Sunday, March 1, 2009

Slumgod Millionaire wins local awards in a remote area

First of all, let me clarify that i rarely see movies. I havent seen SM . I dont know whether SM is one of the greatest movies ever, or a cheap blockbuster masala type. For all i know, it may deserve all the film , or even many non-film, awards that exist today. But I do know something abt international, national, regional , town, and street level awards. And we have google handy to look up anything whatsoever, in this case , the Oscars.
So I repeat that I am not in anyway criticizing SM or the ppl involved in producing it. Only the reaction of Indian ppl , media, and politicians to any award from any foreign country.
The Oscars are NOT INTERNATIONAL awards, like Olympic medalS , or Nobel prizes, or international film festival awards. They are American awards, for English movies only, also awarded to non-Americans based on certain restrictive rcriteria. Giants like RAY, BENEGAL, KARANTH, and KARNAD never won an Oscar. It is absurd for ppl , and PARLIAMENT and the PM, of all ppl , to go ga-ga over an Indian movie winning the Oscars. The Indian press has blown up this matter out of proportion. But it is very easy for some Indians, who are well-connected with the media, to exaggerate and project any award of any country as a world-wide award. Hence , a better yardstick for SM would be: has it won any of the prestigious awards won by the gr8 giants' movies or directors or personnel ?
We can see another example of this in South Asia's most popular game, cricket. Many Indians actually think that cricket is a truly international game, and as popular world-wide as it's in S.Asia. .
Another kind of example: in sports like boxing, billiards, etc, where there are 2 parallel sets of tournaments for pros and amateurs. Indian winners of amateur world tournaments, are projected - not explicitly, but in a very cunning manner - as the world's best . In such games, there is a huge gulf between the amteur and pro standards.
Another example : in the 70's and 80's , i have been greatly misled by bold headlines proclaiming "India beats Iran" , "India beats xyz " ( xyz = an European country ). At that time, we used to host international tournaments in volley ball and soccer. The noble idea behind this - to give our players international practise in the convenience ( or hardship ) of our home conditions was often nullified, bcoz strong countries would send a collecion of amateurs, or a club or institutional team. The newspapers would mention this in fine print towards the end of the article. This continues these days in hockey , but very few Indians folllow hockey news, and those who do are very knowledgeable abt sports and games.

8 comments:

  1. ray did win an oscar for lifetime achievement though :-) and i remember a headline after india had won a match at karachi, India conquers Karachi! That was absolutely hilarious and shocking at the same time and of course it was in The Times of India. but seriously, i would recommend slumdog millionaire to you - it is quite a good movie if you dont watch it with a critical viewpoint.

    last but not the least, good start to your blog, keep writing :-)

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  2. Thanq very much , Ranga. Didnt know that Ray won an Oscar. It improves my opinion abt the Oscars.
    --- krishna sooryan

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  3. Welcome to the blog world. You are now an important author with an international audience.

    I found the "Local Awards in remote area" very funny!

    Cheers!

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  4. What-ho, what-ho !! Thanq very much indeed , old man !!

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  5. hi.. the points you make are very valid and i literally fully agree.. regarding the oscar thing, i fully agree.. it is almost farcical to see the way the government and media reacted to what was essentially a foreigner's award for his own movies plus movies from other countries HE ENJOYED.. i am not saying don't celebrate at all.. for there is something of an international pop culture emerging and america, without the faintest doubt, is at the centre of it (eg. no one gave a damn about the bafta). but the government reacting the way it did is just too much. and the congress buying jai ho as its anthem is just unspeakably bad taste (nvm if it is effective or not)..

    and yeah, we all know exactly how good or bad our movies are. they are made for us and we are the judges. we don't really need any westerners opinion regarding how good they are. (altho, we do need to see their movies to help us judge our own.)

    other points-
    i think are boxers are good, irrespective of whether they are pros. celebrating their success is not bad. amean, we gotta do with what we have, silver or gold. but even here, we are getting the boxers into bollywood. michael jordan doing a movie is one thing. but this is quite another.

    and god, y do my comments always end up as long as the posts themselves??!

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  6. Welcome to my blog, Sangu/Chokkathangam !!
    Btw, our wresting medallist, Sushil Kumar, and Malleshwari, won their medals in full-strenght fields.
    Lenght of comment is not an issue -- in fact , longer and clearer, the better, instead of something crtptic which would need to be "calari-fied"
    I agree that we are the best judge of our own stuff -- we know more abt the circs and background. But an intelligent 3rd person can sometimes see something that we miss, bcoz we are too close to it and used to it without being aware of it

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  7. Hi Sir,
    Its nice to see that you are putting your creative mind in your blogs...I hope to find some time someday to write my own blog too...keep inspiring us!

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  8. Hi Ubiquitous,
    Thank you very much !! I hope you somehow get time soon to write your blog .
    regards,
    ram

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