Over the past few weeks the buzz around Danny Boyle?s Slumdog Millionaire has reached a crescendo and film critics around the world are suggesting that the feel-good fantasy film has got the right momentum to take it to the Oscars. Then Zakir Hussain went on to win a Grammy. Is India finally on the global entertainment map? For, though Slumdog… is made by a British director, the story, rooted in Mumbai, and the treatment, so Bollywoodish, have ensured that India is in the news every time Boyle gets onto the stage to accept an award. Some may whine that India is getting all the wrong publicity, but as Anil Kapoor, who plays the gameshow host in Slumdog, puts it: ?Those living conditions portrayed in the film are what we see around us? so, what?s the fuss about??
Filmmaker Mani Shankar agrees poverty is not the only story to tell but admits it?s a powerful story. ?Once we are finished with all poverty stories, then people will explore other beautiful things about this country. But it?s true that an interest in India is building up.? Lyricist Javed Akhtar says we are still making films for a particular market and hoping it does well in market B, C and D. In music, Jazz musician Louiz Banks says Western music of a high standard must be produced indigenously for Indians to get into the mainstream categories for Grammy acceptance. But music director Anu Malik says it?s a great time for musicians and technicians. ?We have some great talent in our country,? he adds.
Pritish Nandy of PNC says Indian writing in English and Indian cinema is certainly going places. ?As is modern Indian art and photography. These are clearly on the ascendant.? But it?s also true, says Nandy, that lots of interesting things are happening in Indian culture today. ?Rahman is one example. Aravind Adiga is another. Subodh Gupta is a third, all from different areas. Music, literature, art. Yet I would like many more things to happen. I would love to see classical singers like Bhimsen Joshi get more global attention. I would love to see classical dancers of India get more international following. I would love to see Badal Sarkar and Vijay Tendulkar on the foreign stage. I would love publishers overseas to discover poets like Jibanananda Das and Sahir Ludhianvi. Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan are fine. But there are many great actors in regional cinema and on the stage who deserve greater recognition of their talent,? he adds.
Why don?t movies made in Bollywood ever get an Oscar nod? Do we send the right films to the Oscars? ?Never,? says Nandy. ?Did Sudhir Mishra?s Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi go to the Oscars?? he asks. Others we spoke to including Javed Akhtar mentioned Anurag Kashyap?s Black Friday. Trade analyst Amod Mehra talked about Neeraj Pandey?s A Wednesday and even Ram Gopal Varma?s Satya.
Shankar says the committee that chooses the films should comprise eminent filmmakers from outside the country. Radical? Maybe, but almost everyone we spoke to were unhappy with our official Oscar entries.
THE INDIA CONNECT
It?s not just Slumdog Millionaire that has given India a connect to the Oscars. Two more films, with India as the centre of the storyline has caught the Oscar attention. Smile Pinki a 39 minute short film in Hindi and Bhojpuri, directed by Emmy-nominated producer Megan Mylan that has been nominated in the ?Best Short Documentary? category. Set in the locales of Varanasi, Smile Pinki revolves around a six-year-old girl from Mirzapur named Pinki who cannot go to school because of her cleft lips. The solutions to her problems lies in a simple surgery. Instead she is forced to face social exclusion until she meets Pankaj, a social worker who ensures that Pinki gets a free surgery. Another film in the running for the same category at the Oscar is The Final Inch by Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant. Set in India, this documentary deals with the protagonist Muhammed Gulzar?s battle with polio. The film tries to highlight efforts to eradicate polio in India, through Gulzar?s story.
