The review I was waiting for...

Not because it says the movie is really good. It doesn't.

Besides, we've had many other reviews where people've liked the film.

This review is special because it is honest and well, critical.

Baddy does not know this but I had a sleepless night before the press show wondering what he was going to say.

Because, it is criticism from people you respect that always matters. I've said this before on many occasions, he is the best in the business. Raja is murderously good but Baddy's reviews are always more likeable given the down-to-earth tone he uses even while trashing a film.

I didn't realise until someone (I think some disgruntled anonymous reader) pointed out recently that my reviews sound patronising. Point well taken.

So the morning of the press show, I went to bed at four and I just couldn't sleep till 6.30 a.m. And I had to be up by seven again to go check the projector. You can quite imagine the anxiety when I landed up at the theatre to find out that the lip-sync was completely off. And, the picture quality was grainy. Thankfully, we were able to fix all of that before the commerical release.

Was he going to hate it? I had never been more nervous all my life. It was like my favourite teacher had just taken my answer-paper and he was going to grade it in the next 91 minutes.

If he failed me, I knew I had to go back to school and learn everything I learnt all over again. Because, he's the teacher. He knows his stuff. He can't be wrong. After the movie, when I was playing host to Vikram and attending to the NDTV crew, the only thing on my mind was what was Baddy going to say.

Vikram was obviously nice and said he loved the movie, just like Suriya had said it earlier. And I was never sure if they meant it because stars are polite to everybody. When Baddy came out of the hall smiling, it was a relief.

More when he said, "I had a good time. It was okay. What do you mean it's a not bad film? It was really okay."

He said he would talk to me about it at length. But, I wanted a progress report and see how many marks I got. I requested him if he can review it at leisure.

Within a week, he did. Thank you, Baddy.

This gives me the courage to start on my next film. We're starting in May.