While the puritans, journos and some industry elites are upset that anyone today can write movie reviews on the internet, I was worried about those who say that. When anyone can walk into a theatre to watch a movie, anyone can comment on it. Whether the comment withstands applauds or succumbs to criticism depends on the smartness of the reviewer. When someone could get angered on all the reviewers of the mainstream media and kick start his own reviews online, it is his way of expression. Just like how the technology enables sharing of the knowledge which was once reachable only by the haves, it also enables expression of a common audience.
With blogging becoming an enabling device for reviewers of all sorts, movie reviewers were also born. A few years later after blogging kick started, you could spot only a few gems here and there. Many of them are just re-telling of the story, sub-standard and completely clueless about the grammar of reviews. They are silly, sloppy and irritating. But these are bound to happen. I am going to support them. Call me biased. With a heap of crap coming from the mainstream media, who are regarded as the people who define standards for writings, these mushrooming blog reviewers will also get consolidated and only the fit will survive. If someone was to write a review of Kurudhippunal and has no idea about the motifs and the philosophy behind a movie, it will glaringly show-up in the review. Either it will end up as 5 paragraph review with every para directed towards a component of a movie thereby encompassing all the elements of a movie or the other way. The other way is to just take a small theme of the movie and magnify it to exorbitant proportions and finally ends up as just a piece-of-the-pie.
I believe a perfect review lies somewhere in-between these two extremes. Any one who can balance between these two will emerge with a successful review that’s laudable. If you take either of these approaches, you fall short at the end. Stop. Before you start posting that comment here asking me how I can claim a say on this issue of reviews, I am not the authority of reviews, so is everyone. None of the so-called-reviews that I have written here have followed these rules. Its just now, I am getting the see the grammar of reviews clearly. I haven’t followed these at but I believe that this is what will work.
First off, writing a review shouldn’t be just to create a controversy or to add one to the count of your reviews or to brag about the knowledge of films that one possess. Writing in-depth about a movie can become boring to the readers and in the same way shirking the other aspects that contributed to the movie. A good review, again, I believe, can only come out of watching a good/bad movie. Whoever wants to write a movie should be moved by the movie, for good or bad. For an armchair critic, everything will appear faulty or shiny. Someone who watches a movie open-minded, given the skill of expressing what he witnessed, would be the best reviewer. Hence the critic ceases to be correct after a dozen times. For him, alcohol has no effect. But for the fresh reviewer who writes reviews just for the joy of it, even a bottle of beer can be intoxicating. The idea of constantly doing the same joyous job again and again, even for a porn actor, would become mundane. Hence the blogging community taking up reviewing as their second profession is a welcoming move. Even if it is not welcomed, it will happen. But as said before, the best will remain. Others will be discarded or will not be noticed.
I was triggered to write this whole blogpost only because of the review of Anniyan that I finished reading just now on Kumudam’s Theeranadhi. Written by Ramaswamy, the review made me laugh for nuts. It is such narrow minded review that I was mentioning before as blowing up a small motif to a godzilla. Starting from the Aryan invasion, the brahminical violence and few other unheard theologies, the review completely misleads the reader into a different track. One specific instance where the reviewer points out, that a link exists between Charlie’s killing by Anniyan and the Dravidian abuse on Brahmins during the early 70’s. He goes on to say that Anniyan is a movie to role-model brahmins to oppose that abuse. In the concluding paragraph, the reviewer tries to balance the review and then goes back to his own arguments again.
While I’m positive that some amount of Sujatha’s inputs would have influenced in the characterisation of Ambi, I don’t think Shankar to be such a fool to allow his movie to be hijacked for some unknown historical cause. A 70 year old Sujatha needn’t write a movie to infuse brahminical thoughts in the people’s mind. He could might as well tell them straight through a column. Even if these could be theoritically true, Shankar wouldn’t want to risk a high budget movie for such a small cause. Also by infusing these unheard thoughts, Anniyan seems to be a better movie that it really is. Anniyan is such a badly executed commercial movie without any such under-currents. Such reviews are only written to boast on the intellectualism the ‘Siru Pathirikaigal’ seem to be advocate of. While I don’t blame the reviewer for it, because he has a his own limitations of what the editor wants to be published. Probably the entire review would have been re-written in his name.
A similar mi-leading thing happened with a wonderfully shot movie named ‘Kathal’. Balaji Shakthivel’s movie could be called a classic in the coming years except for it’s abrupt ending. While many of us call it abrupt ending, the intellectuals of these small magazines call it as a rebellious and infectious climax. During the final scenes as the protagonist, a backward caste teenager, roams in the road as an insane dude, the heroine comes running to him and falls in his feet to request a apology for marrying someone else. All this happening and the climax being complete here, two reviewers of small magazines (I think, Dheemtarikida and Uyirmmai, though I’m not sure here) wrote that the movie has anti-periyaar sentiments being adviced in the movie. Reason, while the climax happens, a periyaar statue stands in the middle of the road. And hence they call ‘Kadhal’ to be a movie with intentions well hidden. Even Periyaar himself wouldn’t spare these folks.
Not only these folks but there are bunch of mainstream media folks who also write bad reviewers and hence the coming up of a new genre of blog reviewers should be a welcoming move. We have tried everything and now we need to give bloggers a chance. If only bloggers can be level-headed and not write such horrendous reviews, atleast the main-stream media folks would start understanding that just being in main-stream media alone doesn’t help, you got to write right stuff. Bloggers Arise !!
kirukkal.com 
61 responses to “How not to write a review !!”
I cannot explain what a perfect review should be. But these tamil lit mags most of the times come up with horrendous reviews, so to say. They bring in caste ethos of the creators, or of the time when the movie is made etc. to an extent to which the maker himself would not have thought of.
Please go through more s’hitfests in uyrimai/kaalachuvadu (don’t remember which) in the names of review for Pithamagan, Virumaandi etc.
In these reviews, the reviewers just declinet to accept any form of violence depicted as committed by a person.
In the review on Pithamagan, the reviewer claims that the movie is Bureaucratic (and is just a rehash of old MGR movies where he in an attempt to marry his beloved takes on the rich and comes out winning, or whatever). He criticizes that the movie shows Police and other ppl part of low-level administration in bad light, where as the higher level administrators like the collector (now whoever thought the collector had this big a significance in the movie’s theme!) as good samaritans.
I don’t think I need to elaborate what his review on Virumaandi was about.
The reviewer, in both these cases, was Charu Nivedhita (though I am not absolutely sure about it).
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Oh my god!!! This is absolutely ridiculous. Painting the moviemakers with the casteist paint. It is rubbish and full crap!!! Trust dravidar kazhaga vaarisugal to come up with something like this!
Excellent post Lazy. The part about how a movie review should be! Absolutely brilliant! Adhuvum comparison with C2H5OH was too good ๐
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Guru,
I like your write up. I have written a reasonably big response at my site. (I felt it would be too big to post here). Please check it out.
http://blogpur.blogspot.com
Here’s to criticism!
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The mainstream cannot be unbiassed. The thirai-vimarsanam or any such programs on TV, simply cannot blast a movie. At the same time, a 2 page review on magazines are 1) page bound and 2) necessity to mention all the technicians.
they write the story of the movie. criticize one line about it. actor is so and so. and another one liner. music director – one liner for him. mention 2 songs. and finally to the director – one liner again.
It is steroetypic. They have it on magazines for the sake of having them.
and about what you were saying Lazy (oh yeah, you said too many things :)), i’ve seen quite some bloggers who do clean and uncompromising reviews, and that helps. Really helps.
But I wish, bloggers again dont do that steroetypic cast/crew and synopsis of the movie alone. Its got to be like, you know, Raw, naive and unfettered (??!). I gave up reviewing after first attempting on Anniyan.
I completely suuport blog reviewers too. I wish all the drectors and actors, sit and read out our reviews and comment back. Lazy, next time you meet Gautham, ask him to do that.
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Hey Guru,
I’m one of those self professed ‘puritans’ who detest bad reviews (and reviewers). Even though I sometimes put it down to ‘encouragement’ terrible writers get through mere exposure, I do understand your argument about a place for the good and the bad in the blogosphere. I sure will be more circumspect in the future. I keep quoting you know who, but I remember once again (I think I told this to you years ago): If only the birds with the sweetest voices were permitted to sing, the woods would be silent!
Another interesting thing is that I seem to fit your description of the other extreme reviewer. But then again, you know my excuse for all that. BTW I too mentioned brahminican violence. So does that now make me a dirty creep? :p
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LG, it is true that everyone has a right to voice their opinions/comments about a movie. but in certain cases it so happens that a movie is praised/criticised no end simply bcos a fav director/actor/banner has not come up with a movie/storyline that ‘one’ movie rasigan expected out of them. take Kudaikkul Mazhai for eg. assuming u expect something out of a parthiban movie, and it so turns out that the movie wasnt upto ur expetations of a parthiban movie, dont u think the review wud be biased? more so, when it is put up in a public forum and clearly where the readership is reasonably in good number, who go by the reviewers opinions….its not about knowledge of movies or referring to earlier works etc.. its about writing an unbiased and impartial review of any creation! well, my few paise worth ๐
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i too read that review in kumudam and all i cud do was LMAO at tht guy’s thoughts……. true its his right to express his opinions but i have always wondered as to why people most times find hidden meanings in the name of caste in literally everything….. i remember one such incident where Dilip’s (its hidden amongst some archives) article on the “Jo Bole” movie and immediately there was a controversy sorrounding it asking if he wud have said the same if his surname was a different one……. such things do no good to the society… Kadhal and Periyar ha ha ha …….. one thing is sure… its plenty of opportunity for ppl to have a good laugh ;-))
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Lazy,
I think it is a bad case of assumption of intellect on our part to call another review bad.
In fact I would go a step further and say that it is only such reviews that open our eyes to the society – a case of the geek boy and his laptop???…..;)
I hope you get what I mean.
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Srihari, Perfect. Thats something I am trying to say here.
Prabhu, Oru blogpostleye ellarayum relate pann avaikanum.
Venkat, Will read your your post on reviews. Thanks.
Keerthi, I think you should watch anniyan and try it again ๐ Thanks for that raw naive stuff !! gotcha.
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Hey Anand, You may be a self-professed puritan but I’m not referring to you guys here. I think I forgot mentioning your class of reviewers, from inside the industry.
I agree to your analogy of the woods. And hence if its a mediocre movie don’t even write a review. We have people writing something in the name reviews, right left and center. You don’t fit that extreme reviewer. Your anniyan review had most of the important stuff that made or broke anniyan. And as you always mention you are one of them who never tell stories through reviews. I try to hint at them if not for a detailed one.
And you mentioning brahmincan violence in comparison to hey ram was appropriate. this guy goes on to say that aryans are giving back after the 70’s abuse and all that.
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Honesty works. I think I will remember these lines for the rest of my life. Ebert while reviewing Shrek 2 had to say this about the movie’s sound track.
The movie has several songs, none of which I found very memorable, although of course I am the same person who said the Simon and Garfunkel songs in “The Graduate” were “instantly forgettable.”
We do have to realise that in most cases a review is “personal opinion” that might or might not reflect the opinion that an average viewer might arrive at once he walks out of the movie.
Reasoning works too. I have always wondered how reviewers arrive at adjectives to describe a movie. But then I think the limitations of space do regulate how or what is written and sometimes the editting of a few lines might shift the review from a good one to a totally $hitty version.
Ultimately, I think “naandhaan” hit the nail on the head!
Btw, naandhaan.. wassup!
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Nandhan, I know where you are coming to. I agree that there are many chances for a review to get biased. Hence I think reviewers should try to objective as possible. Being two much objective will lead to trashing a movie out of bounds. again, a good reviewer can be found inbetween these. Agree kudaikul mazhai failed to me ‘MY’ expectations but I tried as much as possible to hold on the objectivity.
let’s do this, read the review again and quote where I was biased. I would try to explain my point of view or will accept that bias exists in that place. but calling the whole review being biased, is something i don’t agree. For Aayitha Ezhuthu, i think i did justics to what the movie and then after the hundredth day i wrote a biased review.
btw, this isn’t apost where i’m dicussing lazygeek’s reviews aka kuppai. and i accept with full heart unbiased reviews are welcome. but such anniyan reviews like theeranadhi not only mis-leads but also irritates to the core.
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Anoop, true these reviews end up as laughing stock. you have to read what Khushwant Singh had to say on the controversy of Jo Bole So Nihaal.
Nilu, Gotcha. I think we are heading towards existentialism again ๐
Anti, enakku therium saar. nandan periya writer ‘avar’ukku ellam ennaala comment reply panna mudiyathu. After all it takes a lot of ‘time’.
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Yep. Bloggers need a chance. Sometimes I feel mainstream reviewers aren’t fair to offbeat movies. One popular reviewer probably expected a K3G from Swades and completely trashed it. Appreciating director’s viewpoint and his execution is almost absent these days.
The flip side is a leading lady reviewer from Chennai who wants me to watch 4 of the 5 films that release. It’s disgusting to read them both.
I think Bloggers need to create a trust which is achieved by consistently writing fair reviews irrespective of the stars and crew he/she likes or hates.
Blog reviews are a no-no to me at the moment, as it is mere Blog applause or Blog condemn. Few sites including yours are exceptions. It’s mostly Blog applause, a classic example is Chandramukhi. Within 3 hours of release, I had a few blog links on my Inbox also some PDF copies. All of them carried a few praises, spoilers, and those mandatory lakalakalaka, repeatU. A neutral perspective was missing.
An informative post Lazy. Just in time.
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@naandhaan: Precisely! Agree with u.. ๐
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Guru you have nailed it dude.
I was just stumped reading that guys ‘review’ on anniyan kumudam and here you are.
As such we are divided in so many lines(religion,caste,subsect,language,add to the power of ‘n’), now the latest fashion is ‘brahmin’ bashing. Even if a person trips on the road and by stander brahmin happens to be there, it will be called ‘papanargalin’ sathi.
My God, this is getting crazy. Sorry state of affair indeed. ๐ฆ
Atleast the new generation of Indians should grow out of it.
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I’ve been writing reviews @ http://www.geocities.com/bbreviews for about 5 yrs now and I think i fall somewhere between the ‘mainstream reviewer’ and ‘new blog reviewer’. this is a well-written post. i share your pain on shabby reviews that reveal plot points, search for non-existent undercurrents, etc. The part about what makes a good review is excellently analyzed. But you make some statements which, based on personal experience, i have to disagree with.
i don’t think u have to be moved by a movie to review it. the fact that u were not moved and the reasons why u were not moved would be a review too, wouldn’t it?
an in-depth review of a movie is not boring as long as the reviewer knows what he is talking about. In many cases, it really reveals how much he loved the movie and it is a pleasure to read, whether u agree with his viewpoint or not. i have enjoyed ebert’s in-depth reviews of many movies he calls ‘great movies’.
but i most disagree with the statement that a critic ceases to be correct after a dozen movies. what decides whether he is correct or not is not the number of movies but the extent of his love for them. the job for the porn actor would not become mundane as long he enjoys sex! i guess what i’m trying to say is, i write reviews because i enjoy watching movies. I don’t watch movies because i enjoy writing reviews. And that i believe is the key. As long as the reviewer enjoys watching movies(and can write well), his reviews will be a pleasure to read, whether he has written 5 reviews or 1000.
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Balaji, I knew that the word ‘moved’ would be mis-understood. hence i said, “A good review, again, I believe, can only come out of watching a good/bad movie. Whoever wants to write a movie should be moved by the movie, for good or bad”
by moved, i’m meaning to say you get an opinion on the movie. if i’ve write reviews because i watched a movie and wasn’t moved, it would be possible for me. for example, a movie like kanaa kanden didn’t evoke any opinion in me. i don’t think i should write about it and waste my time. so if i’ve to write a note on KK, i would have to say the story line, talk about the actors, complete it with an ending statement. i think its a waste of time. if only it moved me to write a bashing review or even a neutral review, i would do it.
atleast i believe, once a reviewer is applauded for his reviewing skills, i’m not boasting here, he is on the pedestal to churn out reviews. i am explicitly thinking loudly here and trying to kill that demon else i would cease to exist and thats a harsh truth.
i’ve spoken about this to people who know me personally. some ‘one’ who commented here knows about this irony that i go through. i’m not game for churning out reviews and heaping nonsense in name of reviews. thats my opinion. in that sense you are lucky.
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Btw, Ebert’s quote on Shrek 2’s music is this:
“The movie has several songs, none of which I found very memorable, although of course I am the same person who said the Simon and Garfunkel songs in ‘The Graduate’ were ‘instantly forgettable.’”
I enclosed it under italics… en work aagala nu therla! And it probably ended up being muddled…
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Guru,
Thanks a lot for the post back on my blog site. I understand where you are coming from now. Yeh I don’t like those types of reviews either. I wouldn’t call it that. More like a plot summary for me.
Have A Good Day.
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Hi LG,
Eppadi review pannanumnu Mahabarthala Arjunan antha kiliya ambu vitu atkira madhiri nachunu soliteenga. Nice one.
But ana inga unga commentla unga postuda persusa ezhuthirukanga. Ithleam sethu oru posta use panidellam:-)
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Hi Lazy
A very good post. I did read Theeranadhi’s review on Anniyan and also a post on Kaadhal’s review. I guess these so called literary magazines suffer an identity crisis. They can’t accept the ways of mainstream media and at the same time want to be different.
Only way to see your article in such magazines is to paint it with some casteist remarks and your article is published. Nice way to call oneself a writer.
Sometimes I do wonder how these ‘reviewers’ interpret a movie. Even the directors themselves wouldn’t have thought it that way. Strange world..
Ram
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S. Anand of Outlook India also wrote a similar review of Kaadhal.
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I completely agree with that “Moved” point. Yeah, a review can be good only when you have some distinct opinion on it. I have done that mistake many times before, just writing revus on every movies i saw but these days i realised that it is boring to both write and read such revus. I have personally felt is before. A very interesting post on reviews. Actually, i am working on a post about “Giving Ratings and Writing reviews on Music albums”. Will let you know after i complete it.
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Hi LG,
U said it well. But to what extent does an online movie review affect the readers decision to watch the movie? And of course there are a few different types of review. Normaly, if you have a media pass, then you can catch the premier and review it before the movie hits the theaters. Its the norm with English movies. I get my SF/Fantasy/Thriller movie reviews from http://www.scifidimensions.com and it really influences my decisions to watch or not to watch a movie.
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anniyan was not to the expectations!!!!
it was boring and the fights were also not good full of graphics and the real vikram fight like in dhool,sami was very much missed by me.
the scene where prakash raj and vikram speak r superb.he changes into the different states with ease.
overall the movie was dissapointing for me.i watched it first day and i cudnt sit thro the first half.kannum nokia song was good picturisation and sets.kadhal yanai the dance was not good and was slow whereas the music pace was fast.
overall the vikram acting was good in some scenes.the climax acting was gud.shankar shud hav edited more and given more powerful story.
after seeing chandramukhi this movie also deals with split personality so was little bore and we cud guess it in the first half itself.shankar shud hav taken it as a thriller.he failed.it was rehash of GENTLEMAN and INDIAN!!!!!
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Hehe..I thought this is some genuine-post-with-good-intention about movie “reviews”. Finally, ended with some biased support statement to a particular community. Anywho, joot!
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Lazy, it is perfectly understandable that only certain movies ‘move’ you and hence u write reviews only for those. no issues there. but isnt that a really small sample size to make an all-encompassing statement like ‘the critic ceases to be correct after a dozen times’? isn’t that totally unfair to the reviewers out there who enjoy movies even after seeing more than a dozen and enjoy writing about them?
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Balaji, Oh yeah. But a dozen times doesn’t mean a dozen literally. anything thats overdone becomes monotonous. that was what i was echoing.
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some 1, i wanted it with the same intention. i thought i satisfied the intention and went beyond to say ‘all’ blog reviewers aren’t necessarily dumbos. there are some good ones here and there and to get them stick out, one needs to search for a good review and showcase it.
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balaji, btw, are you referring to yourself when saying “isn’t that totally unfair to the reviewers out there who enjoy movies even after seeing more than a dozen and enjoy writing about them?”.
If yes, you can be totally open and harsh here. after all i don’t delete offensive comments unless they are personally targetted.
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Hey,
I read that review on kumudam and it was crazy! I mean., you can have ‘n’ different views about a movie. When anyone gets strongly influenced by a movie (positive/negative), their opinions stretch in a direction. I feel that the reviewer had a deep undercurrent within him which was brought out
by the movie. May be his personal perception had influenced the way that he looked at the movie!
I am not a great movie buff., neither a subject
expert. But I feel that the failure of the movie was primarily due to the ‘societal indictment’. So far, we were used to individuals being killed for corruption/blah blah wotever. I guess this is the first time, any movie (that i ve known) blames/stresses discipline as a society. I guess
as ‘the public’ we find it too difficult to accept.
I ve been reading Sujatha’s work for about 15 years and I cld never recollect such hidden meaning..in any text. Infact I like his style of subtle ‘kalaichfying’ (sorry about that word, i cld not find anything better ๐ )the community based on his experiences!
Above all, as you told, therez no need for Sujatha
to bring in these ‘hidden’ meanings into a mega budget film and shankar is no ordinary guy to buy it!
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“Balaji, Oh yeah. But a dozen times doesn’t mean a dozen literally. anything thats overdone becomes monotonous. that was what i was echoing.”
Not true. What about reviwers out there who review movies ceaselessly? I still read their reviews and I dont see any monotonicity creeping in. It depends on the reviewer. If someone enjoys writing and enjoys in expressing themselves eloquently, for them no amount of writing would get boring. If revieweing movies would get monotonous, then blogging by itself should get monotonous in a matter of weeks. After all most bloggers use their blog like a buleetin board, pasting news items/gossips from here and there and adding their on-line analysis to it. Why does’nt that become monotonous to them after a while ? ๐
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LG, i guess i would be part of that group. but when i wrote that i was thinking more of critics like ebert or berardinelli(yeah i know this was about tamil reviews but still…) they review pretty much every movie out there but their reviews r still a pleasure to read whether i agree with them or not because their love of movies comes through. they never seem monotonous. but essentially i was talking about all reviewers who write reviews out of their love of movies rather than seeing the writing as a chore or a job ๐
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Guru,
this might be slightly irrelevant, but kindly bear. By providing such a review, isn’t the author merely stating his opinion? Though it isn’t the right medium to do it, to me, it sounds like that’s what the reviewer is saying. With that assumption made, why should we be so concerned about his opinion. I’m sure one argument you bring to the table is the fact that the author here is “reviewing the movie”, while reading even a few lines clearly would tell you he is stating HIS opinion. Pardon me if I ramble aimlessly :)Peace!
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What irks me the most about some bloggers reviews is that they write as if they are submitting it to some rediff writing contest or as if they are doing it for an award-best blogger award or something like that. Going out of the way to sound politically correct and so on. The whole point in writing a review in a blog vs writing it for a magazine is that the bloggers have freedom to voice their opinions, likes, dislikes, prejudices etc. freely. If you hate an actor just say so. I wish in general the reviews in blogs were more opinionated and had an individuality about them rather than being semi-formal and contrived.
And regarding reviews being objective – reviewing a movie by its very nature is subjective.What is classic to some might be cheap trash to someone else. If someone writes an eloquent review on “Godfather” saying how they disliked it, does he immediately become a “bad” reviewer? The content, logic, writing style is what matters.
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a review is nothing more than an elaborate comment on something based on someone’s personal opinion. so does that person need a motive or a reason to comment on something? does someone need to “get” a movie to write a review? does a reviewer need to understand the motifs or philosophy behind a movie to write a review? can one not assume the philosophy as they see fit? more importantly, what is a good review and what is a bad review and who is eligible to judge that? is a negative review of a movie i like a bad review or positive review of a movie you like a good review?? how much weightage does a review of any movie carry towards gauging the moods of the cinegoers and thereby, the end result of its success????
do we even need reviews and reviewers in the first place??? when anyone who pays the ticket price can review any movie they see, can there be any standardized quality specifications??? there are only reviews in my opinion, be it in traditional media or blog media for it is but an opinion and no opinion can become a standard.
katz
katz
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there you go vijay. i was waiting your arrival. first off, I’m not bored of blogging nor reviewing. second i don’t review for rediff review writing contest. and you know why I say i, because you being very general and hinting on stuff that we have discussed before is very obvious in your comment. so i am explaing why I am reviewing.
basically its possible to shirk of your comment as yet another anonymous with the name of ‘Illaya Thalapathi’ Vijay. more than that I see what you see is that this blog has its own set of opinionated readers and a blogger himself who is opinionated. i have hated vijay, enjoyed rajini and loved kamal. where do u see me being semi-formal and contrieved. but while writing a review you got to unbiased so you slip into the mode of being semi-formal. but you can’t help it.
i wrote a bashing review for anniyan. i don’t see anyone pointing me as bad reviewer. it may be a bad review for them but i am not a bad reviewer. kanna thurandhu paaru kanna.
and why don’t u reveal your identity. i know whom you are and where you come from. not to scare you but i truly know. i am just trying to confirm if i my true-‘guess’ is right. ๐
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” because you being very general and hinting on stuff that we have discussed before is very obvious in your comment”
Lazy geek, my opinion was on that of certain bloggers/reviews I have read. Why did you think that I was talking about you? You are being way too pre-emptive here, to the point of being paranoid about anything I write ๐ I am surpised that amongst the numerous people who post their opinions here, you have been anticipating my arrival. Tsk..tsk..:-)) what stuff did I hint on that we discussed before? I dont see anything that I wrote which points to previous discussions. The only thing that is similiar is both the discussions were about movies and movie reviewing, thats it. This is an entirely different topic.
“kanna thurandhu paaru kanna”
yedha paakkaNum? :-))
“i wrote a bashing review for anniyan. i don’t see anyone pointing me as bad reviewer. ”
Anniyan is no Godfather and I have quite a few bad reviews or so-so reviews for Anniyan. But anyways, I didnt ask examples from you to prove that you are an objective reviewer or anything like that. Obviously you over-reacted to my comments and got into a Rahul Dravidian defensive mode ๐
By the way, having strong prefernces/likes/dislikes and expressing them in reviews doesnt mean your review becomes biased.All I was saying was the writing style could be more individualistic, opinionated, and even a tad less serious and humour-laden. A blogger has much more freedom than say, an Anandha vikatan reviewer and that has to be exploited.
“and why don’t u reveal your identity. i know whom you are and where you come from. not to scare you but i truly know. i am just trying to confirm if i my true-‘guess’ is right”
how does it matter? You should be addressing my points and not probing my ip or background ๐ It doesnt matter to me, if you really know who I am. why would I get scared? Or, let me know if I should :-)) I dont mind exchanging personal details in an email if you are really that interested.
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“basically its possible to shirk of your comment as yet another anonymous with the name of ‘Illaya Thalapathi’ Vijay”
No,you cant, it would be too difficult for you to ignore my comments :-))
“but while writing a review you got to unbiased so you slip into the mode of being semi-formal. but you can’t help it.”
you need not be formal or semi-formal. check out
http://www.mrcranky.com – Hilarious reviews. The guy indicates with his stars as to what he truly thinks of the movie but his reviews are a scathing attack, irrespective of what the movie is.Somem reviews are lame too, but some of them are hilarious. Bloggers are free to adopt such different styles rather than taking themselves and their reviews too seriously. The reason why I wrote about this earlier is because I know that quite a number of people read these pages. So I used it just as a general discussion board to voice my opinions, not as any comments pointing towards only you. Some of what I said might be attributable to you too, but I didnt have just you in mind when I made those comments- my observations on reviews by bloggers
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Good post! I do agree that Bloggers speak their minds, but some of them are simply making their presence felt by releasing spoilers and rubbish over their blogs. This will lead to you and me pooh-poohing them and will get them a free link towards their page rank, which is all they care about!
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Vijay,
//Obviously you over-reacted to my comments and got into a Rahul Dravidian defensive mode ๐ //
i didn’t. i just reacted. what is over-reaction juts like asking what is a bad review. there is only reaction. over-reactuion is a relative term.
//No,you cant, it would be too difficult for you to ignore my comments :-))//
hey do u think you are disturbing me in my nightmares. take a cool pill.
thanks for the notes on being formal/informal. you are right with that, finally.
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Hi LG,
I am using your space, so kindly bear with me.
Makale ennapa achu ungaluku:-)
Mr.Vijay alias jeeboombaa,
Ennapa nee Dhool padathula vara swarnakaa kannaka overa sound vodara.
venam mame. konjam cool panniko. Nee veppa ennai thalaiyila thadavi konjam beach orama malaanthu paduthana.. mind relax agum.
Aprum intha identiy pathi solanumna.. Dhilla pesarathoo..illa dhilla discuss panrathoo.. perusu illa.. dhilla naan thaan pesarennu solunum.Athu than unaku azhagu.
Illa nee intha Bourne-Identiy padathula vara kadhanayagan madhiri unnai yarunu theditrikiyanu enku theriyala?
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“. there is only reaction. over-reactuion is a relative term.”
Responding to comments that werent directed at you , defending yourself when there is no need to, dragging our past discussions trying to find a hidden motive for my post, and asking me to reveal identity, all in one post seemed atleast a slight over-reaction to me. (Or maybe a misguided reaction) If this is your normal reaction, then I shudder to think of your response to any direct criticisms ๐
“hey do u think you are disturbing me in my nightmares”
I hope not,although you seem to me spending quite some time finding out where I am posting from, who am I and so on, when I am just an occasional passer-by here ๐
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Narasi kaNNa, en per Vijaya irundha enna Ajaya iirundha enna? naan yaara irundha enna? naan vudura sound pudikkalaya, kaadha moodukinnu po :-))illatti badhil sound vidu. naan coola irukkena, hotta irukkenaangradha paththi nee kavala padaadha.veruma sounda mattum gavani ๐
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narasi, bourne identity..you mean vetri vizha. you got to say only vetri vizha not even mention robert ludlum’s book else there are people to say you keep rambling about hollywood movies.
vijay, i don’t to find out where you are posting from. the email sends me every damn thing. you got to blame six apart for that. wherever you post from, if i see arguing for the sake of i would react the same way. btw, i agree again that what you said about semi-formal stuff makes sense. rest don’t.
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Hi,
I follow Roger Ebert’s choice of movies. Over time i have seen that he likes the movie i likes. So if he recommends one, I watch it.
I dont watch movies Taran Adarsh recommends by the same logid.
By no way do I suggest Taran Adarsh is a bad reviewer. He caters to a group of people who like movies taran likes. Thats all. No good reviewer, bad reviewer.
If a guy writes grammatically incorrect reviews in newspaper, he is going to get sacked. We should not worry about it. If a guy writes grammatically incorrect/factually incorrect reviews on a blog, it provides good humour.
The only way to NOT write a review is to give too little information for the reader to get something from it.
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Hi,
I follow Roger Ebert’s choice of movies. Over time i have seen that he likes the movie i likes. So if he recommends one, I watch it.
I dont watch movies Taran Adarsh recommends by the same logid.
By no way do I suggest Taran Adarsh is a bad reviewer. He caters to a group of people who like movies taran likes. Thats all. No good reviewer, bad reviewer.
If a guy writes grammatically incorrect reviews in newspaper, he is going to get sacked. We should not worry about it. If a guy writes grammatically incorrect/factually incorrect reviews on a blog, it provides good humour.
The only way to NOT write a review is to give too little information for the reader to get something from it… which is somethign very subjective too.
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Vijay KaNNA,
Un peru Vijaya irundha enna Ajaya iirundha ennkenna? Ana inga vandhu sound mattum uttupora paru athu eppadi irukuna, carla pogumpothu cycle karan koruka vanthutana avana antha 4 illa 8 keta varthayila kathra madhiri iruku. Carkaran sound votalum seri vodatum seri cycle karanuku entha pathipum illa. car karanuku thaan BP egurum. athu madhiri thaan iruku nee sound odurathu. ethayoo pathu etho koracha [bow..bow] madhiri iruku nee sound vodrathu.
Naan pothitoporathu irukattum, nee konjam adangu apprum mathavana sollu. Oru..peruaddress illadavanku ellam bathil solla vendiruku paru athuthaan bad timegradhu..
unnoda pathileya theriyudhu nee coola illengrathu.. Ethavadhu hospitalku poye syrenge ethukikoo.. apprum vanthu mela sonna madhiri sound vodu..
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Yo !! Yo !! guys. It’s getting personal here. Not on me but on you guys. Finally it ended up as as a saying, ” How not to comment”.
Narsi / Vijay, rendu perum sendhu enakku oru $10 check anupungapaa. illana oru TIS CD anuppi vaiyunga dudes !!
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Yes Guru .. I too read the review and wanted to post somethng on my blog rgding the same scolding nicely tht review guy. But u did a better job. che How can they mix caste and a media thts for entertainment. Enakkum edho pudusa yosikka theriyumnu ezhudhina madhiri irundhudhu … First of all namba countryla ovvoru castela irukkura sila rulesaa sariya purinjukkave theriyadhu neraya perukku .. adhunaala thaan neraya conflictsum vandhudhu … atleast now, ppl shud strt thnking why such rules are they and how they shud be interpreted and give respect yo each others rules and live together happily. Instead ppl shouldn’t act so superior abt each one’s caste and look for a chance to hurt others. Konjumavadhu yosikkanum Tsunami/Floods madhiri natural camalamity edhana perusa vandha ellame appuram ore inam thaan ‘Dead Bodies’ .. thr is no She/He … only ‘It’ .. che ean idhu yaarume puriyama irukkura varaikkum onan sandhioshama irukkanumnu nenaikkarahdu illa … oops sy irundha kovam ellathyaum unga blog moolama kottittein.
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Crazy mohan , kamal , sujatha, ananda vikatan madan etc etc are all part of a combo and all have something in common and praise each other without any reason. whatz that ? I need’nt say
Hollywood, Bollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood everywhere good movies run well. But in kollywood alone, good movies (movies acted by kamal alone ) don’t run well. thatz what these guys always say , write & fool the public.
But public can’t be cheated. They can always differentiate between the real and cunning ? They can always differentiate a intellectual, an actor and cunning school dropout hald baked self acclaimed intellectual.
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In america, whites fought war against whites for blacks freedom. Great
But in india, the so called intellectual caste were not even bothered about the evils of caste system and were just sitting and watching what would happen next ? So no alternative for the downtrodden. Bash who ever is good or bad from the so called intellectual caste.
thatz the punishment for keeping quiet & eating stomach full when people around are suffering from caste system.
the biggest blow is these intellectual caste lost their respect in their respective natives.
whatz the use sitting & earning in america when people in the native dont even bother whether they sit or stand or jit?
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again with raghu, we are getting into personal bashing. probably katz would handle that !! its specially posted for him.
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fact is fact and truth is truth. no personal bashing .
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once again i want to stay away from all of this, but then shortsighted people always bring me back in!!!
raghu,
i am sure the public can’t be cheated and that is why they support intellectual actors such as dhanush and vijay and make their movies commercial successes. i would get into detail about this, but don’t feel like it for when you don’t know the difference between an intellectual and a self-acclaimed intellectual, there is no use arguing with you. you might as well become a chela of s. anand of outlookindia fame and make some money outta it!!
the next comment of yours though is something i have to reply to:
in america, whites did not fight for the black’s freedom. the blacks had to fight tooth and nail to even get the basic rights! don’t try to make this a caste issue. there are just as many downtrodden and poor people from the caste you are bashing as there are rich people from the caste you are trying to support. half of the ministers and public officials are from the caste you support and we definitely can see how much empathy and sympathy they have for their own ilk!!
how long are you people going to blame the origins of the caste system for the condition you live in presently?? it is like saying the british are to be blamed for the corruption that runs rampant amongst us today! and it is not that people from other castes including the caste you support don’t propagate the evils of caste system today! JADHI VOTE ANYBODY? it is easy to lay blame at other’s doors than to take responsibility for one’s actions, just like you do.
how many of the backward caste, whose children don’t study at all steal free and payment seats from the hands of even more deserving candidates be it forward or backward caste by using that caste system to their advantage? the intellectual caste as you call them being in the minority and having to bear the brunt of short sighted people like you cannot churn out miracles unless everyone falls in line and works as a team to affect change!
lesson # 1 is that by repeating the mistake of the past, things will never change. the caste system may have originated from the intellectual caste but it is being propagated by people like you. people who use caste as a means to provide education, as means to segregate people to the extent that it is being used as an excuse to object to titling of a movie. in fact, there a lot more inter-caste, inter-religion marriages in that very intellectual caste you blame as opposed to other caste you support.
and my friend, let me tell you something in case you didn’t know: the intellectual caste has not lost one bit of respect in its native. because respect stems from the heart and that respect cannot diminish. you are more used to the ponnadai pothufying respect and so that is why you shoot off such statements.
as for the last statement of yours, first see if the native that you claim doesnt care about the intellectual caste even cares a little bit about you sitting in the middle of it. because if it did, then you wouldn’t be griping over here like you did!!
IYENGARKATZ
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Lazygeek, I just replied to Narasi in his own style thats all ๐
If sixapart sends you everything then you dont need to ask me about my details everytime, isnt it? ๐
Anyways, I am finding it amusing that some people here (I am not sure if you are included in that) expect everyone posting in this blog to have their address,jaadhagam and other personal details ready to flash. idhu enna logic? illaatti comments post paNNa koodadha? Come to think of it, I need’nt have even used my name everytime to post my comments here.I guess as long as someone comes and posts “Hey! great blog dude” they dont need to reveal anything about themselves. But even if there is any minimal disagreement with the blogger then that person has to reveal all his personal details, if not he doesnt have any business posting such comments ๐
” wherever you post from, if i see arguing for the sake of i would react the same way. ”
Like you would take a general comment personally and then get all hot and defensive over it? :-)Come on,man.Now you are the one who is getting all touchy. Arguing for the sake of arguing- is subjective. I remember even last time some other blogger who agreed with me regarding some of my comments that I made on your Shining review. I laid it all threadbare, what I honestly felt.I dont post my comments in all your blogs, only selected issues about which I feel strongly and you know that ’cause you seem to be anticipating my comments.
And even if you really thought that I was just a nuisance maker or dont have anything sensible to say you wouldnt be responding to my comments every time. You would have ignored or blocked me off.why would you be arguing with me just for argument sake, huh?
Feel free to not respond if my points dont make sense. But if any sort of diagreement cannot be expressed in the comments section, then it should be restricted only to a select group of fellow-bloggers, friends or vakkaaLaththaans like Narasi ๐
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Lazy wrote
// illana oru TIS CD anuppi vaiyunga dudes !! //
still didnt get your hands on a TiS CD ?? maybe you should take up the offer made to you some time back to mail you a complimentary CD :-))…
if you did get your TiS CD then eagerly waiting for you thots on the album…
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Vijay,
Its only after you posted a comment, I meant is as way to start my comment(i was awaiting you comment). its like saying,”vanga sir vanga. ungala thaan ezthiparthundu irundhom” in a nakkal tone. You seem to have taken it seriously. its not true.
when a post is being commented on, I make sure that the important comments are answered without a miss. So you posting a bashing comment is welcome. until few months back, you don’t even need to fillup an email address here to comment. its because of a comment spam, i introduced it. the idea is to make a democratic environment.
and Narasi isn’t fighting a case here for me. just like how you commented for a post, he posted a comment on your comment. by you calling him taking sides, you are trying to create a holy ring around your head.
by now way i’m offended nor i tried to offend anybody posting here. keep going and comeback to comment.
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“So you posting a bashing comment is welcome”
LG, I didnt post any comment bashing any one. Thats been my point. No point in taking even small disagreements personally. If expressing a disagreement by me is being as intrepreted as “sound vidardhu” etc. by Narasi (to which you didnt respond and I assume you agreed with him silently) then his comment can be interpreted as (unnecessary) vakkaaLathu by me, isnt it? How do I get a holy ring because of that?
By the way, my name is indeed Vijay. I dont bother to fill any email addresses nor do I see the need to publish my birth certificate here as a proof of my name ๐ I dont know what else Narasi wants to know about me. Isnt a name enough to post an opinion here?
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You said: “With blogging becoming an enabling device for reviewers of all sorts, movie reviewers were also born. A few years later after blogging kick started, you could spot only a few gems here and there. Many of them are just re-telling of the story, sub-standard and completely clueless about the grammar of reviews. They are silly, sloppy and irritating. But these are bound to happen. I am going to support them.”
Lazy! er… if you wanted to support them, maybe u shdn’t have said all those mean things urself… ๐
After all, it’s just their opinions. just like we have ours. who are we to judge reviews now? review critics?? we have enuff to anonymous sons of anonymous fathers doing that anyway… ๐
But I totally agree and endorse your point. Bloggers shd speak their mind, nobody in blogdom gives a sh*t (u don’t allow the word sh*t here?) abt grammar or vocabulary. they shd write what they feel cuz public opinion matters. the voice of the people is important cuz they are the ones who decide the fate of the film.
Look at how Anniyan has proved me, u and a whole lot of us critics wrong! ๐ It was housefull even last nite and my colleague loved it!
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