http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2009/02/21/between-reviews-a-one-dog-race/
Comment : 33
brangan Says:
By the way, I was asked to write an instant editorial on the Oscar business.
This is what I came up with:
As expected, AR Rahman won the most prestigious film award in the globe. As
expected, he thanked his mother (“Mere paas maa hai,” he joked, invoking a line
from Deewar that, unfortunately, no one in the audience understood), all his
musicians from Chennai and Mumbai, and above all, God. This is the first time
Tamil was spoken on the Oscar stage (“Ella pugazhum iraivan oruvanukke,” Rahman
said, meaning that all praise goes to the Almighty). This is the first time an
Indian won two Oscars. So it would all seem to add up to something big.
But the victory of Slumdog Millionaire is just a flash in the pan, a sweet
little feel-good moment and nothing else. As several people have pointed out,
it’s first and foremost a British film, not an Indian film, and among the
reasons for its success are that it followed the Hollywood model of
storytelling, familiar to audiences worldwide. (The Bollywood elements were
merely spicy gravy.) So the grand night at the Oscars doesn’t imply that Mumbai
will have to gear up for an avalanche of production crews from other parts of
the globe. There’s Gandhi as a precedent. It won eight Oscars – and what
happened? It was nearly three decades before Danny Boyle landed up with his
crew and told a story about India.
Slumdog Millionaire will go down in Oscar history as a kind of Rocky, a film
that was hugely loved during its time and now remembered mainly as the film
that put Sylvester Stallone on the map. And the person put on the map, this
time, is AR Rahman. He may find doors opening to him in Hollywood. But it is
still the traditional symphonic score that drives most of Hollywood, so is
important that Rahman capitalise on his win and bag a few “non-exotic”
projects, so that he doesn’t become the go-to guy only when a “Bollywood-style”
Jai Ho number is needed. (This isn’t to say that Rahman should reject any such
offers., but he should also look out for projects that allow him to stretch.)
But all that can wait. Let’s just savour his win for now. This is a moment
that’s not likely top be repeated, at least not via projects made within the
country. The wise minds that submit films for Oscar consideration (in the
foreign film category) always manage to pick movie that underwhelm, so even
that solitary Oscar doesn’t look likely. And this only makes Rahman’s double
win so special – a global recognition for a truly global musician.
