‘Good Road’ Tops India’s Oscar Race; Will ‘Lunchbox’ Get The Global Pie?

​The Oscar fights never go out of fashion in India. We have not made our mark there yet in spite of many Indian connections with movies like Life of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire. But when it comes to selecting India’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards, the heat is full on. This time, there were as many as 22 contenders and some entries like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, English Vinglish, Celluloid, Shabdo, Ship of Theseus and Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam created a lot of buzz. But the final battle royal seemed to have boiled down to just two – Mumbaikar Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox and Goa-born Gyan Correa’s The Good Road. However, The Lunchbox lost to The Good Road, which earlier bagged the national award for the best Gujarati feature film. Correa’s flick was picked by a 19-member jury, appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI).

What they tweeted
A Press release said the decision had been unanimous, but congratulatory and disgruntled tweets followed. Here’s a look at some of the significant ones.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi: Delighted to know that Gujarati film The Good Road has been chosen to represent India at Oscars. My best wishes.

Anurag Kashyap (the film-maker co-produced The Lunchbox with Guneet Monga): Feeling very, very disappointed, can’t comment on the film I have not seen, but it better make it to final five… I don’t know who the federation is. But it goes to show, why we completely lack the understanding to make films that can travel across borders… I hope and pray I am wrong and it actually is a film that knocks the socks off everyone… We should then make a clean policy, you want to send the best film, then send the national award winner. Or send the one most likely to win... Anyway, disappointment and anger aside… let’s go back to make cinema…

Karan Johar (The director-producer turned presenter for The Lunchbox): Really shocked and disappointed… #LUNCHBOX had every factor working in its favour... we may have just lost our golden chance… SAD!!!

Ritesh Batra (Director, The Lunchbox): Congrats to The Good Road. Hope it makes it all the way, else it will be a lost chance by FFI-appointed jury that lacks vision. Hope I am wrong…

The Good Road and The Lunchbox: Head-to-head
Some industry experts are not too enthusiastic and feel that The Lunchbox would have been a better Oscar choice for several reasons. So here is a head-to-head for our readers, along with some lesser-known facts.

Auteur cinema is gaining prominence. Written by Correa himself, The Good Road is a documentary-style collage of stories woven around the highway where the protagonists lose their way, struggle on their personal quests and evolve in a way that touches the heart. The Lunchbox, on the other hand, brings to life the ever-present Mumbai dabbawalas (tiffin carriers) and a bitter-sweet story of bonding that starts with a misplaced lunchbox (according to a Harvard University study, the delivery system is so excellent that just one in a million lunch boxes will go to a wrong address). Each film reflects its director’s vision instead treading the beaten path.

Both Correa and Batra did it hands-on. It was real-life research for both the directors. Correa got into a truck and went on a journey, getting to the core of things before he created his story. Batra worked as a dabbawala for a week to get the hang of it.

But they come from different industries. That’s right. Batra studied Economics and worked as a consultant for Deloitte. He left the job to join the Graduate Film Program at New York University, but dropped out after a year and a half due to fund crunch. Correa is from the advertising space but decided to have a go at film-making.

In spite of debacle, The Lunchbox gets a bite of the global pie. According to media reports, it has already been sold to 30 different territories globally and could be the first Indian film with 3 foreign producers – ASAP Films of France, Rohfilm of Germany and Cinemosaic of America, along with NFDC, Sikhya Entertainment, Dharma Productions and DAR Films from India. It can also be the first Indian movie to be released across 100 screens in Germany. Incidentally, the film was made on a shoestring budget of $1.5 million. On the other hand, NFDC produced The Good Road, but it doesn’t have an American distributor yet.

But what about Oscar compatibility? The Lunchbox might have got a favourable push at the Oscars, had it been chosen. For one, Irrfan Khan is a familiar name (his roles in The Warrior, Mighty Heart, Slumdog Millionaire and The Amazing Spider-man certainly helped) and the movie has already received some rev reviews at Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and India. Moreover, Sony Pictures Classics will be distributing the film in the US and that could have been another plus. The Good Road has one Oscar connection, though. Its sound designer Resul Pookutty has already won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009.

Bottom line: Till date, only three Bollywood movies made it to the nomination stage of the Oscar. These include Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957), Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay (1988) and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan (2001). The Good Road belongs to the art house pack, but going by the poor track record of other ‘arty’ films (Salim Ahamed’s Abu, Son of Adam in 2011, Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live in 2010 and Kalpana Lajmi’s Rudaali in 1993), will Gollywood’s (a concoction of Gujarat and Bollywood) tryst with Oscar produce something more fruitful this time? Also, will it be possible for the Lunchbox team to push the movie at the Oscars even without the government’s backing? Let us wait and watch how ‘independent’ our independent cinema is in reality.

With additional input from Agencies
Image courtesy: Indiatimes