http://www3.oscars.org/74academyawards/ ... ule14.html



While one might be able to argue that Monsoon Wedding absolutely demanded almost all english, maybe this is the reason it wasn't submitted.

The other might be that Lagaan is a better film.

Hmmm....shame about Monsoon Wedding not being able to be nominated. But there were a couple of stronger contender. The small Tamil film Kutty, which looks at Child Labour, was one such film and should have been considered.

Hmmm....shame about Monsoon Wedding not being able to be nominated. But there were a couple of better Indian films then Lagaan which could have been a strong contender. The small Tamil film Kutty, which looks at Child Labour, was by far a better film and should have been considered. Also good was Nidaan

Whatever the reasons, I'm glad Lagaan got sent instead of a pretentious film from a pretentious society.

Isn't the whole business of movie making pretentious. When you say pretentious society I do hope you have confined it to
the movie making folks and not the general public from that country. If, you do mean the movie making folks only, then that will place lagaan on equal footing with monsoon wedding as a pretentious film. So what is your point.

I think Monsoon wedding was a wonderful film. I didn't find it all that pretentious - just a tad bit. But I just find Lagaan a better film - and a better entry to represent India.

Let me clarify a few things here regarding the eligibility of Monsoon Wedding for the Oscars. First of all Monsoon Wedding was very much eligible for the Oscars. Infact the only reason the film was rushed to the theatres before October 31st, 2001 here in India, was so that it would meet the Indian deadline for selecting an official nominee for the Oscars. The English language (Hinglish would be more appropriate) spoken in the film in no way made the film non eligible. Monsoon Wedding in fact was amongst the films voted upon by the Indian Film Federation members for slecting India's official entry. To qoute one of the voters, the reason for not selecting Monsoon Weding was "Mira Nair is an outsider adn we felt that we should send a movie that was from amongst one of us". Basically Monsoon Wedding was not selected primarily because the Indian film industry considers Mira Nair to be an outsider (read that as, someone who does not have family ties in the industry) and someone who has no business making films in India. All in all Monsoon Wedding was not selected for the Oscars for the same reasons (bias) that the film does not feature even in the nominations of any of the so called Awards in India.

Could you clarify as to what is it you find so pretentious abotu the film. As for the society being pretentious, where do you come of making that judgement. Also if for arguments sake if you are right about the society being pretentious, then the film is only an accurate depiction of it and therefore not pretentious at all.
As good as Lagaan is, the fact remains that Monsoon Wedding is a better film and actually far less pretentious than Lagaan is.

Another film which Indian critics/filmakers also believe would have been a better selection than Lagaan for the Oscars is a film titled Dekha. I, myself don't know too much about this film, but read this link for further info. http://www.tehelka.com/channels/ane/200 ... oscar1.htm
(read the 7th paragraph down)

I knew I was going to spark some debate off but as sunny says a film about child labour would have been a better entry then Lagaan. Why? Because we have a child labour problem, so we can make films about them and win awards? Until today the Indian government tells the global human rights activists to back off, we don't have such problems... . Although I have no complaints about Monsoon Wedding, I personally liked Lagaan more.