Long live the Queen

I watched two movies in one day two wonderful ones at that; one was Eklavya by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and the other The Queen by Stephen Frears. While the former was an exceptional piece of moviemaking I can’t help thinking about the second. Maybe it’s something to do with Helen Mirren’s performance to which I will not assign any superlatives; it’s really a waste of time. Maybe they will honor her with an Oscar this year; maybe they will carve out her name on the walls of Buckingham Palace with the epitaph “this woman knew to play real people”. And that is saying something because whenever I see these royalties on TV or stage I can’t help but wonder if they are really like this in real life. The smile at the right place the perfect frown, and Helen Mirren in a speech towards the end of the movie confirmed what I have always believed. They are two different people. She feels such resentment towards Princess Di and yet her speech in the end would have fooled anyone. I think she purposely made it see through. There is a scene when she takes out her jeep and tries to cross the river but some problem with the jeep causes her to stop and sit at the riverside and she starts to cry. Just then an antelope comes by, regal and proud and there are hunters after it. She smiles and just shoos it away and later when she’s told that the antelope was shot and killed and they had to pursue him for miles before catching him she realizes the parallelism. Symbolism has now become so much a part of western filmmaking. Michael Sheen as Tony Blair was super. The exchanges between him and the queen are hilarious most of the time. But there are times when they make you realize how strained they are. Who should rule? A monarch or a man with people’s mandate. Why is it that the people need to be shown public displays of emotion and only then they judge in favor of the person concerned. There is a scene towards the end when Blair congratulates the queen for showing humility and the queen replies if that means taking humiliation. And the press, the glorious press of today. Why don’t they realize that they have such an influence over people? Why don’t they show even an iota of responsibility? Just the other day watching Guru I felt such anger towards our papers today. Look at the journalists those days and see what we have done to the sanctity of the written world. It is cheap, disgusting and opportunistic journalism. I just feel that the Communists were better that way, there was no nonsense there. It is sad really, very sad.

And it's Oscar Time Again

Going through the list of nominees this year I couldn't help but feel a little let down. I myself wouldn't nominate The Departed in Best Picture category. It's a wonderful movie for sure but it is first of all an entertainer. I think Scorsese has made much better movies in the past which needed to get honoured and now the Academy I'm sure will try to right all their wrongs and honour him this time for a wrong movie. I'm yet to watch the Queen and Letters from Iwo Jima but I guess these will be also rans. My pick for best picture is a war between Babel and Little Miss Sunshine. I haven't seen a more wonderfully disconnected movie as Babel ever and that's why I guess I loved it so much. A lesser filmmaker would have tried to tie up the loose ends and hence de-mystify the movie and that's where Innaritu triumphs. He gives you scene after scene where you are given the space and time to react and form an opinion. It meanders so easily from one country to another and doesn't try to make sense of the goings on and that's exactly how it should be. It would have been a disaster if he had tried to get preachy and reasonable. Just like his Amorres Perros it's about entangled lives and the sort of disconnect that one feels from reality when you are pushed through to the edge. That's why my pick for the director category is Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu. Babel is not one of those great movies but just like Gosford Park by Robert Altman (another movie the Academy overlooked for Direction win) it is great filmmaking. As for Little Miss Sunshine, what a beautifully simplistic movie. There is such a joy in this movie inspite of all the divorce, bankruptcy, suicide that goes on in the movie. A simple road trip is all it takes for a disjointed family to feel love for each other again. The scene where they all get together to push the van because the gear is jammed was such a symbolic way of showing that a successful family is when everyone lends a hand. The whole beauty mania that is taking hold of our world now with so many cosmetic companies and surgeries was wonderfully depicted. Reminded me of that line in City of Blinding Lights by U2 that said "what happened to the beauty I had inside of me". If Sunshine wins it's going to be a true victory of a deserving underdog and real oscar fairytale. But again as I said sense never prevails among the Academy voters. One category that really makes me feel proud of the Academy is the Best Actor race. Be it Philip Seymour Hoffmann for Capote or Forest Whitaker for the Last King of Scotland (he has it sealed this year), they go for performance than star value. Even an amazing Heath Ledger or a Johnny Depp have to await their turn. Something that our own desi awards can learn. How many times have we honoured Shah Rukh Khan and shirked from honouring a Naseeruddin Shah or a Om Puri. In our country Tom Cruise and Leo De Caprio would have had 5-6 awards each, immaterial of the role they play while Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson would be old awardless actors who get all the critical lauds. It's a really sad state of affairs. As for India winning an Oscar, first we need to send the right movies more consistently and develop a significant lobby among the academy voters, but fact of the matter remains, does it really matter? Rang De Basanthi is still a great movie even if it didn't get shortlisted and Omkara still was the best movie of the year even if wasn't sent. But we should really guard against making movies to suit western audiences and start aping them. As Nagesh Kukunnor said at an award function last year when he won for Best Story for Iqbal " Let's say original stories, we are a nation of 100 crores we can manage that, can't we" . Yes Mr Kukunnor, we can.