The Academy Awards (Oscar) is the highest recognition for any filmmaker. So a country like India where Bollywood churns out 300+ movies every year, we the movie lovers have always been hopeful of winning this award someday.
The first movie to be nominated for the award was Mother India in 1957 directed by Mehboob Khan. But this all-time classic lost the race to an Italian movie – Nights of Cabiria directed by Federico Fellini.
The next nomination from India came after 29 years with Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay. A great film from the legendary Mira but still it missed out to Pelle the Conquerer directed by Bille August.
The recent nomination that we all remember and cheered for was in 2001 for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s & Aamir Khan’s period drama Lagaan. All hopes were high but again it missed out to Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land.Â
So when I read that Gully Boy had been sent for the 2019 Academy Award, the first thing that came to mind was why Anubhav Sinha’s ARTICLE 15 was not sent instead. There is a reason I say this and hence below are
3 reasons why ARTICLE 15 was a better contender for Oscar than GULLY BOY
Better Story
As an audience, we tend to involve ourselves more when the story has a lot at stake and until the climax, we are not sure which way the story would go. Gully Boy although a good story about a slum boy who had the aspiration of making it big as a rapper, there was not much at stake. If gully boy hadn’t succeeded, he would continue living in the slum with his family.
That was not the case in ARTICLE 15. 3 girls were raped and 2 of them were hanged from a tree, 1 was missing. As Ayan the IPS Officer investigates we realize how deep the rabbit hole goes with bureaucracy, castism, dirty politics everything playing the role. Until the climax, we are not sure if the girls and their families will get justice or not. A lot at stake, this movie is much more compelling than Gully Boy
Social Issue
A deeply social issue of castism and atrocities conducted under this pretext feels like a work of fiction. But sadly this is very true. It is happening every day in the hinterland of India. Historically speaking deep social issues have a better chance of winning the Oscar. Gully boy although tackles the issue of poor, ARTICLE 15 tackles a monumental issue.
Real India
Foreign category movies should definitely depict stories that are country-specific. That’s what makes the jury sit up and take notice. ARTICLE 15 represents the real India where 70% of its population lives in villages. Villages where even now long-forgotten rituals like child marriages are very much prevalent. The same is the case of castism which ARTICLE 15 shows very aptly. It shows that apart from metro cities Dalits and other lower caste people living in villages face a very tough and inhumane treatment from other people.
Anubhav Sinha has done a great job of writing(along with Gaurav Solanki) and directing along with powerful cinematography by Ewan Mulligan and haunting background score by Anurag Saikia
Hence I think ARTICLE 15 was a better contender for 2019 Oscar.
Ok.. having said all this I still wish GULLY BOY all the bets and hope it proves me wrong and brings the golden lady home.
