In the race to be noticed

For the first time in the history of the Oscars, two Hindi movies are vying for nominations in the foreign language category to be announced on January 23. Vikramdeep Johal looks at the prospects of Indian entry Rang De Basanti and Canada’s Water

AN Oscar! an Oscar! my kingdom for an Oscar!" Had Shakespeare’s King Richard III been a film-maker, he would have demanded the coveted statuette rather than a horse. Such is the aura and hype surrounding the Academy Awards that even a nomination is regarded as a great achievement. After all, this is the most popular— and controversial — platform for getting international recognition in cinema.

Hindi films (and stars) are certainly making their presence felt in Europe and the USA like never before, but awards have been conspicuous by their absence. On January 23, we will find out whether Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti and Deepa Mehta’s Water have been able to impress members of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The two movies are among the 61 in contention for five nominations in the best foreign language film category. Both have enjoyed critical and commercial success in North America over the past year, but the field is so formidable that even vigorous promotion and round-the-clock PR work might not be enough to do the trick.

The Golden Globe Awards, which precede the Oscars, usually give a fair indication of the trends. None of the three Indian films that were submitted — Rang De..., Lage Raho Munnabhai and Omkara — made it to the list of nominees announced last month. Water, too, missed out. Of the five finalists, three are also in the Oscar fray — Pedro Almodovar’s Volver (Spain), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others (Germany) and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico).

The Penelope Cruz starrer Volver, which won the best director and best actress (ensemble cast) awards at Cannes last year, is the overwhelming favourite not only for a nomination but also for the Academy Award. Almodovar is no stranger to the Oscars, having already won two — for All About My Mother (best foreign language film, 1999) and Talk to Her (best screenplay, 2002). He is expected to ride on voters’ enthusiastic support yet again.

Rolf de Heer’s Aboriginal drama Ten Canoes (Australia) and Rachid Bouchareb’s war epic Days of Glory (Algeria), which were both honoured at Cannes, are also strong contenders for Oscar nominations. Dutchman Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book, too, can make it, partly because the director is quite famous in Hollywood for the Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (1991).

The ever-growing reputation of Chinese and Iranian films in the West makes it impossible to rule out Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower and Kambuzia Partovi’s Cafe Transit.

Among the two Hindi films, Water has slightly better prospects than Rang De..., primarily because the former’s producers and distributors have an established network for publicity and canvassing in Hollywood that would enable them to reach out to as many of the Academy’s 6,000-odd members as possible. The vital thing is to convince people that your film is worth voting for. The Lagaan experience will help Aamir Khan conduct his campaign more effectively, even though Rang De... lacks the epic (and exotic) sweep of his Raj classic as well as of Water.

As far as the independent entries are concerned (Lage Raho... and Waaris Shah), they don’t have the remotest chance in any category.

The Oscars have occasionally sprung a surprise, proving the pundits wrong, and lovers of Hindi cinema are hoping (against hope?) that it would be a pleasant one this time.

Flop show India might boast of the most prolific film industry in the world, but its track record at the Oscars is far from enviable. Since the inception of the foreign language category six decades ago, only three movies have managed to earn a nomination — Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957), Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan (2001). The winners for those years were Italian maestro Federico Fellini’s The Nights of Cabiria, Bille August’s Pelle the Conqueror (Denmark) and Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land (Bosnia-Herzegovina), respectively. Among other Asian nations, three Japanese films — Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1951), Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate of Hell (1954) and Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai I: Musashi Miyamato (1955) — and Taiwanese martial-arts saga Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), directed by Ang Lee, have all went on to bag the award. Paucity of films with a global appeal, frog-in-the-well attitude, injudicious selections (for instance, Jeans, Paheli, Parinda) and lack of knowledge of the Academy members’ tastes and mindset have all played a part in India’s dismal performance.

Booked for 2007 Veteran actor Dev Anand has never been smug with his achievements. At 83, he is planning two films in 2007, apart from his much-awaited autobiography. "It’s more than 60 years of my life as a film person. My journey from a wannabe in the streets of Mumbai to the actor, writer, director, producer in the studios—everything... all condensed in one book." The words tumble out in an effervescent flow of unstoppable energy. "My autobiography is ready for publication. This is a historical moment for me." Dev Anand started writing the autobiography some years back. "When Baghdad was attacked by the US, I was in New York. Every channel showed the grim news about bombardment. I was at a loose end in my hotel room. That’s when I started jotting down my thoughts." The book should be out in the next few months. — IANS

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