A moveable feast is many things. A religious holiday whose dates keep changing, a party and, most famously, Hemingway’s immortal moniker for Paris. We are adapting the phrase yet again; adopting it to introduce a series of conversations on cinema between those who are instrumental in shaping it. The idea is to have an honest, informal chat on how we watch cinema and how we make it; to determine our co-ordinates on the map of the journey of Indian cinema; to have a laugh at ourselves; to share what we know, and identify what we don’t. Most of all to raise a toast to cinema. For cinema alone is the most exquisite moveable feast.

For our second Moveable Feast in the series we bring together four of India’s best-known film critics. In a fun, freewheeling conversation they talk about the process, dilemmas, standards, relevance and reception of film criticism.

Meet (clockwise) Rajeev Masand (Film Critic, CNN-IBN), Mayank Shekhar (Film Critic, Dainik Bhaskar and thew14.com), Anupama Chopra (Film Critic, Star World) and Raja Sen (Film Critic, Rediff.com).

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On what they see their role as, and what qualifies them to be critics 

How word limits and time limits hinder reviews

On how they allot stars to films 

On the politics of what one choses to review 

 On not becoming a part of the advertising 

On setting ethical standards for themselves 

On how actors and directors respond to them 

On whether film critics are losing their relevance