Let me get my point straight. If 'Slumdog Millionaire' deserves 10 Oscar nominations, then 'The Dark Knight' ought to get at least two more. How can Christopher Nolan be left out of the Director's criteria and the blockbuster out of the Best Picture criteria? I know the reason. 'The Dark Knight' is a comic hero film. There's this whole génre thing in Hollywood. 'The Dark Knight', being a superhero movie has been left out of the two important categories simply because of what it is, inspite of all it's near flawlessness.
Coming back to 'Slumdog Millionaire', if A.R.Rahman deserves an Oscar nomination for 'Jai Ho' and 'O Saya', then he should have earned more Oscars and Golden Globes on numerous occasions previously, the latest being RDB. I think of this and I get reminded of Martin Scorcese. Scorcese won an Oscar for 'The Departed'. The movie was Oscar material, no doubt. But it was nothing compared to Scorcese's earlier classics like 'Taxi Driver', 'Goodfellas', 'Raging Bull' etc. Rahman deserves an Oscar, no doubt. But not for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie, in my opinion, is overhyped. There are moments where Danny Boyle's class is shown. But the movie's no classic. I'd rather see 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button' or 'Frost/Nixon' bag the top honours. 'The Dark Knight' wound will be hard to heal for many fans.
At such a moment, I think of Marlon Brando and how he snubbed the Oscars. To 'The Dark Knight' fans like me, Oscars don't mean a lot any more. To us, no matter what happens in Kodak Theatre, Heath Ledger's 'The Joker' will remain the greatest psychotic character ever portrayed and 'The Dark Knight' the best Batman movie till date. Personally, I don't think Chris Nolan would go for a third installment. But I know that if he does, it will be out of this world!
