Home News Dravidianist Director Karthik Subburaj Blames “Paid Hate Reviews” For Retro Flop

Dravidianist Director Karthik Subburaj Blames “Paid Hate Reviews” For Retro Flop

By
The Commune
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karthik subburaj retro flop paid hate reviews

Kollywood director Karthik Subbaraj is widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers in the industry. With a unique style and a string of successful films, he has established a distinct brand for himself. However, in a recent interview with a private YouTube channel and a movie critic, he made some controversial remarks regarding his latest film Retro, which starred Dravidianist actor Suriya. Subbaraj defended the film, which he considered a success despite its underwhelming reception, and blamed critics for the negative reviews. He went further to label these reviews, even from common moviegoers, as “paid hatred” driven by an agenda. His reaction to the criticism left many feeling that he missed an opportunity to address the film’s shortcomings and correct his style.

In the interview, Karthik Subbaraj also touched upon the pressures of filmmaking, including financial gains and expectations, while discussing the critical reception of Retro. His comments on movie reviews quickly went viral, sparking a storm of controversy, with many netizens even taking to the comments to school him.

Regarding movie reviews, Subbaraj explained, “Recently, there’s a lot of conversation going on now, it’s not about reviews at all. Reviews actually help a filmmaker in some way. I’m talking about good reviews, I mean constructive criticism and all that. But nowadays, it’s mostly about paid reviews. Paid reviews are not the problem, but paid hatred and paid agenda-oriented things, and that’s what’s happening, right away. So, when I look at this, it will affect an artist by their heart. We should come out of it. This is a journey, even the experience coming from this is something new for mee too. Right away something is going on and happening to everyone and happening so fast. I think everyone is talking about it, and something has to be done and this has to stop. It’s more like a campaigning. A paid campaign.”

The interviewer, Baradwaj Rangan, added, “I was speaking to somebody the other day, and they told me that every actor has an enemy camp, that is on Twitter or whatever it is, right? So, when an actor has a movie coming out, start a campaign against it. Even if someone says something good about the movie, discredit the individual. That’s true, right?”

Karthik Subbaraj responded, “That is what happening. Somehow heard a shocking thing like they have an office for that, and some people are actually working for it, while many people are paying for it. You can only do that if you do it full-time. Now, everyone is busy with their work, but doing their work they can’t do this as a work. When we went to the theater, I went to watch it during the second weekend’s Thursday or Friday in Madurai, Trichy, and Coimbatore. Most of the people I sat with were enjoying it. I expected them to clap, enjoy the movie, and they did all of that. At the end of the film, I heard people saying, “The film was good, but why are they saying this?” This was the common thing. Some people were saying, “This was the reason why I didn’t come last week, but now many people are saying it’s good, So I came to watch it. Is this whether affecting them or reducing the movies collection. This is very dangerous happening because it is very paid, targeted and as you said, I also learned that there’s a paid team behind it. It was really shocking to me.”

Contrary to Karthik Subbaraj’s defense of Retro, the film was widely regarded as a failure, as confirmed by regular moviegoers.

Some of the audience reactions and criticisms are summarized below:

One of the netizens lamented, “#Retro – an overstuffed tiring, exhausting bore fest that loses engagement after the 25 min mark. At times had to look at my watch as to when the movie would end. @Suriya_offl deserves better than this film, not one bit a comeback.”

Another netizens reviewed the movie stating, “#Retro too many layers , too many plots and too many minutes precisely 168 minutes wasted as well , though there are exceptional scenes here and there it lacks the coherence and is disappointing.”

Another netizen lamented, “After Watching Retro, we are the Joker. Worst Movie.”

Another netizens reviewd the movie stating, “#Retro review. Dei Karthik Subbaraj, you’ll never be okay… why did you make it this cringe? 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Suriya could’ve toned down his overacting… the jail scene was straight-up laughable. Please quit cinema… you’ve made us cry like this… Hey sk fans, you will pay for this.” 

Another netizen reviewed the movie stating, “Retro Movie Review #RetroReview FDFS Review from my US Friend. Another disaster from Surya. deadly boring Positives: Pooja Hegde Negatives: All others Criticism: Poor screen play. Karthik Subburaj should have given the screenplay impacting, or film should have been sprinkled with comedy. Mixed with both, film struggles where to be serious and where to sow comedy Result? Painful for the watchers.”

Another netizen shared a video of a frustrated moviegoer who slammed the film, saying it was a complete waste of money. The viewer sarcastically remarked, “For spending ₹250 in the morning, they made us to laugh (comedy show). It wasn’t goosebumps it was Kanguva 2.” Alongside the video, the netizen trolled, “Kanguva 2, huh? I thought he’d move up from tier 2 to tier 1… but Suriya’s fallen to tier 3 instead.” in the video the audience lamented saying, “For spending 250 ruppe they have made us laugh. It was not a goosebump, its Kanguva 2” 

Another netizen mocked, “At least in Kanguva you could have run out of the theater saying the shouting gave you ear pain… 😂 But Retro? It’s not like that — you can peacefully fall asleep… 😂 Despite this if you are still thinking of watching it? Then you’re going to end up like ‘3-movie Dhanush’”

Another netizen mocked the film by sharing a satirical news card claiming that Suriya’s ‘Retro’ struggled to fill seats even for its First Day First Show, leaving theatre owners stunned.

One of the audience, frustrated after watching the movie Retro, told the media, “Retro didn’t really connect with me. It felt like they combined two or three movies into one and stuffed on us. I don’t understand why they took such lengthy one. It’s a three-hour film, and it has so much content takes that long just to tell the story. There’s so much drag and lag. Once the first half is over, it feels like the movie ends there, the second half  is entirely different content for film.”

He continued, “It felt like Suriya wanted to showcase everything his emotions, action in a single film. And the climax of this film felt like a remake of Jigarthanda 2 climax. If you look at the film in parts, Santhosh Narayanan did well with the music, and Pooja Hegde gave her career-best performance. But when you see it as a whole, you’re left wondering—why such huge content, such length? It was very lengthy and dragging.” He added, “He goes in search of love, then full action, then back to love, and again full-on action. It starts in one place, wanders off somewhere else, and finally ends in Jigarthanda 2 climax.” He rated the film 6 out of 10.

Another audience member shared their thoughts, “Both the first and second halves are too lengthy. Suriya’s presence was good, and the songs was also good. The vibe of the ‘Kanima’ song was awesome. What else? Well, we expected more from the story, but if you go in with low expectations, the movie is enjoyable. It was a comeback for Suriya he performed his part well.”

He continued, “I’d say go in with lower expectations, and you’ll probably enjoy the movie more. I went in with high expectations, so I felt a bit let down. The film runs for three hours, so there’s definitely a lag. They tried to make up for it with fight sequences—it worked to some extent, but not entirely. There’s a lot of action, and he has done martial arts in the film too.”

 Another viewer harshly criticized the film, calling it strictly average even when watched in theatres. He remarked, “Bro, this is just an average movie. It’s nowhere to claim being ‘super’ or ‘awesome.’ Even with the theatre experience, it felt average and if you’re watching on OTT, you can’t watch.”

He went on to say the script felt very plain and unimpressive. “Usually, movies pick up pace in the second half, but here, only the first half had some energy. After the flashback scene, people were just watching it casually. I don’t think it really made an impact on anyone.”

He lamented, “The entry and opening for him were solid, and his fight scene was impressive—but once the actual story began, there was nothing. That is the problem”

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