Who the hell is KRK to rubbish south Indian cinema?

India is a free country, Twitter is free and there is no Section 66A. That gives enough liberty and bandwidth for empty vessels to make a noise. I woke up early today to read one such handle Kamaal R Khan turning into a certification agency on south Indian film stars.

Now, I hold no brief for the silver screen prima donnas from below the Vindhyas. Most of them are as arrogant and uncivil as their counterparts from Bollywood. But the tone and tenor of the 140 characters displayed a lack of character and basic civility. To call filmmakers who have proved themselves both in the creative space and at the box office with several good films, "gadha'' (donkey) and "lukkhas'' (I don't even know how to adequately translate this, may be something like a "good for nothing" perhaps), is downright crass. Or to put it in KRK's own language, very "2 rupee class'' behaviour.

To call Samantha - one of the most natural performers on screen - "a hair dresser of Deepika Padukone'' and rubbish south Indian viewers for hero worshipping the likes of Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan and Vijay, displays an arrogance that has long stayed with the geographical area, north of Nagpur. Referring to fellow actors as "genda" (rhino) is bad behaviour. Yes, many have wondered how imperfect-sized men like Mohanlal, not classic good-looking men like Rajinikanth, Dhanush and Vijaykanth have made it big in the south film industry. They forget that the discerning eye of the viewers looks at them as characters in a plot, lending realism to a story.

KRK, who calls himself one of the most accurate critic of films and has made several enemies by rubbishing movies, cannot afford to criticise Salman Khan and so talks of how Bajrangi Bhaijaan will be a runaway hit (the pun on hit-and-run was unintended!). He forgets that it is bad remakes of super hit Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films like Pokkiri (Wanted), Kick, Ready, Bodyguard that elevated Salman's status as a super hit superstar in recent years. He forgets that the same south industry has served as a ready template even for Aamir Khan (Ghajini), Ajay Devgn (Singham and Singham Returns), not to count the umpteen number of remakes done by Anil Kapoor and Akshay Kumar.

So before rubbishing the work of someone like SS Rajamouli, who has a track record of nine super hit films in Telugu, it would help if a self-confessed filmmaker like KRK invests in a mirror. Not as an object to pamper his already bloated vanity but to show him what he lacks. Class and character.