What constitutes the perfect submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film? It’s a question that haunts not only the Film Federation of India jury, responsible for announcing our official submission, but also our filmmakers and cinephiles alike. We argue and we try and we choose, and yet, the answer eludes us every year. Why else has it been 23 years since Lagaan became the last Indian film to make it to the final shortlist for nominations?
A cautious answer to this question would be, “Whatever captures the fascination of the Oscars jury.” But what exactly does? Ultimately, it’s about catering to the tastes and whims of the Western imagination—it’s their award, after all. This isn’t simply about selecting what we believe to be the best film we have made during the year.
Instead, it’s about identifying which film we think has the best shot at getting nominated—setting aside, for now, the question of actually winning. Take last year, for instance. SS Rajamouli’s RRR sparked a frenzy of Western interest—a momentum we might have been wise to ride. Yet, we chose Chhello Show by Pan Nalin, a charming film, yes, but one whose theme is rather familiar to Western audiences.
And now, we place our hopes in Laapataa Ladies, a delightful film co-produced by Aamir Khan, the actor in our last Foreign Language Oscar-nominated film. The second directorial of Kiran Rao, this film gently places us in the heart of rural India with an undistracted gaze on its women—the lives they are expected to lead, the subjugation they endure, and the fleeting moments of respite they may or may not receive. It’s a narrative of sadness wrapped in humor; harsh realities presented palatably.
Laapataa Ladies trumps All We Imagine As Light
The film’s biggest rival for the Oscars submission, All We Imagine As Light by Payal Kapadia, is about women too—in this case, nurses in Mumbai. Kapadia’s film embraces open-endedness and dreamy sequences, assuming and demanding more effort from the viewer. Notably, the Cannes jury, which had All We Imagine As Light vying for the Palme d’Or, was presided over by none other than Greta Gerwig.
A prominent figure in Western cinema deemed Kapadia’s film worthy of such a high honour, which certainly adds weight to the Oscars discussion. Yet, the Film Federation jury has made the difficult choice to go with Laapataa Ladies instead—a film that perhaps feels quintessentially ‘Indian’ to Western audiences.
While it offers strong performances and a nuanced take on feminism, Laapataa Ladies feels, in some ways, like a fantasy—a narrative not too dissimilar from our annual aspiration to secure an Oscar nomination in the Foreign Language category. Will this be the year? Have we made the right choice? Or, as has happened in the past, have we missed an opportunity? Let the debates begin.
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