The Golden Globe Awards Make History

Correct me  if I am wrong .But this is the  first time in American cinema’s history that two Black  actors have won  in the  lead actors’ category.That Chadwick Boseman would win the Best Actor award  for his rousing posthumous performance  in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom  was  a given. I am just surprised that ‘Ma Rainey’ Viola Davis didn’t win anything, black bottom or  not. Bosemanwho rose to superstardom as Black Panther didn’t  get sympathy  votes  because he is dead. Awards  don’t work that way  in America. I am a  hundred  percent sure  he would have won even if he were alive. What a contrast to our own nation where  you are instantly anointed to greatness  if you are dead and your  abysmally mediocre posthumous film gets designated as a classic.

Actor  Daniel Kaluuya who won  the Golden Globe for Best  Supporting Actor in Judas and the Black Messiah, also has a ‘Black Panther’  connection. He plays the leader of a black protest-group in  Britain called  Black Panther  in the 1960s.Jodie Foster who  won  the same award in the female category  for The Mauritanian is no stranger  to  awards.  33 years ago Ms Foster won every award  for her portrayal   of  the gangrape survivor  on The  Accused. She proves it’s not about  the colour of the skin or the  number of years  on your passport. It’s just being gifted.Period.

Another  real-life hero  , Andra Day playing the legendary  jazz singer  Billie Holiday  walked away with the Golden Globe for  Best Actress   in   The United States Versus Billie  Holiday . She is seductive, sassy and  stunning  in the part, Billie Holiday comes  alive in Ms Day’s performance.

  The Best Picture and  Best Director for Chloe Zhao  in Nomadland comes as  no surprise. The haunting film portrays homelessness as much much more just  a real-estate  issue. Loneliness desolation, rejection and self- realization all find  a  place in Ms Zhao’s meditative melancholic  (e)motion  picture.

 This brings  me to  the Golden Globe for best  motion  picture in a foreign language. There are  no blacks and whites in Minari, only  real people who speak to one another in Korean but are American. These are  immigrants who  have moved far away from  their roots  and  are  not quite sure if their adopted home has  any real place for them.But the  film is  not  a dark immigrants’ story.  It is remarkably lighthearted and  at times,killingly funny.

The triumph  of  Minari is  not cultural. It is much more than that.

As  for television, do  the  two  awards  for  The Queen’s Gambit — Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television  for  Anya Taylor-Joy, and   Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television—surprise you? It would have been criminal  to  overlook the  excellence  of this  chess-nut  drama.

With due  respects  to The Crown and  our own  Scam 1992  The Harshad Mehta  Story  ,  The Queen’s Gambit  was the  best thing  to happen on the home screen in 2020.