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StOnline ratings have become a crucial part about how movies are watched and discussed. IMDb ratings assign an arbitrary score out of 10, based on the average ratings of viewers, which is then used by many to decide whether a film is worthy of their time or not.
But as with any movie rating system, it's subjective. Several misunderstood films, or those which aspire to defy convention, can be all too easily dismissed. While that may be an issue with IMDb in general, in India we have a different problem. Here ratings have become weaponised and used as yet another tool to outrage against a film, an actor, a production house and so on.
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
IMDB Rating: 5.9
Why it's better than that:
In an industry inundated with stories where things always work out, Akshay Roy's Meri Pyaari Bindu gave Hindi cinema a rare look at heartbreak. It made a long overdue case for why some relationships don't always work out and how sometimes that is the happy ending. Ayushmann Khurrana stars as the writer who can't get over the one that got away, Parineeti Chopra's Bindu. More than their story, Meri Pyaari Bindu was about him and his relationship with the idea of her. Despite its slip-ups, like the film's agenda of serving as Parineeti Chopra's 'relaunch' vehicle, it was a necessary counter piece to the typical boy-meets-girl love story and deserved a lot more love.
Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar
Rating: 5.7
Why it's better than that:
As much as we love to whine about the same old tired plots and tropes in our movies, we aren't exactly the most welcoming of those looking to offer something different. But Finding Fanny was just that – a delightfully charming oddity. Homi Adajania's English language ensemble starring Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia, deserved a lot more credit for its ambition. The story of five dysfunctional characters on a road trip in search of lost love was full of witty banter, wonderful performances and Naseeruddin Shah being adorable.
Streaming on: Zee5
Rating: 3.2
Why it's better than that:
Veere Di Wedding isn't quite the film it could have been, but it achieved what it set out to be – the definitive Bollywood gal pal film. Veere was light, upbeat, genuinely funny and never got away from itself. It did, however, get drowned out in debates about what it did for the cause of feminism. It was perhaps burdened with the expectation that a film with an all-female cast had to be something, and that it wasn't enough to tell an entertaining story. But putting aside the outrage, I maintain it's a refreshingly fun film which did make us feel for its characters, and its absurdly poor rating can only be chalked up to a mix of sexism and random hatred.
Streaming on: Netflix
IMDb Rating: 5.7
Why it's better than that:
At a time when every Dharma love story was reduced to 'how do boy and girl end up together' Shakun Batra's misunderstood Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu aspired to be more. While on the surface, the film – about two strangers who get married after a drunken night in Las Vegas – screamed of convention, it actually had a lot more to offer. Batra's film proposed that love need not move mountains, resound across the ages, or play out as you might think. Perhaps it got dismissed as yet another Dharma rom-com, and therefore the unfair rating.
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
IMDb Rating: 3.9
Why it's better than that:
Don't make that face. I am and will forever be a staunch Befikre defender. While it was aggressively dismissed as some sort of misguided commentary on the youth, Aditya Chopra's film was nothing but a light rom-com bursting with energy and charisma. Befikre was led by two sorely underrated performances (Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor), and even if you are of the opinion it didn't quite work, 3.9 doesn't indicate a misfire as much as it does passionate hatred.
Streaming on: Netflix
IMDB rating: 5.8
Why it's better than that:
Arati Kadav's ambitious sci-fi Indie not only gave us a fascinating film within a genre we rarely touch, it was also bursting with originality and dizzying imagination.The Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi starrer about demon astronauts with the morbid job of helping the recently deceased pass on, married sci-fi elements with an aching loneliness and the desire for human connection. Its rating is most likely the result of the film's slow pace and an audience's mixed reactions to see something genuinely new and difference.
Streaming on: Netflix
IMDB Rating: 5.5
Why it's better than that:
While Alankrita Shrivastava's latest film may not have lived up to the impact of Lipstick Under My Burkha, there was a lot it got right. Dolly Kitty was an exploration of patriarchy through the tale of two cousins navigating the messy world of careers and relationships. The film boasted of strong performances, particularly from Bhumi Pednekar who entirely submitted to the role of a wide-eyed, young woman determined to make it in the big city. While it may have been an uneven film, it was nuanced and thought provoking and the things it did well, it did really well.