In order for any work of art whether literature film sculpture or a song to have merit it must be understandable

Popularity and understandability are two different things and the value of art—whether literature, sculpture, or a song—lies with the message /knowledge it conveys to the general people regardless of its simplicity and complexity. Simplicity and complexity of any work of art depends upon the way by which the work of art has been presented by its author, and its merit depends upon the extent of knowledge that work of art holds. Thus, I believe there is no any direct link between popularity and understandability of any work of art, and the given statement is simply wrongheaded and should be dealt by case by case study.
Usually, any work of art is created to express knowledge and ideas of an author to the general public. Sometimes an author portrays his ideas in a simple and easy way, whereas in some of the cases, he conveys his idea in a very complex way. However, the merit of work of art is always determined by the ideas it holds. For instance, the paintings ‘Guernica’ and ‘Dove’ by Pablo Picasso seems nebulous to the general public, it conveys greater knowledge and therefore holds greater merit. The former painting portrays antagonistic view of author towards Nazi’s bombing and expresses a feeling of sorry towards the suffering of the victims of such bombing during Second World War, whereas the latter conveys the idea of compassion, love, peace, and unity as the only solution to all these predicaments. Thus, it is the idea conveyed by the work of art that holds its merit.
Similarly, while entering into the field of literature, we have number of literary creations which are incomprehensible as hell, and some novels which are comprehensible like a piece of cake. However, both categories of novel hold merit due to the ideas and knowledge. For instance, the novels like ‘Naked lunch’ by William S. and ‘Finnegans Wake’ by James Joyce are notoriously incomprehensible, and the novels such as, ‘Blue Mimosa’ by Parijat and ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone are easily comprehensible. However, both the categories of novels carry higher merits due to the profound knowledge they conveys.
Further, in the field of movies and films, there are numbers of movies which are easily comprehensible such as, ‘Three Idiots’, ‘Hachiko’, ’Pursuit of Happiness’ and ‘war and Peace’ which are easily understandable to the general public and also hold greater merit due to the knowledge imparted by these movies to the general public. However, on the other hand, the movies like ‘Inception’, ‘Avatar’, ‘Interstellar’, and ‘Gravity’ are some of the movies which are complex for the general public to understand, but holds a greater merit because of the greater ideas and possibilities conveyed by these movies.
In conclusion, I personally believe that the merit of any work of art is primarily the function of ideas and knowledge imparted by these movies to the general public, rather than the extent of its simplicity and complexity.