Forget the Oscars awhile

Two things happened almost simultaneously this week. I finally saw Pather Panchali yes, I know all self-respecting film buffs have seen it ...

Two things happened almost simultaneously this week. I finally saw Pather Panchali yes, I know all self-respecting film buffs have seen it double-digit times. And Paheli became India8217;s official entry for the Oscars.

I8217;m now convinced that India should stop trying to sell its films to the world. Just forget the annual Oscar entry exercise. I know I8217;m not the only one who feels embarrassed when an industry that employs more than six million people has to pick from 15 mostly short-term-memory choices.

Think about it. The shortlisted Bollywood biggies included Black, a copy of the 1962 Miracle Worker which won two Oscars back then, Paheli, a romance between a gaudily-dressed ghost and a gaudily-dressed woman, and Mangal Pandey 8212; The Rising, an 18-reel 8216;8216;true story8217;8217; complete with a historically inaccurate prostitute-in-distress. Coincidentally, the prostitute, the gaudy village belle and the desi Helen Keller were all played by the same actress.

If we continue down this box-office path, there8217;s no way we will ever make a Best Foreign Language Film.

We have so many movie factories but no world class teams. Satyajit Ray used the same editor and a couple of choreographers for all his 36 films, made over a period of 37 years.

We have big budgets but all that money only ensures that the cardboard characters will take Bollywood fashion mainstream. Post-20028217;s Devdas, we routinely have Rs 30 crore cinematic splashes but does anyone really care if the ghost gets the woman? Ray8217;s Pather Panchali was made on a budget of Rs 1.5 lakh. In those days it was more than enough money to draw you deeply into the lives of Apu and Durga. Even the house they lived in had more personality than most of our screen characters today. Of course, despite the fact that it8217;s been 50 years since it became India8217;s most acclaimed movie ever, in Bollywood-crazy Mumbai, the entry ticket still announced: Bengali Film with English subtitles.

These days we8217;re so obsessed with the add-ons remember Mangal8217;s moustache? we8217;ve forgotten how to tell the real stories, the ones that go beyond our slick urban realities or those picture-perfect storybook epics. City-born, city-bred Ray said he only properly discovered rural life when he made Pather Panchali.

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8216;8216;It was the first film made in India that I had ever seen which did not embarrass, annoy or bore me,8217;8217; said critic Robert Steele after seeing that film. Can we please stay off the festive circuit, go out there and make some discoveries of our own? And try to make some good films.