Film on travails of Vidarbha farmers on Oscar long-list

December 17, 2014 02:04 am | Updated 02:04 am IST - Pune:

A film by a Pune-based director on the daily struggles of four sisters against the backdrop of farmer suicides in Vidarbha in Maharashtra has made it to the long-list in the “best picture” category of the 87th Academy Awards, popularly called the Oscars. The American Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences recently disclosed the final list of 323 films.

Kapus Kondyachi Goshta (The Unending Story), directed by Mrunalini Bhosale, has been adapted from the real-life story of four sisters in a small village near Nagpur. A Marathi agricultural magazine, Baliraja , owned by the Bhosales, has published their story.

“It is a most topical film, detailing the social ostracism and poverty rife among Vidarbha’s cotton growers,” says Ms. Bhosale, who initially never thought of entering her film for the Oscars despite it receiving regional and international acclaim.

The film charts the travails and triumphs of the sisters orphaned by the suicide of their parents, cotton farmers overwhelmed by debt. Focussing on the story of the eldest sister, Jyoti, the film delineates the problems and complexities of feminism in the rural hinterland of developing countries.

“The thought of recognition in the form of awards was nowhere in my mind when I began working on this film. I just hoped to tell a sensitive story in a sensitive manner so that better-off people would prick their ears and take note of just how difficult life is in rural India,” she says.

A specialist of the “agricultural documentary,” Ms. Bhosale has created and directed close to 50 films in a variety of regional languages as well as English — all focussing on the pitfalls and triumphs of men and women who work the soil.

It has been an unusually rich year for Marathi cinema and debutant directors in terms of international recognition.

Fandry , a painful and sensitive exploration of a love affair between a Dalit boy and a girl from an upper caste, won instant accolades across the country and the world. While it was long-listed for the Golden Globe Awards along with Liar’s Dice (India’s official entry in the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category to the Oscars), both failed to make it to the shortlist.

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