Minor Scale

…from BeingCharlieKauffman.com

Unfortunately, the Oscars were not as entertaining as the Grammys. A watered down Chris Rock was boring except when he pointed out the stupidity of presenting the less glamorous awards in the aisle and commented, “Next year, we’re gonna have a drive-through presentation”.

The weird/funny moment for me came during the 1800th Beyonce performance of the night, when they cut from her face to show a monkey figurine sitting atop a grand piano, then transitioned slowly to reveal the man sitting behind it…Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s bad enough that most of the nominated Brits got snubbed, but did they really have to incorporate symbolism to pick on Webber’s somewhat simian features? :) Oh, and it was ironical that none of the Beyonce performances won the Oscar for Best Song. That went to the Raema Raema something number from Motorcycle Diaries, performed by Antonio Banderas and a disinterested Santana.

Charlie Kauffman winning Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the high point of the night. And while the softie in me did root for Before Sunset in the Adapted Screenplay category, I was at least glad it was not ‘ClintE & Posse’ who beat them to it.

PS: Kate Winslet looked good enough to eat.

It’s bad enough that Rajinikant has decided to take long breaks from Tamizh cinema, but now one has to endure every other moron trying to emulate him in finger-whooshing and spewing “acerbic” dialogues. But atleast it’s funny. For those who know Tamizh, here is an audio excerpt from the Sarath Kumar starrer, ‘Aai’.

The Setup:
The hero is a military officer on vacation who decides to turn ‘Vigilante’ for 2 weeks after having observed a police atrocity. So amidst wreaking havoc on the Police Department wearing freakish disguises, he messes with the wrong guy, our villain, Kota Srinivasa Rao. But Kota tracks him down eventually and the following takes place during their first meeting.

Aai Showdown - Real Audio

The rest of the dialogue, I found hidden as an Easter Egg on the DVD.

Kota: Aaaaai. Naan nadanthitte vaetti kattravan. En Kitte Vechikaadhe.
Sarath: Naan paduthikkitte pant pOdravan. Enne pagachikkaadhe.
Kota: Aaaaai
Sarath: Aaaaai
Kota: Aaaaai. Oru Glass thanni kondu vaa. Kudichittu innum idhu maathiri pesuvom.

btw, Telugu movie fans can look forward to a Balakrishna remake of the same sometime soon. Yummy!