The recent comments against "lazy" film critics made by director Srikanth Nagothi of 'Month Of Madhu' must spark a debate in Telugu cinema. As per Nagothi, the laziness of film reviewers was at the root of his film being trashed. "They didn't care to analyze and understand the film. They wrapped up their reviews within 15 minutes," he lamented.
Leaving aside the quality of 'MOM', let's try to analyze what can be done to improve the quality of film reviews.
For one, early shows should become a practice. Premieres in Hollywood are held much in advance. As a result, the reviewers get ample time to understand the different aspects of a film. In Tollywood, early premieres/press shows are held only a day or two in advance. And even these are limited only to small and mid-range movies, that too only a select few ones. Biggies never have early shows.
Another idea could be for critics to adopt a new format for films that don't fit into the regular conventions/templates. 'MOM' is one of them. 'Care of Kancharapalem', 'Balagam', 'A: Ad Infinitum', 'Manu', and 'Mallesham' also come to mind. Such films can be exempted from being rated so that the readers can decide the rating for themselves depending on their individual preferences. For this to happen, the reviewer has to be intelligent enough to know what are the stand-out films, something most reviewers wouldn't be able to comprehend if a film is watched and reviewed on the same day.
