oSCARS - A Slum Event
"Ladies and Gentlemen! We are tonight's entertainment," declares a suave yet terrifying Heath Ledger aka Joker interrupting a party in The Dark Knight. But Danny Boyle and his crew were yesterday night's entertainment while Heath Ledger was watching the drollery at the Kodak Hall from far away.
Oh! 8 Oscars for a movie that would not have even won a State Award in India. Was it the real Oscars ceremony that was broadcast live on Star Movies or a Bhojpuri film award function? Where was THE DARK KNIGHT? These were my reactions after watching the Academy Awards.
My friends were craving about Slumdog Millionaire and even concluded that Indian talent was at last recognized. I just asked them to watch The Dark Knight, which had won only one award. If not for Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight would have been left in the dark. I had to yell about the sagging viewership of Oscars and desperate attempts by the organizers to revive the show's ratings.
If Slumdog is the best picture then either the standard of Oscars has gone down or the other movies in the category are even more pathetic. Accepting the fact that Oscars have, more often than not, embraced art movies and movies which are close to real life, it is hard to digest that Slumdog Millionaire which doesn't belong to the art category or even the mainstream cinema, was voted as the best picture. The movie deals with a beaten to death theme and comprises hell lot of glaring mistakes and surreal art.
The best director award for Danny Boyle has given me rays of hope of winning an Oscar myself. I will make a movie on the Telangana issue and show people suffering, yet speaking in English with British accent. I will approach Fox Search Light or Laxman Sylavania Tube Light for distributing my film. The timing of release is very important. I will start the process when I feel that the organizers of the show are desperate for improving viewership.
I am on the job right away!
PS: An insane quote from Karunanidhi after A R Rahman had won the Oscars. "I join 100 crore (1 billion) Indians and six crore (60 million) Tamils in showering flowers of appreciation with pure minds on this scion from a minority community."
Dark Knight @ IMAX
The wait was over and I finally managed to watch The Dark Knight on IMAX screen. Positive reviews from the media and my friends increased my desire to watch Batman on the biggest screen. But somehow the movie alluded me all these days. On Saturday I declared that I was going alone to Prasadz when my friends and my brother, who initially refused to accompany me to the 11 pm show, agreed to join me.
Though it was my third visit to IMAX, I was as excited as a small child who is waiting for his toy cover to be opened. The Warner Bros signature video appeared (get me the right word), but occupied only three-fourth of the screen. I was disappointed and thought the whole movie would be shown in the same format. But before I turned to my friend to express my disappointment, a full screen visual of a city from a building top appeared, taking all of us by surprise. Oh!, Ah! and Ne Yamma! were a few exclamations I could hear. The next few minutes featured the entry of the Joker and a high voltage bank robbery, in the IMAX format.
Director Christopher Nolan diligently used an IMAX camera to film a few sequences, especially action episodes and some quiet scenes. The shift from a normal mode to IMAX format during action sequences created greater visual impact. The long shots over high rise buildings and the Batman flying over Gotham city and Hong Kong looked amazing in the larger format. I could feel the intensity of the movie and the IMAX format made me feel a part of the action sequences. The following are my top scenes:
1. The Joker’s entrance shot from the back (awesome in the IMAX format)
2. Batman abducting Lau in Hong Kong
3. Huge truck overturning
4. Joker burning his share of money
5. Joker blasting the hospital
While Christian Bale was impressive as Batman and Bruce Wayne, late Heath Ledger as the Joker walks away with the accolades.
Image taken at Prasadz, Hyderabad.
