India's nomination of Shah Rukh Khan’s “Paheli” in the foreign film category of the Oscars has generated much heat in Bollywood, as the Bombay film industry is popularly called. Many film critics and producers have termed the nomination as biased. They say the film has been nominated ahead of others just to appease Shah Rukh Khan and the film’s director, Amol Palekar. But the jury, which picked “Paheli” from a host of strong contenders, hopes that their choice would land the Oscars, that has not found a home in Bollywood.

Fifteen films were in the running and many of them had fared much better than “Paheli” on the box office. But “Paheli” was the jury’s choice and it arrived at it with a unanimous decision. They said the film was “high on cinematic excellence and directorial excellence”.

“It was unanimous decision taken by the jury after great deliberations,” said Vinod Pande, acting chairperson of the Film Federation of India (FFI). Among the other films in contention were “Iqbal”, “Black”, “Page 3” and “Mangal Pandey — The Rising”.

Defending the nomination of the Shah Rukh Khan-Rani Mukherjee starrer directed by Amol Palekar, Pande said “Paheli” was an imaginative film — fusing art and reality. And the transcends of mind and matter is interwoven subtly. When questioned why a film like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Black” was not selected, Pande said: “It was a tough competitor.”

Apparently the FFI panel did not fully back “Black” for the nomination because the film’s story is a straight lift from Hollywood’s “Miracle Worker” and probably this was the reason that the film was rejected outrightly at Cannes.

Film Board officials deny that the rejection at Cannes motivated them to “target” Black while deliberating on the Oscars nomination. Film Board officials say that Paheli was a unanimous decision because “this film is very high on cinematic excellence, directorial competence, and it’s deeply seeped in the Indian ethos and true to the Indian concept of fine arts, costumes, art designing... performances are also outstanding.”

Paheli is based on a novel written by Vijaydan Detha, one of the most prolific writers in Indian literature and also a winner of Rajasthan’s Sahitya Akademi Award. Decades ago one of his legendary stories “Dohrijoon” (A Double Life) was published in Hindi in two volumes titled “Uljhan” and “Duvidha”. Paheli is based on “Duvidha.”

The film revolves around a girl Lachchi (Rani Mukherji) who gets married to a man who was only interested in making money. A ghost (Shah Rukh Khan), on seeing the lovely girl, falls madly in love with her. The twist comes on the girl’s wedding night, when the husband leaves home for five long years on business. The ghost takes on the husband’s appearance and enters her life. When the husband finally returns home, the villagers and relatives are bewildered. How this situation gets resolved is the Paheli.

Paheli essentially depicts dilemma of a village girl who has to choose between a life of traditional Indian loyalty of Indian wives or realize emotional security and fulfill a physical need.

Amol Palekar, in his very subtle style, liberates the village girl from the age-old decadent tradition. Through Paheli he has redefined the very concept of loyalty. Paheli may prove a strong contender at the Oscars for its narration and boldness.

Certainly Amol Palekar has succeeded in convincing the Indian audience that Lachchi is not an adulteress instead she is a courageous girl who has guts to break the shackles of age-old traditions. There is no denying the fact that the narration and depiction of the story is excellent and Rani Mukherjee, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan have given their best to the film.

It appears that the failure of Lagaan to get the award despite making it to the top five in the Oscars nominations and the failure of Devdas to even get a nomination, has prompted the jurors to select a film which despite being a fantasy, reflects Indian ethos and culture while projecting the folklore format. They probably also felt that the story does touch some very basic issue of human existence — a conflict of head and heart. In a very subtle way the film has narrated human dilemma without making any judgment.

Now it is up to the makers of “Paheli” to follow up this nomination with an effective marketing strategy and lobbying — the twin action plan that could spell success. “Paheli” may fire the imagination of Oscars’ panelists for its abstractness and for the first time could bring home to India — the Oscars.