8 Below!

Academy Awards have always established their prestige over the years commemorating motion pictures for their sheer brilliance in all fields. It serves as an impetous for the people in the industry to do better,perform better. But there is a BUT! Recently they have become a farce and have a supreme tendency to overlook films who revolve around excellence and are heavily artistic with their "out of the box" approach.

Every year I look forward to them hoping to see their talent and hard-work rewarded. The awards are for the sole purpose of highlighting the year's performance and not lifetime achievement. Else I am sure Kate Winslet would have won the best Actor(Female) award every year much to the jealousy of Meryl Streep! :P

With Slum-DOG making a clean sweep with 8 awards and people over-hyping the already frenzy crowd with their excitement really made me think. Was the movie that deserving? 8 academy awards is not A JOKE! Have people become that blind that they have absolutely no sense of whats being shown to them? Have people forgotten the awards are meant for excellence and not generation of entertainment! Anyways I thought Tina Fey/Steve Martin/Ellen DeGeneres would anyday make a better host than Wolverine!

Is my thinking biased since I am stuck on a movie which really took my senses away in 2008. Lets put it this way, Oscars are a battle between movies. So if you dont compare different genre's of movies you wont have a winner. Else start a new Oscar for every genre of film. I wonder how many of these events will Tropic Thunder take part in!!

Coming to the clean sweep.

1. Wikipedia lists Slumdog Millionaire as a British movie. Indians dont get so hyper please! Just because its based in India doesnt make it Indian! ;)

2. Wikipedia also lists Slumdog Millionaire as a Romantic Comedy! ROTFL! For those with doubts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_comedy_film#Later_romantic_comedies
Please check the Later Romantic Comedies List!

3. Did Freida Pinto actually have a role in the movie?

4. How many 12 year old kids would go to a brothel and threaten the pimp with a gun and get his so called GF out of the Flesh Trade only to realise that she's later gonna be banged by his own brother and the Boss!

5. There's Benjamin Franklin of a 100$ note and he's clueless about Gandhiji on a 100 rupee note.

6. A slum-school teaches The Three Musketeers! Great!

7. He's a matka millionaire! He guesses the last answer.

8. If you do feel co-incidences have less odds, the storyline's odds would be 1/10000000000000000000000000000000000000000!

9. Highly improbable concept touching the story of a boy in the perfect chronological order.

10. What was a Krishna kid doing in the slums when there are riots going on! A messenger of peace? :P

11. Why does the host have to be jealous if the kid's winning when he is supposed to generate empathy towards him! What a fucked up character!

12. Cinematography - Amazing! Good Work!

13. Editing - Deserved the Oscar! Great Work!

14. Best Adapted Screenplay - This was a real joke! The movie was way way way too different from the book! Look at the amount ofdifferences! I guess Harry Potter is also a good adaptation then!

15. Music(Score) - A.R.Rahman. Should I be happy for a fellow Indian's success? Hell yeah I am! Did he deserve it? Jai Ho vs Rang De Basanti(All Songs!)/Taal/Yuva/Joddha Akbar/Bomaby and the list goes on.

16. Music(Song) - Rahman and Gulzar. Did they really understand the lyrics of the song? Or did they need subtitles!

17. Are 15 and 16 deserving after Newton Howard and Zimmer broke all records on last.fm even beating Enya!!

18. Sound Mixing! - WTF! After such pathetic background score, sound mixer also gets an academy award!!

19. Its just a picture of an ignorant India sold to the western world. Are we really that ignorant today?

20. Are we still that backward? Dont Indians compete at the very pinnacle of world level. Even a downtrodden person like the household maid can afford a cellphone!!

21. Why is it that the western world enjoys watching a rural india when we have so much to boast about. Our tourism, our history, our culture, our unified spirit, our cricket, our hospitality.

22. Why dont you support your country rather than support the movie which depicts only 1% of what we are and what we are capable of. Dont forget American companies crave for Indian students. Why?

23. Why is that there is a sudden increase in brain-gain?

24. Why is it that international companies have started setting their bases in India? Why is it that IIT and IIM is still better than Stanford or Wharton?

25. Why is India still being overlooked by our own people? Why are we crushing our own heritage?

I wish I had written this earlier. I do not recall parts of the movie due to my excessive watching of movies. And I definitely dont want to waste another 2 hours watching shit. Even my dog can point such things out. This is not a biased review of the ultimately "Flawless" movie but a pure look through of the mind. Some people might just push it to the back of their head citing the element of fiction, but what my real question is that does it deserve 8? Havent you seen better movies over the year. This year's Academy Awards were a total disappointment and really killed their importance and status. Take some time to think about these 25 things I have mentioned and then comment. 8 was really not called for. When 2 would actually suffice. Does Slumdog Millionaire really affect your mind so much? Does Slumdog Millionaire score greatly amongst the multitude of excellent films? Does Slumdog Millionaire have the key elements to bag 8? Does Slumdog Millionaire seem flawless? Think about it! ;)

Dead or Alive?!

Facing death is inevitable. Though its like a long holiday but the timing should be appropriate. I am sure no one wants to die a virgin! And no one wants to die at a young age. The way I drive my car, 80% people have refused to sit with me, 19% have forced me to drive through crowded roads and I couldnt find the daring 1%!!

Anyways in just 1 day my path with death almost crossed!! Ironically twice!!

Incident no. 1 -

It was a sunny Sunday morning. I was on my way to Shivaji Park for football. My 800 did a good a speed at Priyadarshini and I cut a lane into the Sion Flyover. The traffic was moderate on both ends. A white Indica followed me at close distance. For the very FIRST TIME in my life I genuinely though "Aaram se chalata hoon." My speedometer pointer didnt cross 55 kmph and I was enjoying the cool wind. I crossed the top of the fly-over and looked ahead. A Honda City speeding ahead in the wrong lane followed by a fully loaded Truck. I was like "FUCK!!!, aaj tu gaya beta!" The Indica was also catching up on me. I could imagine myself as a victim of some trap set by Jigsaw in Saw 8 being crushed to death. I braked gradually hoping to escape it. The Indica was inches away now. The City was also quite near. I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them. At the very last moment the City and the Truck cut into their respective lanes!! PHEWWWW! My heart slowed down. My legs were actually trembling and I had problems pressing the clutch! Anyways I escaped from the jaws of death!


Incident no. 2 -

This was the same Sunday night. After Mama and Mota had Sex on the Beach we left from Orchid. I was waiting on Parth's Accent(Dude I really love that car! How much are you selling it for?) bonnet while Deep parked his car. Suddenly Parth starts driving. I grabbed his wipers and he screeches! My heart was in my mouth...I was swearing loudly on the road! And suddenly he brakes! I pulled of a wiper as I slipped off the bonnet. The momentum threw me ahead. I was trying to run on the road. After twisting my ankle twice that day my figers seemed to be crush. Parth stopped inches wide from me. I really thought that was the end of me! With a Swift swooshing past in the other lane, even a small movement of the steering would have caused me to die!


Twice in a day I evaded death! It was luck by chance but I sucked life's and danced! :D :P