Will ‘The King’s Speech’ rule at the Golden Globes this year?

Bikas Bhagat

The award season is back. This is the time of the year when dedicated, hard working professionals from the entertainment industry need to be acknowledged for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields. Generally ranked as the third most watched awards show every year after Oscars and Grammys, the Golden Globe Awards recognises the best of talents in the world of television and the silver screen. With the start of a new decade in 2011, the prestigious Golden Globe Awards ceremony in its 68th edition promises more glitterati than the years gone by. By identifying a diverse ensemble of talent from all across the world, Golden Globe Awards have only strengthened its repute of being fair and one of the most credible benchmarks to rate quality cinema. And at such global events, India has made its presence felt in a big way. In the 66th edition of the award show in 2009, India got its first ever Golden Globe with AR Rahman walking away with a gong in the Best Original Score category for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. The film, depicting the moving story of a slum dweller went on to win in the Best Picture (Drama), Best Director and Best Screenplay categories as well. AR Rahman – the musical genius from India – has once again been nominated in the Best Original Score for Motion Picture category for the 2011 Golden Globe Awards. The nomination of Rahman is for his work in Danny Boyle’s ‘127 hours’. While in 2009, Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ had a dream run at the Globes, this time as well a film by an English director is expected to rule the roost. British film ‘The King’s Speech’ directed by Tom Hooper leads 2011 Golden Globe nominations with seven nods. Colin Firth portrays George VI in ‘The King`s Speech’ and the film opened to great reviews receiving rapturous praise at prestigious film festivals world over. Tom Hooper, the British-born director of ‘The King`s Speech’ said that the film`s timeless themes of triumph over adversity and friendship were possibly the reasons it has become such a popular film. As an actor, Firth has already emerged as the awards season front-runner with his performance as a monarch coping with a crippling stammer. ‘The King`s Speech’ has the backdrop of the Abdication Crisis but the film essentially shows how George VI coped with his speech impediment by working with a speech therapist played Geoffrey Rush, who was nominated for best supporting actor nomination along with Bonham Carter whose portrait of the Queen Mother earned her a best supporting actress look up. George VI ascended to the throne after his brother Edward VIII abdicated, after less than a year, to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. Firth, who was travelling back from the Far East said he was `very pleased` that ‘The King`s Speech’ was finding recognition in America. `I play a man who wasn’t groomed for the throne; he came from a family which can only be described as dysfunctional. He had harsh schooling, he was very lonely, his parents were distant and remote, he was beaten for being left-handed and he stammered. Then he became king`, Firth said. Colin Firth`s best dramatic actor rivals include James Franco for ‘127 Hours’, Ryan Gosling for ‘Blue Valentine’, Jesse Eisenberg for ‘The Social Network’ and Mark Wahlberg for ‘The Fighter’. ‘The Social Network’ and ‘The Fighter’ are two other significant flicks of the year with each taking six nominations. Then there is Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller ‘Inception’ with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead , ‘Black Swan’ with Natalie Portman as a psychotic ballerina and ‘The Kids Are Alright’ with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as a lesbian couple at the centre of a family drama all receiving four nominations. Now, this time the best actress category is going to be most competitive with Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Natalie Portman, Michelle Williams and Jennifer Lawrence vying for the best dramatic actress trophy. Also the Globes have split their awards along drama and comedy-musical lines, which allowed Angelina Jolie to snag a nomination in the best comedy or musical best actress section for her performance in ‘The Tourist’, though her role in the film has not been viewed by many as one of her finest. Jolie’s leading man Johnny Depp found himself on the comedy-musical line-up where he was nominated twice for roles in ‘The Tourist’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Annette Bening and Julianne Moore have been nominated for best actress in a musical or comedy for ‘The Kids Are Alright’ and are seen as the strongest contenders. Joining them is Anne Hathaway in ‘Love and other Drugs’, and fast-rising American actress Emma Stone for the film ‘Easy A’. The five best drama nominees – ‘The King`s Speech’, ‘The Social Network’, about the creation of Facebook, ‘The Fighter’ - in which Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play brothers who box - and ‘Inception’ - are the best bets for the Oscar nominations list for 2011. However, not all of the movies in the Golden Globes comedy or musical category are going to make it to the Oscars. Films like ‘The Kids Are Alright’ might have to endure, and deservedly so, along with the camp musical ‘Burlesque with Cher’, ‘The Tourist’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and the comedy-drama ‘Red’ might not be able to garner Academy Award nominations. In the animation section, ‘Toy Story 3’ was nominated in the best animated film category along with ‘The Illusionist’, ‘How To Train Your Dragon’, ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Tangled’. Besides films, Golden Globes also covers television and there is a healthy line-up of British talent vying for awards in various categories. In the best actress in a TV mini-series of made-for-TV-film, Judi Dench was mentioned for ‘Return To Cranford’, Hayley Atwell for ‘Pillars of the Earth’ and Romola Garai for ‘Emma’. Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald was nominated in the best supporting TV actress category for her role in the HBO series ‘Boardwalk’. Golden Globe is like the harbinger for the World’s highest form of glory for any film with them being honoured by the Oscars in the coming months, let’s see which among the top succeeds in earning the rhapsody of the precursor.