At Sunday’s Academy Awards, many South Asian viewers will be anxiously awaiting “Naatu Naatu,” the musical sequence from blockbuster movie “RRR” that’s both being performed at the ceremony and is a favorite for best original song.
Coming off a Golden Globe win, “Naatu Naatu’s” acknowledgement this weekend will be one of the first times a film from the subcontinent is recognized on the Oscars stage, experts said. It marks a significant moment for Indians all over the world, representing a changing tide in how the West views their cinema.
For decades, Indian movies have been regarded by Western film enthusiasts as not much more than song, dance and melodrama, said Sangita Gopal, an associate professor at the University of Oregon who studies Indian cinema.
“That one factor that made Indian cinema exotically bad before is exotically good now,” she said.
On top of that, Indian film industries haven’t necessarily cared to cater their craft to the Western eye anyway.
“Indian cinema is made for Indian audiences,” she said. “This is true of [director S. S. Rajamouli] too. I don’t think he was thinking, ‘I’m going to make a crossover film.’ He was like, ‘I’ll just keep doing what I did so successfully.’”
But the overwhelming love for “Naatu Naatu” and “RRR” might mean American tastes are changing, she said. Unlike the song-dance numbers of its predecessors, “RRR’s” “Naatu Naatu” seemed to strike a chord. Besides being an earworm, the song isn’t an interruption to the movie’s storyline, but rather something that drives the story forward, Gopal said.
“Even within Indian cinema, song and dance sequences are basically disappearing,” she said. “‘RRR’ has a traditional song and dance sequence, but used less traditionally. This is very much an integrated song within the story. And that helps create the acceptance.”
The global excitement over Indian films isn’t confined to the diaspora…
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