Apparently the only surprise about Deepa Mehta’s Water losing out on the Best Foreign Film award last night was that the eventual winner wasn’t Pan’s Labyrinth, the consensus favorite, but rather The Lives of Others, by an impossibly tall German director with an impossibly aristocratic Prussian name. So there’s little gnashing of teeth or rending of garments in the Indian press today, simply matter-of-fact recognition that “India’s Oscar jinx” carries on. It’s also apparently a known fact (I never get to the movies, so I’m just repeating what I read) that the entire field for the foreign-film award was extremely strong. So no injustice here any way you cut it.
However, I am rather exercised at the Monday morning snub from the newspaper round-ups of red carpet fashion, which roundly ignore the gorgeous heirloom gold-threaded Banarasi sari in which Mehta graced the ceremony. Los Angeles Times, New York Times — no one paid the slightest notice, positive or negative, to the passage across the red carpet of the Water crew. Even my mellow Hank Stuever in the Washington Post — political, worldly, and queer as the proverbial three-dollar bill — ignored the desi contingent, his confessed ogling of Ryan Gosling affording John Abraham no residual love.
Oh well. Perhaps it’s all for the best that our peoples passed by under the radar, considering the standard-issue snark that’s become de rigueur in such coverage. Or perhaps coverage was the point — body coverage, that is: with so much exposed bosom and leg to take in — let alone Jack Nicholson’s creepily depilated dome — those who took cover in dignified, discreet outfits necessarily condemned themselves to oblivion in the morning news.
Deepa could have joined the flesh parade, had she wanted to match up against Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren in the “do they still got it?” division, a bit of a rigged fixture for a director against two actresses. The dresses were there for the wearing, but the sista had a much better plan:
They must have been throwing clothes at Mehta once the nominations were announced.
“Yes, they were,” she admits. “Chanel, Armani, Prada etc. … approached me. `No, thank you. I’m wearing my mother’s sari.’ For one thing, I’ll never wear a dress in my life: I’m more blue jeans and cargo pants. It was just a question of what sari.”
Her mother’s sari was part of her trousseau.
“My paternal grandmother gave it to my mom when she got married,” she recalls. “It’s gold but because it is so old (from the ’40s), it’s burnished. It’s very subtle. The gold thread is a weave not done anymore. It’s gorgeous and it’s personal. It’s Mom’s.
“And Bulgari wanted to do my jewellery. But I’ll wear my antique Indian jewellery because it goes with the sari.”
Read the full, friendly feature from the Toronto Star here. As for the Oscars, if you’re feeling the pain of desi exclusion, the Economic Times offers you here a kind of consolation.
the best part of the red carpet was this. too good.
ah.. that video is notfrom the oscars..but more fun than what went down last night.
I love the sari, but am sorry to say she didn’t wear it very well. The blouse was a bit too retro and, uh, blousy, and the severe pulled back hair with the powdery aunty-ish makeup did her no favours. She should have walked on the red carpet with Lisa and/or John and posed with them, no photographer wants a picture with multiple fussily-dressed non-starts in it. Perhaps that’s why there were lots of mentions of her outfit, but few photos.
Uh, that’s “non-stars” – I refer to the daughter and other random woman who look right out of a Delhi shaadi.
But there weren’t even any mentions! In fact there are more photos on Yahoo News showing the outfit than I could find mentions of it in the US press… Having said that, your point about the non-stars etc. is certainly well taken…
the scariest picture of miss mehta is here.
I was looking for photos and found loads of mentions on Google News…she had clearly spread the “my grandmother’s sari/vintage” story far and wide because they all mentioned it.
The Biggest surprise / heartburn belonged to animation category. Happy Feet was foul. The best scenes in the movie came from Robin Williams. It was that bad. And I thought Shrek was a low.
Wowza, Chickpea. Is that a rose pinned above her ear?
If only the blouse had been fitted, and sort of cutaway neckline, and more like a shrunken kurti than puffy 1930s retro. She has great hair too, she should’ve left it loose.
How the Water crew ditched a little girl….
Sri Lankan actress not attending Oscars
TORONTO — Sri Lankan child-actress Sarala Kariyawasam will not attend the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, where the movie ‘Water’ she starred in received a nomination for the best foreign film.
Earlier there was much expectation in Sri Lanka that Sarala would make history when she attended the Oscars, but she hasn’t received an invitation, the Sri Lanka Reporter has learned.
FULL STORY
http://www.lankareporter.com/Oscar_Night_Water.htm
Well, the Canadian and Indian press did… 🙂 But all of that was before the event. All I’m sayin’ is that there is zero mention of the outfit, or indeed of anything to do with the Water posse, in the morning postmortems.
It so happened that last night ZeeTV had the Filmfare awards on. I cursed them for counterprogramming against the Oscars, which may have been purely unintentional, but went with their show anyway. I was richly rewarded with sights of, and speeches from, some of the oldies like Jaya Bachhan, Zaved Akhtar, Rekha, Amitabh Bachhan, Yash Chopra. Some of the picks I disagreed with – RDB over Omkara, for instance – but it was great fun and extremely gratifying to see the slick professionalism of an international Bollywood production. And oh, Ash looked like the perfect bahu basking in the warmth of the Bachhan family.
I will try to catch up on the Oscar news tonight.
Apologies for the digression but was I the only one who thinks West Bank Story in the shorts category had no business winning and could have other reasons for being given the Oscar (sure the Palestinian lady is quite hot)? Also, despite our bias towards a desi film, do people really think Water was that good a movie?
I haven’t the slightest idea – haven’t seen it or any of the other entries for that matter. I understand opinions of it span the gamut.
This Reuters story mentioned DM’s outfit and perhaps this is what was picked up by all the Google news sources I saw.
Ardy – there was a lot of discussion of Water at SM some months ago. I was disappointed in the film because a) I had been looking forward to it for ages and b) the original Nandita Das-Shabana Azmi casting coup made me think it was going to be a seriously good film. But the film didn’t do the powerful story justice, too much pretty posing and not enough acting (except for the brilliant Seema Biswas), and some very obvious gratuitous exoticising scenes that put me off. Still worth seeing, I’d say, just don’t expect too much.
Sorry for the OT but, Floridian, have you seen photos of the Filmfare Awards online? My mother was watching this as well and she wanted me to take a look at the sari that perfect bahu, Ash Rai, was wearing, but I can’t seem to find ANY photos of the event. All the news/photo sites are bursting with photos from the Oscars.
I am with SP (“I love the sari, but am sorry to say she didn’t wear it very well.”) Penelope Cruz stole the show last night with her amazing dress.
Well, its been a long time since I saw it or maybe my memory is just not worth much anymore and so I can’t build a very good case of why I had not liked it much when I had seen it. I did go for the screening when Lisa Ray came down and she looked out of this world, but coming back to the movie – from what very little I remember I had come out feeling some of the characters could have been developed better. I also found some relationships being shown in a very one dimensional way like the relation of Abraham’s character with his father and the depiction of his father’s personality. I did not like the Gandhi scene as much either and thought it could have been shown better and maybe tied in better too or else not shown. Lastly in the end, I did not feel it did the issue as muych justice. But then, I don’t remember that much 🙁
Ah yes. I did see that one floating around, you are right.
Does anyone know who is in the red sari blouse and white sari? Also, Joan Rivers interviewed the group on the red carpet and it didn’t sound good. Deepa said (referring to the white sari) “it is a designer sari, Ritu’s”. I understand that she is referring to Ritu Kumar, but the majority of America wouldn’t. Deepa then went on to say something like “John’s achkan is also a designer piece” and Joan made some comment like “it’s like the Nehru style we use to wear in America”. Basically the whole thing made me cringe (although Joan was surprisingly nice about it all). The way Deepa was referring to the outfits reminded me of salespeople in the sari stores I was just visiting in Delhi. Anyway, SP was dead on in suggesting she should have walked it alone (or at most with John and Lisa, although I think alone would have been best). Of course, on an entirely separate note, I was very disappointed with Water. If an Indian film (whether from Canada or elsewhere) was going to be nominated, I thought it should have been Rang de Basanti.
SP needs to blog. When she’s not dead on, she’s always thought provoking and insightful.
Last night I was flippin between the Oscars and Filmfare Awards (Bollywood equivalent) and the disparity in standards is mindboggling. One is a classy affair with fair nominations and the other one is giving awards to everybody (new categories are invented to accomodate)
Happy for Martin Scorcese for a much deserved trophy
Aww. That’s sweet, NVM.
Ardy – I’d never even heard of the West Bank Story film before the Oscars and it sounds incredibly cheesy. But it’s all political after all, eh? Historical films, esp WWII era, are gold if they have a feel-good message in them.
Question for the girls (or really hip fellows) – I’ve never seen a sari tied in quite the style that DM has it on, it almost looks more like a lehenga dupatta. Are saris worn that way in any region that anyone knows of?
Pan’s Labyrinth didnt win? Well I havent seen the other movie so I can’t comment but it won’t stop me sulking and say it was a stitch up! What a travesty! Travesty!
Best movie of this year so far is Hot Fuzz — very funny go and see it folks.
There was a mention on CTV.ca, though I suppose that’s no surprise:
[link]
SP – Well West Bank Story was in the short film category which generally tends to get neglected in the media. This place in Atlanta was screening all the Oscar nominated shorts and so I got to see all of them. And yes, West Bank Story was very very cheesy, it reminded me of a bad bollywood movie – sure it was all mock musical but I felt some of the other shorts were way better. My pick would have been the Spanish one. And since you are also into activism and adoption (is that right?), you should check out the other French/African nomination, it’s a Unicef movie and talks about a lot of issues in Africa pertaining to education for women and girls and adoption. It’s not a great film cinematic ally but I think you would appreciate some of the content.
On a side note, I think short films are a very difficult and if done right powerful form of cinema. I wish we had more of those being screened – maybe a short before a mainstream feature. I wont mind paying the extra 2$ for it.
Oscar show last night was dull and boring, it was better last year. Film fare show turned out to be better than previous years. SRK was good with his sarcastic humour, he made fun of everybody including himself. Javed Aktar’s speech was good.
In this photo, it looks as if DM has draped her Banarasi in the classic nivi style. I really can’t tell what she’s doing with her pallu in the photograph above.
Desi Filmmakers got hammered from another angle too:
http://www.razzies.com/history/06winners.asp
I can’t say I entirely disagree with the choices though.
I likee Seema’s saree. It’s interesting how the hip hollywood crowd acts all Western in India and all Indian when then go abroad. Nice to see Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas not doing that naatak.
HMF regarding #29, we must think alike or something …. LOL
not me. apart from the bad acting (which is nothing new), and what SP said earlier, i also wasn’t particularly in the mood to deal with the perverse curiosity from my american friends about child marriage, treatment of widows, etc. the production was nicely done though, i have to give it that.
I’m neither a girl nor a particularly hip fellow, but that sari seems to be in the Burmese (or is it Myanmarese) style to me. Just memories of an old photo I saw somewhere. But to your other point, the other women in the picture, especially the one in brown on the extreme right – are stars in the truest sense, or at least, in the astrophysical sense, in that she’s quite hot. Also, I thought DM’s daughter actually acted in her movies, even if she’s not a ‘star’ yet. Isn’t she the one on the left?
PS to SP: I find myself reacting to your posts rather differently now that I know you’re a woman!
I actually like Night’s work, but Lady in Water was just bleah. The chinese girl was more or less narrating the story, saying, “ok mr. main character, now you have to do this next.”
Pooja – yeah, the pallu looks classic enough but I was thrown by the lack of pleats at the waist – I’m guessing she pulled her pallu round the front and tucked it in like it was a lehenga dupatta?
Kurma – I don’t think that’s Seema Biswas with her, SB wasn’t invited along (and that fussy sari would be uncharacteristic of her). I think it’s DM’s daughter in the orangey-red blouse.
As I understand it that was India’s official entry into the foreign movie category and it deservedly got discarded. Canada submitted Water under some trendy new rules that allows a country to submit a movie on the basis of funding regardless of the language it was made in. A few years ago the UK wanted to submit The Warrior for best forign language film (directed by Asif Kapadia from London), but they werent allowed to because back then the stipulation was that the movie has to be in the language of the submitting country.
India won’t win best foreign language movie any time soon because the selection committee is pretty clueless most of the time, and barring the fluke nomination that was Lagaan, they won’t even get to the nomination stage, which for a country with as strong a cinematic culture as India, is a little dissapointing.
They should be submitting urgent masterpieces like Black Friday , something with intelligence and artistry, rather than masala in which people spontaneously start wiggling their bums in a field in Punjab, which admittedly in Rang de Basanti is of some class compared to the 90% dreck that is commercial Hindi cinema, but in an international context, is just not doing it. If the Indian film industry wants to start getting awards and respect internationally the funding and selection bodies need to be looking at the raw talent that exists in the non Bollywood field, of which there is plenty, as Black Friday attests. Also, a Telugu movie called Vanaja just won an award at the Berlin film festival — proof that Indian cinema can be original, sensitive, and have some artistry and aesthetic beyond the shrill pomp of yawn Follywood, uhh, I mean Bollywood.
So everyone, go and watch Black Friday if you get the chance!
Wait, stop press, just read that Seema Biswas WAS part of the Water contingent at the Oscars. My, my. I wouldn’t have thunk it.
The woman to the left was wearing her sari very well.
Chachaji, the hottie in brown is Lisa Ray – pehchana nahin, do you live under a rock? 😉
Red Snapper, I agree completely. I really wish films like Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi, Amu, Pinjar, Mr and Mrs Iyer, Satya or even Dev had made it out on the international circuit. And what about Khamosh Pani, that should have been very popular with the political theme and Indo-Pak cooperation and all that.
Trailer for Vanaja
Trailer for Black Friday
Wow, you have listed so many gems there. Mr and Mrs Iyer is just amazing for Konkona though I thought Amu is ok. Hazaaron Khwaishein is one of the best political movies coming out in recent times, and all the three main actors have given amazing performances.
I love Khamosh Paani, Kiron Kher is so good in that and I liked the way they ended it. Amu is ok, the director spoke at the screeningn and she one passionate woman though. Yes, 90% of the movies out of Bollywood is trash, but unfortunately what sells is Karan Johar and his types.
SP – wow! Thanks for opening my eyes! Can’t believe she’s the same Lisa Ray from Bollywood-Hollywood, and I saw it so recently too. Or this Lisa Ray either.
SP — all the movies you mentioned are really excellent. Khamosh Pani did win an award at a European festival and I believe that it was classified as a Pakistani movie, but your point is good. You know I read Satyajit Ray’s biography a while back and did you know that at times, he was accused by some hideous philistines in India of peddling ‘poverty’ and ‘squalor’ to the West. All that typical Indian chippiness and insecurity. I believe Nargis came out with some lines like that. Anyway, maybe that philistine, defensive, ignorant attitude persists, and that is why movies like Amu and Mr and Mrs Iyer don’t make the grade as far as the incestuous Bollywood arse licking selection committees are concerned, it wouldnt surprise me. Black Friday is just controversial so even though it is a brilliant urgent raw movie you might understand why it gets circumspect attention — and movies like Vanaja probably wouldnt even register on their radar because they are just too crass and averse to a movie of that kind of quiet register.
So are 90% of Hollywood movies, 90% of Hongkong movies, 90% of French Movies… Yeah, I agree Mr & Mrs Iyer, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Black Friday are all great movies. But the problem with good Indian Movies is that they are not marketed well compared to other countries. Black Friday has a good chance of getting some Awards. Director of Black Friday, Anurag Kashyap blogs here
Why do you suppose Mani Ratnam movies, which bridge the crowd-pleasing and serious/political categories fairly well and have shown at film festivals in the US, have never made it onto the Oscar nomination list? As an aside, isn’t it silly anyway that “national” boards get to select who represents “the nation” for foreign films? In an age where big new Hindi film releases are reviewed in the NYT, why can’t Indian cinema just be entered in the usual categories – language?
The other woman in a sari is Seema Biswas who had a part in the film. Am surprised no one recognized her – granted she looked very different in the film but she’s fairly recognizable if you know how she looks like.
Here is an advise for Indian film makers :Producer Graham King, whose ‘The Departed'(he is the producer for Blood Dimond’ also)won an Oscar for the best film, says India needs to spend more on promoting its cinema globally to up its Academy chances.http://in.movies.yahoo.com/070226/43/6ciap.html
Deepa mehta recently said that India dosen’t provide her the creative freedom,like canada does.From the ‘recognition’ and coverage her team got from the media and the acadamy, it looks like she miscalculated her Candian connections and ifluence.
The above article futher says that “Even Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’, which failed to pick up an Oscar, was a loss for Canada and not for India as far as Hollywood is concerned”.
Has anyone seen Being Cyrus, if you are familiar with Parsi culture in Mumbai, that movie is a hoot, and even if you are not it’s still a great movie. Also, Dor is decent though it has its stupidities. Recently Bollywood has started seeing a few more movies which don’t fit the usual mold and are still quite commercial. I can think of Rang De Basanti (RDB) as a very fine example of that. Its an outright commercial movie but still it does not pander like other mainstream movies and thats what I so loved about it. It’s almost got an Mani Ratnam essence to it while still being stylistically Mehra. Other hardcore mainstream movies which actually weren’t so bad in recent times though they had their weaknesses would be Omkara, Maqbool, Pyaar Ke Side Effects, Parineeta (ex the ending ham), Yuva , Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part -2, Joggers Park or for that matter Eklavya (which some people I know hated).And the quintessential movie of our gen Dil Chahta Hai. Yes, Bollywood is not all bad, but a lot of it is.I think unlike the parallel movement of the 80s which was totally isolated from the mainstream, the new thing that has happened in recent times is a display of non mainstream themes in mainstream Bollywood which is a great thing since it can become self sustaining.
Ardy, “Being Cyrus” is entertaining as a slice of Bombay Parsi culture, but I found it rather amateurish and not really film festival quality. Haven’t seen Dor yet, heard good things about it. You’re right about the mainstreaming of non-boy-meets-girl films these days, though I’m not sure films like Arth and Umrao Jaan were considered truly out of the mainstream even in the 80s. There were lots of thoughtful films made in the “mainstream” in the 50s and 60s too – many Raj Kapoor films fall into that category. And there was Aandhi in the 70s. I think the 80s and 90s were the lost decades, actually.
Virtually all of Guru Dutt’s films were thoughtful and made primarily for the “mainstream” too, wouldn’t you say? They were all 1950s and 60s. My feeling is that “art” versus “mainstream” became an issue only in the 1980s and later.