Why Paheli scores over Black?

So, should Black have been India’s official nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar? I am afraid the answer, for all the world-class trappings that film boasts, is no.

There are at least three names that Black and Paheli share: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee and cinematographer Ravi K Chandran, who did outstandingly well with the camera on both films. But that’s where the similarities end. Black and Paheli ate completely different kettles of fish.

And my reasons are
1. Completely original
2. Paheli is ‘Indian’ all the way.
3. Paheli, shorn of formulaic Bollywood conventions and borrowed technical flourishes, is indeed streets ahead of anything else that Indian cinema has thrown up in the last 12 months.

What goes against Black
1. It is derivative in terms of content and style
2. The drama at the heart of Black, a film that is ironically European in that way it is lit and cut, is obviously far too melodramatic and shrill for Western sensibilities
3. Being in English for the most part, Bhansali’s film wouldn’t really have qualified as a ‘foreign language’ film!