Kalaimamani Awards 2009

I was proud yesterday for the delayed but deserving Oscar award for AR Rehman and Resul Pookutty, but today I am appalled reading the list of Kalaimamani (TN Government) awardees for 2009. Are awards given to accomplished citizens or given to those who are politically connected? It is not a billion dollar puzzle and you don’t have sit on the hot seat and bite your nails or use one of your lifelines to answer. Just look at Central Government’s awardees of Padmashri, Padmabushan, and Padma Vibushan and Tamil Nadu State Government’s Kalaimamani awards and you will know the answer. Atleast there is a synergy between State and Central government when it comes to awards.

What is shocking about 2009 Kalaimamani awardees is that accomplished veteran actor Saroja Devi (in the film industry for more than 5 decades) is given the award along side Aishwarya Danush who has made no contribution to the society or film industry other than being the daughter of Rajinikanth. Young artist like Barath, Nayanthara, Meera Jasmine and Asin need encouragement, but do they need Kalaimamani with less than a decade experience in the movie industry. It looks like the jury panel made random selection from the telephone book. If I were Saroja Devi I would have politely declined the award.

Let us not forget that tainted Satyam Computer Services Ltd. was awarded the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance last year. May be awards are never earned but always purchased.

Be it Corporate awards, Oscar, Padmashri or Kalaimamani – awards lose value and sheen if they are not given to the right talent and at the right time. Government and respective bodies must be transparent with the criteria for selection of awardees and the members on the jury panel.

Starless movie’s starry night?

NY Times story calls it a Starless movie’s starry night- isn’t this arrogant and brash? True AR Rahman is not a Hollywood star, but he is definitely a star in the Indian galaxy. Let us move away from Rahmanmania look at this accolade both from the time axis and macro perspective. It took 81 years for an Indian to get an opportunity to perform on the world stage, live through the scorching reviews of critics and then win their endorsement to walk home with an Oscar. Wow! Long journey huh?

Our journey to the Oscars was long and elusive. This is not because we didn’t have talented cast, crew, but our story telling was always localized and not globalized. With over a billion people we have a lot of unsaid stories to share with the world – both mythological and real life. Don’t we have a few actors to perform on the celluloid? Well accessibility for our cast and crew was out of question and we really needed someone like Danny Boyle to direct the story of rags to riches and Megan Mylan to narrate the story of Pinki, a cleft lip girl from Mirzapur, UP and bring our talent to the world stage propel our baby steps into Oscar galaxy. Over the years our chin went up by a few centimeters and now we are on the red carpet standing tall, confident, appreciated and recognized. Now “Hollywood wakes up to Indian Talent” and is ready to hear our tunes and stories.

The walk on the red carpet was never straight and simple for Indians though we are the largest in world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced annually (877 feature films and 1177 short films were released in the year 2003 alone). India accounts for 73% of movie admissions in the Asia-Pacific region, and earnings are currently estimated at US$8.9 billion.. Even actors like Kate Winslet had been rehearsing in private with a shampoo bottle for eight years, and for an Indian an Oscar was even inaccessible in their dream. Though we put a few beauty queens on the ramp year after year but just one of them, Aishwarya made it to Hollywood and even paired up with the former James Bond. This Oscar only rehashes that India is a land of sharp contrasts – beauty and poverty coexists. Surprisingly both were used to make money and fame.

His music and acceptance speech was humble. It took AR Rahman more than two decades to make the world listen to his tunes and dance to them. Though I personally feel that “Slum Dog Millionaire” was not his career best, but it turns out to be a turning point in his career and brought him the long due fame and acclaim. Resu Pookutty and Gulzar also represent India’s finest talent. These men didn’t work for the Oscar, but kept doing their passion for so many years, while success and joy kept following. Though Oscars are just motivational awards to help the artist scale up to new heights, but it came after 100 years of Indian film industry. It is indeed a proud moment for every India. Blinded Hollywood has atlast tuned their telescope to track stars in our galaxy. Jai Ho!