All this hosannas on 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Is it really merit?

Most of you guys and gals will say I am an incurable cynic. May be I am. Some of you may say I am letting my wild crazy imagination let run away. May be. But it made me think. A film on India (slums though; has to be; slums is what comes to an western mind when India is mentioned. IT comes next) getting all these accolades; Golden Globe, Oscar nominations and all. Rehman's music being praised to the skies.

Rehman has been giving good music all these years. Has the West woken up to it only now (Andrew Lloyd Webber is an exception)? Co-incidence? Or.....

I don't suggest for a moment that Bush, Condy, Obama or Hillary gave the Golden Globe and Oscars folks a wink or two, but it does help the US in stopping agitated Indians who are crying for military action against Pakistan after 26/11. What better way to deflect the attention of Indians by handing out a few awards to an Indo-centric flick and invite Shahrukh Khan to hand them away?

There is no doubt that the Oscars are not given on merit alone. There are other factors too. A reviewer of the book by Emanuel Levy called All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards, says "In fact, the chapter "Is the Oscar a White Man's Race" reveals that many of the biases that operate in the Oscar awards simply reflect biases that exist in American society, and that the Oscar is just a microcosm of a much larger problem that we Americans need to deal with."

CNN in a report dated Feb 25, 2008, titled The politics of the Oscars' Foreign Language Film Award throws more light on weaknesses of the 'Oscar system'. It says, "But for most critics, the most inexplicable omission from the shortlist of nominees was Romania's "4 Months, 3 weeks & 2 Days," winner of the Palme D'Or in Cannes and considered by many to be a sure-fire Oscar winner. Some feel its challenging subject of a back-street abortion in communist Romania was too testing for conservative members of the Academy's Foreign Film Committee, whose volunteers tend to include many retirees -- who else has time to attend screenings of 63 foreign language films?" Even Marc Johnson, the Chairman of the Academy's Foreign Language Film Committee, acknowledged that some of the criticism levelled against the Academy this year was "justifiable".

A comment on Volconvo forum had this to say about Al Gore getting the Oscar for his documentary on global warming in 2007, "Is this a way for Hollywood people to speak out about a political problem by nominating a movie that has to do with Global Warming or did they pick the movie because it really is well done and above average just from a movie making perspective. Is Hollywood using the Oscars to promote action about preventing Global Warming or did they concentrate on how well the movie was put together as compared to others in that same category?"

So you see I have some reasoning in my 'madness'.