Inspired Admirations !

When you appreciate a book or a movie, ever thought why you appreciated it? Is it always because you loved it?
Why did you love it? Is your appreciation always original? How many times have you praised something, only because someone you hold in high regard, thinks it is great?
I guess it is a common phenomenon amongst all of us. I have seen many examples of this especially from younger siblings. Many of them seem to hold their elder siblings in high regard and form their opinions based on the opinions of the elder siblings.
I remember one instance, where a person I know, told me that she loved Mumbai during monsoons. Nothing surprising about that, except that I had a feeling that she had never visited Mumbai enough to comment about it. I did not want to pass any judgement, and hence asked her, if she had ever been there during monsoons. As I had suspected, the answer was no!
Then why did she like ‘Mumbai during monsoons’ except that it sounded cool? The answer was as expected too - because her older sister had told her it was very beautiful !
I have been in such situations often too. I was introduced to Carnatic music by a few friends in the US and all my preferences and opinions reflected those of these select friends. I had the nerve to talk to people who had been listening to CM for years as though I was an expert myself and would often tell them about singers I liked and disliked. The reasons for either choices were more often than not, those that I heard from my friends. As a result, for a long time, I remained extremely close minded with regards to musicians and refused to listen to anyone who did not appear on my (in other words, my friends’) list! It took some serious thinking about myself and my hypocrisy to change my opinions and listen to music with an open mind.
It becomes a little embarassing when someone you like/respect recommends a book/movie to you and you actually find it a little boring. It is ok if you know the person very well and more importantly, he/she knows you well. It takes some guts to tell them that you did not like it or worse still that you did not understand it - especially the latter. It is as though you are conceding defeat and admitting your ignorance. My giant sized ego has always stood in my way, when it came to expressing my honest opinion.
I have called a few movies and books interesting (not good, mind you !) only because they were recommended by people I like! I have endured some tomes only because they were ‘critically acclaimed’.
If some of the movies, that I endured, simply because they were in some foreign language and were considered ‘good cinema’, had been made in Tamil or Hindi, I guess I would have trashed them without a second thought. Masala movies, that I seem to detest so much, suddenly become art because of the country where it was made and also because the Academy of Motion Pictures thought so!
I have gone to great lengths, including discussing with like minded intellectuals about some movies and browsing the internet to find out what others think and collate the opinions and pass it on to the next unsuspecting listener as my own conclusion.
For instance, I was watching a movie with my cousins. It was a french movie called ‘Cache’ and is supposedly a critically acclaimed movie that has won numerous awards at different film festivals. As my cousin (the other one had fallen blissfully asleep) and I kept watching the slightly creepy and fairly engrossing movie, we suddenly noticed that during a particularly normal scene, when nothing much seemed to be happening on the screen, the credits started rolling and we realized with a shock, that the movie had ended !! It was 1 am in the morning, and I had lost all my patience. Still, not ones to give up so easily, we browsed the internet to find out what the hell the director was thinking. Many intellectuals had deciphered the intent and the profundity behind the movie. The next morning, we watched the extra features in the DVD to check what the director has said about the end. He supposedly wanted to leave it to the audience to decipher !
Now, I am confused about what I should say when someone asks me about this movie. Should I pretend to be an intellectual and mislead poor unsuspecting people, who have some respect for me or should I simply tell them that I did not understand the end of the movie and let the people make their own decisions. For all you know, I am probably dumber than what my admirers think and they may make more sense of the movie than me. So what should I do in such a case?
As someone great said - ‘With great power, comes great responsibility !’ (Ok, thats a cheesy dialogue from Spiderman!!), it is scary to think that I am inspiring some people with my opinions. Weird as it may seem, I seem to have some followers too, and I need to be extra careful, when I suggest something to them. I am trying hard to strike a balance between being considerate and being considered an intellectual !