"It’s paid PR,” this writer’s friend tells her when we show him a video of a movie-goer in the cinema who lay prostrate at the feet of auteur Imtiaz Ali after watching his latest offering Main Vaapas Aaunga. The film has gotten consistently good reviews; mid-day too gave it a four out of five. Why then, we wonder, do friends and peers still find it hard to believe that someone could get so emotional over a good film?

Brit musician James Blake put words to our thoughts when he said, “Can’t trust a review because blogs/magazines stopped making money, so journalists now get paid by labels. Can’t trust a comment section because it is full of fake fan accounts saying, ‘OMG, their voice!’ to create [a] bandwagon effect. Can’t trust YouTube numbers, because labels buy them. Can’t trust streaming numbers because labels pay for bot farms to drive discovery. Can’t even trust that a song was made by human beings. If you’re an artiste, remember that  in 2026, there’s not a single part of the system that isn’t faked. You’re probably doing better than you think.”