Eklavya for Oscars - The Real Entertainment Begins

Eklavya - The Royal Guard, may not have proved be entertaining enough for many movie buffs when it released a few months back. But the controversy over it being nominated for the Oscars is sure to keep all of us entertained. Have a look at the verbal volleys being thrown at Eklavya (and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, obviously):

Farah Khan:  I don’t think Eklavya is an exceptional film

Bhavna Talwar (maker of the film Dharam): The FFI is embarrassing not just the film industry but also the whole country

FFI chaiman Vinod Pandey: It was a shock to me that Dharm, a competent, poignant and relevant film, didn’t make it. Dharm was technically brilliant, outstanding in terms of photography, sound design, art design and had nuanced performances. The only thing it did not have were superstars. 

and now for Chopra’s retort

 ”What are the credentials of these people…what is their understanding of cinema..where does their allegiance lie,

[...]

last year Lage Raho didn’t go, did I, Raju or anybody from my office say why Munnabhai didn’t go, it was a better film. Before that Parineeta didn’t go, Paheli went. Did I say that Shah Rukh made a stupid film? My films didn’t go for two years, I didn’t bother anyone, why are they bothering us now

[...]

The young filmmaker whose film hasn’t gone, I heard, she has said in Mid Day that Eklavya was a boring film. I can tell her, I saw your film, and I thought it was a load of shit. It’s immature, childish”

How’s that for some entertainment?

Let me make it clear that I am full of hope that we will win a best foreign language film Oscar during my life time, but I really feel that the nominations over the last few years could have been brushed aside long before the awards were given out. And I also feel that several good movies missed out. Cases in point being Omkara and Black.

I saw Eklavya. Found it to be OK, really. The movie buffs around me thought the photography wagera was excellent but almost everyone, including myself, agreed that the movie was slow. Suffices to say that this year too our chances are all but zero.

Irrespective of what happens at the Oscars, one thing is sure, I will watch Dharam. It did not release in Hyderabad, for whatever reasons. For the time being though it’s back to VVC and the others. Keep them coming boys!

P.S: I liked this suggestion by Atul Tiwari, the scriptwriter of Shyam Benegal’s Netaji: Whichever film wins the National Award should be sent to the Oscars. That way, even films made in languages other than Hindi have a chance to make it as an Oscar entry. Then it doesn’t matter whether the film is critically or commercially acclaimed

Image courtesy: allbollywood | Quotes sourced from Sify and ToI

Cricket and Hockey in India - State of the Sports

The state of sports and sports persons in India could not have been better explained than it was over the last two days. On the one hand, the euphoria created by the Indian Cricket team’s fantastic win in the T20 World Cup in South Africa and on the other the threat by the Hockey players, who won the Asia Cup Hockey tournament in spectacular fashion not long ago, to go on a hunger strike in protest of the rewards being showered by the state governments on cricketers. While the cricketers get loads of rewards in cash and kind, the Hockey team gets a Rs 1000 ‘incentive‘ for every goal scored. In such a scenario, could their protest be more justified?

Hockey might be the our national game but cricket rules our minds and hearts. Unfortunately, or shall we say thanks to the pathetic sports administrators, there is a lack of level playing field for the two sports to compete for the attention of viewers or sponsors. The imbalance can be guaged by the fact that there is a sports channel dedicated to cricket, whereas most of the viewers are not even aware of when or where the next Hockey tournament of which India is a part will be held.

The cricketers deserved all the praise they got, they played superbly. And initially the rewards too made sense, since most of them came from the BCCI. But what started like a small party began to look a gaudy wedding of a millionaire’s son/daughter…the likes of which we keep reading about in newspapers every now and then. Chief Ministers of different states lost no time in announcing huge rewards to the cricketers from their states with the obvious intention of cashing in on the opportunity to gain attention. Even the Telangana Rashtra Samiti announced rewards!

While the TRS can be excused–it most probably used its own black-money-filled cauffers–what reason do the other parties in power have to spend the tax payer’s money in this manner? I dont think many people want to know answers to these questions. They are just too lost in the T20 euphoria and once this euphoria dies down, they won’t worry about it anyway. At least the Hockey team has raised a voice. And I feel that there could not have been a better time to do so.

I am hopeful as ever that things change for the better.

Smoking - Indian Women # 3 in the World!

Check this out.

Indian women are number 3 in the world when it comes to smoking (Indian men are joint number 5)! They are only behind the US (not surprising) and Bangladeshi (!) women. I guess most of them are from the rural areas, and this could be true about Bangladesh as well where tobacco is a major crop.

I wonder what Anbumani Ramadoss, the honourable health minister of India, self-declared anti-smoking activist who decreed not so long ago that employers (read male smokers) could not smoke in the presence of their maid without her permission, would have to say about this. What plans does he have to stop women from smoking? None as of now and I do not see any in the future as well, simply because most of the women smokers happen to reside in villages and banning smoking in villages could have a direct impact on the votes!

Hatsoff to India - The Twenty20 Champs

Image Courtesy: Rediff

Hatsoff!

The feeling is something else when no one gives you a chance and you come up trumps. I myself had felt that India did not have much of a chance. Glad to have been proven wrong. Well done team India.

Sethusamudram - Swaminathan Aiyar’s Take

You can always expect Swaminathan Aiyar, an economist who also writes a weekly column in the Times of India’s Sunday edition, to come up with a unique perspective on economic issues. So, when the whole nation is debating the existence or non-existence of Lord Ram, Aiyar comes up with a common sense approach to the issue. In his column dated 23rd Sep, 2007, he provides enivronmental and economic reasons for opposing the project. He questions the very basis of such a project and the so called economic benefits it’d bring.

The Suez and Panama Canals save ships thousands of miles, and that makes them profitable. Sethusamundaram is not remotely comparable. It is designed for small ships (the project documents talk of 20,000 DWT), whereas the Panama Canal takes ships of up to 65,000 DWT and Suez takes ships up to 150,000 DWT.

The Suez and Panama canals were dug through land corridors, and once dug stayed dug - they did not face sand inundation from the sea. However, Sethusamundaram will be a furrow in the sea-bed, at the constant mercy of currents bearing sand.

[...]

My own major fear is not so much that the project will ruin the environment, but that the environment will ruin the project. I fear that ocean currents will keep dumping fresh sand in the furrow of the canal. The Palk Straits are shallow not by accident but because sand-bearing currents have made them so. Combating the full force of nature is perilous, expensive and sometimes impossible.”

Certainly food for thought and has taken my mind away from the politics being played around the issue, first by the BJP and then by DMK.

Meanwhile, a huge debate has been raging back at the Freehyderabad forums I frequent.

Link to the article via IndiaUncut.