The Academy has a history of denying us an Oscar, a prestigious distinction for our cinema, where deprecatory content is often mistaken for entertainment.
So much so that now, filmmakers have lost all hope. But, no, no, you won't hear them say that. Their replies would be more like, "Our kind of cinema is different. We entertain! We kill boredom, and that's what cinema is all about, ain't it? We don't need an Oscar to prove that we make good films. We make good films." Maybe that's one of the reasons why any kind of meaningful cinema is swiftly plastered the tag of being different, so when people having an IQ of a mashed potato come across it, they know that this film should be given a miss and wait for a movie that has the same level of IQ as them.
I don't want to come off as a gadfly, but I just don't get why we have been declined an Oscar. Or maybe I do. And, hey, before I scrutinize why, I just want to say that A.R. Rahman's win doesn't count. But yes, it was long overdue and he did deserve it.
When I look at the list of the films we have submitted as a possible Oscar contender - in the category of Best Foreign-Language Film, that is - I find the inconsistency vaguely disturbing. I mean, some of those aren't the best films of that year. For example, Barfi! wasn't what you'd normally call great, is it? I found it to be just good. But the amount of romance sure spewed a lot of sugary haze. Oh, and the imitation of Charlie Chaplin and his movies was too distasteful a tribute; at least that's what I thought. One other thing that I found to be unconventional in Barfi! was that it was more about the characters and less about the plot. That was the impression, but director Anurag Basu thought otherwise and shot it accordingly. Missed the mark by miles, miles! So, there were people, some loving it and the others not so much, you could say, but the Committee, which is responsible for sending the submissions for the Oscars, thought it's better to preach about love and life and how to be likable even if the things you do is criminal, and Barfi! represented India at the Oscars. And it didn't even make it to the top ten. They, meaning the Committee, had a point though - there's something for everyone in Barfi!. But that's not a reason why they should shun better cinema, is it?
Coming to what they should've done instead, I find Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur as a worthy contender for the big thing. Yes, it was original, and it was Indian in its treatment. Gangs Of Wasseypur is not a great film either but it took balls of steel and incredible craft for it to go in front of a nation of a billion people and receive applause at the sound of a cuss. The characters were glorious, the sound incredible and the performances terrific. That was one hell of a movie, licked to steely perfection. But it was over-indulgent and stuffed with scenes and scenes of nugatory violence. But, what the hell! So are a lot of Oscars winners, right?
I digress. Once, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, accused legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray of selling poverty to the West. And once you get over the initial incredulity caused by that accusation, you find that the West is indeed fascinated by the squalor of this country. I found this revelation when I looked at the names of the only three Indian films to have been nominated for the Oscar : Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan. And, oh, did I forget to mention Slumdog Millionaire? A film that so undeservedly picked up the Oscar for Best Picture, when there were better movies vying for it? So, needless to say, we cannot guess how the Academy picks out the winners, but there's no argument that a display of poverty may get you noticed on the West side.
Lagaan was shamelessly commercial, a big, feel-good family film that preached the right morals and proved that even men clad in dhotis can play cricket only if their mothers tell them that they remind her of their fathers. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy its absurdity. Lagaan was guilty pleasure compared to the movies that I usually prefer.
Salaam Bombay! was the antithesis of that. A touch of pragmatism, a touch of emotions and a bunch of good characters, there's no doubt that it deserved to be nominated.
So, all in all, the Academy sure loves to watch movies about a world they know so little about. They like their fascination to be aroused but the Committee has a wrong perception about what kind of film to send them. They're scared of the West's panorama of India, which is why they send movies like Barfi!, a film that shows how beautiful the country is and how wrong the West has always been about it. And, Mr. Basu, ripping ideas off Charlie Chaplin films are going to receive a murmur of appreciation here, but to the souls on the other side of the world, it's an insult, plain and simple.
But, hey, we're missing out on an Oscar here, folks! Gangs Of Wasseypur stood a marginally better chance at the Oscars because of its audacity and novelty, not to mention that it was well-received at Cannes. And has nobody seen Timangshu Dhulia's Paan Singh Tomar? We need to send good films and not the ones that pontificate the right morals. They make films like that there too, you know.
So much so that now, filmmakers have lost all hope. But, no, no, you won't hear them say that. Their replies would be more like, "Our kind of cinema is different. We entertain! We kill boredom, and that's what cinema is all about, ain't it? We don't need an Oscar to prove that we make good films. We make good films." Maybe that's one of the reasons why any kind of meaningful cinema is swiftly plastered the tag of being different, so when people having an IQ of a mashed potato come across it, they know that this film should be given a miss and wait for a movie that has the same level of IQ as them.
I don't want to come off as a gadfly, but I just don't get why we have been declined an Oscar. Or maybe I do. And, hey, before I scrutinize why, I just want to say that A.R. Rahman's win doesn't count. But yes, it was long overdue and he did deserve it.
Coming to what they should've done instead, I find Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur as a worthy contender for the big thing. Yes, it was original, and it was Indian in its treatment. Gangs Of Wasseypur is not a great film either but it took balls of steel and incredible craft for it to go in front of a nation of a billion people and receive applause at the sound of a cuss. The characters were glorious, the sound incredible and the performances terrific. That was one hell of a movie, licked to steely perfection. But it was over-indulgent and stuffed with scenes and scenes of nugatory violence. But, what the hell! So are a lot of Oscars winners, right?
I digress. Once, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, accused legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray of selling poverty to the West. And once you get over the initial incredulity caused by that accusation, you find that the West is indeed fascinated by the squalor of this country. I found this revelation when I looked at the names of the only three Indian films to have been nominated for the Oscar : Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan. And, oh, did I forget to mention Slumdog Millionaire? A film that so undeservedly picked up the Oscar for Best Picture, when there were better movies vying for it? So, needless to say, we cannot guess how the Academy picks out the winners, but there's no argument that a display of poverty may get you noticed on the West side.Lagaan was shamelessly commercial, a big, feel-good family film that preached the right morals and proved that even men clad in dhotis can play cricket only if their mothers tell them that they remind her of their fathers. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy its absurdity. Lagaan was guilty pleasure compared to the movies that I usually prefer.
Salaam Bombay! was the antithesis of that. A touch of pragmatism, a touch of emotions and a bunch of good characters, there's no doubt that it deserved to be nominated.
So, all in all, the Academy sure loves to watch movies about a world they know so little about. They like their fascination to be aroused but the Committee has a wrong perception about what kind of film to send them. They're scared of the West's panorama of India, which is why they send movies like Barfi!, a film that shows how beautiful the country is and how wrong the West has always been about it. And, Mr. Basu, ripping ideas off Charlie Chaplin films are going to receive a murmur of appreciation here, but to the souls on the other side of the world, it's an insult, plain and simple.
But, hey, we're missing out on an Oscar here, folks! Gangs Of Wasseypur stood a marginally better chance at the Oscars because of its audacity and novelty, not to mention that it was well-received at Cannes. And has nobody seen Timangshu Dhulia's Paan Singh Tomar? We need to send good films and not the ones that pontificate the right morals. They make films like that there too, you know.
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