The ‘He’ and the ‘She’ Oscar

This year’s Oscar race may well lend itself to a gripping screenplay. We have a man and his former wife pitted against each other with nine nominations each for their respective films. James Cameron’s 3D extravaganza, Avatar, has netted nine nods, including those for Best Picture and Best Director. Avatar - which sunk its creator’s earlier record grossing, Oscar winning, Titanic with an earth-shattering show at the box-office - may well fly away with an attractive booty when the Academy Awards are announced later.
Facing the Goliath of a Cameron is his ex, the David of a Kathryn Bigelow, with The Hurt Locker that has grabbed nine noms as well, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Known for springing surprises, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may well decide to create a bit of history by putting Bigelow on the pedestal. She is only the fourth woman to get the Best Director nod, and if she clinches the actual trophy, she will be the first among the fair (or stronger?) sex to do so.

America and the Americans are in that wonderful mood to initiate a new order. We saw that when Barak Obama was elected President. The Academy’s 6000-odd members may want to do something as remarkable, and Bigelow can be the beneficiary.

Apart from this marital drama that someone in India’s Bollywood may be tempted to turn into a Pati, Patni and Woh movie, the Woh here being Mr Oscar, the nomination screen did not have any great fireworks.

Quentin Tarantino’s Jewish fantasy, Inglorious Basterds walked away with eight nods, Best Picture and Best Director included. Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air won six – Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for George Clooney among them.

The question that arises now is whether the Academy’s decision last June to expand the list of best picture nominations from five to 10 has fulfilled a long standing need to open this category to diverse genres. Yes, more variety can be seen this season. Films such as A Serious Man, The Blind Side, District 9 and An Education may have found it tough to enter the Oscar arena in the past.

On the flip side, no documentary or musical or foreign language work, for example, got the nod. And, despite the longer list, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus and designer-turned-director Tom Ford’s A Single Man got the snub. Spanish master Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces failed to make it, and, sadly, not even in the foreign lingo section.

The five foreign language nominees are Germany’s The White Ribbon, France’s A Prophet, Peru’s The Milk of Sorrow, Argentine’s The Secret in Their Eyes and Israel’s Ajami.

India’s Harishchandrachi Factory (in Marathi) could not make it. Neither could AR Rahman, who is now being hailed as the Mozart of Madras. Well, well, that is an enormous halo to carry.

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in

Cuba's world-famous cigar festival closes in Havana

Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo

Cyprus lace to be declared UNESCO cultural heritage

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 NICOSIA: Traditional hand-made lace produced in the Larnaca district village of Lefkara in Cyprus known as lefkaritiko includeded in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Soseilos said that the relevant UNESCO committee has already decided to include lefkaritiko in its list of the world’s ICH, a more recent addition to UNESCO’s long-standing list of World Heritage sites, and the decision will be formally announced at the UNESCO General Assembly next month. The tradition of needlework and lace embroidery in Lefkara goes back centuries.

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