Editorial: Be kind, and rewind

If there are any cinephiles harbouring pretensions regarding the kind of films that make the cut for being chosen as a country's official entry to the Oscars, this might be a good time to drop such highfalutin notions. Those looking for a hint of what makes for an ‘Academy Award’ qualifier would be well-advised to harken back to an episode of Seinfeld, Season 8, Episode 17, titled The English Patient, and was originally aired in March 1997. This episode deals with the frustrations of one of the chief protagonists, Elaine Benes, who has been societally arm-twisted into watching the epic period film released in 1996, which was nominated for 12 Oscars, and won nine, including Best Picture.

She sits squirming in the theatre, freaking out of boredom, when she finally throws up her hands, and says, “No. I can't do this any more. It's too long. Quit telling your stupid story about the stupid desert, and just die already! Die!” Elaine's meltdown would seem relatable to film buffs in India and abroad, who every once in a while stumble into a theatre, looking for some arthouse/parallel or award-season fare. Of course, this year, India chose to give serious cinema a raincheck of sorts when it picked Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies as the nation's official entry for the best international film category at the Oscars 2025.

The low-budget Hindi film, a light-hearted satire on patriarchy, was picked from a list of 29 films, including the Bollywood hit Animal, the Malayalam National Award winning Aattam and the Cannes Grand Prix winner All we imagine as Light. The Hindi film Srikanth, the Tamil movies Vaazhai and Thangalaan, and the Malayalam film Ullozhukku were among the frontrunners in the 29-title list. It might be recalled that no Indian entry has been nominated for best international feature film at the Oscars since the Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan in 2002. Only two other films have previously made it to the final five  Mother India and Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay!

Obviously, this inspires the query, what exactly is it that makes for Oscar bait? If one had to parse through the list of films that have picked up the Best Foreign Language Feature over the past several decades, you wouldn’t be surprised to find that a majority of winners are films made in the first world, primarily Europe, comprising themes relatable to an American or Western audience. Every once in a while, audiences would get knocked for a loop when an entry from Iran would pocket this title, like A Separation (2010) and The Salesman (2016).

The Asian contingent hasn’t been as lucky at the Oscars, unless you consider the one-off, and one of its kind Parasite (2018) and Drive My Car (2021). Come to think of it, in the 77-odd years since the Foreign Film feature was introduced, barely four non-Western feature films have managed to make the cut and land the statuette. It almost boils down to one Asian recognition every two decades. You might argue in favour of Slumdog Millionaire (2009), being a runaway Indian hit. But that was an international (UK-US) production, only set in India, and employed desi actors and musicians. The film managed to distill everything hokey about Bollywood melodramas, but ended up as the crowdpleaser of the year. So yes, before we begin hedging our bets on Laapataa Ladies, be kind, and rewind.