Hall of Fame, as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6...

It is no surprise that old fashions and old rules become the new trend after years of disappearance. Now that Oscar best pictures nominees and other nominations were announced a while back and Oscar ballots will be counted on March 2nd and the results are to be announced/aired on March 7th, it is just a matter for the judges to vote on the different categories and have them counted for the final verdict. Where you surprised to see ten movies nominated for best picture? Till 1943, ten or twelve movies were nominated and seeing the amount of work involved in picking the best movie, they curtailed the selection to five for years to come… hm… only till now when the selection is again stretched out to ten movies. The idea behind doing so is to get a variety of movies ranging from high/low budgets, animated movies, not-so-popular ones in the horizon for people to know what other movies are in existence other than the ones that you hear of being the blockbuster hit.


Variety is always good to experience has been the theme for this years Oscar selections for best picture. Different types of food, drinks, relationships and also a different variety of movies that were produced in a year. For this year – 2010 Oscars, the ten movies that were picked has variety in them; from low budget movie on Iraq war – ‘The Hurt Locker’ to animated comedy – ‘Up’, high budget blockbuster hit ‘Avatar’ and sci-fi hit ‘District 9’, get-to-learn movies like ‘Precious’, ‘An Education’ and ‘A Serious Man’, football drama ‘Blind Side’, recession tale ‘Up in the air’ and WW II saga ‘Inglourious Basterds’. Having seen most of these movies, do I qualify to speak about the Oscar selections? Certainly not! I don’t even know how some of these movies get selected for Oscar best pictures.


I certainly did not know about most of the movies, except ‘Avatar’ and ‘Up’, thanks to my son who wanted me to send him to watch it with his friends and ‘Invictus’ (not an Oscar nominee for best picture) because it is about soccer and ‘Inglourious Basterds’, seen many ads of it, I had not heard about the other movies. Having a spectrum of movies listed in the Oscar not only gives information of other movies but also increases the number of viewers to watch Oscar presentations on television. Advertisements can be cramped during the Oscars show on television to make money as the number of viewers would have increased watching the Oscars. Do we need ten movies in the selection? If not for anything, certainly people will start renting these movies to see what had been done to get on the Oscar list. In addition to hit movies, people will see the movies that are not box office hits or never heard of movies. We will just have to wait till March 7th to see the results and make a dash to your nearest Blockbuster to rent them out.

Movies – Fact or Fiction?

Whenever I hear about a movie being released, I would see if it is based on history or true events. If the movie is of that nature, I try to pick up the book that the movie is based on or any book that it relates to or any history book that talks about the event. I am not a movie buff and I watch movies very rarely. So the few I watch better be good ones, something that I can learn from. If the subject or the book is interesting enough, I would not even go to that movie as I know that movies never depict the history in its entirety.


I was seeing the ads for Public Enemies, which portrays the story and events of a bank robber, John Dillinger, (played by Jonny Depp) who is a gangster robbing banks in mid-‘30s in Midwest Indiana. Some of my friends who saw the movie this past weekend said that the movie was okay and that it had holes in the narration of John Dillinger's life. If it had to be a complete narration of his life, would that not become a documentary film? If a movie is based on true events or on history, the film producers try to capture the important facts and mix it with what I call 'masala' to make it passable for film watchers.


Any movie for that instance will not be a true depiction of the truth and will be made for the taste of the viewers and with the ultimate goal of making money at the box office. Take for instance, the movie 'Catch me if you can'. That movie depicted the life of Frank Abagnale Jr. (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in 1940s, who was also robbing banks but not as a gangster but by working alone, forging checks and playing the banking routing rules. In the movie, it is shows that FBI agent, Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks was a real person who ended up catching Frank. The movie also showed as Frank escaping from a VC10 jetliner by removing the toilet and climbing down beneath it. But if you read up on the history books than you would know that it is not true or that it is even impossible for it to happen. This is what I call 'adding masala' to pass the movie to the audience.


Even when the movies 'The DaVinci Code' or 'Angels and Demons' came out, the Christian group and the Roman Church protested against the movie being released because of some of the events that were shown. I am sure everyone knows that the author, Dan Brown (of both the movies) had mixed history and fiction; came out with a beautiful cocktail, that would make the readers (or watchers of the movies) to forget life for a while. Even after knowing this, why were their riots protesting the films? Movies’ ultimate goal is to provide a little bit of education on the subject but mostly to make money and entertain the viewers. If anyone is interested on the subject, read up more on it from the web or in the library. There is plethora of information out there and one should not depend just on the movies to get educated. That is like taking a ‘capsule’ and saying 'I know about the subject' without actually making a trip to your local library. If the library is closed, don’t pretend to be there, instead research on the web.

How much is enough? - Part 2

Earlier, I had talked about the Oscar winning movie ‘The Slumdog Millionare’ and its famous child stars and their families demand for improved lifestyles. Well, in the same Oscar event, there was another Oscar winning Indian documentary that is less spoken off – ‘Smile Pinki’. This documentary was based on children who have cleft lips and how social workers arrange for them to receive surgery. This documentary was directed by Megan Mylan who depicts the efforts of a social worker travelling to different villages helping the children get their stand in the society. The documentary focuses on two children: 5-year old Pinki and 11-year old Ghutaru.

Unlike Slumdog Millionare, the kids featured in this documentary are provided with scholarships and their houses have a corrugated metal roof and an electric pump to supply water. The kids have become famous in a way that whenever Slumdog is spoken of (a movie from India) this documentary is voiced as well. The kids and their families are happy at the fact that they have a firm roof over their heads and have scholarships to get their education. They are not complaining or even asking for more than what they received, even though they too hold the famous Oscar.

Is it because that ‘Slumdog’ made money at the box office that the families of the children who acted in the movie wanted to make most out of it? They were given a good pay, trust funds were established for their education, living accommodations were made and they have become stars overnight. Yet they complain. Recently, one of the child star, Azhar’s family were given an apartment (Thanks to Boyle) that was $50,000 and about 250 square foot in area. I have read articles where bloggers and readers scoff at the fact that this apartment is small and overpriced and that they moved into a closet.

Sitting here in the US, people can talk about this all they want. Have they seen India? lived there? Know the real estate market there? Especially in Mumbai, to own any apartment or house or any piece of land in itself a blessing. There is a saying in Hindi “Bhandar Jhaney adhruck ka swaad”. People cannot complain about facts that they not know of. Now along with the families and relatives of the kids, outsiders are giving ‘Thanae’ now about what is being provided to them? The kids should just be paid their wages/salary for acting in the movie or documentary and left it at that, just like other actors. Do something more and you get to hear more complaints than support? It is never good enough!

How much is enough? - Part 1

Many might have seen the Oscars, a few months back and must have known that the multi-million dollars earning and multi-Oscar award winning movie was “The Slumdog Millionaire”. The story was based on an Indian book ‘Q and A’ by Vikas Swarup and was filmed by British director Danny Boyle, who had made films like Millions, Sunshine and The Beach. The movie was filmed in India, focusing on the lives of three Orphan kids (Jamal Malik, Salim and Lathika) who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, India and how one (Jamal) of the three kids becomes a millionaire by winning the Indian version of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ based on his experiences alone. When casting for this film, two (Lathika and Salim) of the three orphan kids’ role was played by actual slum-dwellers (Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail) respectively. Many of the other kids who played a part in the file were also actual slum-mers.

To film this movie, wages above norms were paid for these kids. These kids, if they had played a role in the local Bollywood movies would have earned far less than what they had in this Hollywood movie. At the time the movie was made, the kids or their parents or their guardian did not know that this film would be such a hit. To be paid a high wage and to be treated respectably was a dream come true for these folks. When the film earned millions and bagged many Oscars, filmmakers were accused of exploiting the two kids from the slums, when in reality a trust fund for the two kids were set up. Also, filmmakers donated about $750K to charities to help them develop their lives and to get them off the streets of Mumbai.

Before the advent of this film nobody knew of the two kids living in shanties of Mumbai. Because of this films’ success, these families have got the name and the money to live reasonably well. But the color of money always makes people greedy beyond their reach. Their families and neighbors are complaining of exploitation and that they are not given enough money for survival. Recently their slum was razed because their shanties were built on land that was not approved by the Indian Government for dwelling purposes. This is a recurring process in India, just not in Mumbai but in other cities like Chennai as well. Their huts will be razed, new proper houses elsewhere will be given to them by the government to these people but these people would rent those houses to someone else and come back to the same spot in their slums and start building their shanties again, because it is close to whatever business or work they do around the slums.

Recent news stated that these kids are in Hong Kong now, to perform for a charity fundraiser ‘The Community Chest’. Their expenses are paid for and they get a small honorarium by the show organizers given the fact that it is for charity. These kids and their families who turned celebrities overnight are flabbergasted and are trying to make use of it in any ways they can. Father of Rubina Ali is charged for trying to sell her off for adoption to another family for a high price since she is a famed child now. Selling his daughter is in itself a crime and in addition to it, trying to make the most money because she is known is yet another. It does not matter that they are paid generously, that they have a trust fund in their names, there education is paid for, they are famous because of the movie, they get to travel around the world to perform making an earning (I have not been to Oscars or to Hong Kong or to anywhere, expenses paid for) but still these people complain that their living conditions have not improved. I guess Danny Boyle should write off his property and savings on these kids’ name and hopefully that will be enough for them.