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Lagaan for Oscars; New Horizons for ARR?

Topic started by WhyNot (@ 203.24.100.131) on Sun Nov 4 10:51:50 EST 2001.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Lagaan has been unanimously chosen as India's entry for Oscars Foreign Film Category for 2002. It beat Monsoon Weddings and Asoka. Though this is not the first ARR movie to be chosen, with Jeans selected in 98, this is definitely a more credible choice.
Will this mark a new beginning or open up newer horizons for ARR? As ALW's Bombay Dreams is more a Broadway production, this may introduce ARR to Hollywood in a big way. Or will Lagaan just find itself piled in the garbage can, following the very first round of selections, as all past Indian entries have?

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: magix (@ 203.199.248.139) on: Mon Mar 25 08:22:22 EST 2002
  
  Here comes to an end, another Thread!!!
  
  
• From: Raghu (@ 212.2.14.241) on: Mon Mar 25 08:41:34 EST 2002
  
  well done, ARR, we are proud of u!!
  
  
• From: ROTFL (@ 210.186.61.57) on: Mon Mar 25 09:20:44 EST 2002
  
  Raghu
  Who is the "we"? :)
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Mon Mar 25 10:03:34 EST 2002
  
  OISG - Thank you for your "convincing and rational" appreciation of my words!
  
  
• From: WhyNot (@ 203.24.100.132) on: Mon Mar 25 10:27:26 EST 2002
  
  Thx Ramki, i jus caught the delayed telecast (at least part of it)...
  The lyrics were (from the English subtitles)
  "You are the red rose
  my enchanted eyes see
  How can this allure
  not wake my desire"
  For a few seconds we had an ARR song there....:-)
  but I better stop myself now before I get accused of 'jingoism' :-)
  When Bosnia was announced as the winner, I saw Ashutosh in white and Aamir in black giving a standing ovation. They were seated behind the No Man's Land team and were flanked by two Indian ladies (if I saw correctly).
  
  
• From: Ramki (@ 161.150.2.250) on: Mon Mar 25 10:57:33 EST 2002
  
  http://www.indiavarta.com/gallery/
  
  
• From: WhyNot (@ 203.24.100.132) on: Mon Mar 25 11:22:50 EST 2002
  
  thx for the link ramki. now i know i wasnt seeing things when i thought i saw two saree-clad indian ladies. nice outfits.
  
  
• From: Saran (@ 164.164.46.20) on: Tue Mar 26 00:04:31 EST 2002
  
  Appaadaa, mudincahthu oru vazhiyaa!!! Thread-a close pannungappaa... :)
  
  
• From: Viking (@ 203.195.159.11) on: Tue Mar 26 01:11:45 EST 2002
  
  Would have won had Aamir used baseball for cricket. Those stupid yanks know no other sport.
  
  
• From: magix (@ 203.199.231.90) on: Wed Mar 27 07:26:31 EST 2002
  
  :)
  
  
• From: s0 (@ 128.119.85.50) on: Thu Mar 28 08:20:02 EST 2002
  
  ennappa route-a-ye maaththittaanga. total discontinuity - for those in the no man's land thread.
  
  
• From: cosmician (@ 194.170.127.161) on: Sat Mar 30 05:07:59 EST 2002
  
  >>>>Baz Luhrmann, actually spent several months visiting India and in a speech once, broke away from his topic to ask the baffled audience if anyone had watched Lagaan (apparently one Indian woman there raised her hand). Tis was long before Lagaan was nominated for the Oscars. He has openly admitted being inspired by Bollywood musicals.
  
  Here's an article.
  http://www.masala.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=showArticleNew&article_id=3493&ss=mvn
  <<<
  
  Wow ! That was news to me WhyNot. Thanks :-)
  
  
• From: WhyNot (@ 203.24.100.132) on: Mon Apr 1 00:07:53 EST 2002
  
  Still on the topic of musicals & tamil movies...
  interestingly, in Alli Arjuna, the movie was introduced as:
  
  Bharathirajaa Presents...
  
  A A.R. Rehman Musical...
  
  I cudnt help being amused.
  
  
• From: lagaan (@ ) on: Sat Apr 13 20:52:02 EDT 2002
  
  What a sad spectacle of craving for recognition by the West!
  By Sumer Kaul
  Source: Free Press Journal
  
  
  I cannot recall anything comparable to the media-driven excitement during the run-up to Aamir Khan's tryst with 'Uncle' Oscar.The hope, the hoopla, the hype, even prayers - and finally the tears! Rare as it may be for an Indian film to be nominated even in the not-to-edifying foreign language category, Lagaan was not the first to receive this "samman", to use I&B minister Sushma Swaraj's expression the morning after the disappointing night.Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) and Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay (1988) had also figured in the nominations.On neither occasion was there any of the page one and prime time hype and tripe witnessed this time. It is not enough, however, merely to notice the difference: We must ask ourselves why the media and (consequently) a sizeable section of the people, especially in Mumbai and Delhi, went overboard this time.
  I believe the reasons are two-fold, one historical and the other contemporary, but both to do with our psyche, chiefly and particularly the psyche of certain politico-economic segments of what may be called upper India.If we delve deep into this psyche we will see what we are loth to see poverty of self-esteem.
  
  To take the historical reason first, we yearn almost pathologically for foreign, and principally western, recognition.This craving stems from a subaltern mindset, a mindset we developed due to and during the prolonged colonial subjugation.More than half a century into independence, we still suffer from this complex.It comes to the fore in many ways, big and small, often in spectacular gushes.The frenzied hope that Lagaan would get the Oscar is the latest manifestation of this craving.
  
  Even in the limited sphere of cinema, to yearn for such recognition is patently self-deprecatory. India is the largest and linguistically the most variegated producer of films, a country which has had an array of great craftsmen - like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Bimal Roy, to name just a few.In the event, to covet a western prize for an Indian film is, in the reverse gear, like General Motors looking for an ISO certificate from Bajaj scooters!
  
  What makes the craving for western appreciation infinitely worse is that it is all-embracing, as the following random examples will illustrate.The era of Rai Bahadurs and Rai Sahebs and other British-bestowed dubious titles is long over, but we still rejoice in benedictions from the Buckingham palace.A few years ago a perfectly decent college lecturer in Delhi was awarded the Order of the British Empire.I don't know how elated he felt but his college which had been, ironically enough, associated with the freedom movement, held a special function to celebrate the "honour" to one of its faculty!
  
  I know of no country which has so vast and linguistically diverse a treasure house of literature.But how many of our literatti have read, or ever wanted to read, a Kalidas, a Prem Chand, a Sarat Chandra Chatterjee - or even an R.K.Narayan who wrote in English, the only language our metro-elitists know or pretend to know? Recall, on the other hand, how promptly and proudly they sought or bought Arundhati Roy's 'God of Small Things' after it was awarded the Booker prize and how they applauded the book and to hell with those who, in their honest appraisal unblinkered by the Booker jury's verdict, found the book wholly second rate. I know of one well-known editor who flaunted the book even at a formal luncheon with the visiting UN secretary general in Delhi!
  
  The most pathetic example to date was the jubilation in our metros and mainstream media when Sushmita Sen was "crowned" Miss Universe by a collaterally motivated commercial outfit in America. She was called "pride of India" paraded in victory processions, and received by the (then) prime minister!
  
  Equally characteristic of the inferiority complex, though perhaps less ignoble, is the way we go ga-ga over the Nobelprize. In fact, we discover - and honour - great Indians only after those Swedish and Norwegian coteries discover them.The first 'native' to be 'Nobelised' was Rabindranath Tagore.Known till then mostly only to Bengalis, after he got the Nobel we suddenly discovered a towering man of letters in him, and much else, and he became the nation's gurudev.Mother Teresa worked for decades in India but countrywide admiration for her came only after she got the Nobel, and we promptly followed with a Bharat Ratna.
  
  For forty years of his cinematic brilliance Satyajit Ray remained officially unsung. Then, as he lay on his deathbed, came the Lifetime Achievement Oscar, and we duly followed with the Bharat Ratna - posthumously! Ditto for economist Amartya Sen, though happily in his lifetime.It would have been ditto also for V.S. Naipaul but for his uncomplimentary views on Muslims in his last book.(He may still be crowned 'Jewel of India' after the next elections if the BJP returns to power!)
  
  It is no secret that as often as not, and perhaps more often than not, the Nobel prize, especially for peace and literature, has been given on considerations that are demonstrably extraneous to excellence in the field concerned.Some of the universally most acclaimed and admired writers have been ignored, as have been real crusaders for peace, entirely because of politics and ideology.For instance, let alone Jawaharlal Nehru, even Mahatma Gandhi was never considered for the peace prize, but the selection committee had no hesitation in giving it to such personages as Henry Kissinger, the brain behind the elimination of Salvador Allende and the secret bombing of Cambodia -and to Shimon Peres, a leading light of the Israeli government now playing hell with the Palestinians.
  
  While more and more people even in the west recognise the great injury done to the will of Alfred Nobel by the selection of the awardees over the decades, we in this country are besides ourselves whenever the prize involves an Indian name or an Indian citizen.Just look at the anatomy of our celebration.Naipaul is the seventh "Indian" to win the Nobel. The list includes Mother Teresa and Hargobind Khorana; in one case the foreign origin is ignored and the acquired citizenship is taken into account; in the other case the citizenship is ignored and, as with Naipaul, the Indian origin is hailed!
  
  The lack of self-belief and self-esteem revealed by these examples is sought to be covered by loud protestations of having "arrived". This is the contemporary side of the coin.In this feel-good orchestra, ruling politicians (of the day) and sections of the English-language media play the role of chief drummers and trumpeteers. To cite just one instance, notice how elated we feel and proudly report that some Indians now figure in the world's 300 richest people - and never mind if 300 million Indians continue to figure among the world's poorest!
  
  If Lagaan had won the Oscar the feel-good choir would have assumed soprano decibelage.That Indian films are seen in 93 countries, that more than four million people outside of India watch them on any given day, that Indian actors and actresses are more popular in these countries than any Hollywood stars - these things should make us happier than winning the Academy (Oscar) awards which, as the American actor-director Woody Allen said the other day, "are political and bought and negotiated for"! But, to quote Mahesh Bhatt,"we still wag a tail in front of the Academy and seek to find legitimacy through its verdict?
  
  I would like to say Bravo, Mr. Bhatt, you have come a long way from the day you called Shekhar Kapoor "a national asset" in a TV interview because he directed the British film `Elizabeth' which had also won Oscar nominations.The day our film industry, our politicos, our media and our socio-economic elites cease to wag their tail before the West, that day we will trully have arrived!
  
  
• From: .. (@ 172.180.127.104) on: Mon Apr 15 03:25:13 EDT 2002
  
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