Paheli is India's Official Entry for the Oscars
What has the world come to? What new depths will Indian Cinema fall to so that it can express its gratitude towards Lord Shahrukh Khan? Paheli has good cinematography but that's where it ends. The direction and acting were at best mediocre. The other films considered for the nomination were Mangal Pandey, Veer-Zaara, Iqbal, Swades, Parineeta, Page 3, Black, Sarkar, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Sachein (Tamil), Anniyan (Telugu), Uttarayan (Marathi), Achuvante Anna (Malayalam), Graham (Telugu), and Kadal (Tamil).
In an apparent justification in choosing Paheli over other contenders, Vinod Pandey, the Acting Chairman of the Film Federation of India, said, "Paheli has represented the Indian ethos. It is a film based on the Indian language." I would like to quote my FLAT(Formal Language and Automata Theory) Professor GB on this. Whenever I showed him a proof, more often than not he came up with the same answer,"I don't buy it".
I have seen all the Hindi films and I don't know about the rest. Mangal Pandey was a bad movie but so was Paheli. Veer-Zaara was a bit too much of Yash Uncle and hence does not stand a chance of winning. Iqbal had a concept which was new in India but there are many movies with a similar storyline made in US every year. Swades was too cheesy and hence it is ruled out. Oscars have a fascination towards original ideas which blacks out Black and Sarkar. Sudhir Mishra does not know how to market his movie and that is why HKA was a failure even in India. Frankly speaking it is my favorite of the lot. The marketing of the movie is so bad that if you visit their official website you will see Chitrangada Singh holding a gun and that does not happen in the movie. It looks like an ultra-modern movie where as its set in the 70s. You do need muscle to get an Oscar and Sudhir Mishra does not have it. So, HKA is also gone. That's it. I cannot think of a plausible explaination for leaving out Parineeta and Page 3. Both of them are much better than Paheli. They were quite successful in India and Page 3 was also successful at the awards. I still don't understand the reason behind the fact that they were beaten by Paheli. But that's just silly old me. May be Titanic was better than L.A.Confidential. May be Salman deserved the filmfare more than Manoj Bajpai. May be........
In an apparent justification in choosing Paheli over other contenders, Vinod Pandey, the Acting Chairman of the Film Federation of India, said, "Paheli has represented the Indian ethos. It is a film based on the Indian language." I would like to quote my FLAT(Formal Language and Automata Theory) Professor GB on this. Whenever I showed him a proof, more often than not he came up with the same answer,"I don't buy it".
I have seen all the Hindi films and I don't know about the rest. Mangal Pandey was a bad movie but so was Paheli. Veer-Zaara was a bit too much of Yash Uncle and hence does not stand a chance of winning. Iqbal had a concept which was new in India but there are many movies with a similar storyline made in US every year. Swades was too cheesy and hence it is ruled out. Oscars have a fascination towards original ideas which blacks out Black and Sarkar. Sudhir Mishra does not know how to market his movie and that is why HKA was a failure even in India. Frankly speaking it is my favorite of the lot. The marketing of the movie is so bad that if you visit their official website you will see Chitrangada Singh holding a gun and that does not happen in the movie. It looks like an ultra-modern movie where as its set in the 70s. You do need muscle to get an Oscar and Sudhir Mishra does not have it. So, HKA is also gone. That's it. I cannot think of a plausible explaination for leaving out Parineeta and Page 3. Both of them are much better than Paheli. They were quite successful in India and Page 3 was also successful at the awards. I still don't understand the reason behind the fact that they were beaten by Paheli. But that's just silly old me. May be Titanic was better than L.A.Confidential. May be Salman deserved the filmfare more than Manoj Bajpai. May be........
posted by Ravi Handa at 9/26/2005 09:24:00 AM
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