Selections for the Oscar race went on recently and ‘Peepli Live’ came out trumps being India’s official entry into the February 2011 Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Peepli Live emerges as the sole winner due to the “film being a reflection of India’s culture and media ethics while highlighting the perennial problem of ‘farmer suicides”. KS Sethumadhavan, who is the selection committee chairman, announced ‘Peepli Live’s entry into the Oscars for nomination on Friday September 24, 2010.
Peepli Live was selected among the 27 films shortlisted. 5 of them were Tamil films. Paa, My Name is Khan, Rajneeti, 3 idiots made it from Bollywood while Pazhassi Raja hailed from the Kerala Film Industry.
The Tamil films were Angaadi Theru, Raavanan and Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya along with Madrasapattinam (to be booed off for plagiarism from the makers of Titanic?). It is funny that someone had sent Singam to the Oscar race.
It could have gotten positive reviews from the media and the screenplay might be racy and entertaining but trying Singam out in the Oscars is utterly humiliating for the Tamil Film Industry.
Angaadi Theru was the toughest bit that fought hard against ‘Peepli Live’ but the satire on the media won the race. Peepli Live’s take on the farmer suicides in the villages of India and the media’s cashing in on the agonies of the farmers won the race for the film. Peepli Live is directed by Anusha Rizvi and Aamir Khan is the proud producer of the film.
Even then, Angaadi Theru is appreciable as an original film but its purely one sided views will not help the film take the Oscar stage. It should have been more a film like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ than documenting the lives of the sales people in popular shops. We also understand that Slumdog Millionaire is oft debated.
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