IIFA Awards: ‘Sardar Udham’ not nominated for Best Picture category

The nominations for this year’s International Indian Film Academy film awards seem fair and square. It is wonderful to see those brilliant actors in the supporting category rubbing shoulders with Saif Ali Khan who, let’s face it, is an able supporting actor not a viable leading man.

Pankaj Tripathi gets two nominations, Ludo and ’83, both richly deserved, though I think Pankaj was better in Mimi than in mimicry in 83. Here every actor tried to play the field as imitations of known cricketers.

Shershaah and Sardar Udham, both commissioned by Amazon Prime Video, have plenty to be proud of. And they deserve a bit of their nominations. But why is Sardar Udham not nominated for Best Picture?  This omission is akin to Shakti Samanta’s Amar Prem not getting nominated for Filmfare’s Best Picture award in the year 1972. By the way, does anyone remember 1972’s Best Picture winner Beimaan?

So out of sheer bewilderment, I ask, is it an oversight? If so, it smacks of criminal negligence. Another glaring omission is  Neeraj Gaiwan’s Geeli Puchchi in the Best Director nominations. The excuse that it is a short film and part of an anthology Ajeeb Dastaans doesn’t hold any validity, Geeli Puchchi is a miniature masterpiece with a central performance that is hard to put aside. Ghaywan has the ever-reliable Konkona Sen Sharma giving a magnificently layered performance as a Dalit, working woman in a factory whose job and respectability are threatened when a prettier, upper-caste fair-skinned all-feminine woman Abha (Aditi Rao) joins in. The unlikely friendship between the two women never reaches where we think it would. Ghaywan and his writers are constantly ahead of the audience, creating a kind of playful yet sinister and tragic dynamic between the two women from completely diverse backgrounds. Just when we think we have their relationship figured out, the narrative does a somersault that refuses to make the Dalit woman Bharati Mandal a martyr. Why should the underdog always remain buried under the heap of broken dreams?

Among its many prominent virtues try this: Abha’s husband is no cad providing an alibi for her meandering heart. He is a caring man who even cooks for her. As she confides guiltily in her new friend Bharti Mandal, “Shiv bachche ki soch raha hai aur main ussey pyar bhi nahin karti.” Having someone love you is not reason enough to love that person back. Geeli Puchchi is filled with an aching passion and a bridled wisdom. Neeraj Ghaywan whose only feature film Masaan so far is a class act on socio-economic discrimination, goes deep into the theme in just over 30 minutes of playing time.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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