Slumdog's nominations at the Oscars

Is this going to be a case of the underdog 'Slumdog' going on to become an Oscar sensation? Look at all the nominations and it's anybody's guess,. AR Rahman is nominated in twice for best song ("O Saya" and "Jai ho") and original score, a total of three nominations. Another first ever for an Indian is Reesul Pookutty who has been nominated with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for achievement in sound mixing. 

Reesul recently worked on the sound of 'Ghajini' which was released in December in India. He was first noticed for the work he did on Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Black' with whom he went on to work with later for 'Saawariya'. He also is credited on Zinda, Bluffmaster, Mathrbhumi and many more for sound design. Reesul hails from Kollam district in Kerala and is an alumnus of FTII, Pune.  over to the 22nd of Feb 2009.

Achievement in cinematography

 “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle 

Achievement in directing

 “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle 

Achievement in film editing

 “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens 

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

 “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman 

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

 “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar 

 “O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

Achievement in sound editing

  “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers 

Achievement in sound mixing

 “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty 

Adapted screenplay

 “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Windows 7

I am currently using Windows 7 Beta 32-bit edition on my desktop, after three hours of setting it up and playing around my initial feelings are so positive about this when compared to Vista.

I saw one glitch with the Intel display accelerator which the system recovered from automatically the experience has been trouble free. The default installation attempted to change the display resolution to 1280 x 1024 (60 Hz) which for some reason wasn't displaying on a DELL 19" LCD monitor. Changing this to 1280 x 1024 (85 Hz) fixed the display problem.

Music - Oscar hopefuls - 2009

I was tempted to post when I saw a pic of such distinguished composers on Hollywood reporter. Here's a short description on each of them. 

From left: Jan AP Kaczmarek, Alexander Desplat, Danny Elfman (Top most), Howard Shore, AR Rahman are the composers posing in the picture above.  [Image copyrighted by Hollywood reporter and used here in a non-commercial context, will be removed if objections are raised by the copyright owner]

Jan AP Kaczmarek is a Polish composer who has won the Oscar award for Finding Neverland. Jan effectively was able to create melodies on the piano and merge it the the orchestra in his soundtrack for Finding Neverland which was instantly appealing at the same time was layered enough for hardcore classical music fans to discern in the long run. He is also known for two symphonic compositions done in Poland - Cantata for Freedom & Oratorio. Jan's tickets to the awards nite this year is 'The Visitor'. 

Alexander Desplat is considered French and has composed music for such films as Lust, Caution, The Luzhin Defence, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Syriana, Birth, Hostage, Casanova, The Nest and The Painted Veil. He got noticed for his score for 'The Painted Veil' for which he earned a Golden Globe for best original score. His score for the epic 'The Queen' was nominated for the Academy award (Oscar). This year he's rumoured to be nominated for the score done for the movie 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button'.

Danny Elfman is an American composer whose scores to movies have been described as wild, maniac, romantic, lush, serious, dark, bright etc. Having scored the first Batman movie, Danny is know for his work in movies such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Good Will Hunting, Chicago, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Kingdon etc. Danny has been nominated for the Academy award for Good Will Hunting (Dramatic Score), Men in Black (Musical or Comedy) & Big Fish (Original Score) but hasn't won the coveted Oscar as yet, is this going to be his year for the work done on the movie titled 'Milk'?

Howard Shore is the most popular and decorated of the names we have on this post today. Having composed for such successful movies as The Silence of the Lambs, The Lord of the rings trilogy, Philadelphia, Se7en, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Howard has won the academy award thrice - Best Original Score for The Fellowship of the Ring, Best Original Song (sung by Annie Lennox) and Best Original Score for The Return of the king. The year he's likely to be nominated for the score of the movie 'Doubt'. 

AR Rahman is probably the best selling composer in this list simply because of the sheer number of record sales his music is attributed to, it's rumoured to be close to 110 million putting him in the same league as Michael Jackson in terms of sales. AR Rahman is an indian born composer who changed the way music was done in mainstream indian movies. After breaking all records in Indian he went west to compose music for the hugely successful musical Bombay Dreams (premiered in London) and The Lord of the rings (premiered in Toronto). His work on 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth' a chinese production was well received. Rahman is rumoured to get nominated to the academy awards for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. 

I'm going to stick my neck out and make two predictions. AR Rahman is going to be nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for 'Slumdog Millionaire', he'll win Best Original Song ('Jai Ho' sung by Sukhwinder Sing, Lyrics by Gulzar, Produced by AR Rahman). Over to the short list expected in Feb 2009.