The Great Ganesha

After three years of downright boring ceremonies, Ellen brought the Oscars back to their original glory – with all the glamor, glitz and glitter that Hollywood is associated with. And, of course, by glitz and glitter, I mean Botox and Silicone. Seriously though, this time the Oscars were actually fun to watch, even though they went on for around an hour longer than they really should have.

Now, don’t misunderstand me, this is by no means a validation of the awards they gave out. I stopped taking those seriously when Tom Hanks won Best Actor two years in a row, one of which was for Forrest Gump. This year, while I do think Martin Scorcese should have won Best Director for Raging Bull or even for Goodfellas, he really did not deserve it for Infernal Affairs The Departed. From among the Best Picture nominees, I’m not even sure if any one of them really even deserved to be there. However, grudgingly I will admit, if someone were to put a gun to my head, that The Departed was not that bad compared to the others. And in some perverse sense, it deserved the award. Even though it was a remake.

Best Supporting Actress deserved to go to Adrianna Barazza from Babel. And even though I didn’t think too much of the movie (being a much, much bigger fan of I??rritu’s Amores Perros), I had to admit that her performance was excellent in the film. It was nice that Jennifer Hudson won – I’m sure it’ll do wonders for her career, but let’s face it, Dreamgirls was a bad movie in many respects, including (and especially) the acting.

I would argue for Best Foreign Film going to Pan’s Labyrinth, but I have yet to see The Lives of Others and I have heard several good things about it. Water did not deserve even to be nominated – there are several more worthy entries from India. Is it too naive to think that since it was officially listed as the entry from Canada, people will think that it’s Canadian? You never know… And while Pan’s Labyrinth had excellent cinematography, I think Children of Men should have won Best Cinematography. Then again, a true masterpiece isn’t really a masterpiece until it’s shunned by the Academy.

One has to praise the lord that Meryl Streep didn’t win the Best Actress award, although I really would not have been surprised if she had – I wouldn’t put anything past the Academy. I am glad that Helen Mirren won. I’ve been a big fan, ever since I saw Prime Suspect on Star TV back in Bombay. Another notable (and pleasantly surprising) choice was Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor. He definitely deserved it. Other good choices were Best Actor to Forest Whitaker and Best Art Direction to Pan’s Labyrinth.

It’s also cool that there was such an international flavor this time, with so many foreign films being nominated in normally mainstream categories. It’s interesting to see how mainstream Hollywood has influenced the way people think about foreigners and through that, influenced Foreign Policy itself. The strong international presence in this time’s Oscars certainly gives one hope that it will change things for the better some time in the near future.

So maybe I shouldn’t be so cynical about the Academy. Then again, Borat was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay so can you really blame me?

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