Oscar night brings Hollywood and Bollywood together for the first time




Posted in: Yemen Observer
Written By: Observer Stuff
Article Date: Feb 28, 2009



This year’s 81st Academy Awards (Oscars) created a new link between Hollywood and India’s equivalent, Bollywood. The night’s biggest winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” was a huge success for the American-Indian producers, with its story of love triumphing over desperate poverty, criminality and pure evil. The movie won eight academy awards, including; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing.


Two categories were won by the 43-year-old Indian composer A.R. Rahman, for both his original soundtrack and his original song. He said, “All my life, I had a choice between hate and love,” and added “I would chose love, and I’m here.”

Like the story in the film, the movie itself went through a Cinderella-like transformation. Nearly a victim of the economic crisis, which would have seen it being released direct-to-DVD, the film was saved after News Corp.’s Fox Searchlight stepped in to distribute it.


As the cast stood onstage following the announcement of the best picture award, the cameras focused briefly on a beautifully smiling Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, one of the children who’d been whisked to the Oscars from a desperately poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Mumbai. The lavish surroundings he found himself in were so incredibly far removed from his home in Mumbai, a lean-to made of plastic tarpaulins and blankets. One can only imagine how the moment must have felt for his friends and family back home.

Other films to take home awards from this years ceremony included “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which won three Academy Awards for Best Makeup, Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, while the “WALL-E” writer-director Andrew Stanton, won the Best Animated Feature.

Sean Penn won Best Actor for his role in the film “Milk” and on her sixth attempt, the popular British actress Kate Winslet finally won Best Actress for her role in “The Reader”- the tale of an unrepentant Nazi guard during the Second World War. Thanking her parents for their faith in her, she called out, “Dad, whistle or something ‘cause then I’ll know where you are.” And Roger Winslet whistled back heartily, for the world to hear.

The family of the late Heath Ledger brought tears to many eyes during the most emotional moment of the ceremony, no less affecting because it was expected: Ledger won the posthumous title of Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his diabolical Joker in “The Dark Knight”.The entire theater rose along with Ledger’s relatives to pay tribute to this deeply talented actor who died last year at the age of 28, from an accidental overdose. They heard his father express how much Ledger would have wanted to be there. “This award tonight would have humbly validated Heath’s quiet determination to be truly accepted by all you here tonight, his peers within an industry he so loved,” said Kim Ledger, Heath Ledger’s father.


This year’s host, Hugh Jackman pleased the audience with his great performance, both during the introduction of the ceremony and throughout the remainder of the night. The Academy Awards which are also known as the Oscars, are the oldest, best known, most influential, prestigious, and famous of the film awards.


The awards (and gold-plated statuettes) have been presented annually for over 80 years the most impotent are Best Picture, originally known as Best Production, Best Director, Best performance by an Actor and Actress in a leading and supporting role and Best Screenplay/Writer
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