I sometimes wonder if one can separate a product from its maker. Like Vidhu Vinod Chopra. 'Parinda', his first directorial feature film, remains one of my all time favourite movies and I remember long drives with someone who I had to keep telling to rewind an audio casette in the car tape. That audio cassette was the soundtrack of the movie WITH dialogues. His second venture, '1942, A Love Story' got killed at the box office for reasons I can't understand still. I liked that movie as I did the two 'Munnabhais' and 'Parineeta' that he made. I didn't have the chance to watch Eklavya though.
But this man, I remember one of his earlier interviews on one of those Shekhar Suman shows when he talked about his achievements as a young man, short documentary, ad film maker something, did seem quite impressive. Even then, he seemed more boastful than modest at that time. The last time around, when Rang deBasanti was chosen over Munnabhai MBBS as India's official entry to the Awards, he decided to go ahead and enter the film as a direct entry for the foreign film category, supposedly after the support he got from viewers across India. That was yesterday and then 'Eklavya' gets nominated this year as an official entry and it creates quite a ruckus for being a box office dud of no repute and yet get the nomination. An elated Vidhu Vinod Chopra, now, says people in India need to grow up.
But this man, I remember one of his earlier interviews on one of those Shekhar Suman shows when he talked about his achievements as a young man, short documentary, ad film maker something, did seem quite impressive. Even then, he seemed more boastful than modest at that time. The last time around, when Rang deBasanti was chosen over Munnabhai MBBS as India's official entry to the Awards, he decided to go ahead and enter the film as a direct entry for the foreign film category, supposedly after the support he got from viewers across India. That was yesterday and then 'Eklavya' gets nominated this year as an official entry and it creates quite a ruckus for being a box office dud of no repute and yet get the nomination. An elated Vidhu Vinod Chopra, now, says people in India need to grow up.
3 comments:
I saw Eklavya and I quite liked it. Now just because a movie doesnt get commercial success does not always mean its a bad movie. Salaam Bombay was a superflop. So were Rudaali and Manthan. On the flip side, Partner is still running to packed houses.
However, the possibility of foul play in the jury cannot be neglected. It has always existed. It has happened before where movies like Paheli have been nominated, while Swades was kept away.
Water was damned in India. It wasnt released until very late, and when it was, people didn't go to watch it because of its content, and more importantly because they feared their lives. It got nominated from another country and made it in top 5.
Maybe Chopra is right in his own way.
my point wasnt whether eklavya deserved to be sent to the oscars or the idea that a film thats a box office dud cannot be sent to the awards...
i wanted to point out that it was silly of vidhu vinod chopra to suggest that the protests against his film being sent to the oscars reflects badly on the 'sensibilities' of the indian public, which is why i presume (maybe mistakenly) he said that people in india should grow up...
no matter the fickle tastes of the indian cinemagoer or the difference between mainstream cinema and offbeat films, the point is that ultimately a film is made for a target audience and if it gets accepted by that group, it is a folly to tag the entire crowd as silly when not 'everybody' appreciates it...
in any case, all of us, you and me love films, dont we!! :)
Am not interested in what goes for oscars,many unexpected and unpredictable things happen in our country.But after reading your blog i remembered the long forgotten movie,'Parinda'beautiful movie,'pyaar ke mode par' lovely song.
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