Wanted : Absolutism not Relativism

January has been a hectic month for Bollywood and for the viewers because of the spate of high profile releases.The arrival of the multplex which provides so many screens has made this possible for filmakers(especially the smaller ones) .But alas though smaller filmakers have found financers and screens for their films the quality remains to be abysmally low.But what is most disconcerting is the qualilty of film criticism in the Indian media.

Rushed to watch "Black" and found the movie a decent one.Bhansali's script and truly marvellous performances by Ayesha Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee are the high points of the movie.But his penchant for visual beauty in the scene irrespective of its requirement ends up undermining an otherwise good movie.The hospital( milky white with Rani all in Black),the house where Rani stays when she goes to study are too cosmetic and plainly irrelevant. This proclivity for visual esthetics ends up making the entire atmosphere inert(which could have been achieved by other means if that was the aim) . The form should flow out of the content , but with all of Bhansali's films there is an overall look that is is superimposed on the content and at times totally unsympathetic to the needs of individual scenes.

The Friday release of Black was followed by euphoric reviews that elevated Bhansali to stratospheric heights(equating it with Satya and even greats of world cinema) a sense of deja vu crept in.In recent months the pretentious Raincoat also received similar reviews.The inanest thing being this line by a reviewer "The scene where Ajay Devgan is shaving in his friend's bathroom , has him squeezing cream out a tube while his friends shaving foam is in the background, what a sublte way of showing the huge economic disparity".It is but elementary that when one sketches a character everything from his clothes to his accessories are appropriate.Similar if not tamer eulogies for the horrible "Page 3"(whose first half will give any recent Dev Anand flick a run for its money) and the earlier excruciatingly painful Joggers Park seriously cast a doubt on the standards of judgement used by critics.I even feel that positive reviews were consciously plugged(as if a supposedly dense movie which happens to be directed by a Bengali can only be intepreted by hallowed reviewers and hence they can serve us trash).

The pattern most seem to be following is judging films with respect to their contemporaries.This is a great fallacy because one just cannot elevate an average film to outstanding since the routinely insipid fare has kept our cinematic taste buds parched. The criticism can definetely be done after compartmentalising films into genres , but erstwhile demarcations like mainstream and parallel cinema can no longer be exactly applied .The standards also need not necessarily be international nor within a contemporary time limit since Indian films mainstream,parallel and regional have produced and continue to produce quality films.Mili,Ardh Satya and Anahat to name a few illustrate the previous point.

Another aspect of criticism is positively reviewing actors who have a good press or may be are genuinely nice,strong individuals in real life.Sushmita Sen is a case in point.The gushing plaudits she received for her qawwali in Kisna are undeserving, compare it with Rekha's performance in qawwalis and the exact point of this whole piece would be self evident.Reviewers/Critics should use absolute standards of judgement not relative.