Thaindian News

The 81st annual awards Oscars 2009,the starting years eyes were on A R Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman became the third Indian to receive an Oscar, the others being Bhanu Athaiya and Satyajit Ray. Athaiya won an academy award in the best costume design category for the 1982 film Gandhi and Ray was awarded an academy honorary award for his contribution to world cinema in 1992.

Earlier Slumdog Millionaire bagged for Best adapted screenplay, Best cinematography, Best Film Editing , Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, also having A R Rahman sweeping away the two awards for Rahman wins Oscar for best original score followed by Rahman, Gulzar winning best original song Oscar for “Jai Ho”, Danny Boyle awarded for Best Director and finally Slumdog Millionaire wins the Best Motion Picture.

This year, two Indian-themed documentaries were up for the Oscars. The Final Inch by American documentary makers Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant is about health workers travelling throughout Uttar Pradesh, urging parents to vaccinate their children against polio.

The second, Smile Pinki made by American filmmaker Megan Mylan is a heart-warming tale of a poor village girl called Pinki whose cleft lip made her a social outcast until she meets a social worker who changes her life.

The Indian buzz at Oscars hasn’t been so loud since 2002 when Lagaan was in the running for the best foreign language film.

The film based on the character of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” The show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating, in order to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost.