There have been lot of hype & hoppla surrounding Slumdog Millionaire and there have also been lot of jealousy in the Indian film fraternity about its success, there had been some protests by the slum dwellers to the name containing "dog" and the usual story of selling Indian poverty to the world.
I am really not going to talk about all this. In terms of the craft of film making Slumdog Millionaire is a good film and that is the reason why it went to win 8 Oscars today. It is not really important for a viewer to accept the theme of a movie or any art form for that matter, to appreciate that.
Personally I am not a big fan of the man Gandhi, but a big fan of the film Gandhi. I am not a religious person, but I am a big fan of the old TV serial Mahabarat. So I hope you get the point.
Same is the case with Slumdog Millionaire also. I may not agree with many of the things portrayed in the film, but i liked it as a film.
When our Tamil and Hindi film pundits talk about their Oscar dreams here is a man AR Rahman who quitely goes there and wins two Oscars and has the guts to say the phrase "Ella Pughazhum Iraivanukkae" in Tamil in the world stage. Kudos to this man for keeping his feet on the ground, even when he is flying!
I am also not a big fan AR Rahman's background score in most of the Indian movies. I feel Roja's score is still his best background score in Indian movies till date and thats not a good news as it came 17 years back in his first movie. However, I should confess that I am a fan of his songs and I feel that is his strength than the BGM.
Today is however a very important day in the history of Indian Cinema, similar to the day when Abhinav Bindra won the Olympic Gold.
After all, we have just had two earlier Oscar winners from India:
1982: Costume Design - John Mollo, Bhanu Athaiya - Gandhi
1991: Honorary Award - Satyajit Ray
Today we have 3 Oscars:
Best Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
Best Original Score: AR Rahman
Best Song: "Jai Ho", Music by AR Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
And for those in Chennai hoping to win the oscars for the best picture and best actor, grow up folks. They dont give that for Tamil movies. You can either make your movies in English or try for the best foreign language film category.
A few things about the Tamil movies and the Oscars: if we make movies of Oscar class and style, we wont have audience for that here. You should compare the crowds of a Jackie Chan movie with those of Schindler's List or the crowd we get for Transporter or Snakes on a Plane. So there is no point in aiming for an Oscar.
We can aim to tell stories professionally and lift the levels of the audience to the next level with a few movies every year. It is happening in the hindi cinema, and it is high time that it happens in the tamil cinema as well.
If you look at the list of India's official entries at the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, you can get an idea about where we are:
1957: Mother India
1962: Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
1969: Deiva Magan (Tamil)
1971: Reshma Aur Shera
1972: Uphaar
1973: Saudagar
1974: Hot Winds
1977: Manthan
1978: The Chess Players
1980: Payal Ki Jhankaar
1984: Saaransh
1985: Saagar
1986: Swathi Muthyam (Telugu)
1987: Nayagan (Tamil)
1988: Salaam Bombay!
1989: Parinda
1990: Anjali (Tamil)
1991: Henna
1992: Thevar Magan (Tamil)
1993: Rudaali
1994: Bandit Queen
1995: Kuruthipunal (Tamil)
1996: Indian (Tamil)
1997: Guru (Malayalam)
1998: Jeans (Tamil)
1999: Earth
2000: Hey Ram (Tamil)
2001: Lagaan
2002: Devdas
2004: Shwaas (Marathi)
2005: Paheli
2006: Rang De Basanti
2007: Eklavya - The Royal Guard
2008: Taare Zameen Par
You can see some ridiculous choices like Saagar, Henna, Jeans and Devdas. Come on: Jean for Oscar. The Academy should have sued the producers for wasting their time. I havent seen Taare Zameen Par, but Dasvidania could have been a better choice. Last year Paruththi Veeran could have been sent instead of the melodramatic and funny Eklavya.
In this list only the 3 made it to the nominations:
1957: Mother India
1988: Salaam Bombay!
2001: Lagaan
