An Indian “Darshak”, Kaminey and Critics

An Indian “Darshak”, Kaminey and Critics

Today I watched Kaminey for the Fixfth time.

I am not trying to give another review of the movie because I don’t consider myself good enough to review any movie. That is why I could not write here before this. For the past two years I wanted to write here but I did not do that. But I can’t stop myself anymore. Kaminey is not a milestone in Indian cinema but it is something. It is the newest wave in Indian cinema. It has nothing to do with Hollywood. It is not Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Javab” to Hollywood (I am sure he will agree on this) and for god sake it is not Indian Pulp Fiction. It will be seen as an important movie in Indian cinema in future because it demonstrates the capability of an Indian film maker. It is a proof that Indian film makers have the courage and are ready to follow a different path for storytelling. It tells how Indian cinema has evolved and where it can go.

My insanity for cinema started when I couldn’t even speak. I lived in a very small town where there was not a single decent theatre where a man could watch a movie with his family. My insanity increased with the increasing age. VCR was the only available option and my family did not have one (I was told that it will come when my father’s friend’s brother in law will come back from Dubai and it never happened). I have watched movies in every possible place, at Durga Puja Pandal, at a video theatre (there were some small rooms where movies were shown on a colour TV and people watched it sitting on the floor), at every neighbours’ house (whom I didn’t even know). I remember I used to go to every baarat because movies were shown there in the night. I remember sitting on the ground and watching movies for the whole night. Those were the days when I could do anything for watching a movie. And what movies I could watch? Bhabhi, Paap ko jalakar rakh kar dunga, Rakhwala, Hamla, sone pe suhaga, Mar mitenge, Aatishbaaj, Billu badshah, Aag ka gola, Humara khandan, Bade ghar ki beti, Laal dupatta malmal ka, Jina teri gali mein, Bahar aane tak and every movie mentioned in the torture series. These are some names. At that time only parameter for deciding whether a movie is good or bad was the no. of villains it has. After a long wait and a lot of hard work watching Naseeb was a great achievement for me because it had Pran, Amrish Puri, Amjad Khan, Kadar Khan, Prem Chopra and Shakti Kapoor together. Even watching the poster of a movie was a great delight.

My insanity continued to grow. Today I have watched almost every Hindi movie, can’t say all but a great number of English movies. I have watched Italian neorealist and pre and post neorealist movies, French poetic realist movies. I have watched movies of Renoir, Godard, Fellini, Tarkovsky, Kiarostami, Bergman, Kurosawa, Antonioni and endless names. I have watched good movies in every Indian language. This is how I evolved as a “Darshak”.

If I say that I did not like the Hindi movies that I watched in my childhood, it would be a lie. At that time I loved them. My passion for cinema started with those movies and today I can’t imagine myself without cinema.

Yes, I love all kinds of movies good, bad or ugly but I know the difference between good, bad and ugly cinema. I don’t read any reviews before actually watching a movie. Critics are causing more damage to cinema than piracy. Today people decide which movie to watch after reading someone else’s views without finding who he is and what he has to do with cinema. Everybody has become a film critic. And they are not doing any good to cinema because they are not qualified enough to criticize even a B grade Hindi movie.

I started with Kaminey because I can’t sit and read the things written about a good movie any more. Everyone is free to say that they don’t like it. But even the critics who praised it mentioned the names of Tarantino or Pulp Fiction. Why it is Indian Pulp fiction? Because people can’t understand what is going on in the movie? Because the story line is not linear? They are not doing justice to the film maker. Critics today know everything about a film more than its maker. They even know the intention behind making a film more than the maker. Someone calls it a spaghetti gangster film. So let it be. It doesn’t make it a bad movie. May be you don’t like it. May this film is not made for an audience like you. But you don’t have to criticize it on false premises.

They assumes something and their review revolve around their assumptions. This is not a good sign for cinema in India. Everybody is free to write anything about anything but the reader is also free to believe it or not. Only the audience can stop them from doing more damage. Please go to the theatre watch a movie and decide what is good and what is not.