Why Lunchbox should have been the best choice for Oscars

So FFI announced India’s official entry for Oscars this year and surprisingly it’s not “The Lunchbox”. A Gujarati film named “The Good Road” is selected as the official entry over Lunchbox. I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t really comment about whether its better than Lunchbox or not. But when the Indian & western media and world renowned critics were rooting for Lunchbox as the best Indian film in years and considered it a strong contender for Oscars in Foreign Film Category this decision from FFI came as a major surprise or rather disappointment.

Why Lunchbox should have been the best choice for Oscars this year :

1. The main roadblock which every Indian film (including Lagaan which made it to the Top 5) face is the expensive campaign to promote the film in US. The Lunchbox was already a winner here. Sony Picture classics who have a brilliant track record of Oscar nominations handpicked this film for US distribution seeing Major Oscar potential.

2. The film has received overwhelming response in all the major festivals where it had been screened including Telluride, Cannes, Toronto and numerous others from all sections of the media which very few Indian films have ever managed to.

3. It has received rave reviews from all the Indian critics. When do you remember the last time Raja Sen & Rajeev Masand rated an Indian film 5 stars.

4. All the Oscar prediction analysts in the west, Hollywood reporter, and personalities like Michael Moore, Salman Rushdie, Javed Akhtar and others have mentioned that The Lunchbox is the film that has major potential of making it to the top 5.

We have made horribly wrong choices sending films for Oscars in the past and hope its not the same this year. So, all the best to The Good Road and hope it does make it to top 5 because The Lunchbox had a huge chance to get there.

It will be a tough road for  The Good Road to find a decent producer and market the film in US. Its well and good if it makes to the top 5 and if not, it will be a shame on the face of FFI. Choosing a regional cinema over a well deserved Bollywood film for the sake of showing something different will only prove their worthlessness yet again. Look at the choices they made over the last few years. Ekalavya,  Jeans,  Paheli,  Barfi (which itself is inspired from Hollywood one). What more we could expect!!

Let us now look at some of the twitter reactions  :

First time and i really mean it First time i really was excited because first time we knew we had a chance, first time i was waiting for it.Now i feel like crying in desperate frustration.. and i believe there were some very wise people on the jury

– Anurag Kashyap

Haven’t watched The Good Road so it’s unfair to knock it, but I’m heartbroken that The Lunchbox wasn’t picked as India’s Oscar entry.

– Rajeev Masand

Purely India’s loss, this #Lunchbox oversight. I do think Irrfan has a considerable chance in the Best Actor race. #MainCategories #Oscars

– Raja Sen

#heartbroken we could have gone the distance we were told by our US distributors, by the Hollywood press…

– Ritesh Batra (Director of The Lunchbox)

Oscar is not at all the last word to judge a cinema. There have been some great English films in the past which were snubbed by Academy & some non-English films not been nominated in Foreign category. That doesn’t mean those films were not great. They are path breaking legendary masterpieces in their own way and an Oscar might be too insignificant to judge them. I never said its the end of the road for The Lunchbox that its not been sent for Oscars. It is and will still be an equally great film irrespective of whether its nominated or not.But here we are talking in a completely different context.When you send a film for your country, you will obviously send the one which has the best chance to win. Even though I assume that the Gujarati one and Lunchbox are equal in cinematic excellence, but winning an Oscar or making it to the top 5 for a foreign film doesn’t need only merit but several other factors (already listed above) which were in favor of Lunchbox. Do you remember any Indian film in recent times which have been actually considered by the foreign critics everywhere across the world as one the major contender for Oscars? Analysts who have been doing Oscar prediction for 25-30 years have kept Lunchbox in top 5, Sony Classics have come on board for US distribution seeing the Oscar potential in it. Has it ever happened for any Indian film? Well, atleast I don’t remember. And regarding FFI, I don’t much trust on their cinematic sense irrespective of who is the chairman after seeing the past string of films which have been sent for Oscars. Although Oscar is not the last word but its a dream come true for any film maker and it gives you the world wide recognition, fame and respect which everyone desires for. Films from Iran, Argentina and many small countries have won Oscars but we haven’t ever. The reason is not just our films are not at par with International cinema but films which are we actually don’t send them

Leaving you with the trailer of The Good Road