Stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath explains why Pretentious Movie Reviews ended: ‘We ran out of extremely bad movies’

Biswa Kalyan Rath is featured in the new Prime Video comedy special Mood Kharaab. The stand-up comedian started out on YouTube where he hosted a film review show with Kanan Gill called Pretentious Movie Reviews. Their videos went viral at the time as they panned several cult and mainstream Bollywood films. But eventually, they stopped the show. The comedian recently shared that they ran out of ‘extremely bad movies’ to review on their show. (Also read: Biswa Kalyan Rath: I’m very lazy, don’t like using my brain)

Biswa and Kanan teamed up to pick apart films like Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, Prem Aggan and Tum Mere Ho on their show. In their unique comedic styles, they would explain what worked and what didn’t. The duo even reviewed films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the longest running film in Hindi cinema, and the cult classic Gunda starring Mithun Chakraborty. For his latest Prime Video session, he reunited with Kanan, who directed the special. He went on to say, while he was happy people were asking about the YouTube show nearly a decade later, he was glad they went out on a high.

While speaking to Mid-Day, Biswa said, “We are so grateful that people are still asking for it after nine years. At that time, we were going with the flow. Then, we ran out of extremely bad movies. Good movies are different, but bad movies are bad in the same way, and then your jokes become the same. We sensed that we were reaching the end point. We are glad it picked up because it made both our careers. Next year, it will be 10 years of Pretentious Movie Reviews. Rarely do shows have a great ending, I am glad we ended with people asking for more.”

Since Pretentious Movie Reviews ended nine years ago, Biswa has had several stand-up specials on Prime Video. In 2016, he made his acting debut with Qaushiq Mukherjee’s English film Brahman Naman. He created and wrote Prime Video’s Lakhon Mein Ek for two seasons.

The comedian was also a judge on two seasons of the comedy reality series Comicstaan. He married actor Sulagna Panigrahi in December 2020.