The ongoing debate on movie reviews has taken an interesting turn in Kerala High Court. For the unversed, a petition was filed in Kerala HC against the recent trends in movie reviews. It stated that the purpose of film reviews is to inform and make people aware, and not to harm people and extort money from them. Now in an interesting turn of events, the amicus curiae (An impartial adviser to a court of law in a particular case) has suggested that no movie reviews should be posted after 48 hours of its release, as this will allow people to form their own opinion without being influenced by someone. 

Amicus curiae Shyam Padman stated that negative reviews are put up against films for which their makers don’t agree to pay. Hence, he suggested that a dedicated portal on cyber cells should be constituted to receive complaints against review bombings. There have been complaints against vloggers who intentionally post negative reviews to get paid. The first complaint was filed in Kochi City Police Station on October 25, 2023.  

What did Kerala High Court Judge Devan Ramachandran say? 

For the unversed, the movie review bombing case has been running in the Kerala High Court since last year. And in November 2023, the court had said that the purpose of the reviews is to inform and impart knowledge. Justice Devan Ramachandran said the reputation of the individuals behind a film cannot be sacrificed because of ‘unbridled freedom of expression’. Considering petitions filed by the Kerala Film Producers Association and other stakeholders, the High Court directed the state police chief Directed to follow its earlier order of taking appropriate action against such anonymous posts, that contain material related to condemnation or propaganda of the film.

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