It makes filmmaker R. Balki happy that the audience has appreciated his recent releaseKi and Ka, starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Kapoor, despite the mixed response of the critics.
“Sometimes the critics feel only they have the power to criticise something. It is time for the film industry to criticise the critics’ work because that also works either way. Critics should review a film for the audience not for some person in the Berlin Film Festival,” the director said at the success party of the film on Thursday in Mumbai.
Describing the reviewers as “English critics”, Balki said: “Some people who call themselves critics, they are kind of people who watch Czech films without subtitles and praise it. They watch a brown leaf fall for 45 minutes and say what a poetic scene. I do not have any idea where these people come from... I do not personally know any critics among those ‘elite critics’ we are taking about.
“I am not here to make a film for critics. If they happen to like the film, it is fine but if the audience likes the film then it solves the purpose. Otherwise, I would have been bankrupt for making a film for these people. Ki & Ka is a film about freedom of choice. Therefore, we all have the same kind of right. I think the critics should understand now that despite their reviews, the audience has gone against them. I agree that lots of things they say is right but lots of things is absolutely wrong,” said the Cheeni Kum director.
The romantic comedy, which released on March 31 in the UAE, talks about gender equality where a man willingly chooses to be a homemaker while his career-oriented wife wants to be on top in her organisation.
In terms of box offic collections, Ki and Ka has appeared to be Balki’s highest grosser, breaking the records of Cheeni Kum, Paa and Shamitabh. In India, the the film has till now taken in over Rs.350 million (Dh19.2 million).
