First & Last 014
Sunday, July 2, 2023 at 11:00AM Can you guess the movie from its first and last shot?
The answer is after the jump...
Though we usually skip opening credit montages during this game (since there are too many words on screen) we opted to use the end of the opening credits to Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001), a Bollywood classic since the first non-credits shots was somewhat bland. Despite India's ginormous film industry (they make more movies annually than Hollywood!), they rarely factor into the Oscars. India has only ever been nominated thrice in this category. But all three of the movies are excellent. The first and third nominations went to epic three hour plus musicals, Mother India (1957) -- which we discussed on the Once Inch Barrier podcast -- and Lagaan (2001). The only other nomination went to the film debut of director Mira Nair with Salaam Bombay! (1988) which you owe it to yourself to see if you haven't.
Lagaan is currently streaming on Netflix, Mother India is streaming on Eros Now, and sadly Salaam Bombay! is not streaming anywhere and also isn't rentable. Argh!
first and last
Reader Comments (2)
I find it really interesting that India's nominated films represent peaks in not only the careers of their directors (Mehboob Khan, Mira Nair, and Ashutosh Gowariker, respectively), but also in the wider scope of Indian cinema.
I think it really does come down to Western assumptions and biases as to what "great cinema" looks like that prevents India from getting more nominations, even though what the West thinks of and values about Indian cinema (and any cinema from a non-Western country, for that matter) should not be the centre of discussions surrounding it.
What's funny is that if anyone with even a passing interest in Indian cinema were to look through the list of Indian submissions to the International Feature category, they'd point out several fantastic and influential films across regional industries that should have easily netted nominations. Here are just 10 that I love:
Bimal Roy's MADHUMATI (1958)
Abrar Alvi's SAHIB BIBI AUR GHULAM (1962)
Vijay Anand's GUIDE (1965)
M.S. Sathyu's GARM HAVA (1973)
Mani Ratnam's NAYAKAN (1987)
Kalpana Lajmi's RUDAALI (1993)
P.C. Sreeram's KURUTHIPUNAL (1995)
Kamal Haasan's HEY RAM (2000)
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's DEVDAS (2002)
Vetrimaaran's VISARANAI (2016)
Again, these are just a few from the list, there are many other wonderful films there– I haven't even mentioned those from Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, among other major filmmakers included. Would highly recommend using the submissions list as a jumping off point for anyone interested in getting into Indian cinema!
Aditya -- thank you for that perspective. I do need to see more myself. it's my aversion to long running times that holds me up with so much of Indian cinema. I really liked Mother India and Lagaan but they were both so long that I had to carve out time.