Of Oscars and India

With Slumdog millionare winning Oscars, many bloggers and friends on FB have commented on the fact that the director had no idea of where or what India is really about. They also point out the fact that the movie only serves to bring out the negative side of Indian society. The fact that an asian won the oscars for music seems to have escaped these peoples' minds.

The thing is, The Oscars' Academy has certain rules and regulations, based on which the nominees as well as winners of Oscars are decided. Presently as per rule 2 and 3 of the Academy, in order to qualify, a film must have been released in the preceding year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles (California). According to rule 2, a film must be "feature-length", defined as a minimum of 40 minutes. The only exception comprises of the movies chosen for short subject awards. At the same time, it must exist either on a 35 mm or 70 mm film print or in 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema format, with native resolution not less than 1280x720.

The members of the Academy, related to different branches of filmmaking, vote for the nominees in their respective fields. For nomination related to Best Picture Award, all the members of the Academy submit their vote. The winners are determined by a second round of voting, in which all members are allowed to vote in most categories, including Best Picture.

How many Indians have won an Oscar? Bhanu Athaiya won Best Costume Design (with John Mollo) for Gandhi in 1982. Sathyajit Rai received an honorary Academy Award in 1991. Russell Pookutty won Best Sound Mixing (with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke) for Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and A.R. Rahman won Best Score and Best Original Song for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Also Gulzar won Best Song for Slumdog Millionaire.

General overview on movies doing the circuit these days:

Slumdog Millionare

Slumdog Millionare is a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture and Best Director. It also won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes, and seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film. Despite the film's success, it is the subject of controversy concerning its portrayals of Indians and Hinduism as well as the welfare of its child actors. It was however, highly acclaimed and named in the top ten lists of various newspapers.

On 22 February 2009 the film won eight out of ten Academy Awards it was nominated for, including the Best Picture and Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song (two songs were nominated from the film; "Jai Ho" won the award), losing only Best Sound Editing to The Dark Knight. It is only the eighth film ever to win eight Academy Awards. The film also won all four of the Golden Globe Awards it was nominated for, including Best Drama Film; five of the six Critics' Choice Awards for which it was nominated; and seven of the eleven BAFTA Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Film.

" The film has been a subject of discussion among a variety of people in India and the Indian diaspora. Indian film critics have "largely embraced the movie." Renuka Vyavahare of Indiatimes suggests that, "the film is indeed very Indian" and that it is "one of the best English films set in India and revolving around the country’s most popular metropolis Mumbai." Giridharadas also calls the film "a tribute to the irrepressible self." Film critic Gautaman Bhaskaran questioned the "euphoria in India" in a review for The Seoul Times after the film's release there, arguing that with a few exceptions, "there is nothing Indian about this film." Bollywood director and superstar Aamir Khan (whose film Taare Zameen Par was India's submission to the Academy Awards but was not chosen as a finalist for Best Foreign Film) stated in an interview with NDTV that he doesn't "see ‘Slumdog...’ as an Indian film." Director and filmmaker Priyadarshan criticized Slumdog Millionaire as a film which is a "mediocre version of those commercial films about estranged brothers and childhood sweethearts that Salim-Javed used to write so brilliantly in the 1970s." Similarly, filmmaker Aadesh Shrivastava expressed outrage at the stereotyping portrayals of Indians in the film. As a result the film, too, beggars belief." Authors and scholars have also responded more critically to the film. Shyamal Sengupta, a professor of film studies at the Whistling Woods International Institute for Films, Media, Animationa and Media Arts in Mumbai, criticized the film for its stereotypical portrayals of Indians by calling it a "white man's imagined India."

There have been many controversies surrounding the film, complete with actors's issues, lawsuits etc. Most have however been on the issue of the movie not being upto standard compared to the book.

TSC's review : I do agree the movie does not do justice to the book. Having read the novel, TSC feels it leaves the viewer with a feeling of "not seeing enough", not enough depth etc. The music is undeniably good however, as with any of Rahman's work =)


Billu Barbar

It stars Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, and Shahrukh Khan, and features Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav and Asrani in supporting roles.

In Gudbudi village, there lives a poor Barber Billu(Irfan Khan) and his wife Bindiya(Lara Dutta) and their two children, Gunja(Mitali Mayakar) and Ronak(Pratik Dalvi). Everything goes well until the great bollywood star Sahir Khan(Shahrukh Khan) comes in the village to shoot for a film. Billu, then remembers that Sahir was his childhood friend. Everyone tell Billu to ask Sahir Khan to meet them. But as Sahukaar Daamchand(Om Puri)asks Billu to ask Sahir to visit him, Billu feels shy. After that Sahukaar destroys Billu's parlour. Then everyone ignores Billu saying of Sahir Khan as his childhood friend. There Sahir tells about Billu, how Billu helped him.

TSC's review : Still to watch this, but overall comments seem good. The film has been (supposedly) acclaimed for its comedy.

Gajhini

Ghajini (Tamil: கஜினி) is a Tamil feature film directed by A. R. Murugadoss. The film stars Surya Sivakumar, Asin Thottumkal, Nayantara, Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan. The film's story revolves around a rich business entrepreneur falling in love with an ad film actress.

The film's story was initially influenced by the concept of Christopher Nolan's film Memento. The movie was inspired by the American movie Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his brother Jonathan Nolan's short story Memento Mori. It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a former insurance fraud investigator searching for the man he believes raped and killed his wife during a burglary. Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia, which he contracted from severe head trauma during the attack on his wife. The concepts like writing notes behind instant Polaroid photographs, tattooing facts on body etc. are inspired from this movie. However, the director has added Indian elements to the story and changed the narrative to straight.

The tamil story centers on Sanjay Ramaswami (Surya Sivakumar), a rich businessman who owns a cell phone company named Air Voice and the events surrounding his relationship with Kalpana (Asin Thottumkal).Kalpana eventually falls in love with him without realizing he's Sanjay.Incidentally, Sanjay arrives at the scene and fights off the goons, but during the ensuing fight, Kalpana is murdered. The irony showcased is that Kalpana never finds out that he is Sanjay. Sanjay survives the blow, but suffers from a short-term amnesia.

Awards : 2006 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards • Won - Best Film and Best Actor — Surya Sivakumar
2006 Filmfare Awards South • Won - Best Actress — Asin Thottumkal and Best
Editing — Anthony, plus Filmfare Best Male
Playback Singer — Karthik

The movie had a very large opening. It managed to sustain the tremendous opening, and was hailed as Surya's biggest hit at the time. It collected 49 crores revenue to make it one of the third highest grossing Tamil-language films of 2005 preceded by Anniyan and Chandramukhi.

The Hindi version of Ghajini with pre-release movie rights becoming hot property Ghajini has earned an estimated Rs 90 crore by selling its distribution rights. It stars Aamir Khan and Asin Thottumkal in the lead roles while Jiah Khan, Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan essay supporting roles. Aamir khan spent one year at the gym, continuously training with his personal trainer for the role.

The movie is an action-thriller, with strong romantic elements, that explores the life of a rich businessman who suffers from anterograde amnesia following a violent encounter in which his love interest, model Kalpana was killed. He tries to avenge the killing with the aid of Polaroid Instant camera photographs and permanent tattoos on his torso. The character of Aamir Khan will also feature in a 3-D game titled Ghajini the game, which is based on the movie.

The Tamil original was initially influenced by the concept of Christopher Nolan's film Memento. According to Khan: "Murgadoss had heard about a film called Memento and the concept had fascinated him. Without having seen the film he went ahead and wrote his own version of the script and screenplay. Having finished his script he then saw [Memento], found it very different from what he had written, and went ahead and made Ghajini."

TSC's review : Horrible, compared to the original Tamil version. It was like watching the same scenes on and on.. apparently revered for its techinicalities, TSC is yet to understand what these were. Note to self - watch Memento*

Chandni Chowk to China

Chandni Chowk to China (Hindi: चाँदनी चौक टू चाईना, Urdu: چاندنی چوت ٹو لندچوس) is a Hindi film which released on 16 January 2009. It is directed by Nikhil Advani and stars Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles, with Hindi cinema veteran Mithun Chakraborty and Hong Kong action cinema veteran Gordon Liu among the co-stars. In addition to being shot in China, many parts of the film were shot in Bangkok, Thailand, although some of the China scenes were shot in sets in the Shanghai Film Studio. Distributed in the U.S. and co-produced by Warner Bros., it is the third Bollywood movie made and distributed in partnership with a major Hollywood studio, following Sony's Saawariya (2007) and Walt Disney Pictures' animated feature Roadside Romeo (2008). It is Warner Bros. Pictures' first Hindi film.

Sidhu (Akshay Kumar) is a lowly vegetable cutter at a roadside food stall in the Chandni Chowk section of Delhi. In actuality, the Chinese men want him to rid their Chinese village of the vicious smuggler Hojo (Gordon Liu).Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick. Suzy, also known as the femme fatale Meow Meow, works for Hojo, not knowing Hojo tried to kill her father. Hojo kills Dada, and a disgraced Sidhu, left for dead himself, vows revenge.

" Frank Lovece of Newsday wrote, "Less a Bollywood bonbon than a pan-Asian fusion dish, this combination of Indian musical and Chinese chopsocky is, nonetheless, delicious fun". Michael Philips of the Chicago Tribune called the film "a massive and rather tiring showcase for Bollywood action hero Akshay Kumar". Rajeev Masand of IBN termed it a tiring watch, while praising Kumar's performance "

Controversies surrounding the movie include Nepal, there were protests against the film due to a passing claim that Buddha was born in India; Lumbini, which is the birthplace of Buddha, is located in Nepal. Protests included threats by Buddhists to burn movie theaters that screened the film, and racial slurs like "Dhoti" (the Indian term for a form of traditional clothing which is used as a derogatory racial slur against Indians in Nepal, see Usage of Dhoti in Nepal) hurled at the Indian embassy in Katmandu. On Thursday, January 22, Nepali cinemas stopped screening Chandni Chowk to China.

TSC's review : A scene to scene copy of Kungfu Panda. Akshay Kumar was however, unparreled in his ability to portray ANY role to perfection. (I love Akshay *sigh* =D ) The other bits of the movie however, seemed too cartoonish to my liking. I kept seeing a reincarnation of Kungfu Panda in Akshay ..ha.ha..he he.. I loved the movie =)

** The recurring point seems to be that most movies are made with the ulterior motive of being nominated for an award. Most well-known awards being American, the prevailing "style" seems to be to produce movies with a western inclination or built on western novels and movie adaptations. Those who criticize these movies should bear this in mind too.

Check out Jade while you are at it =D