The Academy Awards 2014 - newer horizon's

The spectacular show of the 86th Academy awards lived up to its expectations yesterday at the Hollywood Center, California. The pride that the academy have in their movies and their creators is incredible. It’s a proud Academy that awarded Lupita Nyongo, a Kenyan for her brilliant performance as an abused slave in “Twelve years a slave”; a slightly unfair Academy that ignored the intense rendering of the Somali pirate Muse, by Barkhad Abdi (an ex Limo driver) in “Captain Phillips”; a socially sensitive academy that honored the Aids story with an Oscar to “Dallas buyers’ club”; a balanced academy that chose not to honor “Gravity” as the best motion picture; an artistically sensitive academy that decorated the mature and deep performance of Kate Blanchet in “Blue Jasmine”, overlooking the likes of Meryl Streep and Sandra bullock; a playful academy that acknowledges the universal language of Animation in “Frozen” – and more importantly, an academy that values its history and its quest for perfection in the art of Motion pictures.

Every single artist honored was worthy enough to hold aloft the Knight in Gold plated Britannium; clutching the crusader’s sword, standing over a reel of film with five spokes depicting the five seminal aspects of Film making: Actors, writers, directors, producers and technicians – all held in equal scale in the creation of a film and duly respected by the fraternity. Each one of those coveted seats in the auditorium is filled with a person whose contribution has helped move the bar of film artistry ever so slightly higher than before. There are amongst them legends like Meryl Streep, who has been nominated a whopping eighteen times and won it on three occasions, and on the other hand we also have the unlucky, charming and talented Leonardo de caprio nominated five times; but never once had the honor of walking on to stage to receive it.

The world criticizes the Academy awards as biased, American- centric, and to some extent racist as well. So be it….  All these futile sentiments are stilled when one looks at their work and art:   The degree of devotion, love, hard work, and unflinching commitment to the authenticity of the medium; yet popular, entertaining and commercially successful – they have time and again proved that they are the undisputed masters of Movie making. Their work touches all fringes of social fabric and they are not afraid to break taboos. One of the persistent tragedies of any art is that it quickly becomes a cliché and starts becoming monotonous, but American Films have not fallen into that rut. Year on Year, we are bedazzled by the freshness of their thought and brilliance of its implementation. Who could have thought that a dry run of the mill event in the
Deep waters of Somalian coast could be transformed into a story (Captain Phillips) that could showcase the deepest of emotions in two diametrically opposite personalities; or a hundred other films which draw inspiration from common place incidents but turned into a social drama by the Midas touch of a great director or an actor.

Well, I can keep waxing eloquent about this all day long, but the purpose of this short essay is to pay my compliments to the lovely winners of this year’s Oscar’s. They have given me many moments of deep pleasure and contemplation. That according to me is entertainment at its best…….


God bless…..







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The banality of Penal execution. "Dead Man walking" - a touching commentary...

Image
When Death row prisoners are taken on their last solitary walk in chains to the Gas chamber, the guards accompanying them shout aloud: “Dead Man walking…, Dead Man walking….” No one is clear on the origins of this ritual, but it is one of t hose chants that linger thick in the air, reverberating across lonely steeled corridors, reminding all inmates who lurk in their lonely cells counting their days, hours and minutes - that the end is near. Society has deemed them unfit to live anymore in their midst, and they wait: handcuffed, tied, emotionally drained, physically emaciated, intellectually paralyzed; and, in most cases, bemoaning their destiny and banishment -with an unspoken dread of complete annihilation that they imminently face. The Moral issues of ritually preparing a man for slaughter, over a period of months, or even years; and the agony of having an audience watch the sordid show with a Sandwich and Soda in hand and a gleam of satisfaction in their eyes the torment and retri...
Read more

Jottings - Slice of life – 180 (Oh! Jerusalem...)

Jottings - Slice of life – 180 (Oh! Jerusalem...) (Note to my readers: The story of Jerusalem is a story of human potential of what can be achieved, and equally a story of human stupidity. A little piece of land has governed the imagination of millions for over two thousand years. It’s very name invokes deep divisions, yet at the same, an intense reverence. The following piece is meant to be a basic primer for those who would want to know a little about why Jerusalem has constantly remained a bone contention in world politics. For those interested in knowing more, I have recommended two popular volumes towards the end of the article.) In the annals of history, no piece of land has been subject to so much dispute, possessiveness - and imbued with so much religious connotation and interpretation as that of Jerusalem - th city of foundation of the God Shalom. For thousands of years this land has been the bone of contention for variety of reasons. Its grounds have been trodden by Jew...
Read more