Some belated notes and observations about the Oscars last night.
Once facing the prospects of being an orphan, post-8 Oscars 'Slumdog Millionaire' has many fathers. Both Britain and India are claiming it is their product. This was before it was poverty porn for some of them living in Britain and India. Strange!
I forgive all those who may be thinking that all the eight Slumdog Oscars last night were won by one very exuberant man—Anil Kapoor. In a lesser man that exultation may have come across as if he was trying to corner the glory that was not his. However, Kapoor’s joy seemed so genuine that the movie in which he was the heaviest star presence had won that one did not mind it up to a point. Of course, there were moments when one felt like going all Bollywood on him and telling him “Oye, control yaar.”
Someone needs to restrain Ryan Seacrest and all his banalities. While talking to the child stars of Slumdog Seacrest’s minders forgot to tell him that three of the children actually came from real slums and did not speak English. “Because we are short on time and I can’t pronounce all these names I am going to hold up...see what got. That’s everybody. They are all you names right?” he asked the kids. Then he asked them to shout all their names. Only one of them, Ashutosh, did. Then he turned to one of the boys who said “My name is Azharuddin.” It was Seacrest’s turn to ask the first question of Azharuddin: “How was it working in Slumdog Millionaire?” Azharuddin, who only knew a few functional sentences in English, froze at the question. “He does not speak English,” Seacrest discovers. Yes Ryan, some of them barely got to eat before Slumdog. English was not a priority for them. Then Ryan asked Ashutosh to translate what Azharuddin just did not say. Ashutosh: “He does not speak English. He is not saying anything.”
I had expected A R Rahman to win two Oscars. Apart from the fact that he generally deserved it, he did not really have any competition. It is of course debatable whether the Slumdog score was comparable to Rahman’s vast body of work but that is such a redundant question. The simple fact is that Rahman’s score captivated audiences worldwide in the context of Slumdog. And that’s that.
All Slumdog cast and crew should now be forbidden from saying “Unbelievable” every time they are asked how they feel. And yes, all journalists should be forbidden from asking all Slumdog cast and crew how they feel. They feel terrific.
