Never have I had the privilege of being invited to a panel of judges which decides which movies an award goes to. But there are several which leave me, a lay viewer, a bit fogged. Consider the following:
In the year of The Lunchbox, The Good Road represented India at the Oscars.
In the year of Dharm, Eklavya represented India at the Oscars.
In the year of All the President’s Men, Rocky won the best picture award.
In the year of Citizen Kane, How Green Was My Valley won the best picture.
In the year of Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love won the best picture.
It’s A Wonderful Life flopped when it was released and did not even garner much critical acclaim. And that is how it lay – till a copyright clerical error gave the world a right to screen it freely, making it an annual Christmas staple, and it grew and grew on the masses and the classes and the critics – so much so that today it is considered Frank Capra’s masterpiece.
Shawshank Redemption did not wow the public or the critics much during its original theatrical release. Then came its TV premiere, and then DVD, and finally OTT – where it found phenomenal traction and the world finally fell in love with it.
Sholay received a very lukewarm response upon the week of its release, and in desperation Ramesh Sippy was about to the reshoot the end and keep Amitabh alive. The cast and crew had one final meeting, and it was decided they should wait out the weekend at least. And lo and behold – during the weekend all hell broke loose, and Indian cinema witnessed its biggest phenomenon – the birth of the blockbuster.
Casablanca was a pretty last-minute effort, with Warner Bros trying to cash in on the war situation, and the resultant fervour of patriotism that was spreading across the English-speaking world. An unpublished play, Everybody Comes to Rick’s, was adapted for the movie and Bogart’s agent liked it. But neither Bogart nor Ingrid Bergman was keen on doing it because they did not think it would really turn out to be good. They thought the dialogue was ridiculous and the situations were unbelievable. They were constantly trying to think of ways to get out of the movie. Bergman was then focused on For Whom the Bells Toll which she thought would be a big movie. And Bogart was not enjoying the fact that Bergman at 5’10 was two inches taller than him, and that he was made to stand on top of wooden blocks or sit on extra cushions by director Michael Curtiz because of it. And to top it all, neither the director nor the scriptwriters (the Epstein brothers) knew how the movie will end even while they were shooting it. In fact, Ingrid Bergman did not know how much love she should exhibit for Bogart’s character because she did not know whether they were in love or not (though that ambiguity ultimately gave the performance more stature). And to know now that the movie won multiple Oscars and is on all ‘Best Movies of All Tmies’ lists and is the movie with the maximum all time favourite quotes (7)!
About the Author
Shouquot Hussain is an educator and has been raising the intellect level of young students in India, as also in Kenya and Indonesia, since quite some time. He loves to read books. He dabbles in writing poetry, making the literary critics keep a keen eye on his progress. He is also a keen observer of movies; new OTT platforms keep licking their lips in anticipation of his valuable subscriptions. His son, like the proverbial fruit which does not fall far from its tree, is currently pursuing a BSc in Film Making. He is a self-proclaimed foodie. Like him, his spouse is also in the field of education. The couple infest the environs of Jakarta these days.
Related Posts:
ashokbhatia 