Why Black Panther is a Good Movie-A Guest Post by Sujayendra Krishna Nellore

The post below is written by my friend Sujayendra. He is working for Zomato, likes gaming a LOT, reads too and is currently burning calories like an arsonist pouring accelerant. Please welcome him to the blog people!

The Bilge Master

Do you want to know why Black Panther is a good movie?

It introduces African mysticism into the mainstream Hollywood spotlight without being subjected to the exotic touristy bullshit this particular industry portrays any non-white country. I mean, look at Danny Boyle's vision of Mumbai.

Hell, look at Windtalkers, a movie from 2002 that was supposed to be about Native American Codetalkers from the Second World War, but instead, it is mostly centred around Nicholas Cage's problems. This industry cannot even do right by their own people, let alone some country across the world. To this day, there are no proper movies about Codetalkers, men who turned the tide of war for the Americans against the Japanese. They weren't even offered citizenship to their own lands until 1920, and their contributions to the war were only recognised after Obama came to power. A full 60 or so years after the war.

Black Panther explored previously uncharted territories in movies, by letting Coogler go wild with the influences he wanted to use. It's no coincidence that this movie's depiction of the people of Africa--and mind you, I'm specifically talking about the people here, is unlike any other movie done before. And this is not because they are Wakandans--the movie uses a real language for its people, the clothes and accessories are very much a part of their cultural heritage.

There are very few movies like it, and even fewer--perhaps this might be the only one, that has been as honest to the people it represents. The fact that it is still part of the MCU is an afterthought, an overarching plot that is there. But the issues in it are very real, and still present. That alone makes it worth the nomination.

Does it deserve to win? I'm not rooting for it, despite how much I enjoyed it. There have been better movies this year, but that is my subjective opinion. I've no illusions about the minimal chances it has against a movie like BlacKKKlansman. But that won't stop Raju Moviebuff, and Chomu 'I say the N word ironically' Pandey from claiming that the movie is 'objectively' bad, without a shred of irony or a sense of what the movie represents.

Obviously, we should all listen to the astute opinions of the people it doesn't represent. After all, if a movie they didn't like gets nominated, it's infuriating, but with this, it's only because the Oscars would be called racists, of course. There is no other reason, apparently.

You couldn't be more transparent if you exchanged bodies with a jellyfish.