It was time for the nomination for an Indian entry in the Best International Film category at the Oscars. Usually, the Indian choice to send a film for the Oscar race is treated as a joke. Some or the other lobby is at work not only when it comes to Oscars or other such international honours, but also for the local, so-called popular film awards.
What is a popular award? A film the people took to and was a success at the box office. Some two films have been successful this year, one of them being ‘The Kashmir Files’. The film does not even find a mention in any category of nominations.
The films in discussion all over for India’s choice were two, ‘RRR’ and ‘The Kashmir Files’. Realistically, there were no other contenders as far as the people at large and those on social media were concerned. There was no other film that the netizen could think of.
Yet, there were 13 films vying for the honour – six in Hindi: ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘Rocketry’, ‘Badhaai Ho’, ‘Jhund’, ‘Anek’ and ‘Brahmastra’; two in Telugu: ‘RRR’ and ‘Sita Ramam’; and one each in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Dimasa (a dialect spoken in Assam) and Gujarati: ‘Iravin Nizhai’, ‘Aparajito’, ‘Ariyippu’, ‘Semkhor’ and ‘Chhello Show’, respectively.
But a rank outsider, for the people at least, ‘Chhello Show’ (Gujarati), was the choice of the selection committee. An outsider, because few had heard of this film, which did not get any media exposure till it was chosen as India’s official selection for the Oscars. The film is said to be inspired from the 1988 Italian film, ‘Cinema Paradiso’, about a small-town boy who is enamoured of the cinema.
‘Cinema Paradiso’ or not, I would say the film identifies equally or more with the film’s director Pan Nalin’s life journey. Coming from a small village named Adtala (population less than 2,000) near Amreli in Saurashtra, it was creditable that Nalin graduated from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, an institution as highly regarded as any IIM or IIT in its field. All the time cinema fascinated him.
Nalin has worked and made films in many tie-ups and made his reputation all over. ‘Chhello Show’ springs a surprise on film buffs. It will be worthwhile to see if it springs a surprise at the Oscars. When the selection committee is neutral sans vested interests, a surprise can always be expected. Like the one sprung with the choice of ‘Hellaro’, a Gujarati film, for the 66th National Award a couple of years ago.
–By Vinod Mirani