January 27, 2011 (Sampurn Wire): The Kings Speech received an overwhelming number of Academy Award nominations, 12 and now like any other time the film is being hit with criticisms from all sides for distortion of historical facts and inaccuracies. So while this is not the first time that a film with maximum number of nominations becomes the target of the critics, since it has happened with films like Saving Private Ryan, A Beautiful Mind and The Queen how fair is it to bring up the criticism now?

According to Martin Filler of the New York Review of Books and Christopher Hitchens the character of King George VI played by Collin Firth was nothing like a shy ruler but a warmonger Nazi appeaser, Filler goes on to call George VI a nitwit. On the other hand Hitchens wrote that the film is a falsification of history and even abused his wife physically as the King had a very rough temper.

However, the critics who are sympathetic towards the film along with some historians defended the flick The Kings Speech saying that more than talking about the war and the political stand during that period the film talked about the a man overcoming his handicap. The film is also about a person going beyond ones deficit and be part of a job that he was never trained for.

So while the opposition camps can rally about the deficits and the flaws of the film, The Kings Speech has already shown the grit to win over the award ceremony. It has already done that on last Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards.

-- Sampurn Wire