We have yet again failed to get a nomination for the OSCARs in the foreign film category. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti (Paint me Yellow), the new found mantra of the indian nextgen was rejected even before the final roll call. The last time an Indian movie made it to the five was Aamir’s Lagaan in 2001; a riveting account of a small village lad taking the British Raj up in a captivating cricket match. Before that, Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay and Mehboob Khan’s Mother India have graced the coveted final OSCAR nomination list. None of them won the award though. The chinese film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (CTHD) won 3 OSCARs at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, giving the director Ang Lee a godlike status in the Hollywood precincts overnight. CTHD was masterfully made with martial art sequences at its best and a traditional chinese story which is expected from oriental directors. Years later, he made a comeback by winning the OSCARs again for his work in Brokeback Mountain at Hollywood.
In complete contrast, our filmmakers develop themes which appeal to the western audiences, in an experiment to seduce the crowd and prove our technological advancement. In the end, we do a patchy job of something which the west had already mastered eons ago and fail to impressthem. Take into account typical indian movies like Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham, Yaadein and even Pardes which have done exceptionally well at the box offices around the globe. The message taken from the movie fans globally is that they want to see pure indian fanfare from our scripts and not poor, crap, rehashes of their own stories. The storyline of Rang de Basanti, to the astonishment of its million fans, has been borrowed from a canadian movie called Jesus of Montreal. We are thus, killing our unique artform of story-telling by aping the hollywood movies. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Deepa Mehta’s Water which deals with the caste oppression of the 1930s India, has been shortlisted to be nominated for the foreign film OSCAR. Such a shame that certain caste based organizations stalled its shooting in Varanasi and the film was finally completed in Sri Lanka. Sadly though Water is Canada’s official entry for the OSCARs.
The Indian film industry thrives on its audience which has a taste and dreams of its own. Our sensibilities vary from our friends abroad and our emotions are well reflected in the kind of movies we make here. Due to our socio-ecomomic structure, we also take the help of the film medium in imparting knowledge to the population at large. That explains the legitimacy of banning of cigarette smoke forever from the silver screen but that’s another story altogether. If the audience is different and the movies are made for their minds then why do we need the seal of foreign institutions like the OSCARs to prove our legitimacy over what is good or bad film-making? isn’t it degrading to call ourselves ‘Bollywood’ which sounds like a poor distant cousin of the big brother?
It’s disgraceful that with a wide variety of movies being churned out in India since the past 100-odd years, we haven’t yet formed a film body that respects and honours film talent and oversees the distribution of citations as well. Hence, I propose the formation of an autonomous institution that is truly representative by the people of this great film industry and which has no interferences whatsoever, both political or corporate that could cast a shadow of uncertainty over the allocation of awards. Cinematographers, directors, actors, technicians, etc. cutting across the film industries of India would play the role of the jury. Let the members pay a registration fee for the upkeep of the organization and let the ceremony be bereft of all the glitz and the hoopla so the focus is back on honouring talent rather then the jiving and jiggling actors. Let us free ourselves from the shackles of foreign influences yet again and strive to maintain our traditional art and culture. Finally, let us pray that we enjoy our movies without any malaise.
[tags]OSCAR, Academy Awards, Rang De Basanti, Deepa Mehta, Water[/tags]
