Lagaan and the Oscars !!!!

[The Crackednut]

Finally,decades later a complete mainstream Bollywood movie has been nominated for the Academy Awards.So do you think our very own \"Bhuvan\" has it in him to take on the might of the western world once again?

[Monsieur]

A very simple and original story made by Gowariker is laudable. Inspite of such stupendous movies made by Asians, Oscars typically go to European film makers (we agree that they spend a hell lot of money on quality and in bringing out the special effects of superior quality). But still people like Mani Ratnam and Gowariker deserve thus, as they make films within the available resources, Isn\'t it?). These guys should be given a chance.

I Don\'t know why, but a lot of luck of crowd and their support and blessings are required for Lagaan to win the coveted Oscar.

[jethro]

lagaan is a well made movie no doubt but i think amelie would beat it......indians simply cant compete with the european and hollywood studios in marketing their films.....and as for manirathnam ....well....he has had too much of undeserved success.....he plainly copies from a clutch of movies

[soundlessound]

only a cracked nut like u can have doudbt , we r going to win it .

and about oscars ?
why do we really take it as yardstick for our quality of cinema , oscars is basically for the american cinema.and movies r a refection our our society ,culture and values .we do love the hollywood.but indian cinema should remain the same, though sometime stupid .but still dancing around the tress,lenghty emotinal dailouge

[Guest]

Jethro,

You talk as if you have watched all Mani Ratnam movies. Can you tell what all movies has he directed in the 2-3 period, and which are the movies he copied directly/indirectly from hollywood or other.

Junta

[jethro]

first of all....may i know the nameless soul with whom i am corresponding?
coming to manirathnam......lets take anjali for example......if u look closely, a few scenes are directly lifted from ET.......now lets take nayakan.......doesnt kamal haasan remind u of brando in the Godfather.......manirathnam may have achieved commercial success and maybe critical acclaim too but it definitely doesnt put him in the great direrctors\' category .......

[geeta]

mani ratnam might have copied , just a film or scene which is flawed doesnt take the genius in him . ok what stevn speilberg ,what has he done in indiana jones ,the then temple of the doom , i am sure its also a lot of resembles from the ,many telgu vittalacharta movies .
maniratnam is story telling and the technical briallance is no less than any hollywood films .with the budget and tachnical limitaions is too good

[The Crackednut]

Good...a lot of interesting opinions on display here.And i\'ve a few views myself.First @Jethro.. this one time i must oppose what u said.Personally,ManiRatnam kicks ASS!! he is one of india\'s finest film-makers.He may not be the best but he surley deserves respect for being a class apart.Heck!! the name itself sells the movie. I don\'t believe many Indians have come so far to make a genre of their own.Agreed that Anjali did rip-off the complete Star-Wars theme,but that was just a song sequence.And yeah,nayakan was very heavily inspired by Godfather... but these are probably some of the exeptions we come across.Then i have to add that most of his \"inspirations\" were only in his first few movies,when he was still managing a foot-hold in the industry.I guess after Roja,there was no stopping him.Movies on communal issues,terrorism(i counted atleast 3 movies incl. Amrutha!) and so much more.surely he can\'t be termed as \"just another director\".Secondly Geeta points out at the similarities between our Vitthalacharya movies and Spielberg\'s Indiana Jones.IN fact,i wouldn\'t stop there.MANY(even the concept of Superman) can be seen in the movies our grandfathers relished in their days.Moulin Rouge had the words BOLLYWOOD splashed all over the screen...Sadly,the only ppl who figured that out was us Indians. And when it comes to the Oscars,the world\'s largest film industry falls flat right over its own face.The Academy awards are clearly driven by market forces.By handing over an award to an Indian film,the American Industry goes out of its way to accomodate Bollywood.Which is clearly what Hollywood\'s bigshot\'s wouldn\'t want.And it\'s not as if Indian films are a diamond-in-the-rough.The great majority of absurd movies completely overlaps the good ones in the market.So sad but its so true.One-sixth of the human race doesn\'t have it to take on the world................(long silence )............Damn!! now i\'ve put my mood-off.check out my next thread!!!

[An Indian]

Oscars are a bloody sham anyway. As some one rightly mentioned in an earlier post why do we use western stuff as a yard stick as a measure of our success ?? We need to get away from the slavish (mental slave) mind set. It is the same with the nobel prize, living standards, technology and on and on. I only appeal to this audience to get rid of the propagated mindset and use your own mind for a change.

[An Indian]

Oscars are a bloody sham anyway. As some one rightly mentioned in an earlier post why do we use western stuff as a yard stick as a measure of our success ?? We need to get away from the slavish (mental slave) mind set. It is the same with the nobel prize, living standards, technology and on and on. I only appeal to this audience to get rid of the propagated mindset and use your own mind for a change.

[Nayagan]

Looks like the thread has to be renamed \'Is Maniratnam worth his salt\' (or anything more creative - since my brain is not presently secreting any of those \'juices\'). On Maniratnam, I wish to say that despite (and not because of) his name and fame, I do not consider him great guns. We had better directors in the South like Balu Mahendra and the scores of parallel cinema directors from Malayalam to Hindi to Bengali who deserve to be placed on much higher pedastals than the Mani Ratnams and Shankars.

[Ajnabhi]

I came late in to the discussion. But I feel everyone is right atleast almost right. Mani Ratnam is a special Director, Right. Oscars are American film centric, Right. Vittala chary movies were better than these sci-fi movies. Yes. Double right. Have any of you seen the movie \"HARRY POTTER\" which claims to have broken all the box office records of the cinema history. I feel \"Balanagamma\" and \"Pathala Bhairavi\" in telugu (probably in other languages too) are much better than the Harry Potter movie.
Our diretors had the creativity and imagination in those Black & White days to have made such special effects. Just immagine what Vittalacharya would have done with the present day technology.

One thing I always despise about our movies is the songs. The day the songs are stopped in our films, our directors would start to think creatively. Otherwise they use all their creativity and imagination and energy to create absurd and vulgar song numbers.