Miranda here. I’m satisfied. The Jilted Indians watched the Oscars and we got to see so many brown people on the red carpet. Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, the ladies of Hidden Figures, the cast of Moonlight, Fences, and more! 

Highlights:

Dev Patel (“who can get it anytime” sincerely, Puja) brought his mother with him and can we talk about how beautiful that black and gold sari was? 

Sunny Pawar was held up Lion King style as he announced the drop of Mike and Ike’s.

The feature on films in foreign countries.

NASA legend Katherine Johnson was brought on stage with Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe, and Octavia Spencer. 

Mahershala Ali won the Oscar for best Supporting Actor. First Muslim American to win in this category.

The best foreign film went to Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi, and he sent female engineer (and fellow Texan), Anousheh Ansari, to flip the bird to F.F. Von Clownstick (we don’t say his name), a sentiment that was met with applause. 

Best adapted screenplay and best film went to Moonlight, a poignant film about authenticity and gay black love.

That was the quote I needed to hear all night. JIP live-tweeted the show and our thread will be available via Storify here.

Bonus time: 

Many weeks ago, Puja and I went to see Lion together. We brought drinks but no tissues; we were not prepared. We walked out of the theater with tears still streaming down our faces to provide commentary for what we had just seen. So here we are, drunk, crying, and cursing every other minute in this week’s bonus episode.  (Anju’s not in this one as she couldn’t join us for the movie.)

3/1/17 Update

Here is part 2 of our “Lion” Special, in which Anju and Puja discuss the movie, the actors, and contextualize it among other Indian-led Western vehicles.