DINESH RAHEJA meets the force behind two of the most scathing film review groups on FB.
My take after seeing the film Venom is that I like caramelized popcorn.” A Facebook reader in Mera Walla Review. “Carving the movie’s name into your infant’s chest with a sword (i-n-f-e-c-t-i-o-n alert) is standard protocol in Mard.” Facebook reader Aniket Ghatnekar in I Love Trashy Hindi Movies.
While browsing through Facebook, I came across two interesting cinema-centric groups — Mera Walla Review and I Love Trashy Hindi Movies. The reviews in Mera Walla Review were honest, even scathing, at times; and the selection of trashy scenes/films in I Love Trashy Hindi Movies drew a smile and sometimes a chuckle.
Intrigued by the rise of new voices and opinions occasioned by the ascent of social media, I decided to find out the faces behind these pages to find out what prompted them to start these (ad)ventures and the reason behind their burgeoning following.
Anuraadha Tewari, writer-director and curator of film festivals, says, “Mera Walla Review started out of sheer boredom! It was the eve of Valentine’s Day, 2009, and I had just watched a singularly bad film. As a lark, I started this group on Facebook. I had about 100 members in a matter of minutes!”
I Love Trashy Hindi Movies was initiated in July 2007 by Soumava Sengupta (44), Shome to friends, an MBA. Shome says, “The group was started between friends — Rajat, Abhay, Vatsa and I — who would often use filmy references or reminisce about the B-grade horror movies and potboilers from the 80s. The more obscure the reference, the more fun it was. So, the page was started essentially for giggles; a forum to share scenes, posters, dialogues etc. We invited our friends; they invited theirs… and before we knew it, there were people saying how much they loved trashy movies.”
Anuraadha didn’t set out to be a critic. But friends often discussed films with her and liked her candid opinions. She divulges, “My impromptu stand-up acts at parties were around my ‘narration’ of a film. I just thought it would be fun to express it on a non-public platform that allows us informality and an ‘anything goes’ vibe, keeping the love for cinema in focus.”
The ardent cineaste was also prompted to start the group because,“That particular year I was disappointed with the cinema and the critique of it. People seemed to be able to predict which publication would give how many stars. I thought as a technician I may be able to point out the finer details of a film but frankly it didn’t start with a crusade in mind.”
Shome defines a trashy movie as one that is so bad that it’s really good. “White shoes, strange dialogue by villains, weeping moms, catchphrases …” these are the common examples he cites. Shome’s favourite trashy movies include Clerk (it heads the list), Gunda, Maqsad, Masterji, Muddat and also what he imaginatively dubs as the ‘Mithun Ooty factory movies’.
However, he adds, “Today, when I look back, the group has become much more. There have been discussions around metaphors in Hindi movies, about its archetypes, history, rare gems, and members have written superb articles, besides of course the occasional poking fun at stars.”
He shares, “The page has 11,776 members. Around 55 percent of them view, comment or like posts on a daily basis, making it a high engagement page. A fourth of the members are women so it is not an All Boys Club either. Most of the members are in the age group of 25-44, and are working individuals rather than students and college goers.”
Auraadha has dubbed her closed group as a Gaaon (village) and she is the sole Admin or as she quips, ‘The Mukhiya’. She says, “I let it be as popular as I want it to be. There was a time I started getting calls for press screenings because people thought I was a self-launched critic! The Group now has about 5000 odd members who are screened personally by me.”
She takes pride in the fact that she has some serious talent among her informal reviewers and they have a fan following of their own thanks to MWR. “Our biggest star gaaonwallas are Anshu Shrivastava from Manila, Vandana Kumar a French teacher from Delhi, Sharib Raza who is a producer and owns a studio in Mumbai, Sandeep Nair who works for Anand L. Rai, Minnie Gupta and many more who keep the ongoings lively, fiery and truly cinema loving. Amongst the professional critics, we have Gayatri Gauri, Bobby Sing and Vishal Verma.”
The film fraternity is also part of these groups but according to Anuraadha, “They don’t comment or discuss, they just read silently.” Shome says, “Jitesh Pillai (the editor of a film magazine) used to write in earlier. We had Farhan Akhtar commenting many years ago. Divya Solgama, a regular contributor, is quite a mainstream reviewer of movies.”
When people cross the Rubicon line, Anuraadha assumes the role of ‘Delete Kumar’. She admits, “Passions rise very high and things either get political or personal and I often have to step in with ‘orders’ that go out as the ‘Czarina’ or I simply delete threads. But at the end of the day, it is a place for some really good, heartfelt discussions and I learn so much everyday as a storyteller.”
Shome prefers to go democratic and lets the group self-regulate. “A funny song from a movie or a piece of rank bad acting might be deemed to be trashy but if it doesn’t have the potential to become part of the pop culture, then it’s just not relevant,” he signs off.