FilmiBoi

India is the land of snake charmers and shamans, it is the land where poverty dwells and sells. These Western preconceptions about the relatively nascent south-east Asian nation have surpassed the stature of a cliche. In other news, Bollywood, the Hindi film industry and India’s most effective soft power, was once labelled as the 'trashiest film industry' by the Westerners. (Stadtler) This paper is not a scathing remark on the Westerners per se, it is a general critique of one of their most celebrated institutions, the Academy Awards. Specifically, this paper deals with the portrayal of India in the films that get nominated at the Oscars.   Let us begin from the fifties. Indian films like Mehboob Khan’s Mother India and Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali and the ensuing Apu trilogy piqued the interest of the West. The former got an Oscar nomination, and etched its name in the annals of film history to be the first Indian film to be nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at

Image source: Amazon Prime Video The year is 1970. Hrishikesh Mukherjee is planning to make a movie on a terminally ill cancer patient. He chooses Kishore Kumar as the lead actor and Mehmood in the supporting role. He goes to Kumar's house to give him an invite to join the film together with a handwritten script. But Kumar's gate-keeper refuses to let him in. He has been told to "drive away a Bengali if he ever comes!"–Mukherjee becomes the misunderstood bait. Dejected, he reaches out Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan to star in his magnum opus,  Anand. Mehmood has apparently dropped out after Kishore Kumar's exit. The film hits the theatres in 1971 to applause, acclaim, Filmfares and sobs. Kaka has put up a brilliant and resilient show of Anand babu, who is terminally ill and on one last dopamine and altruistic rush. Bachchan gets a rep-upgrade after Saat Hindustani , now he is remembered as the no-nonsense, hardworking, but equally vulnerable Dr Bhasker. Gulzar