Opinion 100 crore vs 15 people

The success of Akshay Kumar starrer 'Kambakkht Ishq' has really stunned the industry.

MumbaiJuly 13, 2009 01:12 PM IST First published on: Jul 13, 2009 at 01:12 PM IST

The success of Kambakkht Ishq (KI) has really stunned the industry. It’ll be an understatement to state that the Akshay Kumar starrer was panned by all critics for its bouquet of lewd jokes,sexist comments,toilet humour and the mind numbing screenplay.

Try sifting through the reviews and you would be really pressed to find anything good written about Sabbir Khan’s directorial venture. Yet,the film team threw a success party on the third day of its release. And in five days,huge banners were put out across media and city lights declaring that KI has made a whopping Rs 100 crore. Talk about giving the rude finger to the critics!

Once again KI has brought forward the disconnect between critical opinion and box office grosses. The gap begs intense scrutiny. Many a times it has happened that the most slammed films end up becoming the biggest grosser of all times. It has happened to most David Dhawan films for sure (Aankhen,Biwi No. 1,Judwaa and Partner instantly come to mind). It happened to Anees Bazmee during No Entry which went on to break records. So is it that critics don’t get the joke? Are they unusually hard on comedies and their ilk?

Akshay Kumar,who has made it a tradition of getting negative reviews for his movies,feels it’s a contest between 100 crore people who make up the paying public and 15 people in a press screening preview theatre. He feels some films are critic-proof and he feels he specialises in those films. “At the end of the day you make a film so that it makes money and entertains people. When you want to appeal to 100 crore people then 15 people who review a film don’t matter. That’s because such films always have an audience despite what the reviewers say. Whether it is good or bad,it’s the kind of film people want to go and watch,” he says.

Do you buy Akshay’s argument? Which films do you think have been the best examples of a critic-proof film? Help solve this eternal mystery as to why critics don’t love the money spinners. Come on,now.