Nikhat Kazmi died on Jan 20 2012 due to cancer she was just 53 and belonged to Allahabad.
Arguably, India's best known film critic, Nikhat Kazmi was the Deputy Resident Editor and the Film Critic of The Times of India . She was with The Times of India since 1987 and since then has been writing a weekly column on foreign and Indian films, considered to be the final word in the field of ratings and reviews.Her illness did not keep her away from catching up on movies -- she used to come in a wheelchair to watch them and write her reviews
Nikhat rose from reporter and special correspondent to head of The Sunday Times of India (STOI), Delhi Times and more recently the Newspaper In Education edition of TOI, her versatility as writer and editorial leader was always admired..
She had written two books on cinema, 'Ire in the Soul', published by UBS and 'The Dream Merchants' published by Harper Collins. She also spearheaded compilations like the Times Guide to Hollywood Blockbusters and Times Movie Guide (2007).
Nikhat Kazmi had also written a play called If Shakespeare was a gun.
She had been on the National Film Jury and the selection panel of the International Film Festival of India.
Hahaha "considered to be the final word in ratings"...what a joke!! you should read some of her recent reviews to see who her favorites are
ReplyDeleteI am amused to see great words about her being final word in movie critics.She prefers to give 3 and more stars to any crap.May be she is not able to comprehend the pulse of current generation.Her comments about " Chillar Party" are discouraging when others give it big thumbs up.More strange is that because she is a mature lady.No offence meant, her profile and work can be rated not more that 2 on 5.
ReplyDeleteShe is mentally retarded for sure what she look for in a movies only God knows. Who gave her movie rating task???? that's very strange the person who is suffering mentally disorder from since 1987 how can rate the movies? Her fav are Karan Johar and SRK :D so that's say all .
ReplyDeleteI feel she can give ***** to even RGV's movie if he pays her............ all damn movies reviewed by her would be either *** or more than that. I have stopped trusting her. As of now Masand and NDTV review seem reliable.
ReplyDeleteMasand is the best critic in India. The problem with Nikhat is that not only she seems biased towards certain artists but also doesn't understand much about story telling. Masand on the other hand is more relatable. Even if you don't agree with Masand sometimes, you know where he is coming from and what he genuinely feels about a certain movie.
ReplyDeleteshe is d best critic........her essence of film is wonderful....i always refer to her review b4 watchng ne movie....
ReplyDeleteterrible. gives high rating to any stupid film.. go for masand
ReplyDeleteI feel she is insane. Her reviews are always immature.I guess Taran Adarsh & Rajeev Masand are much much better then her.
ReplyDeleteher reviews are really crap..i got fooled by reading her review of a film... dont know why times of india is publishing her reviews.. she is biased towards some producers/actors for the reasons best known to her.
ReplyDeleteoh god !!
ReplyDeletepeople who think that she is awesome or anything of that sort , please refer this (please see the comments of jabberwork in the comment thread for sure)-
http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2004/11/whorism-in-film-writing.html
you will be surprised to find that her reviews on movies are quite "inspired" by the reviews of others ( or to put it rather bluntly - plagiarized !)
won't be surprised if something comes up which might suggest that her reviews may be influenced by factors other than the quality of the cinema in the movie in itself ( if u know what i mean)
again, u might argue on the basis of the kind of credentials she boasts of( member of the jury for the national film jury etc. ) and so on......well, in a world where Slumdog Millionaire wins Oscars anything is possible !!
TOI is a downgraded newspaper , quite responsible for lowering the quality of print news. Its like a typical Indian thing, senseless and unreliable.
ReplyDeleteRIP Nikhat Kazmi
ReplyDeleteit's pretty obvious that ALL movie critics are paid...and if not...
ReplyDeleteAnd yes the Times of India is in the same space!AWFUL!
MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE.
ReplyDeleteHER RATINGS WERE ALWAYS VERY HIGH EVEN FOR AVERAGE MOVIES.BUT POOR LADY MUST HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED BY THE TOP BOSSES OF TOI TO GIVE MORE STARS TO GET ADVERTISEMENTS AND SPONSORSHIPS IN POLITE LANGUAGE BUSINESS DEALS
KHALID MOHAMED IS ONE GUY WHO TILL DATE HAS BEEN HONEST IN HIS REVIEWS AND HE HAS MAINTAINED THAT SINCERITY.
REVIEWS ARE PERSONAL OPINION OF CRITICS AND MAY OR MAY NOT MATCH WITH VIEWERS OPINION.
CRITICS REVIEWS ARE GOOD FOR READING AS IT IS VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND WHICH ARE PAID REVIEWS AND WHICH ARE NOT.90 PERCENT OF THE REVIEWS NOW A DAYS ARE PAID REVIEWS AND THEY HAVE NO CHOICE DUE TO SO CALLED BUSINESS DEALS AND TO BE IN GOOD BOOKS OF CERTAIN PRODUCTION COMPANIES,ACTORS,ACTRESSES AND INFLUENTIAL LOT.
THIS IS WELL KNOWN IN JOURNALIST CIRCLES.EVEN PAGE 3 MOVIE HAS SHOWED THIS.WE CANNOT BLAME ANY CRITIC FOR GIVING HIGHER STARS FOR AVERAGE MOVIE.THE BLAME HAS TO GO TO THE OWNERS OF NEWSPAPER AGENCIES OR SATELLITE CHANNELS FOR FOOLING CINEMAGOERS INTO BELIEVING BASED ON THEIR REVIEWS
MY TAKE - READ REVIEWS BUT DONOT GET INFLUENCED TO SEE A MOVIE.TAKE YOUR OWN CALL
raja sen and mayank shekhar are the only two film critics who can be trusted.all other critics write paid reviews.rajeev masand writes crap.he gave 2.5 stars to players and also 2.5 to saheb biwi aur gangster!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteRIP Nikhat Kazmi.. People hated her but some of her reviews were accurate.. She would be missed (at-least by me)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, completely agree with phokatia reviewer: read reviews but dont get influenced by them..