Oscars

This year's Oscar presentation made me sleepy. It would have been great if Chris Rock had done stand-up during the entire show. It would have been all that, that Oscar was not; but tried to be.

Chris Rock was edgy, had punch lines, threw unexpected punches to famous celebrities, celebrated everyday favorites and was suavely anti-Bush.

And Oscar awards were along the expected lines, downright ignominy delivered to poor souls like make-up artistes, short-film makers.

Similar to the reality based please-skip-me-shows like Survivor, Apprentice, all the nominated people were brought up on the stage for some awards like best costumes, best special effects. And for some other awards, since the stage was being set up for the next song, awards were given by standing beside the audience. As Jay Leno's ultra-eyed team caught yesterday, one of the attendee was busy adjusting (rather scratching) her uncomfortable-and-slipping-itsy-bitsy-spider-inside evening gown.

Hindi movies and Tamil movies do not have a counterpart to Oscar. We have Filmfare awards which is eerily similar to People's Choice. Then we have National awards which is more like Golden Globes. Globes satisfy various parties while in India, parties' support satisfy you with a National award. Sometimes like last year's Vikram, it might be even genuine irrespective of the hand picked and less than handful jury.

But, we do not have the equivalent of Oscars.

We have so many film federations, associations, technician unions, artistes’ alliances and guilds. These members, who breathe, live and get spoilt by movies, should pick the best among their counterparts. In a national level organization or at the state level, there is bound to be political, ideological influences. But, I am pretty sure the sampling and their taste will be more reflective of the society.

Their choices will be the perfect in-between. Now, there is a wide gap between the National awards and the Dinakaran, Cinema Express, Filmfare stuff. While one is extremely far fetched to the general audience, the other one does not reflect the average connoisseur's whims and fancies.

To mimic Oscar and to bring limelight into mundane but noteworthy cinema, there should be this kind of recognition by the contemporaries.