‘Naatu Naatu’ and ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ charmed voters.
Three nominations in three different categories and two Oscars – all in all, an excellent year for India at the Academy Awards.
Academy members appear to have voted with their feet for Naatu Naatu from SS Rajamouli’s period epic RRR in the Music (Original Song) category. What makes the victory special is that unlike previous winner AR Rahman’s Jai Ho from British director Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, Naatu Naatu (which means “local”) is an entirely homebrewed concoction.
Credit for the rambunctious song, composed by MM Keeravani and written by Chandrabose, must be shared with Rajamouli and choreographer Prem Rakshith, who got lead actors Ram Charan and NT Rama Rao Jr to dance up a storm. Rather than the tune alone, it was the entire package that propelled Naatu Naatu from TikTok trend to Oscar winner.
The other big triumph for India was Kartiki Gonsalves’s The Elephant Whisperers, which picked up an Oscar in the Best Documentary (Short) category. History was made again here too: Gonsalves is the first Indian director to scoop a prize in this category as well as the first Indian ever to win in any directing category.
The Oscar is a second-time-lucky moment for producer Guneet Monga, who had previously co-produced the 2018 winner Period. End of Sentence.
Although Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes was bested by Navalny for the Documentary Feature Film award, its nomination alone represents progress for Indian filmmakers. The documentary draws links between Delhi’s toxic air pollution and the impact it is having on avian species with the efforts of a pair of Muslim bird-rescuing brothers to ride out growing Islamophobia.
There might have been a few more nominations for India if Academy voters had taken RRR more seriously. Despite taking massive strides on the awards circuit, the Telugu-language period drama was not nominated in any of the important filmmaking categories at the Oscars. Academy voters looking for a left-of-field pick did not find it in RRR’s comic book-level plotting, maximalist action set pieces and dodgy politics, but in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
The genre-bending film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who direct as “Daniels”) had elements that were missing in RRR: bravura visual imagination rooted in a larger conversation about topical themes – in this case, immigration, identity and a woman’s understanding of her place in the world.
Here was a film that as wholly original in its treatment while also representing massive progress for Asian and Asian-American talent in Hollywood.
