I Won!

What are awards really about?

If they are anything like what my boss likes to give to her team members from time to time, then I think they are a farce. Yes, boss gives out cookies or vouchers to people she thinks have done a great job during a certain week. I have never recieved them during my 2 and half years of working here. Does that mean my work ain't great?

I don't care. Who gives a flying fuck about cookies anyway?! When I shoot stories with people, and when they call me to say they liked something I did, or when I am satisfied, there is no better reward for me.

Boss had better not be reading this.

So, I feel like talking about awards. I used to participate in hindi elocution every year in school from the 3rd to the 10th. I never won anything in those years except one "special prize" in the 5th. I felt like this old war-horse! Yet, everyone in school knew me as this serial-elocutionist. It was heartening, when random school kids told me they liked my oration of hindi poems. But I never won any prizes.

Recognition is important in any field. But for example, Van Gogh never got recognition in his lifetime. He sold only one painting. He was clearly ahead of his times.

Does that make my elocution skills ahead of their time? I doubt that. I had fun, but I guess, I just wasn't good enough. But I like this quote:

"I'll be forty in July, and I'm glad I never got recognition. It gives me time to develop."

---Basquiat (1996)

So I feel it really doesn't matter. Sometimes we discover great films, after they get recognised by awards at film festivals. Sometimes, films that blow us away never win anything at grandiose Oscar events and the like.

So, I am very happy that Slumdog has achieved all these nominations. For an indie to get this far, gives hope to a lot of other indie projects versus big studio productions.

But can we compare different films? A Benjamin Button vs Slumdog vs The Wrestler. A film about reverse aging vs an Indian underdog vs a legendary wrestler?

What about Taare Zameen Par? Can we lament it not being selected as one of Five in the foreign film category at the Oscars, when it had films from around the world to contend with?

Maybe its a larger debate about competition and success....

......Or just about the basic craft of film-making.

But then why didn't The Dark Knight get more nominations? It's great film-making with a universal appeal and brilliant undertones making subtle comments on society. And is a movie about a gay municipal activist in "Milk" too niche?

I feel that the popular and the niche---both have a tendency to achieve a cult status. And for me, that's when a film or any art gets truly rewarded.