Welcome to the little but wonderful followers of my Blog. It's crossed midnight i guess. I was watching the video of "Jai Ho" some time back, and there came the spark for my next post. :). I basically love movies. I watch atleast a couple of them everyday. I have a contrastive taste in my likings- when people enjoyed the action sequences in "The Matrix", i spent my time watching snail-paced movies like"Driving Miss Daisy'.
I have seen numerous such movies, including awesome ones like"The Green Mile", "Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump",etc etc., It was in that time frame that I acquired a great inclination towards the Academy, as in the "Academy" award, or "Oscar" as it is commonly known. Right from "The Godfather", till "No Country for Old Men" , almost all the "Best Picture" winners were truly "Oscar" material.
But the reason why "Slumdog Millionaire", won so many accolades, including the biggest award in world cinema, still remains a big mystery to me. Competing against "Oscar" material movies like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Frost/Nixon", Slumdog managed to sweep the Oscars. A good movie critic wouldn't regard Slumdog as even a worthy nomination.
Then why the hype? Why the awards. Again comes the dreaded word. -Westernization. For some reason or the other, the westerners seem to love it, when the so called "Third world" countries are shown in such poor light. The same reason why movies like "Blood Diamond" and "Cida de Deus"(City of God) were hyped. Movies with such themes, for many westerners, is a ‘feel good entertainment movie’ .
Now coming to the celebrations. The common Indian lacks self-thinking totally. A British movie showcasing the Slums of India is celebrated so much in our country. We can never witness all these insane happenings elsewhere. We Indians, lack Pride. Celebrate Rahman, Celebrate Resul Pookutty. Don't celebrate Slumdog.
Even the movie title- Slum Dog?? Are people living in the slums Dogs? Instead of hating Danny Boyle, we seem to love him. The Big B was the first to get furious at this. But he backed off, fearing any consequences. Alarming!. Don't we have a Freedom of Speech?
The respect I had for the Oscars is long gone now. As kamal Haasan always says, It's an American Award given for their films". -True- A "cheap", "useless" American award.
Midnight Post!
Posted by
Corleone
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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10 comments:
Awesome post.. u have reflected many of our feelings exactly its jus becoz a britisher directed the slumdog it got too much hyped... which is far lower than many tamil and indian movie.. even for rehman oscar is too late as far his music is concerned... becoz all his fans knows his Roja is the best of the pick.... he must hav given oscar for that itself he didnt get recognised becoz an indian directed it.... also think abt the legend ilaiyaraja then he must received numerous oscars till now... think how a music director can give some 800 movies... did any of the music director in the world gave such.....
Its al jus for media hyped oscar a world wide.... its jus an another countries national award... though we cant reject that it gave the world recognition.....
V shld also accept that all tamilans in the world felt proud wen Rehman rhymed the word " Ella Pugazhum Iraivanukke" in tamil.. every one felt tamil is at some world rank......
Its give us world recognition.....
Awesome post keep posting....
Good one da.. keep going..
I still wonder... Does Jai Ho deserve an Oscar? What do you think?
@JS & Naveen
Thnx for the comments
@Ashwin
It did. Even though its not Rahman's best obviously, it seems to be the "world's" best piece of music in 2008. It just reflects the non-pareil excellence of contemporary Indian Music.
The title is a metaphor. [ http://blogs.reuters.com/indiamasala/2009/01/22/how-slumdog-millionaire-got-its-name/ ]
The widespread news behind the Oscars for this movie is, it’s a very positive movie at this time of recession. :)
Coming to Oscars or IMDB#250, there may be many difference in opinions. You can’t find many great masterpieces over there. Also Oscars has only one award for Foreign language movies, but we have many great movies in Italian, Polish, French, German and Iranian.
-Naga
Anna, i tend to slightly disagree with u on this. Metaphor or whatever, he himself says that he coined the word. Even if its a metaphor, it intends to say slum=dogs. Just for appeal alone, he has kept such a title. The movie was never meant to be released in theatres too. It was a straight to DVD release.
Even i don;t say that IMDB and Oscar are the benchmarks for cinema. I'm just comparing Slumdog with the previous winners. It doesn't touch the heart. If u had watched Changeling or Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon or even Frozen River, You'll come to know of the ordinary nature of Slumdog. Also I don't agree that u cant find other language masterpieces in IMDB.
Eg: Cida de Deus -French movie 8.8
Das Leben der Anderen -German Movie 8.5
Rang-e khoda,Bacheha-Ye aseman -Iranian masterpieces by Majid Majidi 7.7 , 8.0.
Oscars, yes. They have one award for foreign films. That's my point. It's an American award.
I'm not favoring Slumdog anytime. I just cited the explanations which were around.
Regarding Oscars, the pt I wanted to make was it can't Comprehend all the good movies through Foreign Language Movies category.
IMDB covers most movies, which i completely agree. I was talking about IMDB#250, where movies are calculated on weighted vote using a formula, which i can't agree.
Do you think Indian movies by Satyajit Ray, Aparna Sen, Mira Nair, Balumahendra, Balachandar, Mahendran would get the minimum required votes of 1300, to make it to the list?
-Naga
Again it all comes down to globalisation. Movies from Hollywood are watched worldwide. And released worldwide. English is also designated as an International language. That is the primary reason why movies form our own directors doesn't get a worldwide reach.
Foreign movies, the majority of them, are very difficult to access and own. Most of the classics from Satyajit Ray, Majid Majidi, Akira Kurosowa, etc., are not even heard of by many. When outlook of people broadens, and when English loses its dominance, the rift will very well be overcome.
Coming to the formula used to calculate the top 250 in IMDB, the list is voted by IMDB's regular voting population. It also incorporates temporal effects, so that movies that have been consistently popular throughout time would be rated higher than movies whose true mettle has not been tested by the sands of time. Here again, popularity and globalisation become major factors for the rankings.
cool.. u have discussion in blog tooo.. encouraging
>> When outlook of people broadens, and when English loses its dominance, the rift will very well be overcome.
Nicely put. Hope it happens very soon.
-Naga
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