Introduction:
Why I Am A Critic
By Mayank Shekhar (India)

There is a lesser known Hindi saying of rural India that suggests that a poor man's wife is the sister-in-law of the street. The refrain couldn't hold truer for Indians and their cinema. It roughly means that on certain subjects, anyone can pass off his familiarity for expertise.

For decades, movies in India have been the only genuine source of mass entertainment, besides the odd One Day International matches the Indian cricket team plays against about seven countries in the world that take the sport seriously.

To risk an exaggeration, it is films alone, with music as its backbone, which at once divides and unites this nation. Almost every argumentative Indian is a movie-buff and by association a movie-critic. You may not wish this for a job that pays your bills here. There are as many critics of critics as well.

The country talks in over 1,500 mother-tongues, of which 22 are recognised as official languages. This explains why Indian produces the maximum number of films in the world. There are a half-a-dozen major film production centres. Bombay still is the movie-capital, and its films the pop-culture for over a billion people of nearly opposite economic and social classes, and equally different moral and cultural values.

It is harder to satisfy everyone as a filmmaker in such a complex country. It is almost as hard to be a film-critic, when week after week the criticism of the diverse works ranges from humour writing to serious commentary. I enjoy both.

Despite people's undying love for films, film criticism in India is still perceived as a low-brow form of report-card writing where the reviewer predicts what the audiences may like (or not like), and why. Criticism is rarely seen as an act of creation by itself.

Over the past few years the urban English language press, motivated by an increase in their readership figures, has largely moved from reporting on issues of public-interest to areas the public is interested in, namely celebrity-news, gossip and entertainment.

Given I know that people voraciously read about movies, I try to use cinema as a starting point in my columns and weekly-reviews to comment on personal causes and social and political concerns that worry me as a writer and citizen. Cinema-writing allows you that breadth. This is why I got into it after training in economics from Delhi University's St Stephen's College and moving to Bombay. It's been almost seven years, of fairly wide public response, brickbats and journalism awards. So far, I love this game. 

Mayank Shekhar

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