Shwaas and Oscars

Shwaas is a fantastic film. It shows interaction between, a child, who is about to loose is eye-sight due to rare cancer and his grandfather. Shwas was nominated by Indian panorama for Oscars, but the movie failed to get nomination for best foreign movie segment. Does that mean that Shwas was not worth even a nomination? No, because there are lots of factors involved for a movie to get nominations. It is imperative that most of the jurors to see the movie and to make them to do so, lot of money and good contacts among the Hollywood lobbyist are necessary. Obviously, Shwas people lacked these resources.

But apart from these obvious obstacles, the greatest challenge Shwaas faced was lack of understanding among the jurors about the cultural background of the movie. The subtlety of that movie were impossible for a foreign juror, who probably never been to India and had a standard ‘mystic’ notion of India, to understand. For example, Parsha’s (film’s main character) grandfather is shown carrying an umbrella all the time. The mundane chore of carrying an umbrella speaks volumes about the character. It shows the age of the character, his nature and his social background. All these points were subtle even for Indian people and it would too much to expect a foreign juror to understand this fine act that director and script writer captures effectively.

The cultural divide that Shwaas faced is more or less common for all the India movies that were nominated by Indian panorama to Oscar committee. And, as Hollywood is not ready to include the biggest film industry in the world in its fold, Indian movie goers, instead of feeling cheated, increasingly see Oscar as an ultimate standard for the movie. It may be a good standard for Hollywood movies but it is certainly not a good way to measure Indian movies. For directors like Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Guru Dutt, Ram Gopal Varma or Ashutosh Gowarikar, not getting recognition at Oscars reflects the lack of understanding and talent on Oscars part, rather than lack of capacity as our own people perceive.