Indian Enough For You? Bollywood and the Oscars

Following on Siddhartha’s discussion of the “Desi Angle” question, there’s an insightful piece in the Indian Express by Shubhra Gupta (thanks, SP) on a related question: is it possible that the only foreign films that have a chance at getting nominated for the Oscars are those that register as completely “other” to the West? This year, India’s official choice, Rang de Basanti, didn’t make the top 10, while the Canadian-financed Deepa Mehta film Water, did. (The final nominees will be announced next week.)

But Paint It Yellow/Saffron (that’s what its English-subtitled version [of Rang de Basanti] is called . . . didn’t travel too far down the road to the Oscars for that exact same reason: confused, contemporary youth exist all over the world. To a foreign viewer, the film is not ‘Indian’ enough, not in the same way as, say, a Water is: it is also, and this is not a well-known fact, very strongly reminiscent of Canadian film Jesus Of Montreal, in which a group of actors’ lives change drastically as they put on a passion play.

Incarcerated widows in a pre-Independence Indian ‘ashram’. Oooh, that’s Indian. Where else would you find little girls and beautiful young women and old crones with tragic backstories and cruelly shaven heads? It’s another matter that even today, Vrindavan’s widows lead lives of quiet desperation. It’s also another matter that major portions of the film had to be shot in Sri Lanka, which masquerades as Varanasi. But Water has the backdrop of the British ‘raj’, the horror of child marriage and ‘sati’, and brutal oppression. Can’t get better, can it? (link)

Gupta is right on many counts here. Rang de Basanti does have urban, middle-class kids speaking liberal amounts of English (as well as a white girl, speaking Hindi). What she’s overlooking, of course, is that while Rang de Basanti is a lot of fun, it just isn’t that serious a film. It doesn’t have the sense of gravity or “prestige” that makes a film a plausible Oscar contender. A much better choice, by far, would have been Omkara — which has the three A’s: it’s Arty, “Authentic” (though still legible to western audiences, via Othello), and most importantly, Adult. (I often feel that NRIs or ABDs should pick India’s official Oscar selections, since the Board that currently makes this selection clearly has no idea what it’s doing. Paheli?)

Still, I fear that the three Indian films that have reached the nomination phase over the years — Mother India, Salaam, Bombay, and Lagaan — do all fit a pattern: they focus on desperate poverty. While this is undeniably an important (and continuing) part of Indian society, it’s sad that only the exotic, impoverished India of street urchins or rural desperation is likely to make an Oscar-worthy film.

Someone might object: why should Indians care about the Oscars? No Satyajit Ray film was ever nominated (though I must admit I don’t know how many of his films were officially submitted). And isn’t this is the same Academy that gave Best Picture to A Terrible Bore A Beautiful Mind? But, whether or not it’s justified, there always seems to be a great deal of interest in the Indian media about the Oscars — despite rampant evidence that Americans simply don’t get Indian cinema.

Perhaps we should start our own awards? The Mutinies?

223 thoughts on “Indian Enough For You? Bollywood and the Oscars

  1. No Satyajit Ray film was ever nominated

    no, but they gave him the lifetime achievement award back in ’90 or ’91.

    it is also true that westerners have an idea of india that is quite different from the reality. so many times i have had conversations with europeans and they love the romanticized, poverty-stricken idea of india that is in their heads. and it is very hard to convince them that india is otherwise. not unlike some americans who seem to believe that we are all endowed with some sort of “greater spirituality.”

    since confucius said that when rape is inevitable, we should relax and enjoy it, i think we should all become godmen and make the big buck$$…

  2. Canadian film Jesus Of Montreal,

    much recommended. one of the earlier works of denys arcand – more recently in the news for the barbarian invasions (sequel to ‘the decline of the american empire’). enjoy. interestingly – the first two movies were both nominated for oscars but it was the barbarian invasions that won him the prize.

    just fyi’ing y’all. back to your regular programming.

  3. The failures of commercial hindi cinema are obvious. The so-called art films are no less annoying. Especially the poverty porn made for the enjoyment of western juries.

    The great Naseeruddin Shah speaks.

  4. Mother India, Salaam, Bombay, and Lagaan — do all fit a pattern: they focus on desperate poverty.

    Right on the money. The poverty gives the “Arty” people one more issue to be “concerned” about. Jay Leno said on his monologue, “This year in Oscars, they are just going to give a third world baby instead of the statue” 🙂

  5. I should not have said “Arty” people. I meant “Hollywood” people, meaning the Madonnas and the Angelina Jolies, of the world!!

  6. Guys, I’m well aware of Ray’s lifetime achievement award (I phrased it that way — “no film was ever nominated” — on purpose).

    A Lifetime Achievement award is always a bit of “too little too late,” though, especially when the director never won a best picture or a best director when he was in the active part of his career. I felt sad when the Academy finally gave an “Honorary” award to Robert Altman, after rejecting him five times — including for “The Player”!

  7. India’s tiny indy cinema has a better chance to win than a Bollywood film, which is usually derided as frivolous. Why no nominations for Aparna Sen? The more serious side of Indian commercial cinema doesn’t get that much play–“Swades” would have been a good contender, as would anything by Mani Ratnam (“Bombay” and “Dil Se” especially). I don’t think the Indian film board does a good job of leveraging the nation’s best cinematic assets. Its sole aim seems to be to gain international critical recognition for Bollywood, which might never happen in the cynical west.

  8. It’s simple. When you say India the Hollywood bunch wants to see poverty, weird idol worshipping religions, exotic animals and opression of women and lower classes. Not saying these things don’t happen in India but this is the only image Hollywood wants India to potray.

  9. I second hairy_d in recommending ‘Jesus of Montreal’.

    But for those who’ve seen both: Do you think that ‘Water’ is “very strongly reminiscent” of ‘JoM’? I’m not seeing the connection(s). I don’t mean to threadjack, but all I’m coming up with is that they’re both . . . Canadian?

  10. Omkara’s also hindered by it’s horrible, horrible, horrible English subtitling. It’s a shame because the Hindi is in such a strong dialect; it’d be interesting to have it translated well.

  11. Yeah, Rang de Basanti is a very unusual and timely film for Indians, but probably not universal in its appeal (I thought the best part was Amir Khan’s Panju-boy character, which even non northies wouldn’t quite get!). It is more a product of contemporary Indian than, say, Water (which, even though it was nominated from Canada, is being pitted as the film that took RDB’s place as the Indian nominee). Both weren’t really good enough to be nominated, so I don’t quite agree with the IE writer. She’s also unfair to Salaam Bombay, which was just an excellent film no matter what, and which everyone I know loved, Indians included.

    Would definitely have nominated Omkara, or even Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi from a couple of years ago. Water was really tired, rehashed, insipid stuff, and its framing by the opening and closing bookends of the Manu quote and “there are still so many million widows in India” was a bit of playing to the poor-exotic-land stereotype. It probably got picked because it had beautiful people and scenery in it (and admittedly the story was very compelling, and there were inspired moments of acting). Those sorts of films become “lyrical” rather than “cliche” for reviewers.

    The obsession of the media with “what does it take for India to get noticed at the Oscars” is amusing, though, it’s almost seen as on par with getting that Security Council seat, to Show the World We Have Arrived.

  12. Bollywood, sorry Indian Film Industry, thinks of Oscar as the ultimate glory..why???? I think its because all the desi award shows are flawed in their picking. There are about 10-15 annual award shows mostly sponsored by bollywood magazines or TV channels. They accomodate all the stars by coming up with ways to award for ex: ‘Power award’, ‘face of the year award’ etc. And whats with the category ‘actor in a negative role’? Shouldnt it be ‘best actor’ no matter what the moral of the character is

    RDB was a really good movie with a tight script and some really good actors so it WAS a worthy choice. Omkara was a bore and just too lenthy, altho its a worth a watch just for Saif’s brilliant acting.

  13. lizzie – the wording in the article could have been better. the writer was pointing to parallels between rdb and jom. i havent seen rdb so cant comment – but i believe the story follows the path of a filmmaker who is making a film about indian freedomfighters/terrorists using talent recruited from the local uni. some events come to pass so that the actors take up violence to protest the corruption in contemporary india. thus the actors start living the lives of those they are trying to portray. to the best extent that i can judge, the parallels are in that the line between life and drama gets blurred when the actors start living out the scripts in their real lives.

    whew! that’s a long wordy one. i was recording not composing. hope it wasnt too windy.

  14. eep! Thanks for the correction, Amardeep and hairy_d. Now I have nothing to add. 🙂

  15. The obsession of the media with “what does it take for India to get noticed at the Oscars” is amusing, though, it’s almost seen as on par with getting that Security Council seat, to Show the World We Have Arrived.

    while i somewhat agree that seeking approval of an art form native to india from an alien audience is somewhat macaca, there are parallels to be made in successes in art and science. this is fresh in my mind because near where i live (hey lingus) there’s a battle going on between developers and artists for some real estate – the latter are losing because their pockets are empty – but a counterpoint is being made in some quarters that the social contribution of artists can not be discounted and they are ultimately the lifeblood of a city. to deny them affordable housing and have them move out would sap TO of its essence. the point i am trying to make is that art and science go hand in glove. indeed – the best physicists (especially) have been extremely creative thinkers – and to squelch the pursuit of happiness through (any) art forms, compromises the ability of a society to perform in more mundane tasks.

    thus spake hairy_d. thar he blows.

  16. St

    ill, I fear that the three Indian films that have reached the nomination phase over the years — Mother India, Salaam, Bombay, and Lagaan — do all fit a pattern: they focus on desperate poverty. While this is undeniably an important (and continuing) part of Indian society, it’s sad that only the exotic, impoverished India of street urchins or rural desperation is likely to make an Oscar-worthy film.

    Poverty and rural desperation aren’t just “an important (and continuing) part of Indian society”, they are the MAJOR part of Indian society. Hence, they are NOT exotic, but the norm.

  17. one of the reasons india has difficulties submitting worthy films for oscars (which would probably be ignored anyways if they didn’t fit in with whatever sterotype the awards committee has of india – but Salaam Bombay is a good film) is the regionalism that unfortunately comes into play. inevitably there are always discussions on language and it does seem that hindi/bollywood films feel entitled over other language films to be nominated. (i didn’t think paheli was that bad a film, if you had to nominate a bollywood film for the oscars that year, but clearly there are other films from throughout india that don’t get the same consideration even if they are much better). india’s national film awards, though not without controversy and accusations of bias, are perhaps a much better guide to which films should be nominated, than bollywood award shows. getting abds and nris to nominate the films wouldn’t solve the problem because they are mostly exposed to mainstream bollywood films.

    as for the oscars, they are as much an insider’s club as any other awards show (the documentary category used to be the stranglehold of any film dealing with the Holocaust and it aftermath – an important topic but one that was overrepresented in the awards to the exclusion of many other worthy documentaries. in recent years this has improved). and this trend has become worse in the last decade in some categories. many truly deserving people have never won an oscar outright – cary grant, charlie chaplin, peter o’toole – so its value is sometimes overrated.

  18. While this is undeniably an important (and continuing) part of Indian society, itÂ’s sad that only the exotic, impoverished India of street urchins or rural desperation is likely to make an Oscar-worthy film.

    While I share your sentiment I donÂ’t think the case of movies from India that made it to the Oscar nominations is any different from the case of all other entries and winners over the years. The winners were for the most part all stories of triumph over adversities or deep cultural roots about the particular country that the film was about. My favorites that I can think of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, War & Peace, Tsotsi, No ManÂ’s Land, The Sea Inside, Life is Beautiful etc.

  19. Poverty and rural desperation aren’t just “an important (and continuing) part of Indian society”, they are the MAJOR part of Indian society. Hence, they are NOT exotic, but the norm.

    Exotic to western eyes.

  20. A much better choice, by far, would have been Omkara

    An opinion after my own heart.. RDB was, to put it lightly, rubbish. How is it wise to send a film to the Oscars that casts a 40 yr old as a 20 yr old? It’s not the singing and dancing that distances audiences as Gupta would have you believe, it’s the fantasy casting.

    In either case, I think Pan’s Labyrinth has this award in the bag. But I’d love nothing more than seeing Mehta on that stage, statue in hand. And Pedro, you’re my boy but you still have Penelope..

  21. Some people decry India’s interest in the Oscars as a sort of need-for-approval-by-west. However, it’s absurd not to recognize the exposure and the financial rewards that Oscar name brings you. Once a foreign-language film is selected or nominated for an Oscar, you start seeing it in the theaters and in Blockblusters. The actors and filmmakers gain personal recognition.

    I thought “Omkara” could be Oscar-worthy (if Bipasha’s sleazy songs had been omitted).

    I don’t think the movies have to be ‘representative’ of the western’s concept of a country. Are movies from other countries selected b/c they represent the US’s stereotype of that country. Not really – it’s got to have universal appeal.

    BTW, what about the “Born Into Brothels” documentary? I thought it was a beautiful and uplifting story. Obviously it’s about poverty in India, but there is the universal appeal of children.

  22. only foreign movies are expected to serious? obviously, not Hollywood, or else “Gladiator” (a perfect vehicle for Dharmendra – that probably dates me ;-)) would have never won all those oscars…

  23. Omkara’s also hindered by it’s horrible, horrible, horrible English subtitling. It’s a shame because the Hindi is in such a strong dialect; it’d be interesting to have it translated well.

    I just saw Rang De Basanti this past weekend with a non Indian friend and was extremely aggravated at the poor quality of translation which has been my gripe since the beginning of time. If with my Mumbai knowledge of Hindi I can find clearer translation why the hell can’t the producers who want to open their film up to other audiences find someone to translate better? It was so frustrating for me to read “I will take care of you” when it really should have read “I’m am with you”. Hindi is such a complex language (perhaps there was urdu in there too) and to watch it watered down and butchered is annoying.

  24. brown sez

    A little about the selection process for Indian entry.

    good find, brown. the reference to the haathgaadi’s selling choolle made me chuckle – a good think (sic).

  25. Even if I’m not Indian, I have watched more than a hundred of hindi movies, and I often have to recommend and lend DVDs to some of my friends who’d like to know more about indian cinema… I don’t know yet what is the good approach to introduce western viewers to indian cinema. The reason why most westerners want to see indian movies is that they actively expect/seek the indian elements. It’s almost like they already have a definition/model of what an indian film should look like, and reject any film that doesn’t match this. For instance, I have some friends who absolutely loved awful movies like KKKG, or empty costume/interior decor shows like Devdas or Umrao Jaan… just because it was, you know… “so indian”. They also enjoy all the “exportable” movies like Deepa Mehta/Mira Nair stuff, condescendingly commenting about arranged marriages, poverty or the condition of women. On the other end, they quickly get bored in front of light/entertaining movies set in a modern, urban setting (recently i’ve shown them mixed doubles, Taxi N.9211…) – as soon as it looks too close to hollywood stuff, they start commenting on the product values, plot holes, and it ends up in “I don’t see the point of watching such movies, they are american, british, german or french movies with similar plots and situations, the fact that it is shot in india doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, etc”. If the “foreign” element doesn’t bring new situations, genres, storylines, what’s the point of watching foreign movies? And that’s probably the kind of “otherness” or novelty that Oscars’ committee is looking after… What’s the point of showing the same thing done in ten different languages?

    What kind of novelty can indian movies offer? Historical and war movies range from “not very nuanced” to “utter patriotic propaganda” – it wouldn’t be easy to show them without raising political/historical debates… Are there any “genres” or “styles” specific to india, besides the “joint-family-gets-together-and-dances”? The decisions made by the Oscars’ committee over the past few years are not so surprising…

    Now, as far as RDB is concerned, I don’t think that it was rejected on the sole reason that it was not indian enough. The historical background (freedom fighters) and the context (a young generation with much more freedom at hand than before, and who lacks directions) seems specific enough to me (I’d like to see Jesus of Montreal, though). The problem is probably that this movie looks “immature” – all those silly and useless disco/drinking/dancing scenes in the first part, the unreasonable use of special effects, too many melodramatic elements. No surprise that this movie was a hit among the younger generation… It is obviously a step towards more clever, original movies (considering the rubbish usually made for teenagers) – but it will take a few more iterations before things get balanced right.

    As the original post suggest, Omkara would have been a much better choice – excellent production value, good acting, and, in spite of its being a Shakespeare adaptation, a storyline/context different enough to make you think “it couldn’t have happened anywhere else”. If there is anything to regret about this Oscars’ selection, it is not the failure of RDB, but the fact that Omkara was ignored… This movie should be a classic, if just for the dam scene (I hope you see which one I’m talking about). But maybe was it consider too “difficult” to get. I mean, this movie requires you to pay a lot of attention to details, several viewings, and a hindi speaker near you to give you hints about some subtleties in the language (even if these subtleties are sisf**)…

    Anyway, don’t think that this kind of things happen only to indian movies. I am french, and some of the french movies selected for the Oscar over the past few years (like “Les choristes”, “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie”) are as much exoticizing and annoying to the “native” audience as Lagaan or Water can be…

  26. Omkara seriously rocked. But I thought Water was very good too: my only complaint is Lisa Ray, who was too pretty for the role. The amazing Nandita Das would have demolished the part.

    Les Choristes was generic, but Amelie did have an undeniably quirky charm.

    I loved your comment, Pichenettes.

  27. Yo Kobayashi I thought she was banned..? What’s up with that? New ISP, new handle? I hadn’t figured it out until I almost took the bait on the ascention thread.

  28. only foreign movies are expected to serious? obviously, not Hollywood, or else “Gladiator” (a perfect vehicle for Dharmendra – that probably dates me ;-))

    Are you referring to Dharam(q)ueer? If so, I quite agree. those are the best legs i’ve seen on a desi actor. the movie deserves a statue for that alone.

  29. I know Crash didn’t really rock a lot of people’s worlds, but any thoughts on it’s win? Hmmm, maybe I should check the archives…

  30. I don’t think foreign Oscar noms are always serious…Amelie, Elling, Hero and Crouching Tiger come to mind. However, at the risk of being hated by the legions of Indian movie fans out there, I think part of the reasons for India’s Oscar snub is that there just aren’t that many good Indian flicks. I’m someone who watches about 100 movies a year, many of which are foreign but the good Indian ones seem few and far between (I’m not a Bollywood fan nor do I watch the equivalent in American fare). So perhaps the “mystery” as to why Indian films get snubbed for the Oscars is as simple as the “mystery” why movie ticket sales have been falling in the US…uninspired moviemaking.

  31. I don’t really think commercial Indian cinema will be “serious” enough for the Oscars (a very GOOD thing, I might add). RDB was an example of a movie which was entertaining, very smart and well-made (could be edited a bit, I’ll wait for the half-hour shorter version to be released in March) carried a serious social message and had a WHOLE lot of impact on its target audience.

    You are right about the JoM parallel, hadn’t occured to me earlier.

    RDB deserves to be seen.

    And I will be totally upset if ‘Volver’ gets any awards. That movie is nowhere as good compared to Almodovar’s previous stuff. Just coz it’s an Almodovar does not mean everyone has to bend over.

    In any case, money talks. Once Bollywood gets a somewhat bigger share of the entertainment pie (already happening, according to SM’s report on the “Guru” premiere), the Hollywood studios will take attention and the awards will come.

  32. Sounds like several of the commenters have settled on a solution: An film about Holocaust surviving expatriates to India who triumph over adversities and deep cultural biases while showing the adjustments their children have to make in the new environment!

    I don’t think RDB was accessible enough to the Western psyche. Americans haven’t been frustrated enough with government to condone wholesale violence since the Revolutionary War.

    ducks for cover

    (As for Paheli–loved it! I liked the mixture of elements. Whether or not it was the appropriate representation of Indian film for that year is a seperate discussion.)

    I think the author of the article is right “The Oscar gatekeepers are looking for material which is, clearly, foreign” while at the same time, it still seems like stories that could just as easily have been rewritten in an American setting are the ones that take the prize.

  33. Neha, 13 Tzameti should get a special Oscar for best trailer. The film was OK, but the trailer‘s a killer. Literally. I’d call it one of the best 2 minute films out there, certainly rivaling any of David Lynch’s shorts.

    Now we play this game at my house every weekend.

  34. “I don’t think foreign Oscar noms are always serious…Amelie, Elling, Hero and Crouching Tiger come to mind.”

    i think this is a good thing. not every movie, “foreign” or hollywood, should be serious and deal with dark or dreary (depressing to the soul) topics, although those are important and have their place. the problem is will a lighthearted movie from india be accepted or is it more acceptable from france or spain? movies still have a role to fulfill as escapism and entertainment (and there are good examples of this and bad examples), but these types of movies seem to be increasingly undervalued, especially at awards festivals and shows. instead you have some serious movies that seem contrived, pretentious and forced fit to some sort of pre-conceived “oscar-worthy” mold.

  35. it is also true that westerners have an idea of india that is quite different from the reality. so many times i have had conversations with europeans and they love the romanticized, poverty-stricken idea of india that is in their heads. and it is very hard to convince them that india is otherwise. not unlike some americans who seem to believe that we are all endowed with some sort of “greater spirituality.”

    It’s strange that this particular ideal is still pervasive today, but it is. I was talking to a co-worker recently and I was telling her that I have a strong desire to visit India because I want to see one of my aunties and a cousin, I want to see where my dad went to college and I want to visit some of the great sites now that I’m old enough to appreciate beautiful architecture, scenery, etc (not to mention, I want to SHOP). She replied that she too was drawn to India because its spirituality was calling to her. While it’s probably very significant to her, it seemed like an outdated idea and resulted in marginalizing all of the other cool things about Indian culture. I mean, the U.S. is a fairly religious place but I don’t think that’s why tourists come here.

    When I was younger, I had another fairly strange encounter with the “Indians are so spiritual” concept. When another girl found out that my dad is Indian, she asked me if he was a guru and could he levitate. At the time, I was rendered speechless, but if I were asked the same thing today, I would probably reply (with scathing wit), “but of course, he’s an engineer.”

  36. Mr Kobayashi: I was specifically asked not to watch the trailer or read anything about it before watching the film and I think that made it much better. The build up to the game was fantastic! When I finally saw what was going on I was quite shocked and impressed. And then I had to go get my nails did because they did not survive, poor things.

  37. On a completely different note: A French/Georgian collabo but isn’t there some way France could have sent 13 Tazameti into the ring? How I crave dark films in French.

    have you seen le pactes des loupes? would you recommend it. i’ve had it in my list – wolves… wolves… what’s not to lowe.

    I think the author of the article is right “The Oscar gatekeepers are looking for material which is, clearly, foreign” while at the same time, it still seems like stories that could just as easily have been rewritten in an American setting are the ones that take the prize.

    i disagree – and my intent in pointing out barbarian invasions in my earlier post was a nudge in that direction – a nudge, because my knowledge of moviedom is nowhere as comprehensive or as sophisticated as is needed to expound the doctrine of the OsssCurrrr -trailing off in a guttural rasp-

  38. I was specifically asked not to watch the trailer or read anything about it before watching the film

    Yeah, but it’s the trailer that’ll get people to move their butts and go watch the film. But yes, folks, don’t read anything about 13 Tzameti before watching it (except these words of mine, which you can hardly unread at this point).

  39. I thought RDB was pretty good, and it was Indian enough, I think—maybe it’s time for people to realize that India’s becoming more westernized than people realize?

    Water was fantastic, too.

  40. Crouching Tiger was roundly dissed in of Asia (HK,China, Singapore). DidnÂ’t care for it myself. Asian critics mostly left it alone out of sense of solidarity but privately admitted to its suckiness.