Liar’s Dice, a Hindi-language film directed by Geetu Mohandas, has been selected to represent India in the Best Foreign Film category of the Oscars, which are awarded on February 22, 2015.
The film bagged two National Awards this year, for cinematography and best actress.
The film, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Geetanjali Thapa, was picked from 30 nominations received by the Film Federation of India, according to FFI secretary general Supran Sen who spoke to tabloid! from Hyderabad. The movie is about a young mother in rural India who takes her daughter and a pet goat to Delhi in search of her missing husband.
The film is as much a triumph of poignant story-telling as wife-husband collaboration in the high-risk-low-return world of movie-making.
On Tuesday, Mohandas and her cinematographer husband Rajeev Rai, who lovingly shot the film for her, raised a toast to one another.
Lucky
Mohandas’ first reaction to the jury unanimously choosing Liar’s Dice to represent India was, like her film, straightforward and uncomplicated.
“I got lucky with a fabulous cast, amazing technical support, and a wonderful producer, all of whom came together with love and genuineness,” she said in a telephonic interview from Kochi, where she lives with her husband.
“I wanted to tell a very simple story—and the simpler it is, the harder it is to narrate”, said Mohandas.
Liar’s Dice came up trumps in a field of 30 contenders in several Indian languages released since October 1, 2013, including Bollywood hits Mary Kom, Shahid, Queen and Mardaani as well as Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayali, and Bengali films, adjudged by a jury headed by renowned director T. Hariharan which chose the winner behind a veil of secrecy.
The movie captures the journey of a young mother [Thapa] belonging to a tribal community and her three-year-old daughter and pet goat from Chitkul village near the frontier with China to the country’s capital, Delhi, to track down her missing husband.
She runs into an army deserter (Siddiqui) who gives her company enabling the director to explore very delicate relationships forged in adversity.
It also features Murari Kumar and Mukesh Tiwari.
Rai recalled: “We travelled from the Chitkul village in the Himalayas to Shimla and then to Delhi. The National award gave me great pleasure, but today the happiness is even more when I think of the fact that we were a very small crew, a group of friends actually.”
Collaboration
Asked whether he enjoyed more freedom working with his wife, he said: “All directors I have worked with have given me great freedom, which is essential for a cameraman.”
Liar’s Dice was released in Thiruvanthapuram on September 19 and is slated to open in Pune on September 26, clearing the decks for its screening in cities and towns across the length and breadth of India in November.
Last year, the selection of unimpressive Gujarati film The Good Road over favourite The Lunchbox as India’s Oscar entry triggered outrage and condemnation. Predictably, The Good Road did not make it to the final five nominees in the Best Foreign Film category.
Only three Indian submissions have made it to the final five at the Oscars so far — Mother India (which lost to the winning film Nights in Cabiria by one vote), Salaam Bombay and Lagaan.
— (S. N. M. Abdi, a noted Indian journalist and commentator, writes across Gulf News.)
