I know, you must have thought for a
moment that I was about to bore you by giving an insight into astrology… let me
assure you that I have no intention to bore myself along the way… anyway, by mentioning stars I mean stars
given by film critics. So, what makes a movie worth watching? Glittery stars
given by critics, or if you put it in another way, people just like us… it sure
helps us in saving some money when we decide to not watch a movie based on stars.
Then again our brains do full justice to encumber our opinions.
Most of the times we face a situation
wherein the movie is appreciated by critics but we end up not liking it or to
our surprise we might end up liking the movie that was not even considered by the critics at the first
place. We often observe that a movie at the end of the day is incarcerated to a
particular citizenry. Sometimes it is because of the certification given by
film board and sometimes the ratings given by the reviewer. There are movies
that were highly overrated and on the flipside highly underrated.
For instance, if you see the movie ‘The
Shawshank Redemption’ the ratings are lofty. Now, the movie was well received
in the 90s because our mate ‘Oscar’ here is doing a tremendous job in recognizing such movies but
if you agree with me the plot might not excite the current generation as much.
I don’t intend to criticize the back breaking work put in by numerous people
because you never know when the movies taken recently might lose their charm in
near future. There are movies that still live on like ‘Schindler’s list’, ‘The
Godfather’ and many more..
As mentioned earlier, there are also
movies that are underrated but have potential to change people’s mind. For
example the movies like ‘28 days’ in which Sandra Bullock who never ceases to
mesmerize us, once again spread her charm. This movie’s ratings are not that
lofty but a simple story wherein the protagonist is forced to check into a
rehab so that her life falls into place again, can be easily related to even in
this decade.
Jean-Luc Godard once said, “A story
should have beginning, middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.”
So, why should stars come in between?
Now, the “stars” mentioned here have
another face to it. I am talking about the actors who give life to the
characters created by the story teller. They become the face of a film. People
many a time go watch a film because their favorite actor is working in that
project. Just envisage a situation wherein you give in your 100% but at the end
of the day you are not recognized. Sadly, this envision has become a reality in
film industry. The same ‘stars’ are not recognized for their work. By going
with example, we can see that this year’s Oscar nominations led its way towards
controversy regarding lack of diversity. Many backlashed by putting their point
of view through ‘#OscarsSoWhite”
hash tag. It’s even more desolating when one person is appreciated and the
other one is not though they worked on the same project. Something similar
happened when actor Michael B. Jordan was not considered for a nomination whereas
his co-star Sylvester Stallone was nominated in the Supporting Actor category
for the movie ‘Creed’. Many other established people like actor Will Smith who
can be seen in the movie ‘Concussion’, director Ryan Coogler who directed the
movie ‘Creed’ fell prey to this controversy.
Coming to the other problem faced by the
industry, the female actors are often not appreciated enough for their equally
talented work in a particular movie. I am not talking about the awards or
critical appreciation but the compensation aspect. There is a huge gap that has
to be bridged. It is discrimination we as women are facing. It is anyway safe
to say that there are changes happening but it has to be accelerated. Tolerance
is the key destructor. Realizing and addressing the problem alone is not going
to work anymore, we have to fight back because these “stars” definitely matter.
- MS.
U. AKANSHA, BBM II Year
