And the Oscar Goes to.......

So all the hype & hoopla about Slumdog making history at the academy awards is slowly & gradually settling now. No doubt it was a very well made movie....& deserves all the accolades that the movie has been bestowed with. But to call it an Indian movie & to take the credit is absolutely ridiculous.

It is no doubt a foreign movie, made by a foreign director & clearly made for international audience. Just to site an example of this is the fact that the movie didnt even release here in India officialy before winning couple of International Awards. Infact I would say, one of the reason for the movie not doing too well commercially here in India was the fact that most of the people had already seen the movie on pirated DVD even before its release in India. Lets also take this into account, now since the movie has done so exceptionally well & has been acknowledged by the premium most jury in the world of cinema (I personally dont know if thats true.....its just the craze among almost every movie maker to be at the Oscars & win someday)is this movie going to be nominated at any of our esteemed film awards??? Well, doesnt that say it all????

I think, we as Indians should be proud of the fact that 3 of our talented people (Resul Pookoty, A R Rahman & Gulzar saab) from the film industry has been acknowledged at an international forum. Nothing beyond that should we take home & be proud of. On the contrary, our film makers should be ashamed that it took an international director to come to India & make a movie like "Slumdog Millionaire".

When i saw the film, I was amazed that somebody who is not completely aware of our culture could come down & capture the sentiments like Danny Boyle & his team did. Well no doubt they must have got lot of support from their Indian team, but that cant be argued since they would have been available to our Indian film makers as well.

Then there were few in our country (including some film makers) who complained about the concept & story & the fact that it showed our country in poor light. Bless me...was there anything in the film that they showed which is not true?????....the slum literally sharing their property (if i can call it so) with airport, the riots, the way children are made to beg for money, the under world....perhaps the movie surely had its share of exageration, so what??? which movie doesnt???? So what do we make out of these people??? Are they ashamed of the fact that it showed India in a poor light or that none of our people could make such a movie with a story by an Indian the way Danny & his team did..........well we can imagine which of the one is the case, cant we???

One more aspect & the reason that slumdog won so many awards at the academy might have something to do with the viewership of the award show last year which was it seems the lowest it recoreded in recent years. Well you must be thinking whats the link. Well let me explain this, its a fact that there is a sizeable number of Indians present across the globe, thanks to our ever exploding population, so what better way to up the viewership & attract more sponsors...bestow the movie that would attract so many eyeballs & make news even before the awards, so that you ensure you achieve what you want to. So dont be surprised if we get few more awards in the coming years soon. Maybe the next would be the best international film. Wait & watch.

So finally with the dust settling & after some battering by few, some accolades, lets accept the fact that Slumdog Millionaire wasnt an Indian film by the stretch of any imagination & of the 8 awards, we deserved it in only 3 cases. So lets take this to our chin & hope that someday we will have directors like Danny Boyle who will make us proud by our own movie made in India by Indians....we will wait for such a day. Amen.

Cricket Crazy Nation

Often I come acrozz thiz statement that "Cricket is over hyped in our country"...by thoze who hate cricket for some reasonz.....I can understand such a statement by a sports person who iz doing well in hiz sport which may not be cricket.... but not getting hiz due recognition.

Then there are those set of people who feel bad for other sportz that not getting popular. And often Cricket iz held responsible for the lack of popularity of theze sportz....Alas! nobody ever triez to figure out the reason behind Cricket's Succezz in thiz Country.

I feel & thiz iz juz my thought...that India became a cricket crazy nation post 1983 World Cup succezz & luckily for all the cricket fanz like me..thiz waz the period when television started pentrating each house hold....1983 succezz waz followed by winning "The World Championship of Cricket" in 1985 & we all love winning & watchin our nation winning while competing against other country makez uz even more proud....thtz precisely wat happened....people started watching more & more of cricket & if not great succezz but atleast India performed better in thiz sport. Slowly & steadily with thiz support India waz developing into a power house of Cricket which it iz today. Older generation would perhapz argue on thiz sayin they say succezz of cricket much before 1983 when we won Test seriez in England & they are right. But winning doesnt count if you are not winning consistently & that waz the difference between the teamz of the 1970'z & 80'z......

Am sure the people who complain of Cricket'z popularity still would not like to agree to wat I say...but I would just like to say one thing to them...we all strive 4 that one medal at Olympicz(which v got finally), we wish we had one Tennis playerz who cud get uz grand slamz(In the individual category), maybe a formula one driver who would win one Driver's championship, one golfer who would give Tiger Woodz a run for hiz money...but till we get that one person why not boast & raise a toast for our Cricket Championz who make uz proud atleast once in a while?????

And dont forget India rulez even the World Cricket Governing Body becoz of itz power....so letz be proud of wat we have while we wait for other Championz of India 2 Rise.....