Posts
A billion of us drooled over the Oscars last year and didn't give a shit this time.
Slumdog Millionaire came and went. It also dropped a few Oscars on Indians. Resul Pookkutty and Rahman brought something to India that had been brought before, but with much more fanfare this time. Nobody remembered that Bhanu Athaiya won the Oscar years earlier for her work in Gandhi. The young media junkies ran amok with Rahman winning not one but two Oscars.
But that was all last year. By the time the Oscars came around this year, Slumdog Millionaire was an official dud at the box office in India, did nothing to inspire anyone, and didn't even leave enough of a buzz for the same director's next film, "127 Hours" to stay longer than a week in the theatres here.
Nobody cared to watch it for Danny Boyle or for A R Rahman who scored for his English master once again. Nobody even noticed the film came and went.
Moreover, what kind of moron would watch the Oscars when India is playing a match in the cricket world cup, especially on home turf? The hype of last year to recruit one billion Indians to the Oscar show viewership was palpable. The lack of it was curious this year. Nobody wins against cricket in India. And judging by yesterdays' game, nobody wins against India either!
But today, The Hindu reported that AR Rahman failed to win an Oscar. http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article1497148.ece "Failed"? Yes, according to the Press Trust Of India, this is lost ground! It is competition, it is "losing" and "winning", and it is another notch on the great Indian achievement pole when one of us brown skinned guys gets something from some white skinned judge. The bloody Oscar is a target. And Rahman missed it.
In fact, The PTI on The Hindu thinks Rahman returned "empty handed", just like Danny Boyle's movie "127 Hours", despite having a handful of nominations. So that is what we are without actually winning - empty handed. We're impoverished, useless. This is bad, bad, bad.
While all this is going on, this whole Oscar business is such a ho-hum for India, that it has even less buzz than one of our lasses strutting her butt trying to win Miss World. This is all in the "been there and done that" territory for new age India. No longer that interesting. But we recognize the "decline" if one of our dogs on any course doesn't come absolutely Number Fucking One!
Even though we were not watching the Oscar show, we had to check on our investment. We've called Rahman the "Mozart of Madras", even though his Oscar winning song from Slumdog was composed for a Hindi movie and thrown out by the producer of that film! As long as whitey is willing to clap, we are willing to encourage one of us to get more claps! That's all we care about. Our phallic feeling of "India rising".
We Indians are grooming all our children to get to thousands of targets. We don't give a shit about them being artists, or statesmen and stateswomen, or even being human anymore. We just want them to fucking win. Or else they might return "empty handed" like all the other useless nominees. Please fucking watch out for our monsters going on the rampage.
The cricket world cup is a much bigger prize than a stupid Oscar, and our boys on the cricket field win a whole lot more internationally than our clowns in cinema. So, why would we even give a shit about anything except cricket? Because there is so much shit to be WON! Because there is so much to gloat over. Not because we love the arts, or sport, or true human merit. But because we want to trample over everything and fucking get shit.
Now, do you get it?
- BSK.
Slumdog Millionaire came and went. It also dropped a few Oscars on Indians. Resul Pookkutty and Rahman brought something to India that had been brought before, but with much more fanfare this time. Nobody remembered that Bhanu Athaiya won the Oscar years earlier for her work in Gandhi. The young media junkies ran amok with Rahman winning not one but two Oscars.
But that was all last year. By the time the Oscars came around this year, Slumdog Millionaire was an official dud at the box office in India, did nothing to inspire anyone, and didn't even leave enough of a buzz for the same director's next film, "127 Hours" to stay longer than a week in the theatres here.
Nobody cared to watch it for Danny Boyle or for A R Rahman who scored for his English master once again. Nobody even noticed the film came and went.
Moreover, what kind of moron would watch the Oscars when India is playing a match in the cricket world cup, especially on home turf? The hype of last year to recruit one billion Indians to the Oscar show viewership was palpable. The lack of it was curious this year. Nobody wins against cricket in India. And judging by yesterdays' game, nobody wins against India either!
But today, The Hindu reported that AR Rahman failed to win an Oscar. http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article1497148.ece "Failed"? Yes, according to the Press Trust Of India, this is lost ground! It is competition, it is "losing" and "winning", and it is another notch on the great Indian achievement pole when one of us brown skinned guys gets something from some white skinned judge. The bloody Oscar is a target. And Rahman missed it.
In fact, The PTI on The Hindu thinks Rahman returned "empty handed", just like Danny Boyle's movie "127 Hours", despite having a handful of nominations. So that is what we are without actually winning - empty handed. We're impoverished, useless. This is bad, bad, bad.
While all this is going on, this whole Oscar business is such a ho-hum for India, that it has even less buzz than one of our lasses strutting her butt trying to win Miss World. This is all in the "been there and done that" territory for new age India. No longer that interesting. But we recognize the "decline" if one of our dogs on any course doesn't come absolutely Number Fucking One!
Even though we were not watching the Oscar show, we had to check on our investment. We've called Rahman the "Mozart of Madras", even though his Oscar winning song from Slumdog was composed for a Hindi movie and thrown out by the producer of that film! As long as whitey is willing to clap, we are willing to encourage one of us to get more claps! That's all we care about. Our phallic feeling of "India rising".
We Indians are grooming all our children to get to thousands of targets. We don't give a shit about them being artists, or statesmen and stateswomen, or even being human anymore. We just want them to fucking win. Or else they might return "empty handed" like all the other useless nominees. Please fucking watch out for our monsters going on the rampage.
The cricket world cup is a much bigger prize than a stupid Oscar, and our boys on the cricket field win a whole lot more internationally than our clowns in cinema. So, why would we even give a shit about anything except cricket? Because there is so much shit to be WON! Because there is so much to gloat over. Not because we love the arts, or sport, or true human merit. But because we want to trample over everything and fucking get shit.
Now, do you get it?
- BSK.
No comments:
Post a Comment