections – “What’s Good?” and “Could’ve been better.” We don’t give ratings nor tell whether you should spend your $8 in watching the movie. We arrive at a consensus on what’s good and what’s not – and then present them. Its up to you to decide whether you want to review a work. But we don’t want to curb the voices of our writers. I have seen large organisations like CNN-IBN, BusinessWeek, New York Times lets their journalists have their own blogs. The person can post their opinions on anything, while staying within editorial guidelines. And most times, there are two contrasting opinions from different people in the same organisation. Its their individual opinion. Organisations usually cannot have a ’stance’ on such issues. Movies and liking are subjective. Hence, when our active website goes live – we would let writer have their own blogs.
PS, Correction : ANR’s Devadasu in 1953, was the first cinematic adaptation second cinematic adaptation of Saratchandra’s novel – Devadas much ahead of the Dilip Kumar’s version in 1955, Yes, the Telugu industry was that progressive back in the 50s! As pointed in the comment section & wikipedia – the first adaptation was by PC Barua in 1935.
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16 Comments to “If an online critic reviewed ANR’s Devadasu in 1952 & why Southscope doesn’t review movies.”
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Hi Sirish,
First i congratulate you for the good work in your blog. I usually watch almost all the movies on first day before getting the website reviews.
I was also very dissapointed with the way NRI were shown in neninthe .. because as i student i earn $9 per hour in my university. where as i had to spend almost $20($15 ticket and $5 misc) which is hard earned in 2 hours. Moreover even if the film is good they are not lasting great impressions in the heart of people because the theatres ove here are the worst theatres i have ever seen.
If you consider we can get a ticket in IMAX hyderabad for a max of Rs150 but we paying 15*45=Rs675 for a movie can’t even watch the movie in a theatre which has DTS as most of the theatres here have no DTS system and the facilities were the worst too. Generally for these kind of theatres in India we pay a max of Rs30-50 which is almost 20 times. So , i request you to appeal this to the MAA association and please help to release movies in good theatres in here .
cheers
Ramu
Hi Sirish,
You mentioned once in one of your articles that the overseas prints should be ready before a week, for the movie to have subtitles. Recently, I watched VInnaithandi Varuvaaya in US, with English subtitles on it. May be, there is an easy way. Why don’t we check how they were able to make it considering both Telugu and Tamil industries are run in a similar way.
Awaiting English subtitles on Telugu films, which I think would help generate good revenues overseas and in Indian metros.
Thanks
Bala
Hey Sirish,
like I promise, I am here to give you my pure and Honest Comments…
The Article is fair enough to rate 2/5.
tell me one thing…why everyone has to take sometime and read your BLOG…
Give me a reason…
I dnt see any reason…However, This article is fair enough to take some time and to get the knowledge how actually reviews are given …
I totally agree that Reviews are been paid..and they are not geniune..I can Rate Leader as 4/5 and also Arya-2 is for 4/5..But I am not sure why GV did not give that Rating and also for YMC I did not feel like 4/5 it should be around 3/5…
Sometimes, it all depends up on the people mood..on which mood they are watcing the movie..
1) some may be forcefully comeing to the theater to watch movie…
2) some may be thinking that after this movie my dad will hit me as I bunked my college
3) some may be fighting at home and want some peace and came to theater…
you never know wat will be going on in their mind and 75% of the people depend on to know from the people who watch the movie or either they will take site reviews are granted and they start analysing if they are worth to watch on big screen or not…and most of the time people think that after one week it will come in CD we will watch it…
I really please and beg each and everyone who is reading this blog…
NEVER NEVER NEVER entertain anyone who is selling pirated its an offense and just take 1 minute and think how much hard work they have taken to make a film and these guys for few rupees they sell them pirated…will you encourage anyone who is doing your bussiness for the same…
Sirish, I suggest you to write an article on PIRATED CD’s also…Let people get some knowledge and they also stop encourage for such offenses.
By the way its a good artiocle and a must read artilce..Sirish, have given his good thoughts but not better one…as he can make the better than BEST Articles like this…
Thanks for the time Sirish..and also will keep on reading your blog my little one’s…
-Cheers,
Tina
and if you are talking about Desi’s going to movies… especially students like me, you also have to take into consideration that a Telugu movie print is usually available Online within a few days itself. so you can watch it for free without shelling out extra money.
the only problem though is the crappy quality of the print available online which makes even a Good movie look average or poor.
which hence leads us to rely on Reviewers to decide whether the 10$ money spent on something which you can get for Free is really worthy or not..!!
@Ramu & Kiran – I understand you’re plight when it comes to watching movies in the US. I was doing a 2-month course in New York and had to travel 3-4 hours each weekend to watch a telugu movie in Jersey.
But also, I will play devil’s advocate and throw this joke on you which I saw in some telugu films I dont remember. One of the character says, “NRI-lu andharu dollarlo sampastharu, kani rupaillo karchupedatharu!” I laughed loud as it was a silly joke, though I empathize with them.
sirish, just because Southscope is a monthly, there is no reason why it should not publish film reviews. In fact, since it is a well-read magazine, your Editors would do well to ask the best critic in the town to write a review which is high on intellect, so us hapless readers, starved of intelligent reviews, are not left in the lurch.
If online reviews, barring a few, are imbecilic and funny, those published in English-language newspapers are bad, too. If Times of India’s critic rates a poor film like Kedi with 3.5 stars and calls it as breaking new ground (he even called the thought behind Mahatma as better than that behind Lageraho..), The Hindu’s reviews are cliched and routine. Deccan Chronicle’s reivews are a saving grace, but only some times.
As yours is a rich magazine, with so much funds at disposal, I request you to come up with genuine film reviews that increase the understanding of a film.