Blogger Priya Lal wrote that the Oscars found many desi films ‘not Indian enough’ for the foreign language category. But what’s Indian enough?
Second-gen writers like Jhumpa Lahiri and Monica Ali have largely been re-telling their parentsÂ’ tales. ItÂ’s interesting as a topic but repetitive as an entire oeuvre, made even worse by book covers which all feature nubile brown women with mehndi hands and first-gen authors who willingly swan with incense and sarod music at book readings… Peacocks and payals are gorgeous when judiciously applied, and any desi could be forgiven for admiring a royal, nose-ringed nariz evocative of Mughal miniature. It gets annoying mainly when lit and film treats culture as a tourist backdrop, a Potemkin village with the thinnest faciæ of stereotype… when directors ask for the Peter Sellers / Gunga Din caricature of a desi accent rather than the real one, like Apu on The Simpsons and the dadÂ’s accent in Harold and Kumar. ThatÂ’s just insulting… CanÂ’t we all just agree to consign mehndi to weddings, mangos to dinner plates and the words exotic and spicy to the seventh circle of hell?
Interesting blog entry. sorry I am just rushing through ur article and the link due to lack of time and hope what Iam writing makes some sense and is related to ur article. I agree with the selection process , sending movies from india to compete for oscars . I thought Asoka was not even a well made film and did not have any oscar caliber in it, dil chahta hi is a good well made movie but still did not have any oscar caliber, so are koyi mil gaya and others. None of these movies, even the new ones capture the real essence of even modern or ancient india.
satyajit rays films had oscar caliber so was mira niar’s film salaam bombay , some of the old naseeriddin shah, shabana azmi and smita patil’s films were oscar caliber movies. Those films are more realistic and capture the essence of india. Lagaan was more realistic not in terms of story ( indo british cricket games and all that jazz) but in terms of some of the characters in the movie. If u lived in india for long, u would surely meet some of the characters in lagaan many times in ur life. Thats what makes lagaan an oscar caliber movie.Its how close the movie characters and stories are to normal people living in india. Doesnot matter if its modern india or ancient india. Devdas probably went to oscar because of the technical quality of film making, little little details ( creating a 1930 or 40’s environment where the story happened, to all the finer details of dressing, color etc.,). but yet in some places in the movie things seem artificial and trivial which makes it less oscar calibre. I did not see a lot of indian art/indian cross culture movies lately. Aparna sen’s Mr and Mrs Iyer was very realistic and flow is very natural with good acting ( but if she included more realistic scenes showing hindu muslim roits she could make her film an oscar entry), like wise maniratnam’s saathiya/alaipayuthe, bombay were realistic minus song and dance ( too much romance in this movie makes it a more youth oriented movie and less oscar caliber movie and tamil versions are more realistic than hindi versions).. Some of the regional national award winning movies are better than hindi movies, unfortunately I donot know the reason why not many regional movies made it to oscars ( a couple of good telugu movies like swatimutyam made it to oscars entry level and are worth a watch) Its not about being exotic or indianish with bangles,costumes and all that jazz but its about being realistic and its about the quality of film making. back to literature. u are so right jhumpa lahiri, even chitra divakaruni to a certain extent, may be zadie smith too are all telling the tales of their ancestors. It seems like a narration of past . Their first novels are readable. second novels seem stale. Salman rushdie, VS naipaul on the other hand also tell stories of ancestors but they are great story tellers and eccentric creative geniuses which sets them way apart into the noble laurette category.. you can feel their unique style and touch and imagination/creativity even if they are writing novels every year about their ancestors/first generations. vikram seth’s (first generation indian though he now lives in india) suitable boy was narration and it was not a great novel and it did not have the emotional depth..vikram seths poetry writing skills are excellent and his works are literary works playing well with verbs and words than story telling and authenticity. Iam waiting for his next novel , a biography on his aunt and uncle. Thanks to you Manish , Hari kunzru’s “The Impressionist” Iam reading right now is a good read, he has good story telling skills and has a potential to be atleast a best selling author for a long time to come. And writers living in india like RK Narayan ( swami and his friends, bachelor of arts, malgudi days etc.,) are fav. writers for many people in india ( showing that indians in india are not bored of reading a writer who writes about their own neighbourhood). Though he is writing about everyday next door neighbour characters in india bec. it feels authentic and very indian when you read his novels. Lack of publicity and other issues did not make him a great novelist out in the west. I think its the quality of work that makes it oscar caliber or nobel prize caliber does not matter where they are from and what kind of stories they tell ( second or first generations writing about modern or ancient india).. No we are not sick of spices, its just the difference between authentic homecooked spicy indian meal and eating spicy indian food at an indian restaurant here. But we still love spicy indian food no matter where its cooked and who cooks it. And please keep cooking interesting spicy articles like this one. I enjoy reading ur blog.
Yeah, I keep thinking I should have written my ground-breaking novel about an Indian girl growing up in Iowa, like a decade ago. What happens when your life story is now literarily trite? I’ll have to switch to sci-fi or some such 🙂
Uh, Jasmine? 🙂
Don’t worry about trite. I’m a desi male who aspires to success in authorship and software. I’m a walking cliche 🙂
Yeah, I keep thinking I should have written my ground-breaking novel about an Indian girl growing up in Iowa, like a decade ago. What happens when your life story is now literarily trite? I’ll have to switch to sci-fi or some such 🙂
Compromise: Indian computer scientist growing up in Sunnyvale 🙂
like V.Seth’s novel in verse “golden gate” main character John (if I remember his name right) a computer geek of silicon valley with excellent verbal skills..I thought that character was very interesting. Golden gate is a very well writen poetry/novel in verse about a computer engineer and the book won a lot of awards too.. good writing is all about creatively looking at ordinary lives in an extraordinary way. Like seinfeld..good comedy about ordinary human beings and every day nothings.. Good writers look at life with a more intense and sensitive heart , most writers are more sensitive human beings too.
Indian girl growing up in a smorgasboard of states in the US of Amreeka? I wish I could, just once, write something that isn’t so goddamn typical of the so-called diaspora. The “I’m so UNIQUE” angle doesn’t work. I used to think that the more specific the details, the better the handiwork. But what if those details aren’t “authentic”? Striving for originality has embroiled itself into the layers of inner critic that castrate every would-be writer.
here is an update Manish, I just remembered ur article when I read this news today Indian film industry finally selected one indian movie as an entry for oscars this year.. http://sify.com/movies/bollywood/fullstory.php?id=13574697 Marathi film Shwas nominated for Oscars http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/nationalawards/awards.htm Shwas is about the human conflict arising out of a surgery that blinds a child while saving him from life-threatening cancer. The film is based on real life story. Actor-producer Arun Nalavade plays an ingenuous grandfather gifting an eyeful of life to a child scheduled to move into everlasting darkness. I did not see this movie.. But stories like this are very different from Dil chahta hi or devdas or asoka who do not have any oscar calibre. And stories like this are realistic and are in the lines of satyajit rays movies or lagaan (oscar calibre movies). And only movies with realistic stories like this with good acting, direction and technical merit can go for oscars.