Several things come to my mind while thinking over the #IndiSpire prompt this time. I would just randomly share the memories, incidents that come to my mind!

 

 

I remember lines of a Hindi poem written by Ms. Neelam Singh which I read long back-

सिक्का है बंटा और बिखरा है आदमी,
झूठा भ्रम क्यूं पालें, भुनना है लाज़िमी,
जेब क्या- हथेली क्या, चुप्पी क्या- बोली क्या,
विनिमय की दुनिया में, जिसे भी कबूलना,
मूल्य भर वसूलना।

Really as we say the world is a market, there is continuous exchange of services and everything! we all are selling ourselves, selling our ideas and what not.

So we present ourselves, our services before people and try to get accepted, to get appreciation for all that. Sometimes we can market ourselves by our own efforts, sometimes have to take help of others, we call them our promoters or PR people.

In the field of writing, like many other fields- there are ‘critics’ who review the literary creations, be those poems, short stories, novels or any other type of book writing etc. People also say that those who could not become creative writers, they became critics.

In our country the tradition of western literature was followed and there were movements like ‘New Short Stories’ (Nayi Kahaani), New Poetry etc. I remember reading somewhere that the famous writers of ‘New Hindi Short Story Movement’ like Mohan Rakesh, Kamleshwar and Rajendra Yadav- they wrote very nice reviews regarding stories written by each other not only in their own names but by fake names also to promote each other!

There could be many such examples but I would directly come to the present times. Recently famous actress Kangna Ranaut blamed some film critics in general and one in particular that he is being paid by some rivals to malign her image.

I remember somebody was telling recently about an incident, some hotel which started business invited some opinion makers treated them well gave nice gifts and got some very nice reviews about his hotel and got it upgraded very soon. But ultimate test is the satisfaction of the customers. The hotel could not serve the customers well, got very bad comments from them and was again downgraded.

I would give one more example, I was very young that time when the famous film by my favorite actor-director Raj Kapur Ji- ‘Mera Naam Joker’ got released. I read the special review written by famous Hindi writer- Kamleshwar Ji, about this film. He wrote that Raj Saheb has surpassed a very famous Hollywood director (I forgot the name), left him far behind in dealing with the dreamy love by a young boy Rishi Kapur, in second part he was magnificently in dealing with the pure love that does not care for the barriers of language and country etc. and he wrote that in third part Raj Saheb ran away from himself.

This was an example of a review written by a competent critic on a powerful creative piece. It is good that today so many people write reviews about films, books, literature etc. It does help a person reading them to decide whether to go for that film, creative piece or not. Many times the conclusions of the reviewer may not be important for us but the information given may help us take our own considered decision.

For people writing the reviews, reviewing is there passion in some cases and profession in some others. In both cases they can make a good contribution and make an impact. The important factors are their talent, knowledge and most importantly integrity. The basic thing is that review should not become a promotional effort.

One must write reviews with total honesty and integrity, if he or she lacks in talent that could be developed over a period of time, but if there is no honesty and integrity, it would not take the person anywhere.

Yes, reviewers are needed in today’s world. When we write or do anything, we need to check it once again after completion. But it is not much possible to do it by ourselves. For example we sometimes count like say 8+6 = 15. It is wrong but sometimes when it happens with us, it keeps repeating, if we try again without much gap. Therefore a third person is needed as a reviewer or say as a shef (in case of cooking or say dishes)!

It today’s world where we are relying on so many activities, Yoga, Reiki for taking care of ourselves, one more thing is there in Which we practice and develop the habit of looking at ourselves, by virtually coming out of our body and looking at ourselves, our activity as a third person, it is called Vipashyanaa, Am I right!

Reviewing is needed because we can’t do Vipashyanaa, everywhere and with full effectiveness.

These are my humble views on the #IndiSpire prompt for the week- How reliable are reviews? You may consider films, books, gadgets, lifestyle, fashion or any other genre… #reviews

Thanks for reading.

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