The Oscar nominees and potential Oscar nominees are finally available through cheap streaming and rental services!  So I caught up on all the high quality American films that I missed when they were in theaters.  Now, I know a regular amount about the American industry (I did get a Masters in film at an American university, I kind of couldn’t avoid it), but it’s not my main field.  Plus, all of these movies were really really good, so if I was just looking at them in terms of how good they were, I wouldn’t have much to say besides “really really good”.  So I’m going to go ahead and just rank them in terms of how “Indian” they were.

Least to most Indian, ranked 5 through 1:

5. Spotlight:  Don’t get me wrong, loved this movie!  Loved it!  But, it is primarily an ensemble piece.  And India just doesn’t do that.  Indian film is all about the Star films.  The closest it comes to an ensemble is “Multistarrers”.  But those aren’t about cutting down on the size of the characters to allow for more actors, it’s about increasing the size of the film to accommodate all the Stars.  Do I think this movie could have been improved by trying to be more “Indian” by making the characters more into stars?  Yes, actually.  The ensemble defines it in many ways, but if it had given just a few more specifics and hints about the character’s personal lives, provided them each with a moment to be the center of the screen and the story, it might have made the film as a whole more powerful.  I’m not saying it definitely would have, but it might.  There is a reason Indian films tend to provide such a strong fully realized character at the center, it forces the audience to identify with them far more closely.

4. Bridge of Spies:  Okay, now this is a Star movie!  One of the star-iest films America has made in years.  There is hardly a moment when Tom Hanks is off-screen, and hardly a moment when we are outside of his perspective on events.  But, it could still be more Indian.  For one thing, it’s a period piece based on a true story, which India mostly doesn’t do (although that could be changing with the success of Airlift and Neerja).  Also, no romance!  There is maybe a hint of something in a few scenes, but it’s never explored.  Oh, and no songs of course.  But mostly the period piece and the lack of romance.  I don’t know if you could really drop the period piece part of it completely, but you could certainly have made it less aggressive.  I was constantly being distracted from the dialogue and the characters by noticing the perfectly preserved cars, clothes, furniture, hair-styles, everything.  Maybe making it more in the background, more like how it was treated in Once Upon a time in Mumbai where the cars and clothes were loosely period, but the decor, street scenes, styling, were mostly timeless, would have let the story shine through a little more.  And adding a romance would have really helped!  It was such a “Great Man” kind of film, if they had added in just a few more scenes between Tom Hanks and his wife, or added a few more layers to the two romances between young people that were just hinted at, it would have gone a long way.

3. Straight Outta Compton: A music movie!  What could be more Indian!  Well, the two other movies after this, but it’s still pretty Indian!  For one thing, it nails the period-not period balance I just mentioned above.  Mostly timeless hair, clothes, sets, etc.  Only a few things like cars and TV sets were noticeably older.  And, it deals with a real story through relationships between main star characters, rather than through paperwork and political maneuvering.  Relationship based films are more powerful, more emotional, which is why India does them so well.  Especially when the emotions are supported by music, which this movie also does.  So, why not number 2 or 1?  No family stuff!  Or at least, not the main focus.  Yes, the main characters are as close as brothers at one point.  But there isn’t much about their parents, their spouses, their children.  If there was just a smidge more focus on that, it might have helped the audience to identify even more with our main characters.

4. Room:  So Indian!  Not only is it all about families and relationships, it’s about the relationship between a mother and son!  The relationship that Indian film discusses constantly, and which American film mostly ignores.  Not to mention the secondary relationships here, between mother and daughter, father and daughter and grandson, grandmother and grandson, etc.  Which are also generally ignored in American film.  Which is a pity, they are almost universal concerns, they create an instinctively strong response from an audience, and these relationships are a rich narrative area to explore.  This was my top choice for most Indian, until I saw the next film on the list.

5. Creed: Okay, this movie was so good I actually watched through to the end, and then immediately started it again from the beginning.  And I may watch it a third time today.  It somehow managed to combine all the things that make Indian film unique with all the things that Hollywood does well.  Indian-wise, it was all about family relationships.  Not family by birth, but the family we choose.  We even have a poor orphan boy finding a new “mother”!  It’s like an old Amitabh film up in here!  And we have that orphan boy growing up and “adopting” a male elder, and that male elder taking in both him and his girlfriend as the children of his house.  Plus, there was music used perfectly, as it always is in the Rocky movies (I looooooove the Rocky movies.  And I am just now realizing, I probably like them because they are so similar to the Indian movies I also like), music that isn’t there for itself but to underline the emotions of the characters at that moment in the film better than could be done by visuals and dialogue alone.  And it had Stars!  I talked about how great it was to see Harrison Ford brought back as Han Solo in Star Wars, but Rocky is an even more iconic character and Stallone’s performance in this film is perhaps his best since the original.  The film isn’t afraid to lean into that, to use the star power and the audience familiarity to support the narrative.  And on top of that, it had the best parts of the Hollywood style mixed in: location shooting, naturally written and delivered dialogue, and so on.  It really was just a great movie!