Good morning dear readers. By the time you finish reading this article, the world will have awakened to a historic Oscars 2019 results. Historic in many aspects, thanks to the growing consensus on shunning individuals and behaviors bordering on homophobic, racist and sexually harassing lines. The latest casualties of post #MeToo era include James Gunn, Bryan Singer and Kevin Hart. The directors James Gunn (Guardians Of The Galaxy series) and Bryan Singer (X-men series, Bohemian Rhapsody) suffered a dent to their hard earned reputation as dependable box office names. While Kevin Hart, known for his sharp wit and cheeky humor as a stand up artist, lost out as a host due to a distasteful twitter rant against LGBT community nearly a decade back. And Oscar 2019 will be conducted without a host after a really long time.
But beyond these casualties, this year's Oscars will be known for some groundbreaking impact cinema has had on the society by large. In a country (rather the world) grappling with issues ranging from border-walls, immigrant crisis, racism, gun control, homophobia to corruption in the highest office, the films in race this year reflect this social commentary. BlacKkKlansman and Green Book compel one to stare at racism as a still deep rooted reality while Vice and The Favourite subtly point out at the power struggle in highest echelons using humor as an efficient tool. Roma makes you find that lost empathy within for an immigrant's slice of life, perhaps going to sweep the race for Best Picture both in mainstream and the Foreign film category along the way many believe. While Netflix made huge inroads with multiple prominent releases this year, it was a little less seen Isle Of Dogs, a quirky visual gem from my favorite Wes Anderson which underlined the threats a populist tyrannical regime poses if kept unchecked.
But the biggest game changer, whether it wins or not the Best Picture Oscar today, has to be Black Panther. The superhero movie defied all critical and box office expectations to disintegrate all the standing records in a Thanos finger snap manner.
Superhero genre has been considered the runt of the litter by the Academy purists for long. Blame it deservedly on the crappy super-reporter-man and bat-nipple movies all through the 80s & 90s. And those weren't even the worst of the lot. The visionary Christopher Nolan salvaged this genre single-handedly with his Dark Knight trilogy (Heath Ledger winning a proud first Oscar posthumously for this genre). Which was later catapulted to newfound stardom by Marvel comics and Robert Downey Jr. aka Ironman with the launch of MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). But it was never enough to get them a seat at the big boys' table. The longstanding complaint with the genre remained- does this version of cinema reflect the society and its struggle at all?
Part of the reason why cinema worldwide is considered such a powerful medium is because of a surreal mix of a visual viewpoint, theatricality, character driven storytelling and (recently) capable CGI elements. Cinema can make the audience 'feel' the maximum in the shortest time frame possible. And if along the way, it gets them thinking and trigger a discussion in society, that's a significant victory for the medium. We felt it while watching Badhai Ho, Vicky Donor, Taare Zameen Pe, 3 Idiots etc in bollywood. Black Panther achieved this victory for an entire genre for the first time. Marvel studio bosses believed in Ryan Coogler's courage of conviction and the end result was not just the first superhero lead of color, with a full cast of color, but it was the celebration of a whole culture altogether. The Wakanda theme and smash hit original score All The Stars became a window into the African heritage and brought the black and white worlds together. It outperformed even Avengers: Infinity War in the process and that's no mean feat by any chance.
But why do we love a superhero concept in the first place? Do all superheroes wear a cape?
We audience have our own problems in personal lives. More often than not, we turn to cinema to just forget it all and feel good for a little while, whereas we continue to look for the right inspiration from some other credible sources externally. But every once in a while some strong character on silver screen grabs our attention by scruff of the neck and pound us hard in subconscious to stay there forever. Whether it was the angry young man defying a corrupt system in Zanjeer (1973), a village farmer challenging the English tyrants at their own game in Lagaan (2001) or a black prince with a costume, invisible jet, technological miracles and his own kingdom in Black Panther (2018). When HE reflects the hardships faced by his audience in life and makes us aspire for courage and victory, that's when we fall in love with this superhero concept individually.
If a powerful piece of cinema can make an entire community feel proud of their rich cultural legacy; If it can inspire them to stand tall despite the countless struggles at hand; the reception is bound to be as loud as you heard for Black Panther. And though there are other brilliant movies in race which left huge impact on society this year, none comes as close as Black Panther in mass exposure and that's why I believe it to have much more chance than just a symbolic entry into Best Picture category, as some pundits are saying. But whichever film wins today, 2018 surely has the best lineup since the glorious 1994, and is a milestone year for our society.
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