Harishchandrachi Factory: India’s latest Oscar blunder?
The last few months have seen much frenetic activity around Paresh Mokashi’s Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory, primarily because it was picked as India’s official entry to the Oscars. While a lot of dinnertime conversation seems to revolve around this film and its supposed uniqueness, it is likely that most of this excitement in the air is based on some reviews about this film and its supposed archival value, because very few people have actually seen it. The question therefore is, is the film really the right choice to send to an international forum as our selection of the best film made in India this year. The answer, is, no.
Harishchandrachi Factory is a film based on two years in the life of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke, more popularly known as the father of Indian cinema. The film, which is roughly 90 minutes long, recreates the moments in Phalke’s life when he suddenly grew enamoured of the motion picture and decided to make one for himself.
The good news is that the film is lighthearted, entertaining, and has some very good performances. The rest is mostly bad news.
Mokashi’s fundamental idea with this film – to capture just the time when Phalke got attracted to the motion picture till the time he made Raja Harishchandra – is one of its biggest flaws. Mokashi limits the potential of his own narrative by choosing such a narrow focus and sticking to it. Raja Harishchandra was released in 1913, a period of modern Indian history that is preoccupied with the idea of freedom, and is full of important political figures. The ripe political scene could have worked as a healthy backdrop to the events captured in the film, especially since Phalke himself was deeply moved by the freedom struggle, but apart from one offhand mention of Tilak’s release from jail towards the end of the film, this context is ignored.
Not only is the context ignored, the film betrays a great deal of naiveté about colonial, racial relations. There is hardly a moment where any tension is visible or even implied between Indians and their British rulers. If this film is to be believed, Phalke faced no racial trouble when he went to England to learn about and buy filming equipment. Once again, the film refuses to use even the material it already has to its fullest potential. In the film, all the screenings of motion pictures, whether British or later Indian seem to be preceded by performances by white (possibly British) singers. The possibilities of suggesting racial baggage in scenes where white singers are performing for a brown audience and then taking a bow are immense, but it remains an ignorable detail in Mokashi’s film.
In fact, if the narrative of this film, and its allegiance to realism is taken at face value, the coming into being of Indian cinema was on the brink, waiting to happen and that’s why things just fall into place, almost magically. The film glosses over, mostly in its use of comedy, the problems Phalke must have faced in the mammoth task of merely understanding how a picture is made to move and tell a story. Comedy can and has been an effective tool in conveying pathos in narrative in general, but it isn’t that aspect of humour that Mokashi’s film uses, instead it works towards erasing how trying that process must have been. I should mention, at this point, that while the larger issues are not dealt with, Mokashi has included some cultural details effortlessly. For instance, men playing women and how they were trained to adopt the body language is an interesting detail that has been worked into the film.
Coming to the aesthetic of the film, it is surprising how evidently constructed the film’s look is. Its sets are, well, sets and very obviously so, leading me to consider for a while that it may be a formal devise used by the filmmaker in an attempt to bring the audience’s attention to the fictionality of cinema and the cinematic world and its apparatus. However, the film showed such a serious lack of complexity that I discarded that idea.
The discontent I feel with regard to Harishchandrachi Factory stems not from its completely misunderstood and misplaced Oscar potential – after all the director didn’t tailor-make the film for the Academy – but rather from what all it could have but chooses not to be. Mokashi doesn’t agree with the label of biopic for this film, and one has to respect that, and given that the film, like most lighthearted films (comedies, for instance) doesn’t really make space for understanding the psychology of the central character, he might even be right. However, in opting to do away with the complexities of the process involved, it is closer to the biopic mode that Mokashi has brought his film. And that genre has moved miles in the recent past. A figure like Dadasaheb Phalke and the idea of the first Indian film is sadly wasted in Harishchandrachi Factory, especially since the director has forgotten the era he has made the film in. We live in an age of incredibly easy access to knowledge, and no one relies on a feature film for information on a person as integral to cinema’s history as Dadasaheb Phalke. A simple Wikipedia page has more information, which is also more fascinating in its detail, on him than this 90 minute film.
Coming back, however, to the Oscar question, the selection of this film has once again demonstrated our reliance on our local and immediate excitement over a film, that often stems from a sense of political and social correctness (Taare Zameen Par) or like in this film, a sense of national and historical pride. And this is exactly why we pick films on their themes rather than their aesthetic and send them off to international forums. We forget that a cultural context that we watch these films in will not be the same for an international selection committee, and secondly, we have to compete with every cinema producing nation in the world in order to just be nominated for an Oscar, and most countries have the better sense of basing their entries on art rather than a personal feel-good factor. Unless, therefore, political ties between India and the US interfere with the Oscars (and US foreign policy is often made evident through their Best Foreign Language Film award at the Oscars), Harishchandrachi Factory has a dim chance of even making the hallowed five nominees at the Academy for the coming award season.
21 comments
When did India ever make a right choice for the Oscar?
Hi,
With full respect to your opinion, I take opportunity to disagree with you entirely on this matter. The very negative points you mentioned are precisely the positive points about the movie. The movie has deliberately ‘scripted’ to make this into a small adventure story. This is where the film breaks rules. And that is why the movie is great.
I have tried to mention, what i felt in my first ever blog.
http://hppandit.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Harsh
Harsh, you don’t have the slightest understanding of the cinematic language — evidenced in your blogpost. You seem to be the kind that enjoys Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Mandarin version) without subtitles and still ‘enjoys’ it. Unlike you, I don’t even respect your opinion.
Hey Guys,
Check out the video of Harishchandrachi Factory, a movie based on India’s First Feature Film by Dadasaheb Phalke
http://www.youtube.com/utvmotionpictures#p/u/1/weaRPbXYGiI
I completly disagree with this review, I have watched it in New jersey ..and its an ameeezzing film! just loved it!
deserves an oscar 2010 foreign film nomination for sure
Hi Kuhu,
I can see the whole hearted negativity in this blog. Thanks for being a true color Indian. We all are at the best when comes to ‘Leg pulling’.
Nobody has stopped nobody from making films. However our Bollywood A listers are still in hope of Oscar for all those rosy larger than life Cinema (I prefer to call picture), I apprciate Mokashis efforts in bringing something new to the cinema and to in his first adventure with film making.
Kuhu : Get out of Lagaan hangover for oscar. Not every film need to show that British angle.
The film is very enjoyable. Worth a repeat. If I do not like a film I walk out, switch off, change the channel. I do not sit and torture myself trying to look for faults. One man’s jalebi is another man’s pretzel. If I like a film I encourage people to see it. If I do not, I do not blast the film. I pray that I am an exception and that other
would like the film enough.
hi kuhu,
so do you mean to say that we should make films according to likes and dislikes of Americans? Indian directors should make films keeping in mind general Indian viewer, and not a few American juries. and in this process if they like efforts of some Indian film-maker and s/he gets an Oscar its well and good, but the Academy awards certainly should not be the Gold Standard.
@Parth: No, i absolutely do not mean that, and I agree that the Oscars are not the only standard for judging excellence. That said, it is an international forum, and the category that Indian films would compete in is one in which countries send the best of their cinema, and HF is really far from the best we have produced.
My knee jerk reaction would also be one of indignation where I say the Oscar means nothing, but when I think about it a little bit, I feel that it may not be a bad barometer for seeing where we stand. Who gets the award is immaterial, but the nominations are not. If you take a look at the film The White Ribbon (surely someone will now find me Eurocentric for this view), you might get a sense of what I am trying to say. It pushes the boundaries of cinema both aesthetically and in its story. Does HF do that? Does it even acknowledge the irregularities in the persona of Phalke as he consciously framed it himself?
Its an amazing movie…there is no need to show British angle/freedom struggle if we are addressing anything from pre-independence era. Why shud he bring issues like Racism in this film? ofcourse it cud have been dealt with but Paresh mokashi wanted to make a really public centric movie on this really important topic which was never ever dealt with. And regarding the quality of sets this very question was asked to Paresh when i was interviewing him…he said very honestly…this Films was made on a very very shoe string budget and they tried to bring as much authenticity on the sets and much went in researching the topic and wat was left was used very wisely on sets.
well, HF is a really good movie, something new from what we are used to see… there is no doubt in that, but i do agree with Kuhu, its not something we should be sending to Oscars, from an international viewpoint the movie fails to convey the struggle…
हलत्या चित्रांचा विजय असो !!!
Now since the movie is released, would u like to withdraw ur article. It is certainly a good movie. R u just discremenating because this is a marathi movie? What is there to see in MNIK, nothing new, basic theme is same as newyork. Anyways good use of english at least. But for sure ur facts are mostly incorrect.
I do not agree to the negative points mentioned. They are worth. The spectrum of the film is short but most important not only for Mr. Phalke but the entire $ 11.68 billion worth Indian film industry.
It shows a time when a man followed his dream. Brought cinema to India. Made first Indian motion film, best put the first Indian super hit film. Not to forget the supported of extra ordinary people like his wife, kids, friends…
The film is a tribute to this visionary. Whatever is made is worth praise. In fact it’s a shame that it takes 96 yrs to make a film on the person who has rightfully done real service to ‘ART OF FILMAKING’
@rupesh: what connection do my comments have with the release of the film? i said it is not oscar-worthy and as far as that is concerned, the result is there for all to see.
@anoushka: i think it is time we open our eyes to the circumstances under which phalke was declared (by himself, mind you) the father of indian cinema. all early filmmakers have a major contribution to the development of cinema in the country, but now that it has been proven that others had done all this work before him, maybe we need to at least acknowledge them. Ravi’s article on the work done by stephen hughes on early indian filmmakers is worth a read: http://blogs.widescreenjournal.org/?p=1816
*Send “Harishchandrachi Factory” to OSCAR its deserves…*
Dear Kuhu,
Your take on the movie is absolutely lopsided, to say the least. I dont know whether you understand the nuances of comical timing , or whether you understand the language in which it was made, or the entire purpose of making this movie. If the director wanted it to be another piece of ‘boring’ history that the masses detest, he could have done it easily, judging from the movie that he has made. But it was not his intention. He had a story to tell, and he said it in his own unique style.
Secondly, Oscar is NOT a barometer of where we stand vis a vis world cinema. Sending an entry to the Oscars is good, but criticising our work because ‘they’ could not see our point , is very stupid, especially when the overall quality of the movie was quite extraordinary.
Cinema is about entertainment and entertainment only. I know a lot of pseudo intellectuals who like to disect movies into irrelevant parts. You either like a movie or you dont. It doesnt matter if some jury thinks otherwise. Personally I would like to see more of such movies being made.Oscar or no oscar, people need entertainment.
I just watched the film and it is superbly done. The scope of the film was not freedom fight and fighters, it was how Dadasaheb Phalke went after his dream and succeeded to fulfill it. But some of Indians want to emphasize only racial tension, bad treatment by British people, like sugar cane is passed through the crusher while juicing it. They enjoy when the poverty in India is shown, the humiliation of Indians by British is shown, they just do not want to come out of that rut and feel disappointed when it is not shown in the movies.
This movie is very well done, the continuity is maintained very well, the tempo is well balanced. Not a single scene is felt as if its a stretch of imagination. Bottom line is you identify with the movie. So I will say, go and see the movie and it wasn’t a bad choice of movie to Oscar. Very well done.
There are two different things here.
First one is about whether this is good movie. I watch movie as a whole experience instead of just judging one aspect of film making. Paresh Mokashi made concious effort of making this film into light hearted movie and he conveys point very well without making too much fuss about it.
Second point about Oscar; it is similar award to Filmfare award. It is driven by popularity of a movie in US context. It is not international award per say. I dont know why India send movies for Oscar at all.
I watch many movies in foreign languages such as French, Italian, chinese and Spanish. Some of them are great movies; but they have western context which is easy for Jury to understand than movies made with eastern context.
As far as quality of set etc is concerned, then a movie made with 1% budget is still very well made.
I don no about others opinion, but i found this movie absolutely hilarious , that movie rocks, i never feel bored, no negative feeling just plain simple and short explanation of how first indian movie was made.
What’s the point of whipping the movie so badly? Why expect indepth analysis, political themes and whatnot from a movie, strong points of which lie totally elsewhere? Oscar material or not, it’s a sweet movie and while I thought the story tasted a bit bland, I l-o-v-e-d the way it’s made/shot/edited. My first Marathi movie ( i think) and I totally enjoyed it.
Why did it annoy you so much? You take it almost personally, it seems. Like you’re afraid that Oscar selection committee will get a wrong idea of Indian cinema or something.
Relax.
Cheers from Moscow.
hello friends,in my opinion HF is a superb movie that every indian must watch.Academy award is in no way a measure to fathom the greatness of a movie because there are lot of flaws in their judgement.I think that kuhu is mostly wrong and only partially right reviewing this movie.the film is better than tonnes of oscar movies.
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