Dev D for the Oscars?

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

sushmita — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:36:26 GMT

Hello Isha, Abhi sent me an SMS minutes after he got back home from the 'memorable evening', informing me that he had performed his courier-ly duties!!! I'd loved to visit Khaaja Chowk, the name itself is getting me excited! Yes, definitely, we have to catch up, and I believe u have some questions for me :) Look forward. Take care and God bless.

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Isha Batra — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:31:59 GMT

P.S. Thanks a tonne to the Courier Guy !! (Abhi has payed me to write this)

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Isha Batra — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:29:28 GMT

Hello Sushmita,here is the receipent of your message. The lucky girl would like to whole-heartedly thank you for such a nice message and wishes. I appreciate and definitely look forward to catch up with you when you are around this part of the world. And the 'message' was received over dinner at 'Khaaja Chowk'. Good food, indeed and your message was just like my most wished 'topping'! Warm Regards, Isha Batra

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

sushmita — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:11:26 GMT

Abhishek, BBQ Nation -- is that the one in Gurgaon? where they grill kababs in the centre of ur table? i went there this time, my brother and sis-in-law took me there for their anniversary treat. same place?

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Abhishek — Sun, 24 May 2009 08:19:25 GMT

Did I say "didn't serve KT at Ascot"? Apologies, I meant they didnt provide complimentary copy in room....d error can be attributed to a long day that included a happening afternoon and an uneventful flight topped with arrival at Delhi with terminal's air-conditioning out of order & long queues for Swine Flu check before immigration & customs take a toll on you.... And Sush: the message is still wid me...sealed & intact...would be delivered in next few hours in exchange for a dinner at Bar-be-que Nation...just waiting for kebabs to be served...I haven't eaten anything since morning...u c, would have to eat ur share too...

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

sushmita — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:17:13 GMT

Abhishek: thanks a ton for everything, it was so great meeting you :) We'll obviously catch up very soon! Btw, did u pass on the 'message'?

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

sushmita — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:15:38 GMT

Prashant: valid point -- the one abt how we want to own everything that has an 'Indian' tag to it. A case in point is Slumdog. A lot of people had huge issues with it, saying it showed India in bad light etc etc. The same people suddenly went overboard because the movie bagged so many Oscars. I remember once, some beaty queen was crowned Miss Australia, and she was of Indian origin (her grandparents moved from India some 50 years ago). We again went crazy saying some 'Indian' has become something of note. It's very sad. Probably got to do with the fact that, as a nation, we dont have too many heroes. And we are so obsessed with 'premium' that we don;t see heroes in everyday people. As for the Oscars being the benchmark for popular global cinema, well, that's a given, isnt it? It's like saying Olympics vs state-level games -- which one wins?? No prizes for guessing. Plus, I think, the National Awards are highly politicised, besides the fact that we make mostly trashy films so there's no great shakes by way of competition.

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Prashant — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:52:32 GMT

I really wonder at times, why, when we like a movie, we start to talk about Academy Awards straightaway.....why can't we think about in terms of National Awards....It has become a mania for us....but in a way it shows that AA is the benchmark, which it is, in a way. But I wonder how many people do remember which movie was selected for National Awards. Awards everywhere are the same, requires lot of backroom operations, as in case with AA....Haven't we all seen in past how deserving movies have not won and how others have got the best of the lot. It happend this year also...I, a proud indian, for once, thinks that Slumdog Millionaire did not deserve so many awards....honestly. But we tend to feel proud, even when somebody remotely connected to India wins something. We start covering and owning the person. That is not correct. It is not about the pride but something else, we tend to cover up our complexes. What is the need to feel proud of somebody whose family left India 3 generations back and now when he is so and so we go gaga. At least we should keep in mind that the person never has come to India in 30-50 years of his existence - so why are we celebrating. Surely, India is not on the priority list of the person and we go whole hog in trying to prove that we are so greeat. we have seen this so many times when we say 'born to Indian parents' or 'his/her great grandfather migrated' etc etc....if you think, you can remember so many cases, I am not taking names. am going on a different subject now...let me stick to where I started.

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Abhishek — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:11:19 GMT

Hey Sush, Read that article on SRK....nice one...Pity they didn't serve KT at Ascot :( Keep up d good work, despite all d interruptions :P Hope to catch up with you soon.....

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Abhiroop Banerjee — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:18:41 GMT

This was so good to read! :)
Slumdog is crazy hype. Pinto, the music, boyle, bloody insane. Time we moved on from the Oscars, perhaps?
Ah, but we won't would we? hehe
Would be great to see Dev D at the Academy, if only to shatter the stereotype of what a B'wood fillum is supposed to be like.
Speaking of the comment form, three things bother me:
1. Hitting 'Enter' to format your comment by dividing it into paras doesn't work. All the lines bunch up into one lump of text, making some of the longer comments harder to read.
2. Though HTML IS allowed for formatting, no information is provided about the permitted tags.
3. The 'Website Address' field has 'http://' as default text that nobody bothers removing before posting their comment, thus making all the names here clickable, but obviously nothing happens when one DOES click on them! Silly. Default values need to go.

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Royal Bengal Tiger — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:33:13 GMT

Even I liked Dev D even though it missed out on the gentle, nuanced pace of the Bengali novel it is based on and was essentially Punjabi by nature.

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Vipul — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:24:13 GMT

Sush .. completely agree with you .. DevD is an awesome movie.. I think the best part about the movie is that it ends on a positive note.. the DevDs out there need hope!!

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Raghav — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:05:32 GMT

I dont know whether DevD deserves an Oscar or not, but it was an awesome movie and I agree with the point that it should be India's entry to Oscars this year, not some goddamn SRK movie. DevD represented, not in an entirely true sense though, the younger generation of India and the reality of it. The pace and portrayal of the the story was absolutely amazing and god-level !

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

sushmita — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:31:31 GMT

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/diversions/2009/April/diversions_April33.xml&section=diversions&col=

re: Dev D for the Oscars?

Bheela — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:53:12 GMT

For those who are not regular readers of Khaleej times, Sushmita did a wonderful review of a book written on Shahrukh's life. What I liked about Sush's review was that it was based on facts, devoid of extra personal opinion (which most reviewers tend to do) and her writing was very fluent and I could read on one go. Sushmita, please send the link of that book review on this blog. I am not so surprised to find an equally well written Dev D review. My kids loved the movie though I am yet to see. We are all fans of the "tauba tera jalwa" promos.