I have zero recollection of the hours that I have spent listening to Suzanne D’Mello’s melancholic crooning of Latika’s emotions in this track, a slow and an entrancing piece of melody from the critically acclaimed soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. Once again, I discovered it quite randomly during my music listening spree today – perhaps your most cherished songs follow you everywhere just like your beloved memories. There are other hit tracks on the album, including the award-winning Jai Ho (Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media) which captured the imagination of the world and also Ringa Ringa, but I keep returning to Latika’s Theme like a hopeless romantic. From my list of favourite composers, A R Rahman is one who has the potential of casting a spell on my latent consciousness with his tunes, while consistently demonstrating the obvious that music has a universal appeal even when it’s deprived of any language or words and an effective antidote for healing our bruised soul.
Academy Awards
Does India Really Need the Oscars?
We have yet again failed to get a nomination for the OSCARs in the foreign film category. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti (Paint me Yellow), the new found mantra of the indian nextgen was rejected even before the final roll call. The last time an Indian movie made it to the five was Aamir’s Lagaan in 2001; a riveting account of a small village lad taking the British Raj up in a captivating cricket match. Before that, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay and Mehboob Khan’s Mother India have graced the coveted final OSCAR nomination list. None of them won the award though. The chinese film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (CTHD) won 3 OSCARs at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, giving the director Ang Lee a godlike status in the Hollywood precincts overnight. CTHD was masterfully made with martial art sequences at its best and a traditional chinese story which is expected from oriental directors. Years later, he made a comeback by winning the OSCARs again for his work in Brokeback Mountain at Hollywood.