Oscar night (feb 22)

That was an eventful weekend for me. Got my weekly dose of basketball on Saturday and gotta play Scrabble with the big guys. And I had a flop-show in making double-ka-meetha for Oscar night party at Manju's place. Manju threw a party to cheer for Slumdog Millionaire at her place. She cooks great food, and in great quantities - biryani, bagara baingan (all the good stuff from Hyd) - and it was delicious as usual.

We were about 15 people watching Oscars and rooting for Slumdog, and it was almost a slam for Slumdog! Kudos to Rahman and Resul. I thought it would have been blasphemous if the award for original music score went to the other person instead of Rahman - somehow when they performed live at the Oscars, it didn't seem like any competition at all. AR Rahman has made some great music over the decades, and I guess it was high time he won the Academy award for music. We also had our own entertainment in the form of Oscar trivia from Manju and some charades.

There is always a hoopla (and a bit of going overboard) with everything (every success, and much the same damning with every failure) in India -- ranging from wild celebrations to wild media coverage debating how and why we should celebrate it. After all, it was a movie.. made by a British director with Indian cast, and it won some awards. That's about it . I guess the movie was a good one, even though it might not be a great one but surely worth celebrating the success of Indians who won the Oscars. It is surely a matter of pride that Resul and Rahman have won, and it surely opens up some opportunities for future collaborations. Let not celebrations mean putting people on a pedestal, only to plunge them from their heights when they fail to live up to the unfair expectations that we build upon them! I believe people should lead their lives on their own terms.

There is an interesting debate on NDTV (The Big Fight: Slumdog reality): http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/Ndtv-Show-Special.aspx?ID=11

I thought Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri was very negative about the movie and was surprised to look him up to find this profile. Having such a negative take from 'a management guru, philosopher and economist' was kind of surprising to me! I saw the movie, and didn't feel anything negative about the main story (about how Jamaal rises from his circumstances to lead a life of dignity) - sure Anil Kapoor's character was obnoxious, but I felt that was beside the main theme of the movie. I was more interested in what Jamaal eventually achieves rather than all the people and factors trying to undermine him. Other debaters had some very valid points.

I could go on.. but I don't see a big issue celebrating the success of Slumdog! I liked the movie. I did think it was over-hyped, but hey, what the hell.. sometimes movies are. I was particularly delighted for the kids from the movie.