Interpreting The 'Naatu Naatu' Moment |
RRR's Oscar for Best Original Song can be attributed to the aspect it epitomises: a playful anti-colonialism as manifested in ‘Naatu Naatu’, writes MK Raghavendra. |
THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL ACCEPTANCE of SS Rajamouli’s RRR is clearly one of the more mysterious happenings in the history of Indian cinema’s reception abroad — with audiences outside the diaspora. Evidently, the shape of what is valued as ‘cinema’ globally has undergone a transformation — since the film was not critically acclaimed within India despite its huge commercial success — and bafflement is still being expressed over ‘Naatu Naatu’ winning the 2023 Oscar for Best Original Song. What we could say about RRR is that its significance in the West is not the same as its meaning locally, where it is taken to be a patriotic, anti-colonial film. Its anti-colonialism is rather like that of Lagaan in that it is not of the solemn kind (as in 1942: A Love Story) but playful, and Lagaan also did well with international audiences, being nominated for a Best International Feature Film Oscar. RRR was perhaps too flippant to be a candidate for Best Picture but it may be useful to study the success of ‘Naatu Naatu’ in the Original Song category to understand the success of the film as a whole. On examining the list of films that have won the Oscar for Best Original Song, one finds that they correspond to a handful of types. The first kind is a big song from a very popular film — like ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz (1939) or ‘Que Sera, Sera’ from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). The second is the song in a well-meaning award winner — even when the composition in itself is not memorable: like ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ in Philadelphia (1998) and ‘Jai Ho’ from Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Animated films are apparently a separate category since they seem to be carried by songs, as in The Lion King (1994). Some dramatic films like Titanic (1997) or those featuring James Bond also have opening songs by a big musician that have been similarly honoured. What is singular is that songs from big musicals like The Sound of Music (1965) or My Fair Lady (1964) do not usually get picked. I would attribute this last fact to there being too much competition from within each film for only one to triumph. |
The Best Picture Oscar, to reiterate what has already been suggested, is meant for very solemn films with a serious social/moral purpose. Action films or those from genres, even when they are classics, are not chosen for it. Hitchcock got it only for a relatively minor effort like Rebecca (1940) and Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) never got the award. There is some guilt evidently operating when masterpieces don’t fit the Best Picture requirements; therefore, so-called minor awards are lavished on them as compensation. Chinatown, for instance, received only the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Robert Towne). This leads me to believe that RRR, being a popular success, received the award for the aspect that epitomises it: its playful anti-colonialism as manifested in ‘Naatu Naatu’. The Wizard of Oz, similarly, received only a minor Oscar for its music. RRR is not in the league of a classic, though I doubt that cinema anywhere meets the same standards that it once did. You May Like: How The West Fell In Love With RRR Coming to the success of ‘Naatu Naatu’ itself, I would suggest for a song in a major hit not solemn enough to be Best Picture, it must somehow epitomise what the film itself means to its audiences. It has perhaps little to do with the song’s actual value as vocal music. In India we take RRR to be patriotic and anti-colonial, but its anti-colonialism is manifested in Indians beating the British at dancing! Looking at the song, it is sung by two brown men in mock-colonial garb (complete with suspenders) in the presence of hostile white males and adoring women. The brown man being more desirable than the white one (to white women) is also a trope propagated by other Indian patriotic films from Lagaan to Rang De Basanti (2006). This, being reverse racism, is acceptable in a milieu where political correctness prevails but also goes along with the playfulness of [their] anti-colonialism. Portraying the socially/racially oppressed as triumphing in areas dominated by the oppressors (like education or intellectual achievement) is also a political strategy frequently used across world cinema. |
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| The Nandita Das Interview | 'Kapil & I Have A Natural Synergy' |
The actor-director talks to Mallik Thatipalli about her latest film, Zwigato; leading man Kapil Sharma; and how she views films. |
NANDITA DAS has always followed her heart, be it as an actor or director. Her latest directorial venture, Zwigato, has earned acclaim from several quarters and is a week into its theatrical release in India. Das speaks exclusively with OTTplay: What made you choose a delivery boy as the protagonist in Zwigato, someone who is invisible in contemporary Hindi cinema? Increasingly, the working class is becoming invisible in our films. They only show up when something very sensational or dramatic happens in the story. Otherwise, they are largely not really thought of in our collective consciousness. During COVID, we realised how secure [some of us] were while another section was extremely vulnerable. In some ways, the disparities that already existed in our society — whether of gender, class, caste and religion — seemed more acute and the gig economy seemed like a saviour for the rising anxiety around unemployment and joblessness. I thought it would be relevant to be able to tell a story of a gig worker within the mashup of technology and traditional society. I realised that in a four-day story, you can say so much that is hidden in plain sight. From Manto to Zwigato, it has been a 180-degree turn; how do you tune in and out of subjects as diverse as these? Or is directing a film the same, irrespective of the genre and story? Every film is different, the character, the story arc, and what you want to say through it. What is common for me is that my concerns remain the same. I’ve always been very interested in subjects that deal with the process of othering and the prejudices, fears and dilemmas that people have. These have been the common themes in all [my] three films. Manto was a biopic set in the 1940s… a period film, but I did it as I felt it was relevant to our times. For me, films are a mirror where we can see ourselves. I’m not trying to teach or give a message but I hope everyone who watches it finds something that they take away or are disturbed by, in the hope that they do something about the disturbance. The process of direction is that with every film you grow, you learn and for me, these are just stories I’m compelled to tell. The treatment of the film is decided by the story. |
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