Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson in The Departed A poster of Deepa Mehta’s Water

Deepa Mehta’s film Water is creating ripples in the virtual world.

Pramod Sharma (http://pramodworld.blogspot.com/) feels that the movie has “finally got its recognition”. He writes: “Water is in the Top 5 in the Oscar race now… At Oscars, they don’t want to see big sets, Indian culture or Indian scenes, all that matters is an appealing story in a sensible package. Paheli, the movie which was not accepted in India also, how could they expect it to be accepted outside? Hope the censor board gets some brain(s) to at least understand the nature of Oscar-deserving cinema.”

In a blog titled Prediction vs My Choices, 46-year-old Michael (http://allaboutoscar.blogspot.com/) writes: “Okay I’m ready to make some predictions. I’ve got like a month to change my mind, but to be honest I think these are pretty sure winners. But as many of us do, we prefer other people and movies to win rather than the favourites, or the sure thing. So I will list my predictions and the why behind my choice...”

The predictions: The Departed for the Best Picture and Best Director (Martin Scorsese); Forest Whitaker for Best Actor because “Whitaker is pure evil and pure perfection in this role”; Helen Mirren for Best Actress; Eddie Murphy for Supporting Actor and Jennifer Hudson for Supporting Actress.

Kenji Fujishima (http://mylife24fps.blogspot.com/) feels that “overall this year’s Oscar noms pretty much stayed on the dull, unadventurous side of the fence, especially with its Best Picture nods”.

A poster of Deepa Mehta’s Water

He explains how this year’s frontrunner Babel is “undoubtedly superior to last year’s pernicious multi-narrative Oscar winner Crash.”

If you aren’t interested in the films, you could always play a little fashion game of who will wear what to the Oscars. Thomas (http://thomaslindaman.blogspot.com/) blogs: “We’re in the middle of what is called ‘award season’... And each award show tries to be more glamorous than the last… We get stories about the Oscars a week or two prior to the event, about who’s wearing what, who’s throwing after-parties, how local folks celebrate the Oscars, how to throw an Oscar party...”

Postscript: Check out http://www.slightlydelightful.net/blog/ for the complete Oscar nominees’ list.