New Delhi, March 8 -- "Thankfully, great works of art are way beyond the reach of critics."

- Satyajit Ray

There is something quietly confident about this line. Ray did not write it in anger or bitterness. He wrote it as a simple observation - a statement of fact from a man who had spent decades making films that critics sometimes misunderstood, occasionally dismissed, and yet could never diminish.

What he meant was this: a truly great work does not depend on whether a critic approves of it. It lives on its own terms. It finds its audience. It endures. Critics can shape conversations and influence box office numbers, but they cannot reach into a piece of art and alter what makes it powerful. That part is untouchable.

The relevance of ...