I gave a very bad review to the Tamil movie "Achchamundu Achchamundu" and subsequently got spit on by 2 anonymous users of the internet who thought the movie was good. Their comments actually got me wondering as to why is it that sometimes we like a movie and sometimes we do not.
Many a times we find that a movie has received rave reviews and we rush to the theatres but we end up hating the movie. At other times we read dumb movie reviews and then find that the movie was really good.
In fact, the tamil movie which I mentioned in the below post - on hind sight - was not very bad. It is just that I was expecting a "thriller" - one which keeps me on the edge of my seat at all times - but the movie did not do that - and subsequently I failed to see some of the good aspects of the movie - such as , no thoppulla pambaram stuff, very naturally taken movie, atleast some concept which is not again and again based on puppy love, no "there has to be 5 song sequences and hence I am force fitting a dream song when the hero sees the heroine for the first time" nonsense etc. Movie was actually a matured, soft and easy on the brain one.
It was then that I realized that a movie gets a bad/good review based on the expectation you had from the movie before you saw it. If a lot of people say it is a "great" movie, then your expectation is already raised. So if the movie is not downright legendarily awesome, you think "Ah well..it was ok". However, the moment someone gives a movie a bad review and then you watch it , your expectations are already lowered, and then you find that the movie was "ok", but then its all relative. From a bad -> ok, you tend to think that the movie was actually good.
This has happened to me many a times. I saw this movie "Thenkasipattanam" in tamizh. First time I saw it I laughed so hard, saliva came out of my nose. I recommended it strongly to all my family members, relatives etc. I gave such rave reviews which made them think it was the best movie ever. But after they saw the movie they literally scolded me. They were sorely disappointed :(...
I guess it is because I had raised their expectation so much - that the movie sucked.
I guess, in order to enjoy/appreciate a movie with the right spirit, one should go and watch the movie first and then read the reviews next and then compare and contrast. The moment we read some review, there is a chance we get biased.
That apart, another reason why we sometimes like or dislike a movie is because we might not be in the right mood to appreciate it. If you watch it after a tough day at office, or when you are really sad about something, or when you are busy thinking about something else, even a "Titanic" would seem worser than "Thali Katha Kali Amman". However, when you are in the right mood, and watching a movie with the right crowd, even a "Yarukku Yar Stepni" will seem like "Michael Madana Kama Rajan"...
So there it goes, ... the perception of a movie is largely dependant on
1) Expectation
2) Mood
That said -> in spite of the expectation/mood - a movie has to also be good :)...a director cannot simply get away with a movie like "Boom" or "Kambakht Ishq" hoping for all the audience to come with a bad expectation and great mood. :)...
Until the next post
ciao
yours truly
2 comments:
Even I would have given a similar review. It depends why you review movies. Are you writing your thoughts or are you writing for others to know about the movie? If it is the former we need not bother about expectation, mood etc as the outcome is what you thought about the movie at the end of it. But if it is the latter then a level of unbiasedness is required for which you need to analyze so much. But end of the day most reviews are about personal opinions and therefore you need not care about what comments have to say.
this is first stage of knowing about movies. To me, a good movie should linger in the mind even after watching it. if we go with open mind, lot of Movies captures. this depends on your current state. if u r so stressed out, then Rajini movie would look good. If we have lot of time doing what we want ( in a happy state ), Selva Raghavan's movie like 7G Rainbow colony, tares the heart. it depends on open mindedness ( which mostly comes only if current state is happy and satisfying ).
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