The laurels that A. R. Rehman, Gulzar & Resul Pookutty brought to India at the centrestage of the Academy Awards function have enthralled every conscious Indian. We may have had loads of criticism against the portrayal of India's poverty and wretched condition of life of its slum-dwellers in this movie, but we cannot detach ourselves from dousing in the celebration for the victors who are very much Indian.
This is not the end of the story; India have once again proven her worth in another field - banking. Our very own State Bank of India (fondly known as SBI) have superseded Citigroup's market capitalisation to be among the largest banks in the world. The market capitalisation of SBI on Friday closed at Rs. 66,285 crore. This is around 25% more than the closing market capitalisation of Citigroup on the NYSE on Friday. The market capitalisation of Citigroup was Rs. 52,931 crore.
Though Citigroup's revenue in the last four quarters is almost eleven times more than the revenue earned by SBI, its profits are nowhere near the figures earned by SBI. While Citigroup has suffered losses of Rs. 83,474 crore in the last four quarters, SBI has booked profits of Rs. 8,262 crore. Martin Hutchinson, an economic commentator, recently put out a list on the status of the 12 largest banks in the US. He categorised Citi as a zombie bank. “Citi has been a serial flirter with bankruptcy over the past 30 years and remains a basket case,” he wrote.
6 comments:
I agree with your catch-line that Slumdogs are no underdogs but I don't understand one thing - why do we need west to certify this? And why we go gaga over Oscars as if we never realized how powerful our cinema was before this day? Competing and surpassing global brands is an achievement but waiting for a foreign recognition to feel own worth is not always the right approach.
I am not a obsessive patriotic and I have nothing against Oscars. Infact I feel proud of Rahman as well. I truly feel Rahman has got hte recognition that he very truly deserves. But having said that if Rahman could get Oscar for 'Jai Ho' then he should have got atleast 20 Oscars by now, considering the masterpieces that he has created till date. But it only catches the attention of the West when a foreign director makes it, is not very encouraging. This could justify Oscars in other categories like Direction, Editing, Cinematography but not in music.
I completely agree with you Sir. Why alone Oscars, at every discipline we have been forced to take a backseat and have been brought to limelight through these so called foreign recognitions. At times either we are the victim of Western diplomacy or sometimes we are too ignorant about the unequal treatment.
The telephone was actually invented by Dr. J. C. Bose but the recognition went to Prof. Guglielmo Marconi. The causes of famine and its aftermath was well depicted in the Bengali novel 'Asani Sanket' by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee, later cinematographed by Satyajit Ray. But, Dr. Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize only after restating the same problem using high-end mathematical models.
I am even curious to know that why isn't there an award given by India that the world would cherish to possess, which would be as celebrated as the Oscars, Nobels, Golden Lions? Is it just that we cannot create world renowned brands or that we are still a ex-colony of the British?
I truly appreciate your comments Sir. At least this would attract the attention of a handful of people who regularly read my blog and compel them to think.
I think we should have got this so called Oscar long back. Thhough we accepted defeat for "Lagaan" from Bosnian film"No man's land", but what is reason of "Taare zameen pe" or "Rang de Basanti"? Can't we counter attack this iconic hollywood benchmark by starting our own global film award where we can invite those mighty foreign films?
I knew this conversation would invite other bloggers to comment and speak their mind out. Thank you Sudipta for your thoughts.
Great Insights from Debashish Sir and Anirban.
Worth more than a thought.
Guess, the who's who of Indian Film Industry read this and realise that they are not underdogs anymore.
Why doesn't India have some special awards at par with Oscars & company ? Nice Question raised again..
The probable answer lies in a film's dialogue said by Aamir Khan in Rang de Basanti. The answer is - "We Indians believe in ADJUSTING and that's the reason we are not the NUMERO UNO in anything".
:)
Don't blame me if you don't like the answer. Instead catch the dialogue writer for RDB. :)
Cheers!!
Deeptaman, you are reputed for your one-liners and you prove it time and again.
The habit of 'adjusting' or flippant attitude among Indians is ingrained because we have been ruled for years together. I don't know whether there is an underlying anthropological reason or not, but it's true that races who have been ruled by others for a prolonged time generally prefers submission to others' opinions.
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