Prakat Posted October 2, 2011 Posted October 2, 2011 Thoughtful and well-written blog post studying our choice of entries... It's easy to say that Jeans and Saagar aren't worthy of Oscar nominations. It's tougher to say which films are. I was relieved that the Oscar Nomination Committee of the Film Federation of India selected Adaminte Makan Abu, the National Award-winning Malayalam film, as India's official entry for the forthcoming Academy Awards. I haven't seen the film but it has won a clutch of National and Kerala State awards, and the synopsis an elderly couple plans to make the pilgrimage to Mecca makes it sound lovely and worthy. But its selection is also something of a no-brainer. WeÃÃl never know if this was India's best Oscar worthy film this year because the other entrants in the race were Guzaarish, Chillar Party, I am Kalam, No One Killed Jessica, 7 Khoon Maaf and Dhobi Ghat (all Hindi), Enthiran, Ko, Deiva Thirumagal, Muran and Aadukalam (in Tamil), Moner Manush (Bengali), Urumi (Malayalam), Mala Aai Vhhaychy (Marathi) and Ala Modalaindi (Telugu). Which film would you choose to represent your country at an international awards ceremony a modest and sensitive drama with senior citizens at its centre, or a multi-crore Rajinikanth lollapalooza? Why is Endhiran on this list? Why is the heavily derivative Guzaarish on this list? No One Killed Jessica is a fine film for an evening at the multiplex, but havenÃÕ Oscar voters seen these fight-the-System dramas a gazillion times? Why would they be impressed by yet another feisty variant? And why would they even consider a mediocre and over-the-top action movie (Ko) and an I Am Sam retread (Deiva Thirumagal)? Aadukalam, I can understand, but considering the films the director himself listed at the end as his inspirations, can we expect the Oscar voter to be as impressed as we were? I Googled up the films I hadnÃÕ seen. Ala Modalaindi appears to be a harmless-enough romantic comedy but nothing more. Mala Aai Vhhaychy, based on foreigners who use Indian women as surrogate mothers and which was selected for a screening for President Obama, seemed worthy of consideration, along with Dhobi Ghat, which is not just exquisitely made but exquisitely made in a style familiar to international audiences. But do its style and its focus on a teeming metropolis that could be a burgeoning megacity anywhere in the world make it uniquely Å°scar worthy? While the consideration of commercial entertainers like Endhiran and Ala Modalaindi is hardly helpful to our Oscar cause, itÃÔ not easy, either, to make a pick from the worthier candidates. If history is to be trusted, then the surest way of sneaking into the final five nominees for Best Foreign Film is to select a motion picture that is unabashedly rooted in the Indian ethos and unapologetically made in an Ūndian way. Only three of our films have ended up with nominations, and two of them (Mother India and Lagaan) are Indian films in every imaginable way. They are set in the dusty hinterlands of India. They address the very Indian issue of deprivation. They are filled with song and dance and colour and melodrama. Both films were hugely successful in India, which means that they spoke a cinematic language that could be understood and appreciated by the local Indian who sees only Indian films (as opposed to the global Indian who sees festival films). On this basis (and the ÅÔuccess factor apart), the pick from this yearÃÔ list could be Aadukalam or Urumi. And yet, the third film that managed a nomination blows away this theory because that film was Salaam Bombay, which was not seen by all that many people and which was as far removed as possible in terms of style and technique from Mother India and Lagaan. (And based on that instance, the film to send this year would be Dhobi Ghat small-sized, sensitive, Indian in theme but not in treatment, urban-based, made by a woman, and attuned to festival-filmmaking conventions; it even has music by the Oscar-winning Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla). ThereÃÔ something else, though, which makes selecting the Indian nominee for the Oscar something of a parlour game combined with a crapshoot, because itÃÔ not just about picking the right film but picking one whose team has the muscle and the motivation to campaign tirelessly and woo the Oscar voters and ensure that they see, in enough numbers, what is essentially a strange little foreign film. Forget Mecca does the team behind Adaminte Makan Abu have the resources, financial and otherwise, for a pilgrimage to Hollywood? SOURCE
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