You too, Raja Sen?
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Raja Sen, for those who don’t know, is one of the leading movie reviewers in India and writes for Rediff.com. People speak about him in the same breath as Baradwaj Rangan, the award-winning critic of The New Indian Express. Raja, whose reviews are read regularly by many (including myself), had this to say about Kamal as a director, in one of Rediff.com’s ’slideshows’:
Then followed films like Abhay and Hey Ram. Perhaps the paying public — and most of us — can’t quite see eye-to-eye with the great man’s lofty concept. Either that or he should stick to slapstick.
Let’s pardon his ignorance on which movies Kamal has directed. Agreed, Kamal has proxy-directed many. But in the end, he dares to suggest that Kamal “should stick to slapstick”! While the piece may be frivolous, a respected media-person should know better than writing about something he doesn’t know. Et tu, Raja?
Though the national media is slowly paying more attention to South India, they have a long way to go. The featured still of Kamal actually seems apt — showing disgust towards a little kid!
will watch it tommorrow" - 
16 Comments
“The featured still of Kamal actually seems apt — showing disgust towards a little kid”
LOL, that’s RS who is just another B.S!
Raja Sen is a certified idiot, it’s high time you stop taking this guy seriously!
People speak about him in the same breath as Baradwaj Rangan, the award-winning critic of The New Indian Express.
Sadly true. However I take this as an insult to BR! No other “critics” come close to him. Although I personally feel at home with few blogger!
Hey! Who takes Raja Sen seriously? And who the hell even compares him Baradwaj Rangan. There’s only one Rangan and he’s in a class of his own.
Sorry Abzee bhai and Floyd, but I can’t really pick between the two. Both of ‘em suck, big time!
Sunny- Rangan to my mind is the only Indian critic who knows the job of a critic is to analyse a film and leave it up to the reader whether to go for it or not. Like most critics(and I am guilty of this at times as well), he doesn’t go in expecting to see ‘his’ kind of cinema…but judges all types and genres on their own merit.
May I ask…why do you think he ’sucks’?
Sunny, I have my disagreements with Rangan’s critiquing, but he is far from ’sucking’.
Just look at his piece from Carnatic music to HP franchise, his writing is lucid and structured that you could read his mind. Agreed that one could very well ‘disagree’.
abzee–now answering that requires a lot of words. I’ll just say that I find his writing a little forced, all the humor, the sarcasm, esp the historical(cinematic) analogies he makes, all of it comes accross as a very conscious effort. But those are not the reasons why he sucks!. He sucks because he’s biased, but always tries to camouflage it, never admits it, in other words..dishonest(now I’m not getting into the details of his for and against bias)
Raja Sen sucks coz he’s too brash, too flowery, too eccentric and too erratic.
Mind you, I’m not saying they suck as writers. They suck as critics.
Floyd bhai,
. I’m not denying the fact that Rangan is a superlative writer.
that’s what I said in my earlier comment’s last line
I should have said ’suck as film critics’ actually. That’s just my opinion, and I know that I’m in the majority when it comes to Raja and the minority when it comes Rangan.
Sunny, Regarding camouflaging “bias” – Let’s agree to disagree (or disagree to agree)
I don’t think any critics I know who isn’t biased. But “bias” is a loose term, and let’s quit dissecting it. Frankly we would get tired of it!
I’m don’t mind Raja Sen actually, but in terms of pure writing and humour (not necessarily his logic or opinions), I genuinely think Abzee is the best we have.
There isn’t a platonic critique which fits the universally accepted specifications of objectivity, and one that holds good in an universal sense. A critic should strive to achieve this. At some levels, BR does it. That’s my point. This also holds good for a certain Ebert, or a Rosenbaum, who have their own (subjective) ways of critiquing and evaluating art.
in terms of pure writing and humour (not necessarily his logic or opinions), I genuinely think Abzee is the best we have.
Talk about camouflages! I’m not sure if that’s a compliment meant to disparage or a put-down meant to compliment. LOL!
Love you, Sandy!
Floyd- Ebert over the years has become a quote-whore…kinda like Peter Travers. The critics I have respect for the most(and not because I agree with them or they reflect my choices…but because they know the job of a critic and aren’t posers) are Rosenbaum, Toppmann, Berardinelli and Sobcynzski. In India, Baradwaj Rangan alone.
Of course, the blogging world has thrown up pretty interesting voices. Our very own Qalandar and Sandy among them.
I’m not talking of the way they do their ‘critique’ at all. My favorite was Rosenbaum, but yeah I have my share of disagreements.
I rarely read reviews by critics for English movies. I just take into account user rating and read few user comments at extreme ends (those who give 5 stars and those who give one star).
“People speak about him in the same breath as Baradwaj Rangan, the award-winning critic of The New Indian Express” don’t compare with rangan ,raja sen is a big joke only just see his recent review of khoya khoya chand(which he praised) with phrases like sudhir bhai( thats coming from a critics mouth his personal connection) nothing more biased than this