Water and Eklavya

Lisa Ray in Oscar-nominated ‘Water’ – quality speaks! [Picture source]
True, Water did not win the Best Foreign Language Film award at last night’s glittering 79th Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, US (it went to the German film, The Lives of Others), but the fact Deepa Mehta’s film was chosen as one of the 5 nominees speaks volumes about the quality of the film.

Very rarely do Indian motion pictures make the mark at the highest echelons of filmmaking. The last time an Oscar nomination happened was in 2002 when Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan ultimately lost out to Bosnian film, No Man’s Land. There was lot of brouhaha at Lagaan’s loss especially since no effort was spared by the Lagaan team to try influencing people who mattered there.

One factor that seems to go against Indian films (particularly the Hindi films) is the unnecessary length they take to complete. Add to this the lack of good story in most cases despite layers and layers of stunt and glitz. Eklavya is the recent example.

Despite all essential masalas like formidable star-cast, dazzling action, superb photography, high-decibel marketing, and what not, Eklavya is perhaps going to sink without much of a trace. If that happens, the reason would be none else but lack of a good story.

Water, on the other hand, is a good period film. And though it was not acclaimed in India and could not win the coveted Oscar, Water achieved being the top all-time Hindi/Urdu-language feature film at the North American box office. It was also the top foreign-language feature film at the US box office in 2006.

For the record, the Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham starring film, Water was a Canadian nomination at the Oscars, and became its first non-French foreign language film to receive nomination for the award it missed.

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