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.
Well I was not thinking of Being Cyrus as a filmfest movie đ but more of a fun to watch kind, something out of the mainstream. Arth was definitely commercially successful but a lot of those movies never made it big. Saaransh, Ijaazat for example are such amazing movies but did only fair business (and they were some of the more commercially successful ones). There were a lot of movies from the parallel side like Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa which did not do well. There were also the really nice Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Amol Palekar, Farrokh Shaikh+Deepti Naval movies which were not in the mold. But even they never became the norm and did well only in Urban pockets. Most of these were late 70s to mid 80s. I think the 90s were really the wasted decade, totally agreed on that.
The golden age of consistent good movies was probably the 50s/60s as you put it. Raj Kapoor for sure and then Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, V Shantaram, Satyajit Ray, Mughal-E-Azam, Mother India, etc
Lets face it, Deepa Mehta is fugly and he clothes didnt really improve a thing. “Water” was a crapshoot compared to Fire.
Even though jocularly, Ellen said, I paraphrase – ‘Lets face it, without the blacks, jews and gays, there is no oscars’. Essentially, it is such movies that address issues affecting the society have a better chance of winning oscars.
I am yet to see a powerful movie from India addressing the real concerns of socially downtrodden in India. Until, they get that formula correct, a desi oscar movie is all air-castles.
I am yet to see a powerful movie from India addressing the real concerns of socially downtrodden in India.
There are many. Some examples:
a) Satyajit Ray’s Pathar Panchali b) Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen c) Shyam Benegal’s Ankur
……….the list goes on.
That’s ridiculous –
Practically anything by Bimal Roy or Guru Dutt and much od Dev Benegal or Jabbar Patel dealt, quite poignantly, with these issues. That the Indian nuance did not appeal to Western audiences, says more about the West than the state of Indian film.
Why does an Indian movie have to deal with the socially downtrodden to be relevant. And who cares about the Oscars anyway.
“Essentially, it is such movies that address issues affecting the society have a better chance of winning oscars.”
are you referring specifically to foreign movies? because many of the movies that win oscars don’t necessarily address deep issues affecting society. such as titanic, lord of the rings, my fair lady etc. whilst movies that address issues affecting society are necessary, unless they are really good (i loved will farrell’s and jack black’s song routine pokign fun at the academy for being overly serious at times), i don’t see why they should be given preference over truly epic (not saying titanic was the best choice) or entertaining movies like ben hur, lawrence of arabia ( premiere magazine recently rated peter o’toole’s performance as the best lead performance in any movie), cinema paradiso (a foreign movie that beautifully celebrates nostalgia, not any real deep social malaise). whilst india definitely needs more well-made socially relevant movies, it needn’t give up on making truly world-class and entertaining movies as well (and there are very few of these as well in india).
…(and there are very few of these as well in india).
and should have added that there are very few world-class, entertaining movies being made in hollywood today.
Shouldn’t the title have read “All that Glitters is (Banarasi) Gold”?
Yes – I fondly remember Khatta Meetha, and Chashme Baddoor and Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and all those Deepti Naval films. There was a window in the 80s for really entertaining and yet “real” films before wealthy-fantasy-land genres became hegemonic.
If a movie has to preach about the downtrodden in order to get noticed, isn’t that an extension of the mango/curry/saree/cow exoticism that we’re all so tired of?
I was tempted for a moment to say that too. However, I guess it depends. We could very well have our own islolated Bollywood and it really won’t matter but like it or not the Oscars are a big deal in the world of cinema and getting an Oscar for a desi movie would be nice. Plus the recognition would help showcase our culture in more Indian ways than being done say the ABC people in NY. The important thing is not to compromise on things that make our movies or showing what they want to see ours just to win an Oscar.
I mean, ‘The important thing is not to compromise on things that make our movies ours or showing what they want to see just to win an Oscar.’ Sorry for the typo…
The only hottie in this picture is Lisa Ray and mostly because she looked exquisite by herself, I wasn’t too nuts about the shade of her dress but it turns out this years Oscars were filled with shitty colored dresses…pastel!!! Good lord we are in for some seriously hideous pastel colored fashions for Spring as result of last night. Pastels are so bad for so many skin tons, they make you look so washed out. Penolpe’s Versace, Jada’s gold/yellow number, Christen Dunsts grandma vintage dowdy pale gown, Gwenneth’s ugly pastel orange dress…lord. There were a few highlights, Kate looked devine in the light Mint green, same color as Beyonce’s dress and Nicole looked great in that red dress except for that huge bow as did Cameron Diaz. Oh and JLo looked like a divine goddess but I wish she’d stop doing the big hair! Rachel Weisz had the right pastel on, Champagne that complemented her dark eyes and dark hair.
OK back to this…sorry neither the sari, nor the whole ensemble or ALL of Mehta is doing anything for me. It’s not pleasing to the eye, there is nothing exciting about her outfit or her to mention her. Even Abraham who is so super hot otherwise looked dull in that dark suit. And all the other aunties along, please let them trail behind. Notice how the stars walk alone or with a spouse and not as an entire entourage. Entourage’s especially unattractive ones don’t make for good photo ops or discussions.
This hero has plenty to say on the industry.
I wasn’t too disappointed last night, except for the final award. I know many people love the departed, but I’m just biased towards any film with Nietzsche references and a self help egomaniac.
The Water crew would have done well to bring their own little girl to the show.
JOAT – yeah, most of the dresses were hideous (and you have to think – with all the money and all the designers at their feet, they still choose THOSE?) Cate’s was nice, though. I read a little pre-Oscar interview of Deepa Mehta in which she righteously declared, upon being asked if she was going to doll up for the red carpet, that she had never worn lipstick and didn’t intend to do so for the Oscars. Sure enough, super-ashy makeup, old-school black liquid liner, godawful “rouge,” designer blouse, but our lady held on to her principles and did not wear lipstick. No wonder she looks so washed out.
Yeah the “natural” mantra seems to be such a desi thing at times but people forget that A. it’s a formal event, please make some effort at looking like you didn’t just wake up and roll out of bed and B. very few women especially Mehta, look good natural, I mean please for crying out loud use some gloss and with her dark circles she looked like an owl with that horrible eye makeup.
Have a look at the photo in this article (scroll down, to the right) in which all the women of Water are wearing white and look rather less stiff than in the Oscars one. I think it’s much better. And Lisa Ray looks stunnning.
They totally should have had the little girl walk on the carpet as well, she was the real star of the film.
I’m hoping it was intentional…we’ll have to wait for Ronnie Screwvala to mount a real challenge to Hollywood and the Oscars (an article in Business 2.0 January issue on how he’s planning to update Bollywood financing, not online yet…
Ellen was talking about how “diverse” the gathering was, but didn’t mention DM & Co. at all. I guess they were Canadian, and that would have been a puzzle for many people. When they went through the foreign movies montage to show what had won awards before, it was clear that apart from one or two forays into Japan, the committee’s idea of the whole world didn’t and still doesn’t stray too far from France, the only country whose movie industry has presented a consistent challenge to Hollywood since day one. This is not all bad –at least they had Catherine Deneuve as a presenter, and she showed how women her age should dress. The Oscars have always been about navel-gazing, except they have great PR so all eyes are on Hollywood. There are plenty of people as yet walking who refer to Europe and the USA as “the whole world” and it did strike me that there were very many old white guys to look at– sad to see Peter O’Toole so aged, Jack Nicholson apparently on chemo. Those plastic fuzzy-eyebrow-plus-nose-and-glasses gag items that used to do well for dressing as Groucho would do well now for a Scorcese Hallowe’en costume.
But Prasad, there should absolutely not be any prescriptive slant for a non-English movie to be good– that is so old hat, the idea that the English- speaking world can just have fun while everyone else has to critique themselves to be any good — and I certainly didn’t see any more society-affecting issues in The Queen than in Water. Hey, this is the entertainment industry!
I agree with suede. The movie is pretty but problematic, and DM, with her Libber aversion to lipstick, is no oil painting. Plus the coverage is about the whole promo game of clothes, including PR people from couture houses and jewelry houses making sure they get covered and probably hair and makeup people too. I bet if our fugly had stretched a tad and worn a bit of or a lot of Bulgari, there would have been plenty of closeup shots and other coverage. I bet if Shilpa Shetty was there in her pharoah, she would have made a deal, say, with Chanel for her choli and with Cartier for plenty of bling, and gotten widely photographed.
as far as the water entourage goes: seema biswas and sarala kariyawasam, the true stars of an average movie (but their scenes were above average and saved this movie) should have been allowed to walk by themselves with the rest trailing đ lisa ray looks blah here (looked much better at the toronto opening. is this brown dress a sari or an “evening gown”?)
i think the lack of attention has much less to do with how they look (ok, if it was aishwarya in a sari she would have received more attention, both because of her looks and her name and face being more recognizable in the west now). but water really was a blip, hardly any buzz (other than in the nyt) and no one really gave it any chance of a win. most foreign film nominations and their actors suffer this fate at the oscars, unless it’s a pan’s labyrinth that scores several nominations.
as for the fashion, the oscars and the people who cover this sort of thing are notoriously myopic about what they consider “fashion”. if it’s not some western designer or a western design, they tend to overlook it. ken watanabe’s wife looked beautiful and elegant in a kimono at both the golden globes and the oscars (hooray for her), but no mention of her either, even though her husband was a nominee (more visibility than a foreign pic nomination). only if an indian actress/actor is nominated in the acting category or is a well-known international face will their dress be noticed, and even if their sari or indian-style men’s suit is amongst the most elegant there, it will receive less due than less worthy western wear.
not in her pharoah, just pharoah… you know what I mean.
sigh
Absolutely. Even if Shilpa Shetty dressed in all Indian and wore traditional jewelry, she looks fantastic and makes for great pictures and is easy on the eyes, she’d have made it. I don’t think the snub was intentional because nothing about that group would have caught my eye either.
i’m not sure why people expect the oscars to be international or diverse. it is an anglo-philic award and, more specifically, an american-centric award (nothing inherently wrong with that). even the english-speaking brits, who may have got lots of nominations, didn’t do that well in the end. only helen mirren really capitalized. (a win for o’toole would have been fantastic but some actors (and directors and technicians) are beyond and above the oscars and he’s one of them.
Trivia – When Helen Mirren came on stage to collect her award, they announced that an Indian hand reader had once told her she would peak late in her career.
Whats a hand reader?
If people didnt care for Oscars, then this post would’nt be there, correct?
Yes, there were so many movies (which unfortunately were considered parallel) in India, but they didnt have the technical markup to be presented at Oscars. At the same time, not all Oscar-ed movies were of such ultimate quality either.
All I am saying is, instead of treading waters about widows in Varanasi and child marriages (these are not that big of problems today, these are niche problems, IMO), people should make movies of travails of tribals or dalits in remote villages, which is the truth. Naxalite movement is a reality – many people disagree with it, but the reasons for its violent turn cannot be denied.
If you cannot be brave enough to deal with real problems, then you dont deserve glory either. Art is all about irreverance and truth and Indian cinema is anything but truth.
How about something chronicling Hindu fundamentalist politics? As a Guju, I’ve been getting intentionally burnt cups of tea at get togethers for badmouthing Narendra Modi.
Probably they meant palmreading and called it handreading.
‘The west bank story’ which won the OSCAR for the short film catogary.I heard the director thanking one Mr.Malhotra.Its Ravi Malhotra, one of the producer for this film.And some desi contributions for this film.So a desi won the OSCAR?
Here is the link.(http://www.westbankstory.com/new/bio.htm).
“Trivia – When Helen Mirren came on stage to collect her award, they announced that an Indian hand reader had once told her she would peak late in her career.”
good catch. more indian influence on the oscars đ :
Peter O’Toole in Esquire Magazine (January 2007): “Listen, everybody was offered the part of Lawrence of Arabia: Marlon Brando, Greta Garbo, Groucho Marx. Everybody but me. They all turned it down for various reasons. And David Lean had banked his life on that picture. David’s wife (Indian) was seeing a guru at the time, and this guru had seen a film called The Day They Robbed the Bank of England, in which I played a silly English officer. And the guru told her that he had just seen the man who should play Lawrence.”
Just got up from the Vanity Fair bash. As I prepare to interview Lisa Ray on post-Oscar night, I have to say they ARE ALLOWED to walk by themselves. Publicists (a la me) do not tell you who to walk with. We tell you where to stop and which press person to speak with. Even at the after-party, the cast didn’t mingle much with others. They simply did not fit it with the schmoozy crowd of Hollywood. John A. could have looked more handsome and dapper, but he chose to represent India with his style. Ash gets more attention because of her work. Lisa Ray is a household name in India (as she modeled for Lakme since 16), but in La-La land, no one knows her except for this film. And she doesn’t qualify as a Bollywood actress considering her mixed heritage.
IMHO, they appeared visibly uncomfortable simply because they knew no one else. Imagine who would Gwyneth Paltrow speak with if she attended a Film Fare award show? apart from the obligatory “love your work” and “great dress” intermingling was minimal.
Ankur:
I’d say, pick your poison, but make it sugarless.
The upcoming Nasser movie, Parzania would probably touch upon the Hindu fundamentalist issue. Ankur – you serious though? That is truly messed up…
Not sure about Mr Malhotra’s origins, but this made me think of a more general question. Everytime an ABD achieves something and sometimes a big celebration happens in India about his being Indian or of Indian origin though he is ABD, what do ABDs feel about that?
We watch because it’s still hella fun to see so many movie stars at once and none of them acting, and it’s still the biggest annual PR event in the world –butit’s riding on its own coattails now– I mean it used to be white tie when Sidney Poitier got his award and now people are wearing straight black neck ties like at a funeral. If one’s particpating, it’s only sporting to play the PR game and plug into the possibilities…..and no, no, a thousand times no, Indian movies don’t have to address serious social ills to be good. Everyone needs comedy.
That’s a real shame. I was thinking John Abraham would have left with a blonde on each arm. Maybe the Indians got mistaken for the taxi drivers at the end of the night.
Good golly, JOAT! I was going to suggest that the Ranjit Chowdhury character in Bollywood-Hollywood in his transvest-ed role represented a directorial catharsis of her suppressed alter-ego, but was biting my tongue, thinking it might be a rather harsh comment. But now, well, you’ve stiffened my spine. BTW, are you back from India now, or are you writing from the desh?
Saira, as a publicist, don’t you find this not borrowing clothes and jewelry and not mingling no fun at all? John Abraham coulda shoulda worn electric blue or watermelonn colored silk with zardosi like the Banash brothers (esp the younger Bangash, who is every bit as gorgeous as JA) to represent his generation in india. What is he, Pandit Nehru mitout rose? And sorry to say, I must take issue with another thing– Gwyneth is a well bought up New York girl and a Spencie, and I have no doubt she would mingle and charm people at the Filmfare awards…
Not only is is not fun, but not productive. John should have shown off his devastating looks with a suit to bring out his best ass-ets with a single breasted, bespoke suit from Valentino. But he wasn’t my client for me to say. Their job is to let people know who they are in addition to smile and wave. They did a poor job of walking together. Even a glance at the images show how uncomfortable they all were. Perhaps “Chuiya” would have helped lighten their somber moods. I personally was offended by Ellen’s comments in the opening monologue about diversity, mentioned Spain and Japan, but not a single glance or comment about India? That showed me just how involved they were in this process and vice-versa.
Heh. You think too highly of Spence girls đ
OK maybe I was being a meanie but saying desis were snubbed is like implying undertones of racism and I don’t see how anyone would have time to be racist when the subjects on the most ostentatious night were so hard on the eyes.
Yes I’m back. Thank you for asking.
I felt the same way and quite possibly because no one told Ellen they were in the audience. Their publicist needs to be fired immediately for not schooling them on milking the red carpet, looking like hell on it and thinking not wearing lipstick on the most important night because you don’t in daily life is acceptable when you look like Mehta. đ
You know what? You’re right. John and Lisa should have walked together looking very sexy and exotic together — hot couple! And the rest of the aunties about ten steps behind. As it is this is like those freakin’ Indian family outings when everyone has to roll together, freakin’ aunties take it personally when the kids want to cut loose and look cool in front of the white people and don’t want to be seen with sari-aunties. How many times have you seen it in Trafalgar Square or Niagra Falls? Exactly.
“Not only is is not fun, but not productive. John should have shown off his devastating looks with a suit to bring out his best ass-ets with a single breasted, bespoke suit from Valentino. “
i have to respectfully disagree. he would just have blended in with the rest of the males in their cookie cut western suits. i don’t think you have to dress western to look dapper and handsome. i think your comments about how they carried themselves are more pertinent to why they were overlooked, and the fact that they were really “nobodies” (sadly) to the people around them. when aishwarya appeared for the premiere of her bride and prejudice in ny, i remember one hollywood bigwig correspondent saying that he came to see a true indian movie star but ended up seeing basically a copy of any western movie star (she chose to wear some sort of western designer dress and was styled very western, which usually doesn’t bring out her very indian beauty). i don’t think he was exoticizing her.
people are tired of the same old thing and appreciate confidence and pride in one’s own style and traditions, and i wish indian celebrities were more confident about themselves when they travelled, instead of feeling they have to ape and blend in with the generic or feeling awkward when they don’t blend in (and thus painting yourselves as self conscious about your differences, thus reinforcing other people’s prejudices that you are somehow not “de rigeur” or “unfashionable”) – they way they used to be. the first indian miss world won wearing a sari for the evening gown component (and there’s a photo of her with bob hope entertaining american servicemen, in her sari. she was a big hit). nowadays the indian wear is reserved for the “national costume” section, even though the sari is hardly a “costume”.
Saira, gotcha. Valentino for JA to be sure. maybe even an achkan by Valentino. Valentino’s no slouch, you know, goes to Desh not just for embroidery but to mingle. Even if they were resisting Western dress and designers, they could have gone to Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, who dressed Judi Dench another year, and made something out of that, but alas.
Brearley Boy, I have a Saint David’s Girl (really) who turned into a Spencie, and afaik, they do mix and mingle and jingle their feet — did a Spencie not jingle hop with you?
BB, I didn’t mean to be harsh, but why be so partisan? I’m sure TÊa Leoni would mingle too.
Speaking of “West Bank Story,” the hot Palestinian woman is portrayed by Noureen DeWulf, an actress of South Asian descent.
Well, as I had wished, “water” did NOT get an Oscar. So one of my wishes came true in 2007, now if the Telecom infrastructure industry stocks start outperforming, than I will be able to claim that the year of the pig, has been lucky for me.
That Deepa Mehta looks like a witch if you ask me, and her films reflect this too ;). I for one am jumping for joy that this Canadian film didn’t make it beyond the noms.
Perhaps the actors weren’t just right…
Amrita –
Oh ho ho! I thought you were a Spence girl yourself. If you’re the mother of a Spencie, I mean no offence. Spence girls have a reputation for being aloof and hoitie-toitie, but I’m sure it doesn’t apply to your darling daughter.