Indian entry for Oscar - Rang De Basanti
Rang De Basanti has been chosen as India's official entry for the Oscars in Best Foreign Film category.
My views on the contenders :-
Rakesh Roshan's Krrish - No doubt it was refreshing to see our own Indian superhero. But then thats it. The script is as flat as any other superhero movie.
Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - I would commit suicide, had this been selected. I wonder why at all it was considered as the probable contender! If KANK, why not Mithunda's Chingari, the only Mithunda's 2006 release till date(with all due respect to Mithunda)?
Naseeruddin Shah's Yun Hota To Kya Hota - Too hypothetical. Quentin Tarantino-ish directing style doesn't really create the necessary impression.
Raju Hirani's Lage Raho Munnabhai - I belong to a club of rare entities who didn't find Lage Raho Munnbhai Bhai extraordinary. For me it was just another 'good' popcorn bollywood film. Thats it. The strongest point of Lage Raho Munnbhai Bhai happens to be the tapori lingua. I believe the bambaiyya tapori-lingua dubbed in English might not cast the magic on the academy panel as it did on the Indian viewers.
Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara - Rip off from Shakespeare's Othello. Probably the same reason why Black was not selected last year which gave way to the dumb Paheli. The language factor also holds true for Omkara. Oscars apart, I consider Omkara to be one of the finest movies ever made in Indian cinema history.
Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate - No doubt, its a brilliant movie and could have been an interesting choice too.
Marathi film Bhook - Not aware of it as on today.
Telugu film Amma Chepindi - Not aware of it either.
Rakyesh Mehra's Rang De Basanti - Probably this is the first time I am happy with the Indian Oscar Entry selection. Rang De Basanti is the only movie of the lot which represents the true Indian appeal in many aspects. eg Omkara represents mainly the villages in north India, Corporate represents higher socioeconomic class, KANK represents Mars etc. Rang De Basanti represents middle class and the common man. The script is superb, simple and down to earth. Acting, direction, screenplay, background music score and the soundtrack, everything excels. Most importantly, it does have an appeal. Even though Rang De Basanti doesn't make it to the final list, I am gald with its selection to represent India at the Oscars.
PS - Munnabhai MBBS was better than Lage Raho Munnbhai. What say?
Mira Nair's Water is Canada's official entry in the Best foreign film category. That makes two Hindi movies for the Oscars this year. Personally I liked Rang De Basanti even though Water has shattered all the collection records for a Hindi film in the west.
There is this new trend of 'song and dance' sequence in Hollywood movies too, recent one being in Clerks 2 (dance sequence on the tunes of Jackson-5's ABC, which works quite well). I wonder whether its the Bollywood effect as many of the Indian movies make it to the US theatres these days. The 'Song-factor' which worked against the Indian movies in the past might work for Rang De Basanti this time. The songs are blended well with the movie (though couple of them don't hehehe). Also they are nice and catchy(courtesy A.R. Rahman).
The language factor as in Omkara and Lage Raho Munnbhai's case also worked against Mithunda's Gunda which prevented it from being the India's Oscar nominee for the year 1998. Gunda still remains the best Hindi movie till date according to IMDB with the phenomenal rating of 9.3 out of 10 as on today. Second and third are Black and Rang De Basanti respectively.
IMDB ratings:-
Black 8.6, KANK 4.5, RDB 8.5, Swades 8.4, DCH 7.9, Omkara 8.1, KKKG 7.4, DDLJ 7.7, Gunda 9.3
~*~
My views on the contenders :-
Rakesh Roshan's Krrish - No doubt it was refreshing to see our own Indian superhero. But then thats it. The script is as flat as any other superhero movie.
Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - I would commit suicide, had this been selected. I wonder why at all it was considered as the probable contender! If KANK, why not Mithunda's Chingari, the only Mithunda's 2006 release till date(with all due respect to Mithunda)?
Naseeruddin Shah's Yun Hota To Kya Hota - Too hypothetical. Quentin Tarantino-ish directing style doesn't really create the necessary impression.
Raju Hirani's Lage Raho Munnabhai - I belong to a club of rare entities who didn't find Lage Raho Munnbhai Bhai extraordinary. For me it was just another 'good' popcorn bollywood film. Thats it. The strongest point of Lage Raho Munnbhai Bhai happens to be the tapori lingua. I believe the bambaiyya tapori-lingua dubbed in English might not cast the magic on the academy panel as it did on the Indian viewers.
Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara - Rip off from Shakespeare's Othello. Probably the same reason why Black was not selected last year which gave way to the dumb Paheli. The language factor also holds true for Omkara. Oscars apart, I consider Omkara to be one of the finest movies ever made in Indian cinema history.
Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate - No doubt, its a brilliant movie and could have been an interesting choice too.
Marathi film Bhook - Not aware of it as on today.
Telugu film Amma Chepindi - Not aware of it either.
Rakyesh Mehra's Rang De Basanti - Probably this is the first time I am happy with the Indian Oscar Entry selection. Rang De Basanti is the only movie of the lot which represents the true Indian appeal in many aspects. eg Omkara represents mainly the villages in north India, Corporate represents higher socioeconomic class, KANK represents Mars etc. Rang De Basanti represents middle class and the common man. The script is superb, simple and down to earth. Acting, direction, screenplay, background music score and the soundtrack, everything excels. Most importantly, it does have an appeal. Even though Rang De Basanti doesn't make it to the final list, I am gald with its selection to represent India at the Oscars.
PS - Munnabhai MBBS was better than Lage Raho Munnbhai. What say?
Mira Nair's Water is Canada's official entry in the Best foreign film category. That makes two Hindi movies for the Oscars this year. Personally I liked Rang De Basanti even though Water has shattered all the collection records for a Hindi film in the west.
There is this new trend of 'song and dance' sequence in Hollywood movies too, recent one being in Clerks 2 (dance sequence on the tunes of Jackson-5's ABC, which works quite well). I wonder whether its the Bollywood effect as many of the Indian movies make it to the US theatres these days. The 'Song-factor' which worked against the Indian movies in the past might work for Rang De Basanti this time. The songs are blended well with the movie (though couple of them don't hehehe). Also they are nice and catchy(courtesy A.R. Rahman).
The language factor as in Omkara and Lage Raho Munnbhai's case also worked against Mithunda's Gunda which prevented it from being the India's Oscar nominee for the year 1998. Gunda still remains the best Hindi movie till date according to IMDB with the phenomenal rating of 9.3 out of 10 as on today. Second and third are Black and Rang De Basanti respectively.
IMDB ratings:-
Black 8.6, KANK 4.5, RDB 8.5, Swades 8.4, DCH 7.9, Omkara 8.1, KKKG 7.4, DDLJ 7.7, Gunda 9.3
~*~
posted by Dr. Amit Rajput at 12:31 AM
10 Comments:
Pretty kewl blog !
Its hard to compare between MBBS and lage raho tho.... KANK is pathetic.. waste of money and time. I guess Karan Johar shud concentrate more on making his kinda movies (Gay)...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Out of the list given, I have seen Krrish,Lage Raho Munnabhai, Omkara and Rang De Basanti.
Krrish- Yes, Good movie but other two movies, Lage Raho Munnabhai and RDB get more points.
Omkara- Nice work by the actors. but not so good. Oscar people wont like the rip off of Othello.
Rang De Basanti- One of the nice movies. Though it does have some strength, I didnt like the full movie.
Lage Raho Munnabhai- We shouldnt compare it with MBBS. Two are different. The one thing is that we have some traces of MBBS in our mind, it makes us compare.
So out of these, for me only RDB and Lage Raho are opted. Gandhiji has world wide respect , which would help Munnabhai(Gandhigiri) win.
i have not seen either of lage raho and RDB, but i find both of them equally strong and powerfull scripts to impact people. i m a fan of both sanju baba and kinda films which aamir does. rest all are waste of money trying to foolishly show romance to middle class society and high class people depicting them in their daily lives.no reason why indians are following them.even if any of them doesnt get oscar, i wud not be surprised as it was with lagaan.
Rang De Basanti is probably the best film. What is in Krishh???? fantacy or illusion for children??? Hall tak mei hi yaad raha film.Hall se bahar aate hi Krishh ho gayee tai tai fishhh..
Well said abt Oscar entry, rightly Munnabhai cud not be good conetnder if you remove charm of Mumbayya dialect from it. Moreover same is the case with Omkara. One more thing going against Omkara cud be, in foreign language category always cause/message in movie plays big role,which Omkara miss.
RDB is perfect choice, fight against odd... biggest odd corruption at every level. So this has a punch in it, real message; lets see what happens.
Pravin.
Well I have went thru' most of comments posted out here,, everyone has discussed views abt RDB,Krish,Omkara and others and my opinion abt these movies doesnt seem to be more different than you all, but question of fact is what are the criterions for sending a movie to Oscars and if you are evaluating your chances of winning Oscar, what are the factors Oscar panel looks upon ????
Like the 11 men in Blue represent our country similarly is RDB today , and if you happen to give an insight what r v projecting ourselves as -- Coruption -- Well their is no denial to it
Incompetent judiciary system which makes youth take aggressive steps like killing the accused ???
I am totally agree with you... Following statement is very true ...... KANK represents Mars
I agree RDB was a very good entertaining movie with a message that is very relevant to today's India. What I did not like is the way the characters deal with the problem. Is killing every politician who is corrupt a solution? You kill one and another corrupt politician is going to replace him and you are left with the same problem. I wish the writer and director had thought of an alternative realistic ending.
I am one of those who was hugely disaapointed watching RDB. What does this movie offer other than a very slick look? Any new idea? Anything constructive? "Extraordinary Performances" which one can anyone point?
Opening is extremely good. Beyond that whats so great about this movie?
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