Bollywood comes to the Oscars

John Legend did his best. The show’s producers even gave him a gospel chorus for his performance of Down to Earth. That was the Peter Gabriel composition used in the animated film Wall-E and which was one of the nominees for Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards.

Legend though and Gabriel too, were no match for A.R. Rahman, the Indian pop star who composed and performed the other two nominated songs, Jai Ho with lyrics by Gutzar and O Saya with lyrics by Maya Arulpragasam from Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman also did both songs during the Oscars and the grand production number marked Bollywood’s coming out party in Hollywood.

It was one of the few times in Academy Awards history when a song in a foreign language won the prize. The last one I recall was Al Otro Lado Del Rio from The Motorcycle Diaries five years ago. And that was Spanish which is not really considered a foreign language anymore in the US.

Still there was really no way that a sweet song from Wall-E could have won or even something as finely wrought a film like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Slumdog Millionaire was on a roll. It was like a bullet-train that flew over the tracks firmly focused on the Oscar at the end. And there were a lot of Oscars for Slumdog last Sunday. America gave a grand shout out for India and something for Mumbai to be happy about.

It was also a great evening for musicals although there were no big ones competing this year. Neither Mamma Mia! or Hair Spray made the grade and nothing in the likes of Chicago or Dreamgirls were in the running. But because host Hugh Jackman proclaimed that musicals are back, we ended our Oscar watching with the belief that musicals are indeed back.

Jackman’s statement introduced a number based on classic routines from the ’30s put together by his Australia director Baz Luhrman. Remember, Luhrman was also the guy behind Moulin Rouge, a musical that took home an Oscar or two some years ago. It starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan Mcgregor and Luhrman did say that the movie was inspired by Bollywood musicals.

Jackman in top hat and tails was joined by the enchanting Beyoncé and the young lovers from two of 2008’s blockbusters Mamma Mia!, which has now passed the half-billion dollars mark worldwide and High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which should also get there as it has already passed 200 million bucks in gross take. They did a medley of songs from musicals like West Side Story, Grease, Dream Girls, Chicago, The Sound of Music and even Beyoncé’s recent Cadillac Records.

That was not Jackman’s only musical contribution. He opened Hollywood’s biggest night with a wonderful song and dance number that poked fun at this year’s nominees. With no dazzling set or FX-laden clips, Jackman simply sang, danced and bantered with the audience to get the show going. He was so good that he merited a standing ovation from those present. And that was a very blasé, demanding audience.

The Academy did right in bringing Jackman in to host the show. I admit I had misgivings. Hugh Jackman? The Oscars needed a big boost as last year’s awards night garnered the lowest rating ever. I thought that maybe they should just go back to the reliable Billy Crystal. Sure, he flagged a bit the last time he was on board but he was still better than David Letterman, Jon Stewart or Chris Rock.

But maybe because he did a great job hosting the Tony Awards for two straight years, somebody decided to get Jackman. It was quite a risk as unlike past hosts, he was no comedian and might come out boring. He is also not even an American. He is Australian. The last foreigner who was also Australian to emcee the Academy Awards was Paul Hogan during the height of his popularity as Crocodile Dundee.

Jackman though is a singer, dancer and movie star who looks good and sounds good. He won the Tony award for lead actor in the musical The Boy from Oz. He is known to movie-goers as X-Men’s Wolverine. He was also named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2008 and I must say he did look dashing in his tux.

With a song and dance man as emcee, the people behind Oscar decided to make musicals the theme for the show. The orchestra was taken off the pit and brought onstage. For the first time in years, I did not hear John William’s sci-fi themes in the background. Instead, there were snatches of movie songs like Moon River and Charade and sounds from Lawrence of Arabia and Gone with the Wind played with a jazzy nightclub beat.

They also brought in the Oscar and Grammy winning Queen Latifah to sing I’ll Be Seeing You in the In Memoriam portion. She made the number so moving. I do not know how many others were touched or how the show fared at the ratings but I enjoyed it immensely and will surely watch a replay or two.