India has nominated Gujarati Film The Good Road for the 86th Oscars Award in the Best Foreign Film Category, brushing aside rumours that The Lunchbox, Vishwaroopam or English Vinglish would be nominated.
Reports say that there were 22 entries from different parts of India for consideration this year. Films like ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ and ‘Vishwaroopam’ were short-listed but the 19 member Jury selected Gyan Correa’s The Good Road. Earlier, The Good Road had also won the national award for the best Gujarati film.
Upon announcement, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi tweeted that he was proud that a Gujarati film was selected for the Oscars for the first time.
It has been produced by National Film Development Corporation. The film stars Keval Katrodia, Sonali Kulkarni and actor Ajay Gehi. It was released in Theatres on July 19 and collected approximately Rs 2.5 Crores in Box Office.
The Movie shows the unknown India through the story of a boy who is lost and then found while his family is on a holiday trip to Kutch.
Plot
Pappu is a truck driver. Supporting his parents and extended family is beyond his means. Now, he has been presented a plan. An accident will be staged. Pappu will “die”. Insurance payments are substantial.
David and Kiran, a middle class urban couple, with their son Aditya, are on a holiday. Aditya will be accidentally separated from them during a brief halt at a Dhaba. And his loss will only be discovered several hours, and several hundred kilometers later. They must double back to find him. Poonam is an 11-year old-year-old child from the city. She is looking for her grandmother, living in a town at the end of this highway. Tired and hungry, Poonam wisely stops at the Topaz, what seems to be a small garment dying unit.
Aditya will be found by a local dhaba owner, and put onto Pappu’s truck. Has Aditya found a new and unlikely home on this truck? Later, when it is too late, Poonam will discover that the Topaz is not quite the place for her. She will be confronted, forcefully, with the very same choices she is running away from. Which way will this young girl turn? And Pappu, looking for answers to balance his need with those of this little boy, will find a new strength and conviction within.