OSCAR NIGHT FEVER!

Hi Friends,

How are you doing? Trust that the New Year kick-started on a bright note for all and I pray that this spirit continues to sparkle all through the year! And for those whom the New Year began on a not-so-bright note...you still have 11 months to go...so cheer up and let's thanks God for the gift of Today, so that we may be able to make the best of Tomorrow!

Crime,Controversies,Corruption and Political instability continue to make news these days and like always not a day passes when everything has gone off smoothly around the world.So early in the year, I wouldn't like to do a recap of events which are not of your making and your liking either...though I did promise a reader of mine that I'd definitely write an article in one of my upcoming blog postings on the News-maker of the Decade,Julian Assange who has taken the world by storm. Incidentally,I made up my mind to write on him when my reader wrote to me asking me to write on anything besides Cinema! So...you'll have to wait on for that one...and by the way if you have anything interesting to share on any subject of your choice and yes, even on Julian Assange, feel free to write. You may email me your articles at -sonyaa.random.musings@gmail.com

COPY THAT...HOWZZZAT!

What’s original these days? Nothing really...take Bollywood for that matter! LIFTING, COPYING, INSPIRATION,REMAKE,PLAGIARISM or IMITATION (Yes in ALL CAPS) are all the same as far as Hindi films are concerned and yet we feel offended and find it derogatory if our industry is referred to as Bollywood, but we don’t give a damn or even seem to care the least if we are constantly lifting content for films from our Western counterparts...now that’s the limit! Where’s the quality and what’s original these days?? Take our shoddily edited and produced animation films,in terms of quality, storyboard and treatment....can we confidently compare it to an Avatar or a Toy Story? We talk of stars remuneration running into 15-20 crores per film (surely the budget of the film has to be even more!) and yet we we don’t have the budget to think out of the box in terms of originality be it in terms of our story, scripting, treatment and even our production values! Pity! And about the casting the less said the better! I will discuss more about it later in this article. By now you must be wondering where is my rambling in this month’s posting ultimately leading you too....Well let’s get back to the start of start.

CHANGE WE MUST, CHANGE WE CAN

Hello Friends,

How are you doing? Trust all's fine with you by the grace of God.Last month's blog I spoke about women's emancipation and liberation and explained that the day a woman can stand up to her convictions and refuse to accept her identity by the stereotypical roles defined for her, from that day on everyday would be Women's Day.

Here's some good news from the west and some not-so-good news from India on this front.Okay, here it is....in the history of Oscars,Kathryn Bigelow,ex-wife of James Cameron (whose film Avatar was tipped to sweep the Oscars...yeah as I was told!) became the first woman to win the Oscar for the Best Director and the Best Film for her film The Hurt Locker...and it swept away some major wins in the other categories as well. No doubt about that,it was definitely Bigelow's biggest evenings of her life! Though one had the gut feeling that she'd win the Oscar when she won at the BAFTA's and I had an inkling that her win was imminent....but then Avatar was a favorite too after all Cameron toppled his own film Titanic with the highest grossing film worldwide with the collections of a record $2,685,140,003 ...so this fact could not be ignored either. Another factor if I analyze things correctly was at the BAFTAs in 2008, when Danny Boyle swept the BAFTA's for his film Slum-dog Millionaire and that gave him the edge at the Oscars...so definitely Bigelow had earned her brownies before the big night and took home the coveted prize (right under the nose from her ex-husband)!