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10 years of Raja Sen: His 10 Best Reviewed Films


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ragavendra
85 crores in 12 days it is officially declared
by ragavendra on Jun 05, 2014 07:12 PM

mr sen u have given 1 star kochadaiyaan and the result is smash hit our ever green superstar of india even in is puppet form will make wonders That is Rajinikanth

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Adi
Inspiring
by Adi on Jun 03, 2014 09:41 PM  | Hide replies

Over the years I loved reading the reviews. I loved ones where Raja Sen was critical more than the ones where he approved simply because he articulated my exasperated feelings perfectly.

What I have found inspiring, however is not the quality of reviews or the eloquence, but rather the stubbornness with which he stuck to his guns despite overwhelming criticism from an anti-intellectual audience whose only expectation from a review is a binary label of "Timepass" or "Not timepass". Thank you for trying to teach the purposefully uneducated audience that films as an art form have many dimensions and can be analyzed on each level to distinguish the good ones from the bad.

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vishnu vijayan
Re: Inspiring
by vishnu vijayan on Jun 04, 2014 10:08 AM
I strongly disagree with your comments about Raja Sen and about the so called "anti intellectual audience" (AIA) It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films. If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review. It is the AIA which needs the assistance of a reviewer to watch movies which might suit his liking. Raja Sen has failed in all that fronts. First of all he is not in sync with the audience and looks at films more from a documentary angle rather than entertainment. Raja neither caters to the masses nor to the classes. The language which Raja Sen uses for his reviews warrants a dictionary on hand. Are we reading The Hindu newspaper or a film review? It is some of the close friends & well wishers of Raja Sen (Like you)who praise a very sub standard reviewer sky high. A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome. If a reviewer predicts one result and the film fares differently then it is the failure of the reviewer. It is easy to put the blame on AIA and get away but it is high time Raja Sen does a deep introspection and change his course for future reviews. Lets have an healthy discussion on this topic and I can counter your argument with facts & figures

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Adi
Re: Re: Inspiring
by Adi on Jun 04, 2014 07:06 PM
There are a lot of assumptions you made in your comment.

>>> It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films

So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve.

>>>> If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review.

False. I am an engineer. I might be intelligent but I do not know much about film analysis - therefore I need someone to tell me how to analyze the film. Does not mean I will agree with him.

You say he is not in sync with the audience. It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI. How do you say whose fault is that? Can the audience not rise to his level?

What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English. Instead of trying to learn to be a better reader and improve you want him to write simpler? What attitude is that? If your kid says I want books to be simpler what will you say? Change the books or start reading better????

I am not his friend. Why get personal?

>>> A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome.

That is a definition issue here. In my opinion, a reviewer's job is not to predict the outcome but to look at the film and see if it has flaws. Whether it is made with integrity (instead of copying others), made tastefully (instead of illogical mish mash together) and how does it look overall - entertainment wise and technique wise.


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vishnu vijayan
Re: Re: Re: Inspiring
by vishnu vijayan on Jun 05, 2014 12:44 PM
My comments to ur reply ** So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve. ** We are watching a movie for entertainment and we as audience are not looking at improvements. Spectator of a cricket match is not expected to improve their game by watching a good match… Its entertainment. AIA watches movies not for improvement but for entertainment. By a weak review it could influence AIA movie goer who otherwise would have watched & enjoyed the movie.
**It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI ** It seems you have made a wrong assumption that Raja Sen is a High Borw. Is there any yard for measurement of his high brow. Just because a person writes a review for 10 years does not make him high brow. You have wrongly assumed that Raja Sen is High Brow.
**What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English** As AIA I don’t expect to read film reviews with a dictionary on hand. Also I don’t expect my child to improve vocabulary by reading films reviews. There are other structured ways by which a child improves vocabulary. By using complex grammars AIA loses interest in reading reviews and would ignore reading further and the purpose of writing a review is lost.
**I am not his friend. Why get personal?**I stand corrected. **a reviewer's job is not to predict the outcome but to look at the film and see if it has flaws** This your definition for a film reviewer and again it is your own assumption that a film reviewer has to find fault i

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Pratap Sharma
Re: Re: Re: Inspiring
by Pratap Sharma on Jun 06, 2014 12:35 AM
No point arguing here Adi. The Indian audience isn't mature enough to deserve a critic like Raja Sen. You can't blame them either because movies have never been considered anything more than just escapist fare. How can you expect them to read a serious review then. To them it's either the movie is their money's worth or it's not. And it's not cheap watching a movie these days. For you however, I would suggest visiting Baradwaj Rangan's blog if you haven't already. Not only is he a critic in Raja Sen's league but his readers too are a bunch you can have intelligent discussions with. Just me 2 cents.

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vishnu vijayan
Re: Re: Re: Re: Inspiring
by vishnu vijayan on Jun 08, 2014 11:31 AM
Dear Pratap, audience in India and world over have only few criteria for watching movies i.e entertainment, entertainment, entertainment etc.. Entertainment for some could be in the form of an intellectual movie for some it could be masala movie and for some it could be science fiction, documentary etc. Good reviewer is one who can appreciate each genre of movies and gives his evaluation highlighting the positives & negatives. If Raja Sen is a super intelligent reviewer then why was he not a successful film maker?? I can understand if Raju Hirani or Manirathnam does a film review then one cannot question their credibility but for a below reviewer like Raja Sen he does not deserve any justification. You can go on and on defending Raja Sen but the simple fact is that he is below par, sub substandard and a complete misfit as a reviewer. I wonder why Rediff is still having him on board. may be he is one of the stake holders in Rediff??

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Pratap Sharma
Re: Re: Re: Inspiring
by Pratap Sharma on Jun 06, 2014 12:36 AM
No point arguing here Adi. The Indian audience isn't mature enough to deserve a critic like Raja Sen. You can't blame them either because movies have never been considered anything more than just escapist fare. How can you expect them to read a serious review then. To them it's either the movie is their money's worth or it's not. And it's not cheap watching a movie these days. For you however, I would suggest visiting Baradwaj Rangan's blog if you haven't already. Not only is he a critic in Raja Sen's league but his readers too are a bunch you can have intelligent discussions with. Just me 2 cents.

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Pratap Sharma
Re: Re: Re: Inspiring
by Pratap Sharma on Jun 06, 2014 12:36 AM
No point arguing here Adi. The Indian audience isn't mature enough to deserve a critic like Raja Sen. You can't blame them either because movies have never been considered anything more than just escapist fare. How can you expect them to read a serious review then. To them it's either the movie is their money's worth or it's not. And it's not cheap watching a movie these days. For you however, I would suggest visiting Baradwaj Rangan's blog if you haven't already. Not only is he a critic in Raja Sen's league but his readers too are a bunch you can have intelligent discussions with. Just me 2 cents.

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Adi
Re: Re: Inspiring
by Adi on Jun 04, 2014 07:06 PM
There are a lot of assumptions you made in your comment.

>>> It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films

So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve.

>>>> If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review.

False. I am an engineer. I might be intelligent but I do not know much about film analysis - therefore I need someone to tell me how to analyze the film. Does not mean I will agree with him.

You say he is not in sync with the audience. It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI. How do you say whose fault is that? Can the audience not rise to his level?

What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English. Instead of trying to learn to be a better reader and improve you want him to write simpler? What attitude is that? If your kid says I want books to be simpler what will you say? Change the books or start reading better????

I am not his friend. Why get personal?

>>> A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome.

That is a definition issue here. In my opinion, a reviewer's job is not to predict the outcome but to look at the film and see if it has flaws. Whether it is made with integrity (instead of copying others), made tastefully (instead of illogical mish mash together) and how does it look overall - entertainment wise and technique wise.


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Adi
Re: Re: Inspiring
by Adi on Jun 04, 2014 07:06 PM
There are a lot of assumptions you made in your comment.

>>> It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films

So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve.

>>>> If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review.

False. I am an engineer. I might be intelligent but I do not know much about film analysis - therefore I need someone to tell me how to analyze the film. Does not mean I will agree with him.

You say he is not in sync with the audience. It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI. How do you say whose fault is that? Can the audience not rise to his level?

What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English. Instead of trying to learn to be a better reader and improve you want him to write simpler? What attitude is that? If your kid says I want books to be simpler what will you say? Change the books or start reading better????

I am not his friend. Why get personal?

>>> A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome.

That is a definition issue here. In my opinion, a reviewer's job is not to predict the outcome but to look at the film and see if it has flaws. Whether it is made with integrity (instead of copying others), made tastefully (instead of illogical mish mash together) and how does it look overall - entertainment wise and technique wise.


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Adi
Re: Re: Inspiring
by Adi on Jun 04, 2014 07:08 PM
There are a lot of assumptions you made in your comment.

>>> It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films

So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve.

>>>> If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review.

False. I am an engineer. I might be intelligent but I do not know much about film analysis - therefore I need someone to tell me how to analyze the film. Does not mean I will agree with him.

You say he is not in sync with the audience. It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI. How do you say whose fault is that? Can the audience not rise to his level?

What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English. Instead of trying to learn to be a better reader and improve you want him to write simpler? What attitude is that? If your kid says I want books to be simpler what will you say? Change the books or start reading better????

I am not his friend. Why get personal?

>>> A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome.

That is a definition issue here. In my opinion, a reviewer's job is not to predict the outcome but to look at the film and see if it has flaws. Whether it is made with integrity (instead of copying others), made tastefully (instead of illogical mish mash together) and how does it look overall - entertainment wise and technique wise.


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Adi
Re: Re: Inspiring
by Adi on Jun 04, 2014 07:19 PM
There are a lot of assumptions you made in your comment.

>>> It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films

So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve.

>>>> If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review.

False. I am an engineer. I might be intelligent but I do not know much about film analysis - therefore I need someone to tell me how to analyze the film. Does not mean I will agree with him.

You say he is not in sync with the audience. It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI. How do you say whose fault is that? Can the audience not rise to his level?

What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English. Instead of trying to learn to be a better reader and improve you want him to write simpler? What attitude is that? If your kid says I want books to be simpler what will you say? Change the books or start reading better????

I am not his friend. Why get personal?

>>> A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome.

That is a definition issue here. In my opinion, a reviewer's job is not to predict the outcome but to look at the film and see if it has flaws. Whether it is made with integrity (instead of copying others), made tastefully (instead of illogical mish mash together) and how does it look overall - entertainment wise and technique wise.


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vishnu vijayan
Re: Re: Re: Inspiring
by vishnu vijayan on Jun 05, 2014 12:40 PM
Please find below point wise reply to your comments ** So? It does not mean they cannot try to improve. ** We are watching a movie for entertainment and we as audience are not looking at improvements. Watching a film is equivalent to watching a sport. Spectator of a cricket match is not expected to improve their game by watching a good match… Its entertainment. AIA watches movies not for improvement but for entertainment. By a weak review it could influence AIA movie goer who otherwise would have watched & enjoyed the movie.
**It could be because he is high-brow or the audience is AI ** It seems you have made a wrong assumption that Raja Sen is a High Borw. On what basis do u say that Raja Sen is high brow? Is there any yard for measurement of his high brow. Just because a person writes a review for 10 years does not make him high brow. You have wrongly assumed that Raja Sen is High Brow. So please correct your statement/ thinking.
**What is it with his ENGLISH comments? He writes good English** The problem with his language is that AIA fail to comprehend what he is trying to say by using jargons and difficult grammar. As AIA I don’t expect to read film reviews with a dictionary on hand. Also I don’t expect my child to improve vocabulary by reading films reviews. There are other structured ways by which a child improves vocabulary. By using complex grammars AIA loses interest in reading reviews and would ignore reading further and the purpose of writ

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vishnu vijayan
Re: Inspiring
by vishnu vijayan on Jun 04, 2014 10:09 AM
I strongly disagree with your comments about Raja Sen and about the so called "anti intellectual audience" (AIA) It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films. If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review. It is the AIA which needs the assistance of a reviewer to watch movies which might suit his liking. Raja Sen has failed in all that fronts. First of all he is not in sync with the audience and looks at films more from a documentary angle rather than entertainment. Raja neither caters to the masses nor to the classes. The language which Raja Sen uses for his reviews warrants a dictionary on hand. Are we reading The Hindu newspaper or a film review? It is some of the close friends & well wishers of Raja Sen (Like you)who praise a very sub standard reviewer sky high. A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome. If a reviewer predicts one result and the film fares differently then it is the failure of the reviewer. It is easy to put the blame on AIA and get away but it is high time Raja Sen does a deep introspection and change his course for future reviews. Lets have an healthy discussion on this topic and I can counter your argument with facts & figures

   Forward   |   Report abuse
vishnu vijayan
Re: Inspiring
by vishnu vijayan on Jun 04, 2014 10:10 AM
I strongly disagree with your comments about Raja Sen and about the so called "anti intellectual audience" (AIA) It is the AIA which constitute more than 95% of the total viewership of any films. If a person is so knowledgeable to understand about a movie he doesnt need to read a review. It is the AIA which needs the assistance of a reviewer to watch movies which might suit his liking. Raja Sen has failed in all that fronts. First of all he is not in sync with the audience and looks at films more from a documentary angle rather than entertainment. Raja neither caters to the masses nor to the classes. The language which Raja Sen uses for his reviews warrants a dictionary on hand. Are we reading The Hindu newspaper or a film review? It is some of the close friends & well wishers of Raja Sen (Like you)who praise a very sub standard reviewer sky high. A good reviewer is one who is able to feel the pulse of the audience and predict its outcome. If a reviewer predicts one result and the film fares differently then it is the failure of the reviewer. It is easy to put the blame on AIA and get away but it is high time Raja Sen does a deep introspection and change his course for future reviews. Lets have an healthy discussion on this topic and I can counter your argument with facts & figures

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Indraneel Mandal
Re: Re: Inspiring
by Indraneel Mandal on Jul 04, 2014 01:32 PM
@Adi & Pratap Its nice to now that at least there are some people who appreciate a good review as well as good writing. As both of you have pointed out, people who cannot appreciate what they have cannot be trusted to behave in any other way. Its like the front bench public in a seedy cinema hall - show them an English movie and they will only shout for the female actresses to take off their clothes and 'reveal'. Its pathetic. Luckily for us Raja and Rediff do not care. Here's to many more decades of good reviewing!

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raj
3 Idiots
by raj on Jun 03, 2014 01:26 PM

Where is 3 idiots.. If I remember correctly he gave 2* :-)

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pyarelal laxmikant
raja sen
by pyarelal laxmikant on Jun 03, 2014 12:51 PM  | Hide replies

a pain in his OwnAss

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Indraneel Mandal
Re: raja sen
by Indraneel Mandal on Jul 04, 2014 01:28 PM
@Pyare It is obvious who is experiencing the pain!

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bbc
Re: raja sen
by bbc on Jun 03, 2014 02:49 PM
this kooja sen an ah

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TOOLS BANGALORE
Raja sen
by TOOLS BANGALORE on Jun 03, 2014 12:36 PM  | Hide replies

Sometimes back ( do not Know exactly) a famous film critic has directed a movie and not even 10 people saw that.
It is easy to say something is good or Bad (based on their own perceptions) But it is very difficult to create.
people Like Raja sen who are intellectually strong can write only why something is not good or good but when it comes to creating originality they will not in the race

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Indraneel Mandal
Re: Raja sen
by Indraneel Mandal on Jul 04, 2014 01:34 PM
@Tool Can you stop being a tool and create something that we can appreciate? You can't even reveal your real name. Its so easy to sit and judge people.

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bbc
Re: Raja sen
by bbc on Jun 03, 2014 02:50 PM
he cant say whether its good or bad also correctly an ah to the core

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Naveen Chandran
Re: Raja sen
by Naveen Chandran on Jun 03, 2014 02:56 PM
Name of the movie is FIZA

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Indian
Re: Raja sen
by Indian on Jun 03, 2014 08:25 PM
Raja Sen himself directed a few films, and they tanked horribly on box office.

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