Scenes from Morning Raga (top) and Paheli

Calcutta, Dec. 21: Even before the Paheli has been resolved, India has got another shot at this year’s Oscars in Morning Raga.

The film, about “three individuals trying to overcome their past”, has been officially accepted by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for submission for nomination for the Oscars.

Directed by theatre stalwart Mahesh Dattani, the musical stars Shabana Azmi, Perizaad Zorabian, newcomer Prakash Rao and Lilette Dubey.

Unlike Amol Palekar’s Paheli, which was sent as India’s official entry to the 78th edition of the Academy Awards, Morning Raga has been chosen by AMPAS as one of the 300 American commercial releases up for Oscar nomination.

“Morning Raga is, sort of, making it from the mainstream section,” Dattani told The Telegraph from Mumbai. “It has been possible because the film got released in the US and our international distributors?Bollywood Hollywood Production ? pitched the movie well for the Oscar submission.”

Incidentally, Morning Raga didn’t even feature in the shortlist that the Indian selection panel came up with before choosing the Shahrukh Khan-Rani Mukherjee-starrer as the country’s official entry earlier this year in September.

The box-office fate of the movie ? it ran for all of two weeks at most theatres across the country ? must have ruled out Morning Raga’s chances to be in the top 14 films considered to represent India at the Kodak theatre.

“Despite getting great reviews, the film didn’t do well commercially and this Oscar acceptance is really a welcome surprise. We can now just pray that we figure in the scheme of the things at the awards night on March 5, 2006,” Zorabian said.

Apart from the process of selection, what makes Morning Raga different from Paheli is that it is eligible for nominations in all other categories besides Best Foreign Film.

“That’s what makes me very optimistic about the music categories (Best Original Score and Best Original Song) since Amit Heri has done such great work for the movie,” Dattani said. “The cinematography by Rajiv Menon can also make it. Even Shabana Azmi can be selected in the acting categories.”

But for all this to happen, the AMPAS members need to see the movie before they announce the final nominations on January 31.

While Shahrukh, also the producer of Paheli, is going full blast to give his film every possible chance at the Oscars very much like Aamir Khan did in 2001 with Lagaan, Morning Raga may well fall short of fuel.

“I don’t have that clout nor the money to showcase our film in such a big way,” Dattani said. “So, although technically it may sound great, Morning Raga may just fall by the wayside in the days to come.”