Of Awards
For me Awards and their corresponding events are at best entertaining events and at worse they are corruptive, not necessarily with regards to who is given what award but on their very structure itself. To start with filmmaking is a tremendous team effort and the Director can be the only person to know who in the team is contributing what, as their work is being benchmarked against his vision and requirements. The only exception to this will be songs as they can stand alone as separate of works of art in the album. So it’s highly possible that a very capable technician does fantastic work and the Director can screw it up by using it in the wrong context and if a technician does bad work it can be easily covered by the overall effect. In both the cases only the Director will know and not even the team members can know as they cannot independently have an idea of how good or how bad the Director was thinking to start with.
The irony for me is that after all the euphoria Indians had on Resul Pookutty winning an Oscar it does not even occur to them to ask what else he had done before this. They would have seen nearly 50 odd films of his previous work over the years ranging from good, bad and ugly but the point is that his sound designing in them went unnoticed. Now that the media screams that he has got an Oscar everybody is talking about sound design.
Does any of the guys who are jumping with joy about Oscar triumphs know or care who got the sound design award at the Oscars last year or all the years before that or for that matter in our own desi awards? Then what’s all this sound about? It’s nothing to do with Resul’s contribution and my proof of that is I have not heard or met a single person who saw Slumdog and mentioned sound in particular until the time the Golden Globe gave him an award and from then on everybody sounds off on sound design without even having a faintest idea of what it is.
There is a live effects track, a dialogue track, an atmospheric track and the background score track of which only a part is due to sound designer. All of these are made to come together by the final mixing engineer to create the desired effect sometimes in consultation with the Director and sometimes without. Any person who hears the final output of the mixed track has no way of knowing whose contribution to what degree is creating the desired effect. The only person who knows that will be the final mixing engineer who will be deciding what to keep, what to throw out and at what levels they have to be played.
The attempt of mine here is not to undermine Resul’s work but it is to make one understand that Resul can do better work which easily can go unnoticed and lesser work can create an impact due to reasons unrelated to work.
Coming to actor’s performances if the comparison for instance is between Aamir for X role and Abhishek for Y role and SRK for Z role, my question is what if SRK plays Y role, Aamir plays Z and Abhishek X? How can one know whether they would have done better than the other one or not? So are they giving awards to actors or characters? If it’s characters then they are written by writers and how the effect of a character comes about is dependant on a variety of factors, such as the screenplay, the co-actors performance, the editing, direction etc and under no stretch of imagination can that credit be given to the actor alone. Unlike the Stage the only true judgment of cinematic acting can be done between the start and the cut of a shot. It is because in this time period alone the actor is drawing up an emotion on cue and releasing it when the director says ‘cut’. So how much he elevated the character from the director’s vision, only the director can know and then it’s also highly possible that same performance can be completely screwed up by the director on the editing table or if it is wrongly placed in the screenplay or the impact also can be lessened by a ineffective reaction of a co-actor. So a number of people’s talents and their complex interweaving results in the sum total effect of a film moment or the film itself and there is no way for an outside body irrespective of their expertise to analyze and determine the individual credits.
I have always maintained that my successful films are due to my team and my failures are due to me alone. The reason for that is that each and every actor and technician are contributing their work and talent as per my vision and in many cases they enhance it far greater than what I had expected. But if I use them wrongly the film does not work. But when it works and I am being praised I know in my heart which individuals specifically have lifted a particular moment in the film or the whole film itself.
So in short, the success of a film is due to what contribution the actors and technicians gave in addition to what I expected of them and that is why it belongs to them and the failure of their equally great contribution belongs to me as I failed in channelizing it to its intended destination.
It has to be realized that in the making of a film the technicians and actors are working towards satisfying the director, and the director is working towards satisfying the audience. So only by the sheer understanding of the mechanics I have of what goes into the making of a film, I find the concept of an outside body giving Awards ridiculous.
Tagged as abhishek, awards, director, filmmaking, oscar, resul pookutty, slumdog, srk + Categorized as Film
June 10th, 2009 at 12:18 AM
DEAR RAMU SIR!!
RE: AGYAAT AND RANN
I am an avid fan of your cinematic projects ever since Raat, Drohi and Rangeela days! I can assure you that I am slightly psychic in that my heart knew from the beginning that after Raat you would attempt more thrillers and horrors! Ever since I was a kid Knightmare on Elm street series has been my favourite! Especially the whole novelty into creating a ‘Freddie Kruger!’
You too are a novelty ..your cinema speaks volumes after all they are an RGV trademark!
Despite being an avid fan of cinema…I could not understand my passion for filmaking and direction until recent. I am an MSc IT and BA (Hons) Management graduate from Preston, Lancashire, UK.
I must say hats off to you to choose an intelligent actor like Riteish in Darna Zaroori, Rann and the upcoming Warning.
I hope to meet you one day Sir……………..the first thought that came to mind, post the initial promos of Agyaat is that it reminds me of Schwarzenegger in Predator.
Phoonk was an excellent attempt after Bhoot in which Urmila looked absolutely ‘Bhooteauful!
Ramu sir how I can meet you as I have lost of ideas for you…Please e-mail me your contact phone number and e-mail. I have tried contacting the RGV Factory many times.
Kind Regards
Anita Vaza
(anitavaza@hotmail.com)
June 29th, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Very true and very correct and well said Ramu garu (as u like to be called rather than rgv or ram gopal verma / varma )
July 8th, 2009 at 1:33 PM
sensible column.i like it.
July 12th, 2009 at 2:25 AM
I kind of agree and disagree with your comments on how an award might be categorized .. ideally success does depend on entire team effort … and u can never have a best actor / director award from am flop project .. hence if Resul’s contribution was noticed in slumdog .. i wud say it is mostly because of overall team effort .. i wud not relate with his past project .. it could have been that he is with wrong ppl and wrong project …
so i wud say team effort does win awards and that is when every individual gets a chance to win an award too .. I do agree that awards are biased / corrupted to most extent .. I would say an awarded movie / character / actor / director .. is from the perspective of the board of ppl who are declaring the award and every individual might have a different opinion on the characterization ..
yet again showcasing a character entirely depends on the director .. he may or may not choose one person over other based on his / her personal preferences .. lo!!! the director is corrupt too :) .. Its all relative ..
in any case i appreciate your thought process .. let the best team win :) .. whatz good always gets the lot
August 5th, 2009 at 2:50 PM
Some of my favourite dialogues in movies…………..
1 ) “Across the Universe” :
Max’s Father: Goddammit, Max! Get serious, for once! What are you going to DO with your life?
Max: Why is it always what will I do? “What will he do”, “What will he do,” “Oh, my god what will he do”, Do, do, do, do, do. Why isn’t the issue here who I am?
Uncle Teddy: Because, Maxwell, what you do defines who you are.
Max: No, Uncle Teddy. Who you are defines what you do. Right Jude?
Jude: Well, surely it’s not what you do, but the, uh… the way that you do it.
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2) The Shawshank Redemption: ( I wanna make a remake of it )
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
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3)The Godfather :
Sonny: Hey, listen, I want somebody good – and I mean very good – to plant that gun. I don’t want my brother coming out of that toilet with just his dick in his hands, alright?
Clemenza: The gun’ll be there.
– — – —- — – —- — — — — ——— — — —————- ——————
I’ll make him an offer that he cannot refuse.
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4) The Departed :
Frank Costello: When you decide to be something, you can be it. That’s what they don’t tell you in the church. When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I’m saying to you is this: when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?
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5)Pulp Fiction :
Jules: Wanna know what I’m buyin’ Ringo?
Pumpkin: What?
Jules: Your life. I’m givin’ you that money so I don’t hafta kill your ass. You read the Bible?
Pumpkin: Not regularly.
Jules: There’s a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you. I been sayin’ that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin’ made me think twice. Now I’m thinkin’: it could mean you’re the evil man. And I’m the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he’s the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you’re the righteous man and I’m the shepherd and it’s the world that’s evil and selfish. I’d like that. But that shit ain’t the truth. The truth is you’re the weak. And I’m the tyranny of evil men.I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard to be a shepherd.
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August 5th, 2009 at 3:06 PM
The last paragraph……
“t has to be realized that in the making of a film the technicians and actors are working towards satisfying the director, and the director is working towards satisfying the audience.”
I think a film director should work to satisfy the scriptwriter or the final script that he has in his brain and not the audience…………… its the satisfaction of self after u make a shot ……..that satisfies a director…………… if u r thinking of audience…….u r thinking of multiple personalities…….. and u can never satisfy all…..so i guess director should satisfy only himself ( or might me producer….if hes controlling the project………… i wud say director is the control of all)
August 19th, 2009 at 6:13 AM
How can you write about Success/Failure vn u dont believe in Awards..
Awards are meant for :
Motivation…
Acheivement for Excellence…
I would say that by the name of awards , dvd sales will be boosted by 200%. Take for example, Crank. I can say 100 things which are positive..
September 6th, 2009 at 12:55 AM
HA HA HA …awards for DVD sales.. that was intelligent response from “Krishna54″
I HOPE U HAD A GOOD LAUGH AT THIS, Ramu garu…………..