Oscar ahoy

Oscar ahoy
— Indian cinema, like creative entities in other disciplines in this country, today looks to the West for value judgement on quality as well commensurate accolades. Nowadays, the outputs of Indian artists are not judged by aesthetic merit, but the price fetched in Western auction houses. A Booker prize is the ultimate El Doredo for Indian authors, never mind that native readers are none too pleased with their themes. Thus Bollywood cannot be faulted for considering a Western cinematic award as the acme of achievement. One can analyse such fixation as colonial hangover, but everyone, from clothes designers to athletes, are obsessed with applause from the West. Gone are the days when a thespian giant like Dilip Kumar would turn down a role in the Oscar winning epic Lawrence of Arabia. Today, a role in a Hollywood production would be the jewel in the crown of an Indian actor’s CV. Every Bollywood film director worth his or her salt aspires towards an Oscar, though these have been hard to come by. But now it appears that the dream of our dream-merchants are on the verge of being translated into reality, with the India-based film, Slumdog Millionaire, bagging no less than four Golden Globe awards, including those for the best motion picture drama, best director and best screenplay. The icing on the cake, of course, is the Golden Globe award for best music score to our very own AR Rahman.

Traditionally the Golden Globes have been pointers to which way the Oscar wind might blow. With the Critics Choice awards and the British Independent Film awards also in its bag, Slumdog Millionaire thus has more than fair chance of grabbing an Oscar or two, with AR Rahman too very much in contention. However, before we in India raise three cheers to such a possibility, it needs to be pointed out that the film itself is very much a British production, being directed by Danny Boyle, the screenplay being done by Simon Beaufoy. Though some Bollywood actors are in the cast, important characters such as the protagonist Jamal Malik are played by British born Indians such as Dev Patel. Almost predictably so, the setting is in the infamous Dharavi slums of Mumbai, while the rag to riches plotline panders to the predilection of Westerners for negative Indian stereotypes. Given such a predilection, past Oscar entries such as Lagaan, where upstart Indians defeated the white sahibs in a game of cricket, had not stood a chance! The sole Indian interest with Slumdog, therefore, would centre around whether Rahman gets an Oscar. Yet, musical genius that he indubitably is, Rahman hardly needs a Hollywood statuette to testify to his prodigious talent. source: assam tribune