E-Paper
Stirring tales not foreign
Little Terrorist can be a thing of pride for world's largest film producing nation, says Saibal Chatterjee.
India's collective disappointment at the failure of the Marathi entry Shwaas to make the Oscar short list has been offset to a certain extent by the welcome news that Ashwin Kumar's unheralded 15-minute fiction film, Little Terrorist, will be vying this year for the Academy Award in the live action short category. On red carpet night, the spotlight may not be on short films, but the presence of a story set in the sand dunes of Rajasthan in the contest will be a thing of pride for the world's largest film producing nation.
Shot on a budget of well under Rs 15 lakh with the help of volunteer technicians, Little Terrorist is a small film in every sense of the word. But it is a gigantic, gutsy effort in terms of quality. It is miniature proof of what good old storytelling can achieve if it is ingeniously blended with a thematic strand of global relevance.
Through its simple tale of a Pakistani boy who strays across the border in pursuit of a cricket ball only to be branded a terrorist by the security forces, Ashwin Kumar's film deals with the fear psychosis that seems to have gripped the whole world in the aftermath of 9/11.
A cursory overview of the five foreign-language feature films nominated for an Oscar should be enough to prove exactly what kind of cinema the Academy is currently particularly fond of - films with soul-stirring, emotionally energetic and well-mounted drama. Unsophisticated little tugs-at-the-heartstrings in the manner of a film like Shwaas tend to leave the voting members a tad cold. Though Little Terrorist does not have the length that would have allowed it to push emotions to a grand pitch, it is blessed with spunk and spirit. It could prove to be a surprise winner.
If the Spanish film, The Sea Inside, manages to win the foreign language film Oscar, it would come as no surprise at all. It is bound to be right at the top of everybody's list of favourites. Made by Alejandro Amenabar, who directed the English-language The Others a few years ago, this cinematic account of the real-life legal battle waged by a quadriplegic for the right to end his own life hits all the right emotional buttons even as it makes sure that it keeps in touch with the core principles of a traditional narrative.
The lead actor of The Sea Inside, Javier Bardem, isn't among the Best Actor Oscar nominees. He deserved to be there. His is as good a performance as any that a film lover can ever hope to see.
What are the films that The Sea Inside, Spain's 19th Oscar nomination, is up against? A quartet of films that are nearly as good in terms of impact will, of course, be pushing it all the way. It won't be a walkover like the one Spain's last Oscar winner, Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother (1999), had.
