Oscars & Our films

A million butterflies subsided inside the stomach of fans as they let off let a sigh a relief after Leonardo Dicaprio finally received his best actor award at the 88th Academy awards for 'The Revenant'. Not that, it is Leo's best work till date but given the plethora of work that he has done over the years, it seemed almost unfair that he didn't receive it earlier.

'The Revenant' also earned a successive best director award for Alejandro González Iñárritu. Needless to say about the talent of this Mexican, who burst into the scene with his "Death Trilogy" comprising Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). Though, he has made films such as 'Biutiful (2010) and won the Oscar for Birdman (2014) last year, the death trilogy remains one of his best work.

The Revenant has a revenge story which has been done and dusted around the world, including India but what brings the film alive is its setting in the wilderness of the 1980s, its cinematography and performances. So it is a welcome decision that it didn't win the best film, rather that award went to 'spot light' which depicts the investigative journalism which went into uncovering the sexual abuses of the church.

'Spot light' reminds us about two films which I had watched during my growing up days -- All the President's Men (1976) and The Killing fields (1984). Another film which I liked recently was Kill the Messenger (2014), which also had a similar investigative journalism theme.

I wonder when we will make such films in India. After all, we too had our shares of investigative reporting in the last 60 years.

'Room' and 'The Danish Girl' fetched Brie Larson the Best Actress award and Alicia Vikander the Best Supporting Actress respectively. Both the films have got a thumbs up from the audience and I too want to watch them as soon as possible.

The actor who received the Best Supporting Actor prize for Steven Spielberg's 'Bridge of Spies' is Mark Rylance. Bridge of Spies is a amazing story set in the cold war and has such a power-packed performance from none other than two-time academy award winner Tom Hanks. But yet, it is Rylance who stole the show with his measured portrayal of a soviet spy arrested in US. The film is an extraordinary story of grit and human empathy that leaves you overwhelmed. May be Bollywood too can try out their hands, making a film on the time when KGB agents penetrated India during the 1970s or may be about the forgotten spies who were part of India's covert wars with Pakistan.

Coming back to the Oscars, one film that deserves mentions is Mad Max: Fury Road, the craziest film that I have seen in my life. This reboot of the late 1970s and 1980s, Mad Max was so different from the original and so creative that it made everybody awestruck with its sound design, editing and deservingly, it won a host of technical awards, including Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

Well, all that is dark in Indian cinema tough. In Bollywood itself, with films such as Talwar, Haider, Gangs of Wasseypur, Neerja, Airlift, Baby and a few others, we too are slowly and steadily trying our hands in telling different stories of life and struggle. We have a treasure trove of good cinema in regional film industry and the Bollywood stalwarts need to encourage and invest in them to help in succeeding our own Oscar dream.

I wonder what drives actors like Nawazuddin Siddique?

I guess it will be an unstoppable desire, an unshakable self belief and a zen like state of consciousness. 

Or else, how do you find that motivation to get going when the industry you work with doesn't reward you enough for your hard work? 

A look at the various award function of Bollywood (We are talking about Indian commercial cinema here) and it becomes clear that awards only recognizes or considers the films which are commercial success. It doesn't matter if someone has done a better role in a film which may not have filled up the coffers of the producers. 

Let us take the case of Nawazuddin Siddique or Kalki Koechlin for that matter. 

Nawaz portrayed three different characters in Bollywood cinema last year and in two of them he aged from 20s to 50s. Anybody who has watched his flawless renditions in 'Badlapur' and 'Mountain Man' would vouch for it. There could not have been a 'Badlapur' or 'Mountain Man' or 'Bajrangi Bhaijan' without him and yet he is beaten by Ranveer Singh for the best actor award in most award functions.

Thanks to Sony Guild Awards, they at least found him worthy of Best Supporting Actor for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Best Actor in a Negative Role for Badlapur. 

As for last night's Filmfare Awards, he could just watch as Anil Kapoor walked away with the supporting actor and Ranveer hold the black lady as the best actor.

Kalki's case is worse. She was exceptional in ‘Margarita with a Straw’ and I wonder why an actor like her is not even nominated in best actors nomination. As someone who plays a girl with cerebral palsy, talking us through her struggles of life, Kalki had given the best performance of her life but yet it falls flat on the jury. 

Well for actors such as Nawaz and Kalki, probably, these awards doesn't matter. But recognition and acknowledgment fuel desire and ambition to achieve greater heights. These actors are trying to remove the stains of glitter and glamour from our eyes. They are trying to wear those layers and layers of human frailties to show us the picture of real world. They are the only hopes of a kind of cinema which talks about the ethos and pathos of the poor and burgeoning lower middle class. 

Their dreams gives hope to many other writers, actors and filmmakers to dream something bigger and so when they don't get what they deserve, it becomes one step back to mediocrity.

P.S. Ranveer Singh was good in Bajirao Mastani and as a film aficionado I am happy for him. He has come a long way and also to get this at this point where his girl friend Deepika Padukone also won the best actress award is special but he was not better than Nawaz. period.

Birthdays: From bustling to boring

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When we were young, birthdays were the most awaited day in our calendar. It meant gifts, new clothes and a day away from books and studies. But more importantly, it meant a little more freedom which gave us access to many new things which made us curious as a kid.

But as we grow up and birthdays pass by, those boundaries which our parents used to put us in as kids, seem like garlands now, and living in those confinement the best part of our lives.

Growing up means there are no shackles to break, no walls to jump, no mysteries to unfold because you are independent with no horizon to limit your sights.

And so birthdays becomes boring. Wishes a whatsaap or Facebook status. Just another day. A fleeting moment which passes more quickly than we ever imagined.

Probably, because during this journey called life at some point we overturn the hour glass and put the watch on an anticlockwise mode. A diminishing timeline. A receding calculation. Because Birthdays becomes another reminder of slipping time.

So why do we lose that excitement, those butterflies which used to keep fluttering inside our heads even a day before the actual date? Where have all those faint smiles gone that always floated in our eyes and hanged in our lips on the day?

Possibly, we lose all expectations as we grow up. Or may be growing up means exposing to the various pains of life. So it feels like the burden of earth is thrust on our shoulders and just one day won't change anything.

So how to find that twinkle in our eyes on birthday? How to rediscover the inexplicable happiness?

Probably for that we have to reconnect with the child that we have left behind in this race of life. If we can trace our way back to him or her possibly only then every birthday will find its true meaning. Every year a gem which we will treasure. Every time it will become a new opportunity to cut a new corner and celebrate it in the next birthdays to come.

Hansal Mehta to complete his poetic masterpiece with Aligarh

Who would have known, Mr Hansal Mehta would be a poet? 

I certainty didn't. 

I realised only after I watched Shahid and City Lights. 

To pour the lives on those unfortunate souls on the canvass of his films is poetry indeed. 

The way he narrated the pathos of Shahid and Deepak Singh and his wife in City Lights seemed like pure cinema is standing bare naked for the world to see but as always the world doesn't always care. 

But the fact that in this times such poets too have a canvas to play with their brush show probably that not everything is wrong with this world. I'm now waiting for him to finish his trilogy with Aligarh.

Rajkumar Rao too have braved this troubled waters of human frailties and swam back to give us some precious jewels which the coming generations will remember. He is turning into one of the finest actors of Indian cinema. Hope Aligarh can complete the cycle of life.

Manoj Bajpai, who will be carrying the film on his shoulders in Aligarh doesn't need any introduction. Needless to say, he has always been like that soil which can produce any character once you put that seed in it. Whether it is Bandit Queen or Satya or Gangs of Wasseypur, he is a master craftsman and his presence ensures that the painting will never be spoiled. So for now, I m awaiting Aligarh.