Starless Night

Mom, I hope you don't think I'm a freak.'' So went Haley Joel Osment's plaintive cry to his exasperated single mother in Manoj `Night' Shy...

Mom, I hope you don’t think I’m a freak.” So went Haley Joel Osment’s plaintive cry to his exasperated single mother in Manoj `Night’ Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. In Sam Mendes’ American Beauty, everyone is a certified freak. The wife cheats on the husband, who lusts after his daughter’s teenage friend, who is an exhibitionist. Suburban American, with its two cars, manicured lawns, wallpapered rooms, and resident shrinks, seen through the eyes of two outsiders.

One an Indian born in Chennai. Another a Cambridge-educated, cricket-loving Englishman more familiar with the West End than with Sunset Boulevard. And yet, it is the Englishman who won out at the Oscars with five awards for the DreamWorks’ film, and the Indian, with a film that is already on its way to the top 10 box office hits of all time, who went home empty-handed. Despite a screenplay that beats American Beauty in originality, The Sixth Sense didn’t even pick up the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The easy explanation for Shyamalan’s thankless night at the Oscars is the glass ceiling. After all, didn’t they ignore Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth last year? But the more rational explanation is that American Beauty just celebrated America better, in all its quirks and angularities. Shyamalan’s film, with all the dead people walking through it, is neither pure horror (a category normally reserved for the special effects nominations) nor just human drama, though it is both. While it deals with the underbelly of American suburbia and strange descent of Lester Burnham into obsessional fitness training and constant pot-smoking, it does so with a light touch that ultimately celebrates life.

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Burnham, as played with a droll sensibility by Kevin Spacey, is your John Doe, and the 5,600-strong Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, most of them people who acted in the movies during the forties and fifties, as The Wall Street Journal found out, love nothing better than an average man beating the odds. Think Tom Hanks and why he’s so popular with the Academy and you have your answer. Think also Hillary Swank’s Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry, and you can see why she won the Best Actress Oscar.

The Sixth Sense, on the other hand, is too unsettling. The Academy doesn’t like unfinished business. Though Osment’s character is cured of his terrible ability to see dead people, Bruce Willis’ psychiatrist is never able to tell his wife how much he loved her. One reason why actors who play handicapped people and films that deal with redemptive emotions translate their nominations into awards is that the Academy loves survivors. Look at why they chose 67-year-old Michael Caine, previous winner for Hannah and Her Sisters, despite his many roles in forgettable films such as Jaws IV, is that, as he put it, he’s a survivor. But India need not worry, even though Buena Vista Social Club, which has been produced by Delhi’s own Deepak Nayyar, was nominated for Best Documentary and didn’t win. The Indian influence was everywhere, whether it was in Oscar-winner and presenter Dame Judi Dench’s chikan gown with dupatta or Best Costume Designer for Topsy-Turvy winner Lindy Hemming’s salwar-kameez. And don’t forgetShyamalan’s wife’s bright red sari. In a sea of black and gold couture with Asprey Garrard diamonds, she sparkled.