[RX135]

Originally Posted by hrag

No comment on the movie in question, the Academy Awards or A R Rahman's music for the movie in question. Although I think vikram18 has said what I think (the first 2 points, at least).

Hmmm...somehow why am I not surprised?

Around 93-94, when Indian economy was opening up for foreign brand, who were trying to establish themselves, we suddenly got a burst of "Miss Universe"s and "Miss World"s. Were Indian females not good looking or confident till then? Even more interestingly, as these brands established themselves, we don't have anymore Miss Universe/Worlds from India. They probably have shifted to other emerging markets

Alright, enough of off topic conspiracy theories

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by vikram18

...It's really simple isn't it? How many more people will now watch Slumdog because it has won so many Oscars?
When it stinks, follow the money!
...
Yukta Mookhey? Miss World? Think about it.

Did SDM deserve the Best Film? Hell, No!
Was this A.R's best work? Certainly not!
Am I glad he won an Oscar? Hell Yeah. I've been enjoying his music for far too long to even care whether or not this was his best.

Spot on! Got to agree with all your observations. Especially the highlighted one, bulls eye!

Originally Posted by hrag

... But, as I was mentioning to iraghava recently, you haven't heard A R Rahman until you've heard A R Rahman's music for a Tamil movie. Same goes for Mani Ratnam as a director - his movies in Tamil are far better than the remakes / dubbed versions (Guru was probably the exception - Gujarati-looking people looked so out of place speaking Tamil).

All originals are the ones to see. Similar case that is happening now is with Priyadarshan who is remaking most of the Malayalam hit movies in Hindi now. With regard to Gujarati people speaking Tamil, well, we have even worse - there is one movie where our Telugu actor Balakrishna lands up in Pakistan and the Pakistani military was speaking in Telugu to him. Beat that!

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

we have even worse - there is one movie where our Telugu actor Balakrishna lands up in Pakistan and the Pakistani military was speaking in Telugu to him. Beat that!

Thats the ultimate.

[mail4loys]

The same movie had won "golden globe” and "BAFTA", so if oscar selection team had made a mistake in selecting SDM then same goes with the others too.

Also, SDM was a platform for ARR to show case his talents to the International Audience. For Oscar panel, ARR met their expectation in SDM. So lets not crip about it.

If the score in SDM where to be appreciated, then surely they would have appreciated if they had head Roja / Bombay / etc ...

Happy that he got his recognition atleast now!

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by RX135

Even a staunch ARR fan will agree that it is ironical that ARR for Oscar for much inferior work in SDM than in Lagaan.

Does anyone realise who the other nominee was? Wall-E. Music by PETER GABRIEL!
And does anyone think that Peter Gabriel's best work was in Wall-E?

It's an award. A good guy got it. You don't always win an award for your best work, but it generally leads you there.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Does anyone realise who the other nominee was? Wall-E. Music by PETER GABRIEL!
And does anyone think that Peter Gabriel's best work was in Wall-E?

It's an award. A good guy got it. You don't always win an award for your best work, but it generally leads you there.

So, it also shows overall quality of the competition. That's why some of us are arguing that don't attach too much importance to the fact that SDM has won Oscar for "Best Original Score".

ARR was and is great, but that "Jai Ho" just isn't great and not among his best compositions. Simple!

Everyone is happy that he won award and he got due recognition on an international platform.

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Does anyone realise who the other nominee was? Wall-E. Music by PETER GABRIEL!
And does anyone think that Peter Gabriel's best work was in Wall-E?

It's an award. A good guy got it. You don't always win an award for your best work, but it generally leads you there.

Precisely. Awards are subjective. In my opinion, Martin Scorcese's movies are excellent, and in my opinion, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, and Casino were perhaps more entertaining than Departed (very entertaining), Taxi Driver (one great scene and some very good scenes), and Aviator (frankly, not according to me very entertaining). Last Temptation was positively boring to me. Yet, which picture won the award. The Departed. Excellent movie, but perhaps not his no. 1 in my opinion.

Similarly, The Deer Hunter won best picture in 1978. I watched that movie in fast forward, but the voters liked it and that is a subjective opinion. In that year, the other great films that were nominated for some awards or the other incl. such movies as Days of Heaven, Midnight Express, Boys from Brazil, Autumn Sonata, etc.

There would be so many similar examples, where an artist is ignored for his better work, but awarded for his somewhat lesser work. That being said, on an absolute level, SDM was an excellent movie (OK, there were better movies in 2008, 2007,...) and thoroughly deserved what it got.

Robert De Niro won for Raging Bull, but what about Godfather II, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, Heat, Casino, and similar other excellent works. Not even nominated for Casino and Heat.

What this shows is that awards are for that year, and in that year, the award winning movie or artist was perhaps better in the opinion of the voters.

[srishiva]

Only in India we can discuss why someone among us should not have won a international award down to absurd levels !!

[vasudeva]

Does this article hit or miss the mark about us:

Aren't our slum people the world's best? | Tunku Varadarajan - Times Online

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

That being said, on an absolute level, SDM was an excellent movie (OK, there were better movies in 2008, 2007,...) and thoroughly deserved what it got.

Some including me disagree on that.
But, I didn't see the other nominated movies, so it could be possible that SDM was better among the lot (those shortlisted for Oscar'2009).

[hrag]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Only in India we can discuss why someone among us should not have won a international award down to absurd levels !!

A lot like Team BHP polls, eh?

[vasudeva]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Some including me disagee on that.
But, I didn't see the other nominated movies, so it could be possible that SDM was better among the lot (those shortlisted for Oscar'2009).

Sincerely, I forgot to add that I considered it an excellent movie overall. Not mentioning that meant that I was speaking for others, which honestly was not the intention at all. Also, if you see my post, you can see that except for that one honest mistake, I was not claiming to speak for anyone but myself.

[finneyp]

I got your point Vasudeva.

[vasudeva]

OT: when looking to rent a movie, I consider IMDB, metacritic, and rotten tomatoes. Fisrt, look at the rating, then look at the opinions of some critics whose opinion I consider seriously: Ebert, Bernadelli, Variety, and maybe 1-2 more. Sometimes even these critics have a vastly different rating for the same film, and a scene praised by one is lampooned by the others. If I decide to hire and then see, I can conclude whether in that particular film, they have hit the mark or not. Not too many divergences though. However, there have been highly rated films which I have found difficult to watch without pressing fast forward on the remote.

Ultimately, God has given us a big brain to form our own opinion.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by vasudeva

I am not qualified to pass judgment on SDM (I saw it in the theatres, really liked it, and if it got 8 awards, then it must have deserved it).

Originally Posted by vasudeva

on an absolute level, SDM was an excellent movie (OK, there were better movies in 2008, 2007,...) and thoroughly deserved what it got.

What changed, just got your movie critic certification?

When I passed my comment on SDM, I got lynched. My movie reviewing ability, my writing ability, etc., gets questioned. SDM is just an interesting movie, well made too. I still can't believe it won best picture Oscar. I still believe SDM winning 8 Oscars is a Joke. That's my opinion. Try respecting my opinion too, if you can.