The Indians are coming

 How many of you remember the exhilaration of Colin Welland's acceptance speech when he won an Oscar for best original screenplay? His 'boy next door' features were in rapture as he, over-optimistically as it turned out, proclaimed "The English are coming!". Having just done a little bit of Googling, I've discovered that I didn't remember it as well as I thought. My recollection was that he won the Oscar for Kes (1969), but it turns out it was for Chariots of Fire (1981). I'm not completely doolally as he did act in Kes, but didn't win an Oscar for that one. My problem with Colin Welland winning an Oscar at all was that I will always think of him as PC Graham from Z-Cars (dee dee dee, da dee dee da da). Ah, those innocent days of just 2 television channels, black and white at that. You tell the kids that today and they won't believe you. Anyway, back to the plot.

The success of Slumdog Millionaire reminded me of that exuberance and surprise - that foreigners should come to such a gloriously American event and trounce the home side. I am so happy that Danny Boyle and his crew received the honours that they richly deserved. My regular two readers will know that I have recently come out of the cupboard to confess my secret love for Bollywood movies (the collection continues to grow), so I am particularly pleased that my affection for these movies may be starting to spread. Granted, Slumdog is not a traditional Bollywood movie and wasn't actually made by an Indian film company. It did star Anil Kapoor, who I like very much and have seen starring in a politically hard-hitting Bollywood movie dealing with Indian government corruption. There was also the unforgettable reference to Amitabh Bachchan, who is one of the actors in my favourite Bollywood movie. Best of all, Slumdog even managed to include a dance number, which made my day.

The Oscars ceremony itself was a strange event. I made myself sit up to watch the rerun on Fox Movies, propping open my eyes since I'd been up at 6 am and I had to wait until 1 am to see the bit where Danny Boyle does a Tigger bounce before receiving his award for Best Director. It felt like we were all in Hugh Jackman's front room while he entertained us. What was that all about anyway? An Australian hosting the Oscar ceremony? All those references to cutting the budget? Hugh Jackman hosting, dancing, singing and handing out ice-cream cornets in the interval? Did he paint the scenery too, because it looked like someone had just knocked something up with some left-over wood and whatever paint was lying around in the garage. I know that I have been cocooned about the financial fiasco here, but the Oscar Awards made me realise just how bad things are in the US. Think about the films and people who were nominated too. Nationalities were well spread out, almost as though the Americans had lost confidence and were licking their wounds in a corner somewhere.

The perfect antidote for all the gloom and doom, as Hugh said at some point during the evening, is a good old musical. I don't think that they ever went away, since Chicago did pretty well not so long ago. However, as there isn't any money out there to make movies at the moment, I suggest dipping into a few Bollywood movies, most of which have cracking good dance numbers at some point in the plot. They should have your toes tapping and a smile on your face before you know where you are. I bet you can't listen to the Best Original Song, Jai Ho from Slumdog without feeling a little more optimistic about life. Apparently Jai Ho means 'May you win' or victory. Now that's instant kharma for you.