Oscars and Elections.

So then, Indians and Maa have finally made their way to the Oscars and we hope that in the years to come, Nirma ki doodh si safedi, Rupa ki andar ki baat and Sunny Deol ka dhaai kilo ka haath will also reach the Kodak Theater in LA. But one guy who’ll be left behind in India would be the Bollywood ka baap because he’s never done anything good in his life. Either mera baap chor hai or else mere baap ke 4 affair aur 10 najayaz bachche hain. Now the only way he can make it to the Oscars is if he can pronounce the word Millionaire in 10 different ways and manage to be wrong each time. We can’t deny him then, can we? His simple argument would be – Dude, you took Anil Kapoor along and that’s the only thing he did in Slumdog. Except being generally annoying AND calling a contestant on your show a chaiwallah AND trying to hog a lot of limelight. Er, now that’s quite a lot, isn’t it? The only way I can justify that is that he’s Sonam Kapoor’s dad and she’s looking hot in Delhi-6. But that’s just me.

Just yesterday, Ruhi said and I quote (gee, I really should quit watching CNN-IBN), ” Now we’ll have all Indian blogs blogging about the greatness of Slumdog Millionaire. All posts will be mirror images of each other.”. Well, she was pretty accurate there. I saw many Indian blogs writing posts about Slumdog’s brilliantness. I agree with Ruhi when she says that Slumdog didn’t deserve to be the best movie. Danny Boyle for best director is agreed but Slumdog wasn’t THAT great to have deserved best movie. Both of A.R. Rahman’s awards were well deserved though. That said, I don’t think Slumdog was his best. Roja, Swades, Dil Se, Bombay and many more hidden here and there were much better. But they didn’t reach the Oscars, Slumdog did and that’s what counts in the end. The sheer humbleness of that guy is amazing. Wonder how he does that.

The attitude of the Indian news channels and the general Indian public towards the Oscars has changed a lot after Slumdog’s success. The same people who would talk about the Oscars being elitist and trying to ignore mainstream movies are found talking about their fairness now. Just because Slumdog won? Right. Smile Pinki won, that was good. Heath Ledger also won, that was much deserved. And I loved the way his family acted. Kate Winslet also won, so all in all I think the Oscars were pretty neat. If only they’d nominated Dark Knight in the best picture category. Didn’t want it to win but definitely wanted it to be there.

Among other things, LK Advani’s been doing a lot of e-campaigning lately. Bloggers have been receiving e-mails asking them to support Mr. Advani. They’re really trying their asses off to woo first time voters. Do they think we’re dumb? Well, they probably do. Elections are one point when voters are God. They can ask for anything ranging from money to booze. Ugh, I just had a really disturbing image of LK Advani emerging out of a lamp as a Genie. Well, I’ve got my 3 wishes ready :-

1. Stop sending us e-mails.
2. Shut down your website.
3. Go back into the lamp. AND STAY THERE!

Oh and I totally have to mention the video of the song Pichle Saat Dinon Mein from Rock On. I just love it for the sheer visual delight of watching Sir Arjun Rampal play the most complicated leads on the guitar without even moving his hands on the fretboard. There’s one instance in the movie where Farhan Akhtar says that Joe ke haath mein jadoo hai. I think what he really meant was that there’s such magic in Joe’s hands that he doesn’t even have to move them on the fretboard. Chords and frets apne aap hi change ho jaati hain. I guess the chords and the frets felt pity for Rampal. Bechaara ek aadmi itne kaam kaise karega? Especially someone like Arjun Rampal who has to work really hard to move the 4 movable muscles on his face. How can you expect him to play the guitar properly as well? Itna Emosanal Atyachaar?! Tauba tauba!

Here’s the video, just for kicks.