Film Reviews on IndiaFM

The media manipulation with respect to movie reviews has already been well chronicled. It is a very well known fact that journalists covering movies are either in pro-director or anti-director groups. Consequently, you have well known reviewers like Roger Ebert giving thumbs up to movies which would not be worth even a first glance. These movies then go on to do a reasonable amount of business because people would think, "If Roger has endorsed it, we should go and check it out".

This trend is all the more amplified in Bollywood. "Journalists" like Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM fame routinely pan work other than that by either the Chopras or Karan Johar. Of course, any movie starring SRK gets the most favorable rating. While I doubt the real impact of his rating scale (after all, SRK has his die-hard fans, review or no review), it is his "negative shade" about other movies that makes people think and then Not see the movie. A case in point is the movie "Sehar", starring Arshad Warsi. I have not seen the movie myself, but the movie on first look is a decent attempt to portray crime as seen in UP and Bihar. It is a honest attempt to look at life other than Mumbai crime (glorified so much by RGV in his trio of Mumbai crime capers).

Check out IndiaFM's review on Sehar HERE. The review basically thrashes the movie and makes it sound as if it is the most worthless movie you have ever witnessed. I understand that every movie might have its drawbacks, but Rediff Movies has given a far more objective review of the movie HERE. The best review on Sehar is by Vulturo HERE and he basically eulogizes the movie and highly recommends it.

On the other hand, I had a chance to see a movie recommended by Taran, 7 1/2 Phere, starring Juhi Chawla and Irfan. Check out IndiaFM's review HERE and Rediff's review HERE. The movie is horrible, loud and grates forever. If the movie had not ended, I would have ripped the headphones apart !!!

It is clear that Taran Adarsh has an agenda here and for people who have been following his reviews religiously, I have just few words, Go and watch SEHAR.

Comments

Sharath Bulusu said…
Kinda related but not quite the same issue...
Did you hear about Sony's settlement w ith filmgoers. Sony apparently quoted imaginary critics praising its movies, etc. So a couple of people said that the "praise" prompted them to spend money on bad movies.. yada yada yada.. . check out this report on that story:

http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/feeds/infoimaging/2005/08/04/infoimagingcahners_2005_08_04_eng-cahners_dv_eng-cahners_dv_003045_1066375162917089332.html
Sharath Bulusu said…

Article on Sony


- hyperlink for those too lazy to ^c^v.
Anonymous said…
stupid admi,

go fetch me a glass of water....
Ujval Gandhi said…
Stochastix, I was never aware of such things in US of A also :) tsk, tsk, what a noble, beleiving soul I am :)

But it is high time that someone expose Taran Adarsh and Khalid Mohammed, stupid buggers writing ridiculous reviews. Thanks for the comments
Ujval Gandhi said…
[you removed my laptop screen] please identify yourself, I have a vague idea it must be M, but I am reserving comment !!

btw, why do girls have fascination to leave their plastic covers on their laptops ???
Anonymous said…
why the heck do you guys worry about reviews and reviewers...form your own opinion...read user reviews and not 'expert reviews'
Leon said…
I've found many reviews puzzling, not just reviews by Taran Adarsh. I guess it's just a matter of taste.. :-)
Ujval Gandhi said…
Thanks [Leon] for your comments.

I agree it is a matter of "taste", however, I believe strongly that the review of Sehar indicates that there is something else with IndiaFM. Someone pointed out to me that IndiaFM highly rated the music of Barsaat but it was extremely so-so.

I do think that if IndiaFM have some sort of commercial agreement with SRK or Karan Johar or anyone, they should carry a banner ad. eg, when AOL comments about Time magazine, they always have a disclaimer 'Time is owned by the AOL-Time Warner group'.
Sachin Sinha said…
Here I would have to disagree with you Ujval. I have read watched and listened to Taran Adarsh since my childhood. I like his views and take on the movies. I read his reviews every friday. Sometimes I too think that why he is trashing this movie while it is from Big banner and with a Huge Star Cast (Bunty and Bubly). Or why he is giving a movie *** even though I didn't even hear the production news of this film. But I can tell you that every time after watching the film I get agreed with what Taran had to say.

Popular posts from this blog

Balkanization of Pakistan

Adventures with R - Facebook Ads (Part 3)