The Big Night

The glamour and glitz associated with the Oscar night has the biggest worldwide audience. The thrill associated with the awards makes it quite a must watch, writes Ervell E. Menezes

It’s Oscar time again and the newspapers are full of it, why Indian films can’t make it and all kinds of insights into this great event. It used to be the third week of March but in the last few years it has been advanced to February and D-Day is February 25, which for us is the morning of the next day. It is one of the most, if not, the most eagerly awaited events of the year.It’s almost like waiting for Christmas. And to think of the way one had to lobby to get the Oscars coverage on page 1 in the 1970s? Today a Hollywood, or for that matter even a Bollywood, star has to just sneeze and it’s on page 1. Yes, Bob Dylan, times they surely are a-changing.

Our Indian entry Rang De Basanti did not even make it to the nominations stage and many`A0have criticised the manner of selection but we have Indian-born director Deepa Mehta’s`A0Water, which has made it to the nominations stage of the Best Foreign Language Film category. It, however, doesn’t look like going further. It was nowhere near her Fire.

Remember visiting the home of the Oscars, that is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wilshire Boulevard in the early 1980s and being apprised of this event by a certain Davis guy who was around for many more years. I had a booklet on the voting process and he told me of the 1000-odd members who took part in it. "There was no lobbying," he told me but that was two decades ago. Play it again, Bob Dylan. Whatever one may say of the authenticity of the Oscars, they may be scoffed at, ridiculed, joked about, but they just cannot be ignored. And victory at the Oscars certainly gives the film a great boost, both with the critics and at the box-office. So the Oscars is to movies what`A0the derby is to horse-racing.

Methinks the Academy will have to give Martin Scorsese the Best Director Oscar for The Departed, they have ignored him for far`A0too long. And Hollywood has a way of looking at things with sympathy. My friend and fellow critic Rashid Irani says he’ll stop watching the Oscars show if Scorsese doesn’t get it this time.

The Departed is also in line for the Best Picture Oscar but Best Director will be more appreciated. But I’ll also pick The Departed for the Best Picture Oscar. The Best Director and the Best Picture Oscar should go to the same film. Of the other contenders, The Queen may get it because they might think of giving it this time to a British film but Babel too stands a good chance. In the same category is oldie Clint Eastwood with his Letter from Ivo Jima, the sequel to Flags of Our Fathers but he’s already won the award twice before, for Unforgiven in 1993 and Million Dollar Baby last year, so he is an unlikely winner. Mexican filmmaker Inarritu’s Babel could also be in the reckoning.

My niece and I have over the last decade or so made it a practice of picking the top Oscars in advance and we’ve been at least 60 per cent successful, she more than me, so much for film critics. But the point is we’ve to some extent gauged the psyche of the Academy.

Having seen even less than 50 per cent of the Oscar films, let’s try and pick some winners. In the Best Actor category Leonardo DiCaprio appears to be a front-runner. For one thing, the subject of the movie is quite surprising`A0for Hollywood and the young veteran turns in a brilliant performance even if the character he plays takes some of the credit. He has come a long way since Titanic. I’ve not seen the others, Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O’Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happiness) or Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) but I’d plug for Will Smith and Peter O’Toole, an old favourite.

I’m for Helen Mirren in The Queen for the Best Actress Oscar even though I’ve not seen the film. She’s a proven British artiste with a string of fine performances over the years and it’s time Hollywood gave her due recognition. I loved Pedro Almodavor’s Volver (opening film of IFI 06) and impressive though Penelope Cruz was, it is not Oscar class. The same is the case with Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) and I haven’t seen Dame Judi Dench or Kate Winslet.

Best Supporting Actor could well go to Djimon Hounsou and especially if they don’t give DiCaprio the Best Actor Oscar. It is a brilliant performance but it will also be giving recognition to the blacks. Mark Wahlberg in The Departed is also a strong contender but I also have a soft corner for Alan Arkin whom I ran into at Cannes in 1989 and whose entry to Hollywood in the mid-60s was remarkable with such diverse roles as Wait Until Dark, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming.

The Best Supporting Actress Oscar could be bagged by Rinko`A0Kikuchi for Babel. A splendid performance no doubt,`A0but also because she is Japanese though it may be neck-and-neck`A0with the Mexican`A0Adriana Barraza also in Babel. There again giving the non-Americans a chance.`A0 The others Kate Hudson (already got one) and Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine I’ve not seen.

That’s as far as the top Oscars go but the best part of the Oscars show for me at least is the clips of the old films when they give Lifetime awards or in "In Memoriam" or in some other groupings. They lend a special flavour to the Oscars show and make that night so memorable and nostalgic.

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