South Central 59: Cinema, politics and the war on film critics

In this episode, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna discuss the organised hate campaigns against film reviewers in the country. The discussion spans themes including the communal profiling of actors and reviewers and delves into whether fan culture catalyses the polarisation of films based on nationalism, religion, and gender politics. Joining the hosts are acclaimed film critics Anna MM Vetticad and Sucharita Tyagi.

Dhanya begins the discussion by recalling how Sucharita’s review of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s controversial film Kabir Singh led to her becoming the subject of massive online harassment. 

“I have been reviewing for many years now, and I have noticed that before 2013 or 2014, the film fraternity has been responsive to me, irrespective of whether I have given a good or bad review. However, from 2013 onwards, fans and the entire online ecosystem became increasingly rabid, with the Modi era also making communalised pushback more pronounced. The response to the film became absolutely ugly after that. And as a woman critic, I was made aware, like never before, of my opinions, also as a minority identity professional in this ecosystem. I am now called a “rice bag Christian” or a “Christian, anti-Hindu commie”, says Anna.

Sucharita says two recent films for which she has received the worst trolling are Chhaava and Dhurandhar. 

“This is the first time I had to turn off comments under my YouTube reviews. The responses were hate-filled, personal and really ugly. I have a very small platform, which does not compare to the star power or resources of these films. So why does one video of mine make such a difference? Initially, the trolls are nameless and faceless, then the political trolls come, with accounts that reveal their political and religious leanings. The comments keep making us feel that this job itself is irrelevant and that doing film reviews is unimportant work. I am just trying to engage with art and culture, and if the audience is actively shutting opinion off, that is overwhelmingly sad,” Sucharita adds.

Pooja says that both the films Sucharita mentioned have a certain ideology – the former was accused of tweaking history, and the latter, of selling a jingoistic agenda. “Such films are also seen to be endorsed by Union ministers and sometimes even the PM. Does this impact the intensity of hate when a reviewer says they do not agree with such films?” she asks.

Sucharita says that propaganda has existed earlier also. “But even criticising those films was quite okay a decade ago. Now, it is not welcome, and such muzzling of freedom of expression is scary,” she notes.

All this and more. 

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Audio Timecodes 

00:00:00- Introduction 

00:01:46 - Headlines 

00:14:34- Film Review Backlash

01:23:27-  Recommendations 

References

The uneasy questions raised by Kerala man’s death after bus video

Bollywood’s dirty secret: Paid reviews that are killing the industry

Kerala: Amicus Curiae proposes 48-hour embargo on reviews by social media influencers

Chhaava Movie Review by Sucharita

Dhurandhar And The Dawn Of Hyper-masculine Hindi Cinema

The Rape of Avanthika

Recommendations 

Anna MM Vetticad

Partitions of the Heart

Avihitham

Holocaust Industry

Sucharita Tyagi

Die My Love

Marty Supreme

Pooja Prasanna

The New York Shooting That Defined an Era

The Palace of Illusions

Dhanya Rajedran

Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News

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Produced by Bhuvan Malik, edited by Jaseem Ali, written by Sukanya Shaji.

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