deciphering success in film

Those who can, do. Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach film criticism. Okay, maybe that joke is a bit distasteful (actually, not even close). Frankly, if you have an overpaid, overprotected, cushy desk job writing pretentious non sequiturs that you would like for me to call a movie review, then your moral qualms on my humour are unwelcome.

Are there bad movies? Sure, yes, I will grant this premise. But would I ever go so far as to take a film critic's word for it? Yeah, it's about up there with my astrologer's readings and tarot card specialist. No, I refuse to accept that film criticism as it is taught today holds any utility or meaning whatsoever. Can you study film? Yes, of course you can study film through many broad academic lenses, not nearly limited to technique, skill, or meaning.

But what film journalism and reviews and academic essays on film have become now are either these intellectually regressive, hagiographic puff-pieces funded by the world of PR campaigns, spin doctors, and boot-licking media hounds, or alternatively, monumentally convoluted splices of academic semantics, meant to disguise in its ambiguous phrasing any original thought that the author has so challengingly managed to procure.

Because the truth of the matter is, we simply don't think critically anymore. We delegate that to the higher-ups, to anybody with an agenda to peddle. Its confounding that film critics hold this much influence to shape the narrative. Especially when most of them are paid shills, creatively incapable of greatness. Awards pushes, cozying up to producers and voters, for your considerations; cinema isn't a popularity contest. Denigrating culture and art to gradations by lesser beings is farcical.

Yes, I am presently infuriated that All We Imagine As Light was not nominated for anything at the oscars. Yes, I am confounded that something as mind-numbing and shallow as Wicked was. No, awards don't hold weight. But what a decision such as this symbolises, is the foretold diminishing virtuosity in how we perceive and engage with culture and cinema.

With reflection, maybe this outburst will read to me as prejudiced and nationalist (it won't, I know I'm right). But Indian cinema can and will pave the way to a brighter future. Just take a look at the aforementioned, All We Imagine As Light. Paatal Lok. While We Watched. It's inevitable that we'll stumble and fall along the way. But I know we'll pick ourselves up and keep treading the path of the righteous. That's what success is. The ability to walk the journey.