Suriya‘s hard-hitting Tamil film ‘Jai Bhim‘ has won accolades and acclaim on a global stage. Thanks to Jai Bhim’s release on streaming giant Prime Video, viewers in 240 countries across the world have watched and appreciated Suriya’s gritty labour of love. Jai Bhim is currently the highest user-rated film on IMDb with a score of 9.3/10, even surpassing films such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather. It also found a spot on film appreciation site Letterboxd’s Best International Films of 2021.
All of the above, however, fail to hide an unpalatable fact – about Suriya’s Jai Bhim and its Oscars tragedy. I say tragedy, because that’s what it is. Granted, the film passed the eligibility criteria to find a spot in the list of 276 films in the running for a nomination at the 94th Academy Awards. But, have a look at the competition – West Side Story, The Power Of The Dog, King Richard, Tick, Tick…Boom, CODA, Belfast and so many more. It was quite obvious from the beginning, regardless of the overwhelming hope of Indians, that Jai Bhim would only be an also-ran in the mainstream awards categories, whether for Best Picture or Best Actor for Suriya.
The story would have been entirely different, however, had Jai Bhim been India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar Award for 2022. Jai Bhim would have stood out like a shining beacon in the list of films competing for the Best International Feature Film, 2022. Who knows, it would have brought home the first ever feature film Oscar for India.
But the selection committee for India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film Award at the Oscars, in its wisdom, nominated ‘Pebbles’ aka ‘Koozhangal’ as India’s official entry. It did not even consider choosing Jai Bhim for the award. The reason being, the Indian selection committee considered only those films for India’s official Oscars entry that were released before November 2021. Jai Bhim did not make the cut as it released on Prime Video on 2nd November, 2021. In its bid to market Jai Bhim as a Diwali offering for its subscribers, Prime Video and Jai Bhim missed the Oscars bus….by “two days”!
And the bad luck continued. Neither Prime Video, nor Suriya and his production company 2D Entertainment, and not the Indian selection committee thought it fit to strive to relax the rules a bit, and give Jai Bhim a fighting shot at the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. Alas, none of the stakeholders realised that Jai Bhim had in it the quality and storytelling excellence required to make the cut for the Best International Feature Film Academy Award.
And therein lies the tragedy of Suriya’s Jai Bhim at the Oscars 2022.