AR Rahman: On his way to a Double Oscar?

Will he win both the Oscars? There is a very good chance he will. If he does, he would be emulating Howard Shore. In 2003, Howard Shore won 2 Oscars, one for the Best original score and the other for Best Original Song for the movies 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'. As the Oscar weekend arrives, interest is understandable high in India for the nominations of AR Rahman, Gulzar and Rasool Pookutty. Especially AR Rahman -'The Mozart of Madras' as the TIME magazine called him, has a very good chance of achieving what Pandit Ravi Shankar couldn't in 1982 for 'Gandhi'. Pt.Ravi Shankar was then nominated for Best Original Score.

He is expected to at least win the Oscar for 'Best Original Score' hands down. In fact, he has an unfair advantage with 'Slumdog Millionaire', which is shaped on the lines of a Mumbai-made Hindi film, where the music is as important as the imagery and the narrative. “We wanted it edgy, upfront. Danny [Boyle, who directed] wanted it loud,” says Rahman about the score. So his soundtrack occupies the central space and propels 'Slumdog..' with its zing and grandeur. Music in Other Hollywood nominations, obviously, do not serve that kind of impact. It is difficult to imagine how 'Slumdog..' would have shaped without that kind of score. He won the Oscar for the score at every major film festival in past few weeks, including the Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Critics Choice Awards in LA.

Now this brings us to his Double nominations in the Song category for the songs 'O Saya..' and 'Jai Ho..'. The other sole nomination is from “Down to Earth” from 'WALL-E'. Rahman, in addition to the 2 nominations, has an advantage here too. The Academy has always shown a tendency of shying away from awarding tracks relegated to a film’s closing credits. They believe these kind of songs are mainly tools to market the movie and the movie wouldn't suffer without the song. In other words, the academy looks not just at the merit of a tune but also how vital the tune is within the narrative of the movie. The Peter Gabriel's song from 'WALL-E' plays over the closing credits. So Rahman is undeniably the favourite and my favourite is 'O Saya..' which amidst all slum poverty brings out the joie de vivre of Jamal and Salim in 'Slumdog..'. However, it is also to be noted that the WALL-E song won the Grammy last week. But then 'Slumdog..' was not in fray. The Golden Globe was won by "The Wrestler" by Bruce Springsteen from the movie 'The Wrestler', which to the shock of many of the fans of 'The Boss', is not even nominated for the Oscar. But then, this song too plays over the closing credits.
The nominations show that the Academy is nodding to a world beyond Hollywood. That fits in well when they have a president in White House with Kenyan ancestry. It would be a great thing for Indian music. And considering that 'slumdog..' is not exactly Rahman's best when you think about what he dished out last year in 'Jodha Akbar' or the 'Delhi 6' stuff that's ruling airwaves these days, we can be sure many more young musicians would be ready to work hard and experiment with the many sounds - Western classical, Indian classical, jazz, opera, sufi, folk, African beats, Arabian sounds, reggae, hip-hop, rap, rock, pop, blues etc. Rahman has been fervently doing all this especially the last couple of years.

Indians who won Oscar earlier -
Bhanu Athaiya, shared the Oscar with John Mollo for "Costume Design" (1982) for the film "Gandhi".
Vanita Rangaraju-Ramanan, was credited with an Oscar in the "Technical - Lighting" category for the animation film "Shrek" (2002).
Satyajit Ray, won the Lifetime Achievement Special Oscar (1992).

There could be others of Indian origin in technical crew in Hollywood productions who won an Oscar. Starting this edition, we many not have search on the net for our winners :)

Dev D: Devdas On Dope

"It appears that I was born to write Devdas because you were born to re-create it in cinema."
- Sarath Chandra Chattopadhyay to PC Baruah after watching latter's adaptation in 1935 Nearly a 100 years after its written, here is one more re-creation. One with an open mind wouldn't mind watching Dev D, an ambitious and audacious rework of the classic Devdas. And yeah, this is not at all for the weak-hearted conservatives, who would anyway prefer to call this Emotional Atyachar. This is a rework and not a remake. And a rework of not just the characters' names and the backdrop (Devdas becomes Devender Singh Dhillon, a spoilt brat, and is relocated to Punjab and Delhi from Bengal) but the core - love between Devdas and Paro. Dev D is not as much about heart-aching lost love as it is about confused youth trying to make out what he actually loves and that is the biggest negative of this film, getting bereft of the soulful love story. So no wonder, Abhay Deol, despite such a fine performance could not elicit sympathy for his character. And in all probability, sympathy is not what Anurag Kashyap or Abhay Deol were counting on for this Devdas. Dev D is set in the new milieu of fast food, fast cars and fast cash. Few minutes into the movie, we are introduced the sexual escapades of Dev D and Paro that would later define this 'love story'. No pussyfootedness here. We are on Anurag Kashyap's turf. Later, the Chandramukhi here, a product of Indian-Canadian mixed parentage, follows suit in her baby-doll prostitute avatar. And importantly, feudal culture, caste, status and affluence are not what drove apart the love birds (if at all you can call them that) here. Despite the differences in statuses, Dev D's father has been dreaming to make Paro his daughter-in-law. This truly celebrates our egalitarian age! It is in fact misunderstanding and ego that drives Dev D and Paro apart. Paro's husband here is no more the one who is reminiscing about his dead first wife. Paro tells us that he is a cracker in bed. And he does not mind Dev D calling Paro even after her marriage. And Paro visits Dev D, chastens him for not taking care of himself, washes his clothes (like Ava Gardner tends to Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator') and tells him he is incapable of Love! Well, that's the catch. While our original tragic protagonist Devdas lost his love because he was a coward and was a victim of the then prevailing class differences, this Dev D defies all social norms. However, he is either too headstrong and selfish to love someone else or is too confused to know whether he actually loves Paro (or for that matter what he wants in his life). And so he looses her. Somehow, the film did not persist with this story line into the climax, maybe because of the compulsion to give a happy ending.

And of course, alcohol here is not just alcohol but fully complimented with cocaine, tobacco and thumps up. Don't be surprised if Abhay Deol soon turns into the poster boy for Smirn-Off! If the goal is to show the contemporary times, this Devdas version succeeds as much, if not more, as the Bimal Roy's and the Vedantam Raghavaiah's Telugu version did in 1950s.
What works for the movie is this fine interpretation done into our times in terms of writing and dialogue. And Good casting and superlative performances from Abhay Deol and Mahie Gill. More than anything, its the propelling soundtrack from Amit Trivedi. We can as well call this as Dev D - the musical, a much relevant musical to our times than the Bhansali's. When we get a little restless watching repetitive images of Abhay Deol smoking, drinking (Thumps Up + Vodka), doing drugs and passing out, it is the music and 'The Twilight Players' that keep our attention more than the 'camera tripping away' technique which Anurag Kashyap thanked Danny Boyle for in the opening credits. With the many drug shots and subsequent surrealistic underwater reveries, Anurag Kashyap pays an ode to Danny Boyle's 'Trainspotting'. This could a cult film if it affects a change in perception of 'hero' and 'heroine' of Indian films. It looks like a long shot though.

Slumdog Millionaire: Maybe its written, Jai Ho!

In 1999, there was a project known as the Hole in the Wall by Prof Sugata Mitra who led a group of scientists from NIIT to study a slum in the Kalkaji area in Delhi. They made a hole in the wall and publicly assembled a computer and installed it. After some time, they found that the children living in the slum had started using the computer. How did they learn to use a computer even though they did not have knowledge about one? It is because we all have this innate ability in us to pick up something new.

It was also around this time that the quiz show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, Kaun Banega Crorepati, became very popular and Major Charles Ingram was accused of cheating in a British quiz show.I decided to write a fiction on these real life experiences as life was the best teacher.

- Vikas Swarup

Well, Vikas Swarup, currently India's deputy high commissioner in South Africa, has then written 'Q & A' and it was translated into 34 languages and now adpated into Slumdog Millionaire.

Slumdog Millionaire is quite a entertainment with fleeting images and Isai Puyal's propelling music. The editing is crisp, in line with the speed of the narrative. Needless to say, the story doesnt go a layer deep and nor was that David Boyle's intention. No broody intention, that looks to be his style.

The movie is celebration of not just the triumph of the human spirit, but a celebration of the human experience. For all the horror we see as part of Jamal's childhood, we dont wince after a while as by then we know that is his unorthodox education and that all that experiance would shape his worldview and his streetsmartness.

The theme also, in all subtlety, tells knowledge is not the preserve of the educated elite and that even a 'slumdog' can possess the wisdom to win a quiz show. This is a modern version of the Cinderella story set up in India, with its rapidly changing socio-cultural contemporary realities. The burgeoning populations, the subsequent fight for survival and the wide socio-economic disparities. All those who are bothered about India's 'image' in view of ghastly poverty shown in the film should note one point. That, Jamal Malik, who was orphaned due to the communal riots and who is literally living in shit didnt grew up into a Jihadi! He, instead, made his living as a Chaiwallah and was longing for his love. Is that not good enough? Think about setting this plot in the Pakistans, Indonesias of the world and we know they dont fit. The history -Taj, modern realtity - Mumbai call centre nurturing personnel with British accent, economic progress - 'India is the centre of the world' dialogue of Salim, cultural openness to the world - an indian version of 'Who wants to be a Millionaire', the riots and the squalor of the continent's largest slum all make for a heady mix, scene after scene, with the music and the photography, in a narrative that is throttling at breakneck speed. Not even the Rio of the 'City of God' would have been good enough as the backdrop. It is the amazing diversity (or disparity) and the hope for success and opportunity that Mumbai offers, for this film's plot, and that makes this tale of human experiance find world-wide resonance.

AR Rahman's music completely drives the movie right from the 'O Saya..' in the beginning till the 'Jay Ho..' in the climax. They sound like the ultimate anthems of human experiance. I have little doubt he will have a double dhamaka at the Oscars next month.
The movie is technically brilliant with the sound, the texture and the plot with intermittent flashbacks cleverly written. The original novel looks well-suited to be made into this film with the quiz show serving as a convenient instrument to drive the narration.

Well, will the movie get a Best Picture Oscar? Indians despite enjoying the film, wouldnt be sure. This does not have an intensity of a 'Crash' nor is this atleast 'City of God'. This is not reflective cinema. This is pure entertainment. However, the west may just like this outsider perspective of India and may actually see some hope in this movie. After all, this is Obama's era. And the Oscar committe, having already snubbed Clint Eastwood's 'Gran Torino', may well be willing to be swayed by this razzle-dazzle in this year of depression. May be, it's written!