347? Is that someone's cell? Ha ha. :)

For God sake I hope they don't have Indian guys on stage, twirling around in bedazzled silk shirts with no shoes on. I am sick and tired of being emasculated.

Ooooh. Very cool tool. Looking forward to seeing how cover it live goes. It's like chat for all to see...

Thank you, sfgirl, for being our first commenter on this new format! :D Anyone else?

Nice. I'm following you while I work. Instead of turning on the TV.

er, do I need a password or some such?

How come none of my comments show up? Am I commenting too much?

First mallu in history to win an Oscar! Go Resul Go!

wooo! go rehman! yes yes yes!

first tamil remarks in an oscar speech :)

yes! yes! Alicia Keyes didn't mess up Rahman's name!

go gulzar! i heart you.

dont like frieda's gown. like the ear-rings though. simple and elegant.

danny boyle! danny boyle! tigger!
i love watching the oscars :)

Best Oscars in awhile. suck it Fincher!

Cheers to Wall-E and Pen-elope Cruz...Loved those movies.

There you go the Reader... I am sorry for you Anna... Kate beats you :)

America loves themes, huh? This is the year of the Obama, Slumdog, Winslet....:)

BTW, does anyone else see Dev Patel grow up into this guy?

I'm glad they brought Loveleen and the kids along. FIN

Slumdog sweeps with Best Picture too...shit..I wanted Reader or Curious case of Benjamin button

17 · Priya said

There you go the Reader... I am sorry for you Anna... Kate beats you :)

I don't understand? :)

Lame but here is the explanation....Ann(e/a) :)

I meant Ann(e/a) Hathaway

Well, given that Follieri is behind bars, Anne can't afford to put her haath away. If you know what I mean.

Don't care for the movie but cheered like it was world cup final when Rahman and the kids were on stage.

I am happy that AR Rahman won an oscar, hope he wins a Grammy soon. I have to say though, Delhi 6 music is far better than Slumdog.

26 · kal said

Delhi 6 music is far better than Slumdog.

DevD beats both hands down, IMO.

27 · Rahul said

DevD beats both hands down, IMO.

27 · Rahul said

26 · kal said

Delhi 6 music is far better than Slumdog.

DevD beats both hands down, IMO.

delhi 6 lyrics are kinda awesome. the music of dev d is far bolder in tone; delhi 6 for when you are in a more introspective mood. but that's just one dilliwaali's opinion.
[it is so great to see dilli at the movies!]

Smile pinki too won for best documentary. some kind of desi sweep this Oscars ?

Live blogging idea was AWESOME. Just read it now and lol'd at the comments - it was so much fun to read your conversation about Attention Whore Anil, Freida's granny dress, the WONDERFUL Rahman...YAY.

And for brown Oscars - yay yay yay yay YAY!

Yoohoo, Gulzar named at least some international awards. I would give him noble for his poems ( and so so many oscars for so so many movies/songs/scripts) .

My fave part of the ceremony was watching one of the kids high five dannie boyle in the most unaffected joyous fashion sun the entire crew went onstage.

first tamil remarks in an oscar speech :)

Looks like I should not have slept. Congrats Rahman. He has prepared well for the award and is being diplomatic.

Except for Best Director and couple of other wins, I do not know if Slumdog deserved half of its wins(though I would have been fine with anyone but the guy who directed Reader). At least Danny Boyle is a great director who really made a goood mainstream movie out of something like this. Also why is a non artsy movie like this OK for oscars but The Dark Knight gets no respect. Both are escapist entertainments with some serious indie cred directors giving them some seroius undertones.

Also I thought Rourke was perfect in The Wrestler. It would have been nice to see him do an encore after his entertaining acceptance at the IFC Indie Spirit Awards.

As far as Slumdog music, it was decent, but other than the MIA portions, I didn't find the music that great. I wonder if the lack of exposure to Bollywood made them overrrate the music. I understand best song fiasco as Oscars rarely get this category right. Even Lagaan songs were better and wasnt that by Rahman.

I hated the death montage this year. With so many well known deaths, I would have preferred the older versoin instead of some production member trying to put his imprint on the show. Gvie us a simple effective montage where each picture is not swooping aorund the screen making it tough to concentrate on each dead person's image. Also Latifah's singing was, as Bale would say, FUCKING DISTRACTING even though it was not her fault(she sang well).

Best screenplay? Give me a break. Danny Boyle and his "codirector" deserve most of the credit for taking a cutesy story and making a good movie out of it.

Man, that MIA girl has lost a whole lot of weight in two weeks. I bet she had Liposuction. She looked fairer too; must be the Fair & Lovely.

All you Anil haters, pox on your tongues *throws a fit*. for once, i am not embarassed to be voluble, and bear-japphi and all - because it's one of mine doing the same on stage. so nyaah. eat my kachcha. we'ze just born with big... hearts. didja know anil donated his earnings to an ngo.

Resul Pookutty is a MALLU! :D

As far as Slumdog music, it was decent, but other than the MIA portions, I didn't find the music that great.

As far as Slumdog music, it was decent, but other than the MIA portions, I didn't find the music that great.

Lots of people keep saying this, and I'm not saying this is you, but I think a lot of it is preciousness and affectedness. Rahman has produced so many incredible songs over his career, and has a very high standard, but the point is, that he melded his music to this movie so perfectly. Best soundtrack is for the musical vision of a composer melded to a cinematic narrative, and Rahman's work perfectly elevates, probes and integrates with Slumdog. It is raw, hungry, frantic, swaggering, sympathetic, characterful and tender, and it is an absolutely brilliant conflation of cinema and music. It deserved to win, and I don't think it is a lesser work of Rahman's at all.

11 · ironman said

Alicia Keyes didn't mess up Rahman's name!

Will Smith messed up Resul's last name 'Pookkutty'. The way he pronounced, it means flowerpot in Malayalam. It also is a local slang(among the naughty boyz only) for someone with immature ejaculation problem( Flowerpot in fireworks, you get the point). It should have been pronounced 'tty' as in Putty. But he did the 'tty' as in Kitty.

It was not good by his usual high standards IMHO.

In my opinion, it absolutely was, and stands tall and at least shoulder to shoulder with his other work as a unitary achievment. It has to be judged together, as one collection of songs that meld with the movie, that is the context in which it exists, and he nails the tone and aura of the story just perfectly.

He has produced a universe of brilliant music before SM, but his music on this movie takes its place beside them, perfectly and easily, and you can argue the toss about individual songs, but this fashionable downgrading of his work in relation to other Rahman work is not right, in my not very humble opinion.

I was amazed to read that he completed the soundtrack in 3 weeks from start to finish. One word for the man -- GENIUS.

I am happy for Resul Pookutty

He said,

But I grew up watching films in Malayalam like Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Elippathayam and Aravindan’s Kummatti, Pokkuveyil and Thampu where the sublime use of sound represents the cultural context ... Devadas and Krishnanunny have done immensely truthful work in these films. My work is an extension of theirs. Their works taught me the art of blending technology with aesthetics."

Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Elippathayam(1981) is the best Indian movie I have watched.

The 'twng' sound of the electric wires of the local train is one unforgettable sound for anyone who has spent time in Bombay. When I heard that sound in it original form in the movie, I went back to my Bombay days and lived the rest of the movie. But, I agree with Salman Rushdie the storyline is impossible on impossible, a usual theme in Bollywood.

Bobby,
I just like some of his other work more is all. Not downgrading or anything. I will take the worst of Rahman over the usual treacly, Oscar bait bs.

40 · LandBeyond7Zs said

Will Smith messed up Resul's last name 'Pookkutty'.

will smith is generally a douchebag with the acting chops of a turnip. he's like jitendra without the white pants.

LandBeyond7Zs,

immature ejaculation..? I hope my wife don't get a hold of that term.

46 · remo said

LandBeyond7Zs,

immature ejaculation..? I hope my wife don't get a hold of that term.

here you go man. handle your willy well, wonka.

I loved the kids on the red carpet, I loved the fact they were all talking past each other and the little Azhar blurted all the English he knew when someone asked him a question. I feel Seacrest is an idiot and I was disappointed that Anil Kapoor didn't go totally mental.

49 · KashytheCableMan said

F*ck Hollywood's love affair with homosexuality

I am sympathetic to their cause. It is one group that is not treated equal in American political system. They deserved to be treated equal. I consider people with homophobia as boys( not real men) who are always doubting whether they are homosexual. Real men need not be afraid of homosexuals, we should accept them as real and equals. Make jokes about them, but dont hate them. LOL! Good thing that we dont have any in India.

Anna, really enjoyed your comments on the SAJA webcast!

7 · daycruz said

How come none of my comments show up? Am I commenting too much?

No. You just hate Rasheed Wallace. ;)

31 · Sam said

Live blogging idea was AWESOME. Just read it now and lol'd at the comments - it was so much fun to read your conversation about Attention Whore Anil, Freida's granny dress, the WONDERFUL Rahman...YAY.

Glad you liked it! :D

45 · khoofi said

will smith is generally a douchebag with the acting chops of a turnip. he's like jitendra without the white pants.

HA! I got in to this on the live blog which is embedded above, but I said, "I think I'm the only brown person who doesn't like Will Smith", or similar. I was shocked when a few of you agreed. Shocked, I tell you.

48 · umber desi said

I loved the kids on the red carpet, I loved the fact they were all talking past each other and the little Azhar blurted all the English he knew when someone asked him a question. I feel Seacrest is an idiot and I was disappointed that Anil Kapoor didn't go totally mental.

I loved them, too! They were so sweet to each other. As for Seacrest, I wanted to punch him. Anil was on his best behavior!

If any of you want to know what we're talking about, open the live blog, it should be the first link (of many) in the stream. Some of you contributed some great links over the course of the night, too! Power of the hive. :)

50 · Ali said

Anna, really enjoyed your comments on the SAJA webcast!

Thank you! That's really sweet of you. I didn't know if anyone would listen to that, since it was on so late and it went for two hours. :)

I'm trying to gauge how effective or useful "Cover it Live" is AFTER the event (during the Oscars, it was magnificent); how many of you have hit "replay" and read some or all of the live blog/transcript?

In the past, did you read "live blog" posts when we wrote them "the old way", like a list of sentences/phrases, and we updated the post every few minutes, either while an event was occurring or afterwards? Thanks! :)

52 · A N N A said

I'm trying to gauge how effective or useful "Cover it Live" is AFTER the event (during the Oscars, it was magnificent); how many of you have hit "replay" and read some or all of the live blog/transcript?

i did, hella coolness. annoyed i did not get the movie channel they showed it on in the UK, so watching the repeat today, and thanks to this thing-a-ma-jig, fully preped.

I also hit replay and read most of the comments till the 10:00 PM timeslot. Will read the rest at home.

AR Ra(kk..flem..kk)man. Pisses me off how "those people" say it :)

Can someone please fill me in as to what Seacrest did on the red carpet? Seems like there was some kind of encounter with the SM cast??

TCQ,

What I was talking about was that instead of learning to pronounce the names of the kids, he put up a sheet of paper with their names and I felt it was disrespectful. Same people will go to great lengths to try and pronounce French and Spanish names.

56 · TCQ said

Can someone please fill me in as to what Seacrest did on the red carpet? Seems like there was some kind of encounter with the SM cast??

;) That's why I wrote this:

51 · A N N A said

If any of you want to know what we're talking about, open the live blog, it should be the first link (of many) in the stream. Some of you contributed some great links over the course of the night, too! Power of the hive. :)

Here's the link to Seacrest being a douche---> http://bit.ly/bhJyb

Here's the link to Seacrest being a douche---> http://bit.ly/bhJyb

Thanks for linking this, Anna. I hadn't caught it live and was also wondering what he did exactly. It is actually much worse than I picked up from reading the comments. Horrible as it was that he held up the list, he showed himself to be completely clueless during the rest of the interview too. Say your names all at once? Translate for him, when he hasn't said anything, because he can't speak English? Wow. What a new low for live interviews, and what an utterly, totally clueless dolty dude stuffed shirt. The kids were a hundred times smarter than him. I hope he gets canned for this.

59 · oldtime-SMer said

http://bit.ly/bhJyb

If you go to Oscars.com or to hulu.com you can search up the red carpet items and this comes up quickly. Yeah very lousy job by SeecrUst in not even trying their names.

Thanks, Anna ... UGH that just made me violently angry and upset. He's incredibly douchetastic. "Say your names all at once on the count of three."Seriously??

I just want to know why those kids in the movie are STILL living in Dharavi? What? Danny Boyle can't buy them a half-decent apartment?

It's bullshit. Those kids made the movie what it was. Freida Pinto hardly had any memorable lines in the movie. In fact, the only part of the movie I remember clearly, is when the kids are sheltering from heavy rain and one of the boys asks the girl to come and sleep inside an abandoned building with them. very moving.

BTW:
do they gorge people's eyes out like they showed in the movie?

62 · nm said

do they gorge people's eyes out like they showed in the movie?

yes, pardesi gori. every indian is given a daily quota of 3 eyes to "gorge", not just gouge. not all from the same person. i say "gorge" because we then use the eyeballs for the soup that mola ram will make for us?

40 · LandBeyond7Zs said

It also is a local slang(among the naughty boyz only) for someone with immature ejaculation problem( Flowerpot in fireworks, you get the point).

LOL!

The live blogging made watching the Oscars less boring, for sure. Also, heard Anna on the SAJA thing..you were awesome :) I just saw The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (the one that aired on 2/19 - recorded it to watch Frieda Pinto), and was surprised to see AR Rahman perform Jai Ho with dancers et al. Anyone else see it?

Here is the Seacrest entire interview with the kids, Irfan, Anil and Freida, Dev (maybe it was already linked in the liveblog)

49 · LandBeyond7Zs said

49 · KashytheCableMan said

F*ck Hollywood's love affair with homosexuality

I am sympathetic to their cause. It is one group that is not treated equal in American political system. They deserved to be treated equal. I consider people with homophobia as boys( not real men) who are always doubting whether they are homosexual. Real men need not be afraid of homosexuals, we should accept them as real and equals. Make jokes about them, but dont hate them. LOL! Good thing that we dont have any in India.

You've got to be kidding me, right? This is just a ridiculous statement

63 · blogic said

62 · nm said

do they gorge people's eyes out like they showed in the movie?

yes, pardesi gori. every indian is given a daily quota of 3 eyes to "gorge", not just gouge. not all from the same person. i say "gorge" because we then use the eyeballs for the soup that mola ram will make for us?

What is a pardesi gori? does gori mean a white person? I'm not white, but maybe you can think of another name to call me. I was asking an honest innocent question because I had heard that disabled beggers or blind beggars get more money. So, I really wanted to do if "disabling' people was a practice used by these organized "begging" units to get more money.

I really want to know if those kids are going to go back to the slum in mumbai. If they are, I'd be very disappointed in danny boyle.

nm is not Pardesi Gori.

nm, Pardesi Gori is the most infamous troll in SM history. Carry on, folks.

68 · nm said

I really want to know if those kids are going to go back to the slum in mumbai. If they are, I'd be very disappointed in danny boyle.

Yeah there are guys who pour hot oil in the eyes of the slum kids or even kids who come from villages looking to send money to their poor parents back home. These kids then beg near the traffic lights and every traffic light area is managed by certain pimps who make sure only their kids are begging in that area and no other kid can come and beg there.

Anna, I read your nifty liveblog last night. Loved it although the new format was a little difficult to scroll down unlike a regular webpage. It was very amusing :) I am sorry I didn't think of checking SM while watching the Oscars live. Thanks for doing it.

Another movie with an Indian cast that got an Oscar was Smile Pinki. Would someone at SM be kind to run a small note about it? It would help an important cause and would give necessary coverage to some of the health issues in rural India at the same time.

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Sarah

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