Slum Dog Millionaire

Best Picture: Wall-E or Slumdog Millionaire?

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John Gruber rightfully says that most winners don’t deserve the award and that the “egregious mistakes are clear when viewed through the prism of time.” He says Wall-E deserved to get the Oscar for the best picture this year. Sure, Wall-E was a great movie, but Slumdog was actually a better movie because it bottled something so desperately needed in 2008-2009 time frame.

The credit crisis and the economic meltdown is having a profound impact on people.In a world where our leaders, sports players, industry leaders and icons proved to be false gods with clay feet, Slumdog gave hope and optimism in face of immense odds. John, I think this time the academy got it right. That said, Wall-E Blue Ray has already been ordered, so you know who I am voting for with my dollars.

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Slum Dog Millionaire Madness

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It has been quite a strange experience. In the US, we typically don’t pay much attention to the big Oscars awards broadcast, leaving it to the tabloids (and some magazines) to pour over relevant stuff such as “who wore what” at the big ceremony. Anyway movie industry’s big awards night seems to be a much bigger deal overseas where billions watch so-called stars stroke their egos onstage in pretty outfits.

This year, the awards ceremony took on a much larger meaning for Indians, thanks to a whopping 10 nominations for Slumdog Millionaire. Best Picture, Best Director and Best Soundtrack were among the eight categories won by a movie that came to represent love and optimism in 2008.

I was amazed by the coverage leading up to the awards ceremony. Newspapers were full of articles about the stars (and non stars). There were prayer ceremonies for A.R. Rehman, who won two

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