I saw ‘Crash’ today and ‘Brokeback Mountain’ almost a week ago. I wanted to write about ‘Brokeback’ immediately but decided to wait until I have seen ‘Crash’ too. I wanted to see for myself why these two movies bagged the top honours at the Academy Awards. I really don’t give a damn who wins movie awards. All of them are bogus, fixed and prejudiced to some extent. Find it hard to believe that Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar, Quentin Tarantino is kept at bay, Martin Scorsese is always ignored and that all Satyajit Ray managed was a lifetime achievement award (and that too after a lot of lobbying by some faithfuls at Hollywood)! I’m not sure but as far as I know even Kurosawa never won the golden statuette. Never mind, its not these awards which matter but the creative satisfaction the film-maker gets. Yeah it’s nice to know that people appreciate and acknowledge your work, but that is only secondary. Ennis and Jack

Anyways, enough of drifting from the main topic! First of all I must admit that I’m doing great injustice to both movies by writing about them together. Both deserve their own spaces. But these two were the best of 2004-’05 so the comparisons were inevitable! I don’t have really much to say. While ‘Crash’ is a great movie, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is a milestone. Both movies have an excellent script, great direction and great acting. Both deal with very sensitive and important issues. And it’s very difficult to decide which one is superior. All we can do is state our humble opinions. IMHO, ‘Brokeback’ has the slight edge. And that’s only because of its theme. Ang Lee has taken on a difficult subject and come out with a brilliant movie. Homosexuality is a taboo subject and Brokeback is able to capture one’s apprehensions. This is one movie which makes you ask questions to yourself. ‘Crash’ does that too, but in today’s world people are more tolerant towards another race than they are to homosexuals. A homosexual is still seen as someone weird, one who has a serious problem when it’s just a question of preferences. I am neither for it nor against it. But yes I do believe that we all have the right to live in the society, the way we want to i.e. as long as one doesn’t engage in anti-social activities. That’s what these two movies are all about, that is the message in both of ‘em- Tolerance. Live and let live. Crash

It isn’t fair to pit such good movies against each other but if I had to decide the best amongst the two, it ofcourse would be ‘Brokeback Mountain’. But that doesn’t mean ‘Crash’ should go unrewarded. As I said I don’t really care who wins the awards but must say the Academy Awards were fair on the count of the best director and best movie awards. ‘Crash’ was declared the best movie while ‘Brokeback’ got Ang Lee the best director award. Call me an ignoramus but I really don’t see the difference between the best film and best director awards. I mean how can you win the best movie award and not the best direction. What is a movie? A project undertaken by the director. So if you aren’t the best director how can you make the best movie? Ofcourse the best movie award means that the particular movie had the all-round best ingredients- script, direction and acting. But then if you aren’t a good director you wouldn’t pick up a good movie. Neither would you be able to extract a show by the cast. Maybe there are some directors who are able to get even average people to give great performances and can bring the story on the screen in a way that it looks better than it did on paper…maybe. For me these two awards are more or less the same. Koi unnees-bees ka difference hoga. So for me it’s like both, ‘Crash’ and ‘Brokeback’ being declared the best movie. And deservingly so, Cheers!