MUMBAI: On Wednesday afternoon, critic Udita Jhunjhunwala, was missing from the press screening of Himesh Reshammiya’s Radio. She did not go to the next day’s show of Paa either. The last review she did for DNA, the daily newspaper, was for Kurbaan.
This is not to suggest that the less-than-enthusiastic review of Kurbaan had anything to do with the exit of Udita from DNA. The reasons can only be explained by the newspaper.The upright, well-reasoned Udita has in the last seven years I have known her done her job with more than diligence. Before that she was with Hindustan Times and earlier at Mid-Day where she first made her mark as a forthright reviewer.
Last week,she had phoned up the DNA desk to inform them of the number of reviews she would be mailing in. She was merely told her that her services were no longer needed. In her place Taran Adarsh would be doing the Hindi film reviews, presumably because he also does the TV shows for ETC channel, a subsidiary of Zee which has major stakes in the DNA newspaper.
Normally in another part of the world, a critic’s cavalier axing would send up a chorus of protest, as much from his or her colleagues as from the readers. Case in point: Pauline Kael’s sack from McCall’s because of her negative review of The Sound of Music. Alas, such incidents are not considered worth remarking upon in our stratosphere. Neither is there a semblance of solidarity among the film reviewing community. Whenever any of us have been ‘attacked’ in print or in other media by the film fraternity, a murmur goes up that we should band together and protest. Sadly, it remains at that level – a mumur.
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If her bad review of Kurbaan, and K Johar pulling strings had anything to do with this, then K Jo goes down in my estimation - AND BY A LOT! The critics do their job, they should not be messed with.
ReplyDeleteRaja sen on twitter -
ReplyDeleteAnd FYI, about this whole Udita Jhunjhunwala thing.. you know what? It happens. I mean she's a sweet person and all, but papers do stuff.
Khalid's doing a kneejerk thing in reaction to all that's happened to him, and I agree with his column 100%, but you're missing his point.
Udita was *not* fired because she slagged Kurbaan off. If that was the paper's policy, they wouldn't have printed her column.
The paper's made a 'strategic decision' to use BollywoodHungama as a partner. Hence Taran's reviews. It's as simple as that.
That's what Khalid said too. Stop blaming @kjohar25. Stop buying the paper if you want, but hey. People get fired, it happens. To us all.
All I can say is that I've been really lucky to work with great people at Rediff and other publications who've never once censored me.
Rediff had strategic marketing partnerships with movies and they never stopped me from ripping those films apart. Never. No toning down.
I've slashed at many a movie and many a filmmaker, and many have called and complained (and abused) but Rediff has always stood by me.
Am I lucky? Yes, sure. But I think if you stand by yourself without compromising, you find a place that does the same. Good luck, Udita.
Pardesi - You can bring K Jo up back!!! :)
ReplyDeleteNice - thanks Cauli - and thank god K Jo is not at the bottom of this.
ReplyDelete