By Vinod Mirani
Mumbai, Jan 8 (IANS): Film critics too can have a history. Really? Of course they do and it is a long one. Not surprisingly, it is a chequered history with mostly grey shades.
Once upon a time, this was entirely a print media domain. There were some popular critics who people followed and believed but not enough to spend on a film. The genuine critics left their mark on the reviews they wrote. The print media does not enjoy the privilege alone anymore.
Now we have online critics and FM radio critics. Initially, these online critics wrote for an established portal, but, soon,some realised that they need not belong or be answerable to an editor. The Net gives one all kinds of freedom. Some decided to start their own blogs or video reviews.
Thanks to social media, these online critics started gaining mileage, so much so that a few of them have a following of more than the circulation of some print media publications!
There are a few online, independent film critics who enjoy hits in some lakhs. This one who goes by the name Deeksha Sharma has as many as 34.4 lakh followers; KRK, the Dubai-based film producer-turned-online film critic, has 11.7 lakh followers, while the other two, Palat Tera Dhayn and Suraj Kumar, both have over 7.2 lakh followers. Don’t think any official media critic enjoys this kind of numbers, not even the so called trade experts.
Now, that is what is called ‘The times are a-changing’.
Film reviews have always been about a quid pro…
