Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com
While in my college days in India, there was no internet, not much television except single channel that broadcast national news and propaganda of the ruling party. I don’t really remember being much of a TV watcher in my early and formative years. Movies and Cricket were the main avocation outside of finishing school as quickly as possible. I was good at school so whatever I did otherwise didn’t seem to bother my guardians. If you got good grades in school, whatever you did was just fine, which I think is true to this age and time. You have got to have a lot of energy to do well in school and hangout at the same time. I had plenty of it.
Since the early days I can remember I loved to watch movies. Simple and Indian masala and formula movies were always my favorite. My memories are full with Amitabh Bachchan movies still and all of us wearing huge bell bottom pants and sporting long hair. In those days following the latest trends in movies was just as normal as going to school. I didn’t have any exceptions to trending with the movies in my circle of friends and siblings. We all looked different but just about had the same style. I have a lot of memories in pictures which I shared, and to date many of my profile pictures are from those days showing the style of the time.
My love for time pass movies continues from school to college to more degrees and a life time of travel and work. Even today I love to watch movies, in any language I can find. I have never liked horror but thriller movies and even television is a source of relaxation and enjoyment. I have my own couch and a big screen with Netflix and Amazon Prime and a host of other channels that are at finger tips, and when at home by myself they have my attention. I really don’t mind watching by myself or with family and friends. Almost all Indian movies are just watching the couple of hours of long narration, song and dance, taking a single line story and twisting and turning it to a predicable ending is something I have never gotten tired of. Every once in a while there will be a twist in a new movie that probably will be with a surprise ending. I don't mind sticking to Indian movies, as I know what will be the end, but I will watch the entire movie. Sometimes I skip the songs for a break, or if I am watching on my own smart TV skip them. In theaters I will sit thru the end of the movie and enjoy the grandiose of the celluloid and appreciate the trouble that the makers went to bring it to the market.
I know times have changed and life and expectations have changed. I don’t believe the movie makers and their dreams have changed. The imagination (we have a lot of judges) is inclusive of the movie world. We have everything we need to read and see on the internet. The world travel (ignoring the current pandemic) is at an affordable price. The technology makes anything possible. It is inexpensive to create digital medium. The aspects of movie making that have skyrocketed are the fan base and paycheck of the lead actors. The audience acceptance of any movie while is as unpredictable as it has been from the beginning of time, it remains unpredictable.
Before I forget, I have to reiterate that I love cinema and television. My viewing habits have not evolved or changed. I enjoy watching the continued manipulation of a simple good versus evil story told with small variation, which is told thousands of times.
Before I vent my feeling on 100’s of reviewers including yours truly (I do write movie review on occasion) and the advent of internet as a primary medium for communications, the irony of reading them is upon a regular movie buff. I might not be able to watch something day one or week one but as with many movie buffs, I want to watch and enjoy the experience without bias. I don’t mind the reviews but they have become biased and sometimes terrible, and I even get the feeling if the person who wrote ever watched the movie. In any case the Telugu movie reviews have become terrible in representing the movie and its experience. For those who lived in the Chicago area for a while would remember Roger and Ebert, and their reviews of the new movies. In fact all the news papers had their expert reviewer’s ad they were quite true to the pulse of the general public. We don’t have that kind of sincerity in Telugu movie review critics. This is in special reference to publishing a review day one or before the public gets a chance to see the movie. I am not criticizing every review and every internet publication, but almost all the big movies seem to have their favorite critics, both writing very good and very bad analogy; both feeding to an individual actor by elevating or bashing. It’s a terrible exposure as public has these reviews available for free and the reviews instill the bias of the person who pens them: often for individual preference or bias. We can’t stop them from popping up as Internet is everywhere and we are on it 24/7/365 days.
I don’t have a solution, except making every effort to avoid reading them and talking to anyone about a movie. This is also terrible as sharing the anticipation of a new movie was always a part of the movie going experience. The difference in the days without internet was anticipation and excitement at least until you watched the movie. Nowadays it is the internet buzzing out the experience with someone writing what I really want to experience for myself. It’s a bummer.
My latest and very short review is here. I saw Radhe Shyam, released on 3/11/2022 which is the new Prabhas movie on the day of its release. I avoided the internet review or speaking to anyone. I saw the movie alone. To me it was no Amitabh Bachchan movie, but it was a Prabhas movie and it was worth my money. To validate my words, see it without prejudiced reviews and you will certainly agree with me.
Enjoy the movies and the experience of escaping into celluloid of a couple of hours. It costs little and will continue to show you life in color. At last any review of the movie by critics is that they have found your viewership to be worth something, so they will keep trying to influence your movie viewing habits. Even if you choose to view a review, just remember the movie is what we want to watch, and escape from reality life.
I will continue to enjoy the movies, all of them that I am able to watch. I will create my own review after I actually watch the movie, or the show. For now let me find the next movie to watch.
