Our regular columnist The Zeitgeist gives his take on how a film wins Best Picture based on the…zeitgeist

And the Oscar goes to…the zeitgeist. If there’s a fact known among Academy voters, a Best Picture win is always based on the spirit of the times (read: the hard-to-pronounce zeitgeist). A common theme always runs in most of the nominees and the graduating class of 2008 is no different. Spot it while you can.

The Wrestler is about a once-forgotten wrestler making a final fight in the ring. Milk is about a 40-year-old political activist who fights against all odds to realise his convictions. Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy surviving the harsh streets to fight for his love. The coast is clear. Here, we are looking at underdogs making a comeback. Fighting for their beliefs and values. Surviving.

Perhaps I’m over-analysing my crystal ball. But let’s have a history lesson if you ask me. In 2002, Chicago the musical won against the backdrop of a Bush-initiated war. Everyone wanted cheer and Catherine Zeta-Jones dancing sort of helped (I said sort of). Last year, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood touch on bleaker and darker themes of greed (Wall Street mavericks, are you listening?).

Let’s go even further. Back when America was reeling from the Vietnam war and Watergate aftershocks, All the President’s Men, Taxi Driver and Network came along. ATPM exposes the mechanics behind Watergate; Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver was a war veteran and Network dealt with bad TV ratings (should the current ABC broadcasters be worried?). Chuckles.

And the best example: Kramer vs Kramer. In the 70s on the tide of feminism, the film cajoled people to question and assess the idea of fatherhood and motherhood.

Fast forward to the present five Best Picture nominees and we see a similar trend. Remember Harvey Milk uttering, “You got to give them hope.” Whoa. President Obama would be proud. Frost/Nixon may be about Watergate but if you look deeper, the film serves as an allegory to President Bush’s eight years in office. Nixon denies allegations of abusing his executive powers. He insists on his above-law powers of phone tapping and privacy to a certain extent. Sounds familiar? Go examine Bush’s Patriot Act.

The Reader, some say, was about post-war Germans suffering from guilt. In one scene, a student argued with his professor reasoning the Germans stood by passively and allowed the war and Holocaust to happen. They simply went along with the crowd. And didn’t Americans go along with the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who’s to blame now? Thanks to The Reader for raising that sickening question. Curiously enough, I can’t put a finger on Benjamin Button. Neither do I care and want to revisit those three long hours to watch Brad Pitt age to his gorgeous teenage years again. We’re through on that.

Ah. We’re at Slumdog once again. I’m not jumping up and down over the movie but it’s gaining momentum at the awards circles and finding favour with all romantics. It’s a fable or fairytale if you like. Boy meets girl, loses girl and goes on a game show (really?) to find girl back. They end up on a train platform doing the Bollywood dance (really?!?!). It’s such a simple song-dance-quizzes love story. But I know you like it. Admit it.

And this is what the audience wants now. In such dark times of a looming global financial recession, unemployment and Michael Jackson auctioning off his possessions, we need some cheers and razzle dazzle. A fairytale to make us believe. An underdog comeback story to give us hope. To fight against all odds and survive this financial crisis in order to embark on that Maldives holiday.

Because if the chai-wallah from Mumbai can do it (find love and a million bucks), so can you. Slumdog Millionaire for Best Picture. You don’t say.

Ronald Wan is a freelance writer and a regular columnist on this site. He is however taking up a part-time job as a – you guessed it – chai-wallah.