Dispatches From The Wall Corner-A Journey Through
Disclaimer - Baradwaj Rangan has no illusions of grandeur that you are going to base your movie watching on his reviews or even agree with his-assessment of movies. He is a film critic simply because he loves cinema-discussing, analyzing and getting nostalgic about it-and has no qualms in accepting that, pop culture doesnt always welcome the deserving and the worthy-but sometimes the side show carnivals that make-modern life such an entertaining merry-go-round. Split into six sections - Actors, Hindi Cinema, Directors, Music, Tamil Cinema and Reviews - Dispatches from the Wall Corner is a collection of Baradwaj Rangans best writings and outstanding in unraveling the magical world of Indian cinema. For instance, like a fawning fan before the Superstars altar, he convinces us how Rajinikanth isnt a formula that can be bottled and bartered. Or despite an obvious reverence for masala Hindi films of the Seventies, including Sholay and Don, he unhesitatingly describes Yash Chopras characters as 'pretty people in prettier clothes'. Straddling the worlds of Tamil and Hindi movies with great panache, the book is wonderfully honest about how, for instance, Hindi cinema has learned that maximum profits can be made from the handfuls of multiplexes, while on the other hand, Tamil cinema continues to tell the stories of the villages.
