Bankruptcy hits Hollywood

Hi,

Musing#26

I just happened to watch this Hollywood movie "Wanted" starring Angelina, Freeman et al. I was really amused, as I felt I have gone back in the time machine and watching one of those Vittalacharya Telugu movies of 70's. For those of you who are not aware about Vittalacharya movies, he used to produce all super natural movies involving maya jaal, aliens, freak creatures etc. Many of his movies use to be successful and later on such genre produced by others also used to be referred to as Vittalacharya type of movies. In his movies the arrows shot in the battle between the hero and the villain used to collide in the mid-air and the fighting scene would continue with fresh shooting of arrows. Those of you who have watched the serials like Ramayan and Mahabharat would have viewed such battle scenes. In this movie "wanted" the bullets fired by two people collide in the mid-air like the arrows(Baans) and not only that in one scene the laws of physics are further defied as a bullet after firing travels not in a straight line but in a circular path killing more people. Ironically they call these movies as science fiction movies. People usually blame that our guys copy Hollywood but it seems that the tide is changing and Hollywood is now copying Tollywood(Telugu film industry). Like how financial bankruptcy has hit the American economy, similarly creative bankruptcy has hit Hollywood and is making a mockery of present day Hollywood movies. Who can forget the great movies of yest er years from Hollywood like...... The sound of music, My fair lady, Benhur, Cleopatra, Mckenna's gold, Hello Dolly etc.

One of the reasons for the standard going down is the way the Oscar committee function with a myopic view. However bad the Hollywood movies have been in a year still they search desperately to find some mediocre Hollywood movies to be given the Oscar awards there by making the Hollywood producers complacent and smug in their audacity that only Hollywood movies deserve awards. The Oscar juries should wake up and dump the Hollywood movies to the trash can this year and start looking beyond Hollywood.

Last time Lagaan missed out the Oscars because Cricket as a game was not understood by many juries. This time Aamir Khan's "Taare Zameen Par" has been selected as Indian nominee for the Oscars. This movie in all earnest should get the Oscar award for the best movie. I have watched all the recent past Hollywood movies and none of them come anywhere near to TZP. The juries might have got away last time by ignoring Lagaan with the pretext of ignorance about the game of cricket. This time they can not show their ignorance about dyslexia.

Dyslexia means difficulty in learning and if TZP is deprived of the Oscar this time then it is high time we question the learning abilities and the integrity of the Oscar juries.

mentor mohan