Mar 7, 2023
By: Srishti MaganThe 95th Oscars will take place on March 13, 2023, and the excitement is at an all-time high. This year, three Indian films—RRR, All That Breathes, and The Elephant Whisperers—are competing in different categories at the Oscars.
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Ahead of the awards, online movie database IMDb revealed the 'Top Rated Indian Films' ever nominated for an Oscar. Two decades after its release, Lagaan still remains at the top. Here’s a look at the movies and their IMDb ratings:
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Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, the period drama Lagaan starred Aamir Khan in the lead role and was a fictionalised account of India’s fight against the British Raj. It married cinema with cricket and was a blockbuster and clearly, continues to hold a special place in people’s hearts.
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Much like Lagaan, RRR is also a fictional period drama on India’s freedom struggle. Directed by SS Rajamouli, RRR has already bagged over 30 international awards. The song Naatu Naatu from the film is nominated in the Best Original Song category.
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Winner of the National Film Award, Salaam Bombay! was directed by Mira Nair. Though it lost the Oscar for Best International Feature film to the Swedish film Pelle the Conqueror, Nair’s piercingly insightful drama about life in the Mumbai slums bagged the Best Debut Feature at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.
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The 1957 epic drama film Mother India starred Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar in lead roles. Directed by Mehboob Khan, it was the first Indian film to be nominated in the Best International Feature film category at the Oscars.
Credit: IMDb
Directed by Rayka Zehtabchi, Period. End of Sentence is a short documentary film inspired by India’s ‘pad-man’, social activist Arunachalam Muruganantham. It chronicles the life of a group of women who attain financial independence and shed taboos around menstruation by learning how to manufacture low-cost, biodegradable sanitary pads.
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Kartiki Gonsalves made her directorial debut with the short film The Elephant Whisperers, which is one of the warmest films ever made. Currently streaming on Netflix, the film follows a couple’s journey of looking after an orphaned elephant calf.
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The winner of two Sundance Film Festival awards, Writing with Fire is a documentary about the Dalit women-led newspaper Khabar Lahariya. Directed by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas, it was the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated for an Oscar last year.
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Shaunak Sen’s documentary feature follows two Muslim siblings who look after injured birds. The film offers a wider commentary on “finding triumph within tragedy”, states TV and film review aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes. It has already won Best Documentary at both Cannes and Sundance film festivals.
Credit: Sundance