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Critique of the critics :|

OK, notwithstanding the immense, mostly unfounded criticism by my friends in college, I thought I had to make this (rather long) point :) . Has the cinematography hit such a stunning pinnacle that the audience comes to expect similar performances from something like the white wall face of Ash? Surely, histrionics is the hinge to good Cinema, but can’t we – just for the sake of a brilliant story-teller agree to look over the expressionless and mind-numbing performances?!

In all the brouhaha about ‘confused script’, ‘lame story-telling’, ‘expected ending’- have we chosen to forget what to expect and what to neglect when it comes to appreciating cinema. And I call it cinema and not a movie. You can expect a movie to have sudden twists, unexpected endings, and all the now-rather-cliched tricks of the trade. But Good Cinema – well it deals with the simplest of plots and what is crucial here is the way it is narrated. I agree there were blotches in the screenplay that could have been avoided, but the very manner in which the story unfolds and most importantly, the symbolism of every scene is so beautifully depicted. Has the Indian audience become so used to blatant black and white portrayal of emotions,characters and scenes that coded symbolisms refuse to make sense?!

‘There is nothing novel the viewers can expect’. I can only LOL, ROFL and what not at this ridiculous statement that seems to echo a common Indian-cine-going audience sentiment. The very perspective of the Ramayan is novel. Again, absolutely no recognition of this is even mentioned in the so called noted reviews. The Gray areas of Good and Bad are for one of the first times being carried on in Bollywood and what the Audience cries for is more melodrama in a more sophisticated and poignant manner.

Finally, all I can say is that for reviewers who think that Govinda’s acceptably good performance was the high point of the movie, it only exposes the shallow interpretation of a Masterpiece.

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