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.
Share This Post!
16 Comments to “If an online critic reviewed ANR’s Devadasu in 1952 & why Southscope doesn’t review movies.”
Be Updated!
I totally agree with u.reviews are ones opinion.but i dont want them to stop.i want people to realise that those reviews are only one mans take.good thing is that now a days they are people reviews also.for example in zoom tv omar gives reviews and he let people to rate the movie.some will tally him and some dont.so people do not taking this reviews that much seriously.they are just for fun.about overseas people,i dont know about them.i wont consider mouth talk also for big films.of course i am a film lover:-)
Good Info in the PS about ANR’ Devadasu.
By the way, do you think the remake of it will work and if yes, who could fit in the role?
Actually, PC Barua directed an adaptation of Devdas (photographed by Bimal Roy) in 1936.
Film reviewing of Telugu movies is still in its infancy. They have a long way to go before gaining some sort of credibility.
I think people read them to get a feel of the film, but they stopped treating them as the Gospel, lol.
The only indian critic whose opinions i respect a great deal is Bharadwaj Rangan. He is a class act.
Its so nice to see you speak up about our cinema. I didn’t know that the Telugu version of Devdas was made before the Hindi one.
Please continue writing about our movies. Its always such a joy to read. And tweet about your posts too…for twitter addicts like me, lol.
Sirish, you had some wonderful insights on the topic of online reviews but what caught my attention on the whole is your good understanding of overseas audiences & why they rely on online reviews. I do not have statistics to prove how much online reviews do impact the overseas collection but me personally being in US for past 10 years would like to throw my opinion/ points from this side of fence & would try explain why people rely (rely in my opinion is not correct word, I would rather used the word “Read”) online reviews. Before I could spell out the points I would like to clarify that I personally do not rely on online reviews but I do read them but that does not mean my decision to watch a film is purely based on reviews itself. There are lot of other factors people consider before making a decision to watch a film.
Location
Unlike in India & especially Hyderabad, people in US are all spread out in various cities ( radius miles of 60miles) but in every state there are certain cities which are hugely populated with Indian’s ( we call Desi’s) & Usually most of desi movies are played in only region where majority of desi residents live. If you take bay area in California for example which has good amount of Indians residing due to Silicon Valley. Fremont/Milpitas which is in south bay is basically the center hub for all Indian movies but there are thousands of Indians who live in east bay/north bay who has to travel a minimum of 50 miles if you want to watch a telugu / hindi movie. So, one would ask is it worth travelling 50/60 miles to watch a movie.
Cost
One could easily say that why do you people have to think when the ticket cost only $8 but I want to clear some doubts on this topic especially to some film fraternity guys ( Puri J?? are you reading this?). It is not always $8 for regional movies. The theatres owners charge it according to their own wish. The ticket price for a new movie would be somewhere between ($10-$15) in first week & of course that depends on movie & cast & general talk of movie. Here is the break down.
Family of 3 (2 Adults + Kid ) – 12*3=36
Snacks/Drinks – anywhere between $15-20 + Gas expenses for your car which of course is negligible but it adds up if you are driving 60 miles.
So bottom line, you would ask again is it worth spending approx $60 to watch a movie?
PS: When pokiri was released myself including many of my friends have watched twice paying $12 each time & I know there are many who would have watched several times inspite of pricey ticket because if there is a good cinema people no doubt will spend money & same as case with maghadheera. Neither did we read Jeevi review during pokiri cinema or for maghadeera but most of our NRI’s was so disappointed when Puri Jagannadh has portrayed in “Neninthe” movie the NRI’s as greedy people who rely on reviews & not spend on money. But Mr. Puri sir definitely has no idea about the life style of general NRI. Mr. Puri Sir no offense but I wish we all NRI’s are rich but we also have other expenses to make our living here & cinema is just one of them.
Time
Everything has to be planned out here ahead in Advance even if it is to go out & watch a movie. Most of them don’t have liberty “ Chalrey timepass ke liye movie dekenge”. May be the bachelors lot can afford but couples & families have obligations during weekends & a night which makes it tougher to take a decision to watch a movie in quick decision.
DVD’s
Usually most of the of the bollywood movies are released in DVD’s with almost 2nd week of release so why spend so much when you can get a DVD for $3 .
Hollywood Movies
There is a lot of choice when it comes to Hollywood movies unlike in india where only selected movies are released in theatres. So for example if Avataar & Neninthe are to be released in same week then naturally people would prefer to Avataar & miss out neninthe (Sorry Puri Sir I picked neninthe again but can’t help it).
These are just some of the factors which decides if people want to watch a movie but the notion that overseas audience (speaking of only US here ) relies heavily on online reviews is just a myth in my opinion & wanted to clear the air on that front. The other reason also is most of the people here has online access almost 24/7 & whenever you are fed up with your work the first thing it comes to any of our minds is movies or read blogs.
Finally keep up the good work on the blog & thanks for all those interesting articles on backend film making aesthetics.
-Chandra
Hey Sirish,
Thanks for pointing out my comment.
I am pretty regular visitor of your blog and had/would almost comment on every article that you wrote/write. I am a research engineer by profession but would do more research on movies than technology
Thx,
Venkat
Hi Sirish,
I read your article today…I have lot of home work to do with your Article…
As today I dnt have office..so could not efford anything now….Sunday I’ll be free and Trust me you will get good Review from me and also a Honest one…
Catch you soon my little one…
Hope you had a good party on Wednesday night with my Fav Star RANA…..lol
-Cheers,
Tina
Hello, Sirish.
You have demonstrated a uncanny perhaps amazing movie marketing ability in the last 24-36 months.
Great acomplishment at very young age. Kudo’s brother.
Online reviews are like any other reviews, are very subjective.
Criticle managment of the all the variable with subjective tendencies is essential, (ie, like you love Charan and Arjun, so give them great reviews) it seems very simple yet very hard to overcome these tendencies, am not claiming you do that, perhaps lot of them do that.
Greater value comes for a reviewer from his adherence to the objectivity and his true knowledge of the public pulse and thier emotional interests.
There are 5 basic elements, that are needed to get the very fair,honest and objective review of a movie.
1. Public Mood / Current state of affiars during the release of the movie.
2. Subejet knowledge, in regards to Preproduction/Production/Post production,, follow thru departments.
3. Decisive ness to be very criticle.
4. Taking risk of poor judgment.
5. Stcking to his or her own the word – Develop trsut with his/her(reviewer) readers by honest and frank engagment.
I can give examples of each element, but it will be too much, not needed coz i dont have to proove that am right here.
All is well here, i hope same there,,
I wish you will realize your Dreams.
Ever in Public service,, Venu
HI
@Chandra..
Hi Chandra..thanks for ur writeup…I had same opinion..but i was lazy enough to post it….and u did it..
I am in New jersey….and here the ticket cost is always > 12..If it is a premiere show..then it will be > 15. The exhibitors/distributors are just trying to cash in the movie craze of telugu audience..the result -> was used to watch 70 to 8- when in india and atleast 1 per week after i moved to Us..now restricted myself to 1 movie per 3 weeks…
In our tradition, we ask feedback before we buy something. Be it, TV, Home, Plot, College Admission etc.
No one wants to spend their money without enough research. Most importantly, in Telugu around 200 movies are made per year.
Only, 10 to 15 movies are worth watching. Given ticket prices, traffic conditions etc in hyderabad its absolutely fair to take feedback before going to movie.
In US, Leader movie tickets are sold at 14 dollars per person. When i am paying 14 bucks and my valuable time then i must consider the feedback of the movie. I personally dont rely on website reviews only but I do consider director, production house etc…
Website review is the quickly available and accessible any time. Most of the times, they are fair.
We should probably have review sites like rottentomatos.com
May be Geeta Arts can focus on such websites to kill the monopoly of few online reviews.