The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic (TAIFC, 2012) is written by Anna MM
Vetticad, a New Delhi-based journalist. She has reported on various “beats” in her
two decades’ long career, though a larger chunk of it has been “entertainment”
journalism, mainly, writing and talking about Indian cinema.
TAIFC has its genesis
in a ‘New Year Resolution’ by the author: to watch all the Hindi films released
in the NCR in 2011. During that year, she encountered rude service staff, odd
movie timings, nearly empty halls, and sometimes drove to far-flung theatres only
to be un/pleasantly surprised. I had begun following her on Twitter
(@annavetticad) around the same time and, thus, was a witness to her brave
execution of this ‘Resolution’. I guess, she is the only person I know who
followed their ‘New Year Resolution’ until the end of the year and made good of
it!
The book is not a collection of reviews of the 121 movies that she watched
in 2011. For that you may visit her blog: http://annavetticadgoes2themovies.blogspot.in/. Adhering to the ‘Resolution’ was quite a daunting task and
she did manage to ace it with grace. TAIFC, then, is a collection
of essays, based on the movies she saw in 2011, while drawing from her
extensive experience with people of the film industry in the course of her
professional career. She has used this book as a medium to introduce us to many
nitty-gritties of the movie business and also highlight some issues which tend to be swept
under the carpet of glamour.
Her writing style is simple and conversational. It feels like you are
reading her thoughts, which are free-flowing, yet coherent. She writes
passionately about the “children’s films” released that year. They are meant
for audiences of all ages with story-lines about children and young adults. All
of them are well-intentioned but only some succeed as a work of cinema, while others
are half-baked and not earnestly executed. I saw Bubblegum after reading this book,
and revelled in its wrenchingly sensitive portrayal of numerous “teenage issues”.
I’m craving to write about this movie along with another Jamshedpur based film
released the year before, but that’s for later!
You can feel the author’s empathy for Jackie Shroff as he shrugs away
his talent, but she wishes he was more sensible about it. She engages in a long
interview (almost 20 pages in print!) with director Onir who patiently shares
his disappointing experiences with various cogs of the Hindi film industry. That
has not entirely deflated his zest to make movies which are not run-of-the-mill,
no matter how thorn-paved the path may be. More power to your ilk, Onir! Rohit
Shetty, on the other hand, is annoyingly disparaging of ‘film critics’. Ms.
Vetticad bears his verbal belligerence with oodles
of sang-froid (despite her physical tiredness) and Shetty should be grateful to her for this!
Some sections in the book show the painstaking research done by her to
identify the root cause of some ‘issues’ she had with a few releases. The eye
for detail is charming and her persistence is quite commendable. The book is an outcome of numerous films which don’t have a common thread running through them,
and this is obvious in the separation of chapters. Though, it would have been
nice if the author had written a concluding essay, connecting the dots more
clearly and also presenting her collective arguments drawn from this entire experience. As it stands, the book makes for an insightful yet light read.
Buy the Book!
Paperback: here
E-Book: here
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