Bollywood boulevard

Other filmmakers have other ways of reacting to adverse reviews. Like direct attack. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is alleged to have smacked one leading critic after reading a particularly diabolical critique of his film. To quote an incident from my own diary, filmmaker Tanuja Chandra went on television and launched into a bitter diatribe against yours truly in response to a particularly harsh review of her last film, Yeh Zindagi Ka Safar. Insisting that the review wasn’t to be taken seriously as the critic was ‘‘out of his mind’’, Ms Chandra encouraged movie-goers to embrace her picture. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. The film was declared a complete washout in less than a week after its release, and the filmmaker received much flak for the totally insensitive manner in which she tackled the highly sensitive subject of rape and its repercussions.

The least tactful ones employ the most tactless approaches. Raj Kanwar sends a death threat when you savage his Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke, Satish Kaushik says critics aren’t ‘‘mature’’ enough to understand his abysmal Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai, and Vashu Bhagnani insists that critics attacked Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein and Deewanapan (both insufferable films, also box-office disasters) for personal reasons.

To think that these are the same guys who talk about taking criticism in their stride. The same guys who say filmmaking is a roller-coaster ride where you sometimes go wrong and you sometimes go right. The same fellows who say adverse criticism can’t put a good film down.

Credit then must go to the guys who really do take criticism in their stride. And the one name that comes to mind here is Karan Johar. Amidst the hoards of mostly positive reviews for his box-office smash, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, there were at least a handful of reviews that knocked Johar’s star-studded opus, and dubbed it a trite family weepie. No threats, no rude SMS messages, no nasty comments, nothing. As Johar has gone on to explain since: ‘‘My film has spoken for itself. Not only did it make money, it also seems to have touched many hearts. What’s a few bad reviews compared to that?’’