A big miss at the Oscars...

I watched Mani Rathnam's Kannathil Muthamittal for the third time yesterday, and I’m compelled to post yet again. [I put a post on it a year back when I watched it for the second time].

There are some movies that you like, and some you love, and some you just admire. This is one of them. This movie is perfection exemplified. Every frame is a work of a genius. The nuances of character definitions are impeccable. They just can't be any better.

But then, the only thing that makes me feel bad about the movie is that it never made it to the Oscars. Hell, it wasn’t even nominated. If there is one Oscar material from India (among those I've seen), this has to be it. I mean, yes Lagaan was a good movie, may be in fact a great movie, but it is purely commercial and fictional. It certainly isn’t Oscar material. I think Oscar looks for a genius storyline plus a realistic portrayal of popular culture and times.

But this one is Oscar material from the word go.

Movie buffs that have watched the movie would agree. This movie shows the plight of people in Sri Lanka and the undercurrents of the revolutionary struggle. The story base is frigteningly real and cold - it is actually inspired by the story of an American couple that takes their adopted daughter to another country to let the kid see her blood mother.

Just think about movies of similar variety. Killing fields won three Oscars for portraying the mayhem Khmer Rouge. Apocalypse Now (yes, this one is a class of its own), the most haunting critic about Vietnam got two. No mans land, on Bosnian-Serbian problem, won the Oscar tipping over Lagaan. Several other movies of similar nature (Himalaya, for instance) portraying the struggle of people who are out of world’s news radars, but with a powerful background nevertheless, have been nominated. Hell, even Motorcycle Diaries that shows Che Guevara in his transformation years got an Oscar.

Well, sometimes, you probably need more than talent to make it big. I think it’s the case with other genius work-of-art movies that have a similar story behind them. Shawshank Redemption is one. It was a flop to begin with. And it wasn’t even nominated for a single Oscar. But, through word of mouth publicity, it went on to become one of the biggest sensations in the history of movie moving. You just can’t come out of the movie feeling nothing. There is no way you can don’t-like the movie. Long after it was made, it’s been recognized as the biggest miss in the Oscars. Guess these are copy-cat stories similar to that of Gandhiji not winning a Nobel peace prize!

As for now, let's just wait for Mani Rathnam's next movie (Guru).

P.S: This post's tone might be a lil' out-of-ordinary... that's coz I'm a bit senti about it right now. Recency effect may be...