No matter how clichéd and OTT Oscars are, no one can deny its power of magnetism, the grandiose of its operation thanks to all the actors who are stars, unimaginable. So keeping all these factors in mind, I woke up at 3.30 am to make sure I don’t miss any of it. But thanks to my haphazard knowledge of timing and all, I wasted much of my sleep as the show was scheduled at 6.30 am. Not a big deal either!
The show kicked off with a song by Neil Patrick Harris as if he was following suit to last year’s host Hugh Jackman who too started off with a song! But as things turned out, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin descended from above to take their position as this year’s host. And for the record, this was the first time in television age that two hosts took stage! And they were hilarious taking digs at almost everyone under the ceiling including Meryl Streep and George Clooney. The only guy who was spared the jokes butt was Tiger Woods because the Academy thought the jokes would be too rude on his already blemished character!!
The first award of the ceremony, Best Supporting Actor was handed to Christoph Waltz, a little known, Austrian stage and TV actor who blew our minds off with his inch-perfect performance as a SS “Jew Hunter” in Inglourious Basterds and he was also immaculate while delivering his acceptance speech. I guess he deserved that award moreover, for speaking four languages in that movie!
Sadly, other than this award for Waltz, Inglourious Basterds was largely snubbed by the Academy as it was nominated in seven other categories but came out zilch on podium! I badly wanted it to win for Original Screenplay and was also wishing for Tarantino to bag his Best Director award and pull brake on the duel between James Cameron (Avatar) and Katherine Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)!
Not a big deal either, because Katherine Bigelow created history by becoming the first woman Director ever to win an Oscars. In simpler words, she defeated her ex-husband Cameron in the “Battle of the Ex-es”! Indeed a proud day, and coincidentally it was International Women’s Day too!!
The Hurt Locker was also adjudged the Best Picture and by that, it also became the lowest box-office grossing movie ever to win Oscars! Additionally, it also defeated the most successful movie ever, Avatar, to the gold. In fact, Avatar won in just three of the nominated nine categories.
Personally, I’m glad Avatar lost the Best Picture to The Hurt Locker as the latter was a pack-budgeted movie with real story to tell. I mean, no disrespect to Cameron and his team for their fantastic endeavor that took 15 years in the making. Still, Avatar had its share of success at the BO so let The Hurt Locker ring the bell on the download sites!One movie that came, saw and conquered (like predicted) was the animation masterpiece "UP"...was my favorite animated movie of the year!
Best Actor and Actresses were predictable with Jeff Bridges winning his first on his overall fifth nomination for “Crazy Heart” and his speech was emotional too. I first acknowledged his talent in “Arlington Road” and that character is one of the reasons why I took up teaching job on weekends. So no wonder am happy that he got the statuette!
Sandra Bullock was graceful on her big win for “The Blind Side” though I badly wanted my favoritest actress of all time, Meryl Streep to win as she holds the record for the most number of Oscars nominations for any actor at 16 but with just 2 wins! So obviously I wanted her to take the tally to 3…..which woefully didn’t happen!
Last year, we had a lot Indian thing going on at Oscars with Slumdog Millionaire, Jai Ho and Smile Pinky. This year, the only Indian connection I saw was the nomination of “Kavi” in the Best Short Film Category. Apparently, it didn’t win. Other than that, I found Indian connection in Sonia Bhalla who was the Second Assistant Director in “Up in the Air” which was nominated in six categories but won nothing! Not a big deal either!
There were many emotional moments too (like it happens every single time!) and it reveals to us the fact that these so-called stars are humans too with hardship, perseverance and their sacrifice for movies and life and everything that comes in between.
Its amazing how everyone at Oscars turns up in tuxedo and gowns and keep the Oscar tradition alive whereas we don't see much of sarees or achkan or any other Indian attires at display in our trite award functions!
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