The 81st Academy Awards!

An event of magic, mystique and movies is how people the world over associate the Academy awards, popularly called the Oscars, with.
This year proved no different as the 81st Academy Awards, planned with strict secrecy that was unusual for an event of such magnitude, went underway at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles, California.

As we get our first glimpse of the stage, two thoughts come to mind in a flash…..
The stage this year is but a few inches ahead of the front seats where the stars grace their presence and that the whole arena is more Broadway than Hollywood!

Starting the show is the charming as ever Hugh Jackman, who many felt lacked the charisma and star power to host the Oscars.
Boy, He certainly proves his detractors wrong as he whips out his repertoire of tricks and sings and dances his way through a brilliantly entertaining opening montage, which outlined the truly global nature of the Oscars.
Even before all of this, his opening lines were outlandishly funny, and genuinely made the audience feel at ease with all the nominations that were to follow.


After all the introductory fanfare, Jackman hands over the stage to the previous winners of the Oscars in the category of “Supporting actress”
This new format of presenting nominees through previous winners is way more nostalgic and a good departure from the old one.
As the nominees were read out, my ears and eyes were reserved only for Amy Adams, the nominee for the film Doubt, who was truly enchanting in her earlier film, Enchanted and of course, the wonderful Penelope Cruz, whose role as Maria Elena in Vicky Christina Barcelona was a delight to watch.
In the brief time that she is on-screen, she unites all she comes in contact with and yet, at the same time is an agent of division due to her warped genius of a persona.
She truly was the spark that gave the film its unique angle, and was justly awarded with her first Oscar.

As the show moves onto the screenplay nominations, being presented by the wonderful pairing of Steve Martin and Tina Fey, their witty banter was hilarious to watch, even as they poked fun at the notion of the Alien king Roundelay planting the very first seeds on Earth, a clear dig at the made-up religion of scientology; whose most powerful promoters were seated right before them!
The innovative aspect of this year’s show continued as the screenplay nominations were announced in an exceptional sequence featuring the actual screenplay being typed onto the screen, interspersed with the live footage of the scene in question.
The winner Dustin Lance Black, for the film “Milk” gave a heart-felt speech that mirrored his professed inspiration from the titular character of Harvey Milk himself.

Closely following the original screenplay nominations were the Adapted screenplay ones, and here, the only major contenders I saw were those of Benjamin button and Slumdog Millionaire.
Button, was conceived from a short story from 1921 of the same name, by famed writer F. Scott Fitzgerald….and Slumdog Millionaire was adapted from the novel Q&A by Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup.
The eventual winner was Slumdog for the amazing magic it weaved through its runtime.

After this comes the embarrassing combo of Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston with their awkward and crude jokes.
I felt it was a pity that the Award for Best Animation had to be announced by people of such caliber, what with the eventual winner WALL-E being my favorite film of last year, for it was immensely thought provoking, yet entertaining to the max.


Continuing on, the nominations for Best Animated Short feature included Presto by PIXAR, Lavatory-Love story, This Way UP, Oktapodi and my absolute favorite in La Maison en Petits Cubes.

Sampling the fact that it’s a 12 minute film with a French title and setting, made by a Japanese director was dizzying in itself.
But, in a wonderful artistic approach ,the film is cast in a unique filter that mesmerizes with its grunge feeling and also, while all the other nominees are in 3D,this wonder of a short manages to impress in hand-drawn 2D of yore!
Words would not do justice to the feelings evoked in me by this feature, it truly was a revelation and I clearly realized the power artists have in conveying varied nuances in a mere span of minutes.
The only other film that caught my attention was the very short but delightfully funny Oktapodi!

And the Academy vindicated my euphoria by pronouncing La Maison as the eventual winner.
The director Mr. Kunio Katô took the right moment to say
“Domo Arigatou, Mr.Roboto”, while I would say “Domo Arigatou Mr. Katô” for the lovely pleasure!






Moving on, the pair of Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker took the stage to announce the nominations for Art Direction and subsequently the nominations for Best Costume Design.
I sensed that Mr. Bond…err...Rather Mr. Craig was rather nervous, what with his frequent mishaps at pronunciation!
No qualms whatsoever that Benjamin Button bagged the Oscar for Art Direction.
The stunning, but complex 18th century dresses of the Period drama “The Duchess” captured the hearts of the academy with an Oscar too, and it truly deserved it as the costume of a bygone era is rather difficult to recreate in its entire splendor; a task done to perfection by Michael O'Conner.


The montage of shots featuring the romantic aspect of films of 2008 set to Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” was profoundly touching, encompassing all the trials and tribulations of Romance at its finest.


Ben Stiller and Natalie Portman come up to announce the nominees for the Best Cinematographer, even while Ben is set with his hit-or miss comedy stint that divided people on whether it was plain rude or damn funny.
Seriously, while I found it a little amusing, his impersonation of his peer, Joaquin Phoenix who is unwell, is shocking, to say the least.
I’m also quite miffed that the award went to Slumdog rather than The Dark knight which pulled off the dark moody atmosphere of Gotham in each and every shot!



As the Awards jogged to its middle portion, Jackman comes up with another musical, but this time referring to arcane Jazz musicals and new-age songs that were plain boring, especially if they are held high as dance numbers!
The presence of Beyonce as Hugh’s partner in crime...Umm...Dance did nothing to convince me that this medley of awkward steps would ever do justice to his proclamation that “The musical is back!”…
God, I hope not!


After that downturn of events, we come to the nominees for the Best actor in a supporting role….yes; it finally is the turn of The Joker, played to the core by the late Heath Ledger to get his due.
None of the other nominees can hold a candle to Ledger’s magnificent portrayal of a twisted, chaotic genius as The Joker in TDK.
Honestly, the movie was immensely entertaining, yet profoundly deep due to the very antics of the inane antagonist, and not the eponymous Batman himself.
The Audience was in tears as his family came up and accepted his award on his behalf, their short speech truly gratifying.


Shortly after, Will Smith presented the adrenaline inducing collage of shots of all the pumping action in the movies of 2008, set to some rocking music.
With Smith presenting, the award for Visual Effects rightly went to the team behind the essence of Benjamin Button, for his age reversal process showed onscreen in a superbly incredible way!

Since I had the sheer pleasure of enjoying TDK in a good plex, I can say that the Award for Sound editing rightly went to the damn good sound effects in that slick film.
Likewise, the heady blend of sound and music in Slumdog was recognized by an Oscar in Sound Mixing category.



And finally, the moment Millions of Indians the world over were waiting with bated breath for, the Nominees for Best Original score was laid out.
Indians must have been jumping with sheer joy as the Maestro Rahman was handed the Oscar.
The dance sequences that followed felt a bit rushed though their brilliance was never in question, with Rahman leading from the front!
The song Jai Ho swept the arena as the Oscar went to the collaboration of Rahman and the magical Gulzar.

Following all the elation was the nominees for best foreign film.
Now, here was where I wound up short, since these films save for “Waltz with Bashir” were nowhere to be found for my viewing pleasure.
The award went to the Japanese “Okuribito” translated simply to Departures, a film I’m sure none of those congregated at the ceremony had even heard of.
It really was quite an upset, since Waltz with Bashir; already having a trail of awards behind it was a favorite to win.

The show revved up to full gear once again as the award for Best director went to Danny Boyle,who accepted it in the spirit of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, giving a magnificent speech full of the rush one can only get from holding the Golden Guy in your hands.

The award for leading actress rightfully and finally at that, went to Kate
Winslet for her daring role as a former Nazi in “The Reader”
Her thank you speech was the best of the evening, even with her getting heady due to her 5 nominations finally culminating to a win!

I certainly can’t say anything about the award for leading actor going to Sean Penn for his role as Gay rights activist Harvey Milk in “Milk”, since I really haven’t seen the film.
However, having seen the other favorite nominee, Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, it’s safe to say that if Sean Penn’s act was better than the bloody brilliant performance put by Mickey as the Ram in The Wrestler; then it’s safe to say he deserved it.

The ultimate climax of the night pounces upon us with the award for Best picture going to Slumdog Millionaire, something that can only be attributed to the universal theme of enduring quest for ones love portrayed in the film.
True, the other nominees were done meticulously to detail, but Slumdog kept us on our toes, enchanting us with its journey of its protagonist from a mere slumdog to a reluctant millionaire, all while searching for his one true love.
To say it shortly, it was bloody entertaining! ; Which sadly cannot be said of the other films………..



And thus the 81st Academy Awards ended with history being written as Indians celebrated with much pomp and gaiety for the triumph of Rahman and Resul Pookutty.


The spotlight seems to be on India, and specifically Bollywood, but the question remains to be seen if it will ever grow up, developing more brilliant movies rather than doling out “inspired re-makes” of successful foreign films, usually masked in the premise that it’s being molded for Indian sensibilities!


Here’s Hoping to more Sensible films of all flavor in 2009, world wide!