Indian films, Aussie critic

YouTuber Corrie Hinschen reviews independent and regional Indian cinema

What does it take for the Englishspeaking world to realise that Indian movies are not just about Bollywood? Well, here is a step in the right direction.

Corrie Hinschen, a Brisbane-based Australian movie critic, has decided to look largely beyond the song-and-dance films from India and explore parallel cinema and regional cinema, especially from South India.

Masala Bollywood films captured the attention of the Western world long ago. The best outcome of this was that the films changed the perception that India was a country of elephants and snake charmers. Having said that, there is no denying that regional cinemas in India have a huge following of their own, particularly because of the quality of the movies that come out. However, outside India, they have not had the same kind of reach that mainstream Hindi movies enjoy.

This is where Corrie comes in. He is a YouTuber, who reviews Asian movies from South Korea, Japan, China, Hong

Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and India. He broadcasts the reviews on his channel, Pieces of Work, which has around 35,000 subscribers. South Korean films, he says, are his bread and butter. “However, I adore Indian films as well,” he says.

Of the 51 videos on Indian movies Corrie has made so far, 29 are Hindi film reviews (very few of these are the mainstream type), nine are on Malayalam films, three on Tamil, four on Telugu and two on Kannada films. “It is the necessity of regional cinema to compete with the multimillion dollar industry called Bollywood,” Corrie says. “This requires them to make these extraordinarily good movies.” The best part is that, he reviews these movies in English, which introduces them to an Englishspeaking audience as well.

Living in Australia, and not speaking any of the Indian languages, how does he decide which movie he should review?

“My keen audience plays a part here. I take suggestions, and sometimes even run polls to determine which movie I should watch next,” Corrie explains.