It’s not nearly as egregious as choosing Jeans (seriously, what were they thinking?) or choosing nothing the year Pinjar and Tehzeeb and Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon came out, but it’s still got that little tinge of “wait, what?” which always comes with these announcements.
I think I did a long post about this at some point, maybe when India once again failed to be part of the nominations list. Wait, I found it! Right, go HERE for background on the Indian Oscar committee in general and their incompetence and capriciousness.
And I can also literally cut and paste my discussion of last year’s choice and apply it to this year’s:
This year the Committee in charge of India’s submission selected [Visarani], which is fine, it sounds like an interesting art film in the Hollywood rather than Indian style. But there are plenty of other films just like [Visarani] from all over the world…..But [Visarani] is the kind of thing the Indian film festivals liked, and it did okay in global fests and, most importantly, it won’t get the Committee in trouble for accidentally insulting an industry bigwig, or supporting a controversial political stand. Which seems to be their usual goal, just find something generally unobjectionable, send it in, and forget about it.
Last year I was talking about the Marathi film Court, which had a kind of generalized message of “the system doesn’t work and the courts are corrupt”. This year, it’s a Tamil film with the kind of generalized message of “The police are corrupt and prey on the weak.” I’m not saying either of those messages are bad, or that the films are bad. I can’t, really, because I haven’t seen them.
That’s the most important part, I haven’t seen them. I see EVERYTHING. I am at the local Indian theater every Friday for the new release, I have you nice people give me suggestions of older movies I may have missed, I scour the shelves at DVD stores and the internet streaming websites looking for anything new and exciting. And this year’s film, and last year’s film, both slipped completely under my radar.
The Indian Oscar committee isn’t interested in selecting a movie the mass of the public cares about, because if they care about it, they may get angry about it and start bugging the committee to do better. That’s what happened a few years back when they ignored The Lunchbox in favor of The Good Road. The Lunchbox didn’t just get buzz in India, it was widely considered a Foreign Film front runner by the American press. And then India didn’t even submit it? Huge outcry, which essentially changed nothing, except maybe people ran out of energy to get angry.
So this year we have Visarani, which I am sure is a perfectly good movie and I am glad it is getting this publicity, and it’s nice that one of the major film industries (Tamil) is being recognized. But, COME ON COMMITTEE!!! PINK!!! NEERJA!!! The Oscars would LOVE either of them! And Sonam and Amitabh could both nail the publicity tours. Or, Aligarh!!! Total Oscar type of story (based on real life, social message), and Karan has proven himself willing to lend his name and power to the promotions. Or, what about Fan? It already played on about 300 screens in the US, it has a multiple Oscar winner involved (the make-up artist), and it has the Yash Raj and Shahrukh Khan machines backing it.
(Doesn’t this look like every Oscar winner ever?)
Or heck, Airlift! You don’t even have to send screeners, it’s streaming on American Netflix. Plus, Argo won, so clearly the Academy likes stories like this.
This is the stuff that makes me exclaim “It’s like they don’t even want to win!”, and then realize, oh right, they don’t actually want to win. If you want to build a real Oscar campaign, you have to do it from the ground up, and take it very seriously, and I’m not seeing any of the Indian producers really being interested in that, and therefore not really pressuring the committee to pick something that would work. I mean, heck, the last Academy Award broadcast reached 34million people in America. The last FilmFare award show reached 30million people in India. Why should Indian producers risk losing focus on their existing 30million in an effort to gain an additional 4million? Better to just focus on the Award shows they already know how to control.
dontcallitbollywood 
i think this is the first time they really selected a good movie…visaranai is a great film and was quite popular here in south..bit controversial too…better watch the film before comparing it with fan and airlift!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Why not nominate movies like Dhrishyam, Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots, Chandramukhi, etc., which got successfully remade in multiple languages?
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Agree! Or something that played well and widely in America? If the goal is to send something that the nominating committee in America might select, something that has semi-wide ranging appeal and is easily accessible might be better.
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That’s good to hear! I still think Airlift might have been a better choice, if they really wanted to win an Oscar, just because Netflix would have supported it.
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It was shown as part of our recent Indian Film Festival of Melbourne – http://www.iffm.com.au/visarnai.html – but I decided against watching it as I had seen enough violent, confronting movies that week and needed something lighter as an antidote.
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I’m with you! I just gave into the pressure and watched Pink, and it almost killed me. But also, that’s kind of my point, if India really wants an Oscar (which it may not), don’t send a violent confronting movie just like every other country, send something like Lagaan or Mother India (the two that actually got nominated) which feels a little different.
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I haven’t seen Visaranai but I heard that it’s a good movie. It also seems like the director is keen on promoting his movie at the Oscars (http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/vetrimaaran-on-promoting-visaranai-at-oscars-actually-work-starts-now/ ). It also helps that the producer of Visaranai is Dhanush who is a star in Tamil movies so I think he will also be interested in promoting the movie. He is also known as Rajinikanth’s son-in-law but he’s a good actor.
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Oh, that’s the Dhanush connection! I saw his name in a few of the articles, with quotes or something, but I couldn’t figure out what the connection was, since he wasn’t in the cast. I think he’s supposed to be in a Western film soon? Or maybe not, it looks like it has switched directors and is stuck in pre-production. Anyway, maybe Dhanush has made some Hollywood links that might help this film.
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for your info visaranai was a hit film in tamil box office and popular among filmfans in neighbouring states too..if u were following any tamil film websites , u would have heard about it. if the idea is to send the best film from country to oscars,this is a good selection
.if it is to send a bollywood big film so that some bollywood stars could have a rampwalk then it is a bad choice.
infact i was surprised to see fan,sulthan,and bajrao mastani in the final list of 29 films for nominations while some excellent films of the year sairat(marathi),kammattipadam(malayalam),thithi(kannada) etc couldnt even make to that list…as usual jury has done their best to support bollywood mainstream films and ignore regional films for it..and if they cant still make it its the fault of bollywood filmmakers…not of jurys or any others….
as popular malayalam actor Mammootty rightly said infront of bolltwood stars in an IIFA awrd show, ‘bollywood should stand up to the competition from regional industries before calling itself international ‘
…better luck next time , try harder
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Actually, the Oscar committee very rarely selects a Hindi film. The last one was Barfi. Before that, Peepli Live, which may have been Hindi but wasn’t part of the mainstream industry.
If they are interested in actually being selected for the Oscars, they need to pick a movie that people in America have heard of. The Lunchbox, for instance, I had recommended to me by practically everyone I know, it played at the art theater in my neighborhood, it got reviewed in mainstream American press. Lagaan was available for rent at major movie rental chains (back when we still had movie rental places!) and played at every art film festival everywhere. The Oscar committee isn’t terribly adventurous, they want something easy that they already know about.
If the Indian committee is interested in promoting good movies in India, then it sounds like they selected a great movie!
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I think the point is NOT what is the best or the most deserving film when you are talking about winning the Oscars. Rather, if your goal is to “win” an Oscar, then you have to strategize your submission for the admittedly bizarre combination of factors that appear to work.
So, saying Visaranai is a great and popular film is fine, but not really the controlling factor if you are discussing the Indian submission process in regards to likely success.
If you goal is not to win but rather to highlight a film that deserves attention (and perhaps hope to influence the process for the future), then Visaranai may be the right choice.
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Hey I thought Visaranai is one of the best movies from India ever. So I was very happy for the selection. And I am surprised that you haven’t watched it.
Also I am sorry but Airlift is trash compared to Visaranai.
P.S: not a Tamilian.
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Aw, I like Airlift! But, more important than the quality of the film in terms of actually getting the foreign film nomination, is just that it is so easily accessible in America, on Netflix and on DVD with subtitles. After all the comments about Visarani, I actually want to see it, and it is on youtube, but no subtitles. And no DVD available in America.
Just for my own curiosity, how did you happen to see it?
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Well if I reveal where I saw in writing, it might be used as evidence against me 😉
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