Slumdog Millionaire

Based on the book "Q&A" by Vikas Swarup, this movie Slumdog Millionaire is one of those lucky few flicks that received accolades and nominations and oscars this year. I read the book a few yars ago (it was a book given to me by an associate). The release of the movie and the handsome number of criticisms from indian people the worldover and the press didn't really make me feel like watching the movie, until yesterday.

Mind you well, i didn't watch it because everyone else seems to have had. I watched it purely to gauge and see what the fuss was about. In these recently past months, every columnist and writer has written about Slumdog Millionaire. Every movie goer has either despised or credited Slumdog Millionaire. Some very famed Indian personalities have gone public with their comments on Slumdog Millionaire. A very famous indian actor, post the immediate release of this movie, criticised the movie openly on his blog. A.R. Rahman, one of India's greatest modern day music composers won the oscar for Slumdog Millionaire.

So, i watched it finally. One final and sudden tuesday evening. In the comforts of my living room, i put the cd on. What is expressed here on is just a view. A feel. Not intended to influence or inspire any else's thoughts or actions on this movie or anything else in general.

Even after reading a mix of negative and some positive views in these past few months on Slumdog Millionaire, the only first emotion or feeling that came through me while watching the movie was, "how true".
Not "how true" to what critics had said earlier about the film. "How true" when the movie honestly portrayed what slums in Mumbai are in reality all about.
Anybody who has even briefly voulnteered in an NGO dealing with underpriviledged children will know that this movie's storyline is the truth. There is actually an unspoken of industry, something we call "begging" that flourishes fully in our midst and it is true that some (not all, some) unsuspecting children are ill-treated and sometimes even mutilated by their "managers" to help make a quicker and bigger buck.
It's what goes on parallely in a city like Mumbai whilst big fashion brands and luxury brands strut their stuff about trying to impress the few high-end socialites of the city / country alike.
But, isn't this a truth & reality for any big city in the world? Why would we cry out loud publicly and try to defend ourselves when the world watches a movie like Slumdog Millionaire? So many of us went on to say, "this isn't right, this isn't India, this isn't fair, the movie only got famous because of the white director". Impossible nonsense.

Agreed. The storyline is nothing exceptinally great. My first feeling was: this didn't deserve so many Oscar nominations, but i also don't believe that the reason it did get so many nominations was because of the white director. Maybe good marketing (pls note that Slumdog Millionaire was released around the time or a bit after the 26/11 happenings in Mumbai). Mumbai was already in the limelight and then a movie that's based in the same city.... well, i'll leave you to do the math.

It's just a story. Based about a boy. Who came from the slums. It had nothing to do with India really. Every country in the world has it's ghettos, slums. A hundred plus movies are based on the "rags to riches" storyline, about someone who came from the shacks and went on to be a big someone. Never did the country that the movie was based in wake up and defend what they knew happened in the city. In any city. Because, it's just a movie. It can be used as a wake up call. But no, we'd rather walk about and cry out loud, saying, Slumdog Millionaire is nothing of the true India.
Maybe it isn't "the only true view of India", but fact is, these things happen. What's important is, the movie was never made to portray "INDIA". It was made, to entertain. No part of the story in reality is really that unimaginable.
What goes on in the slums of mumbai, we can hear / read about. We can support it / help ease the situation / or just be ignorant about it.
What we see in movies, we can choose to like / dislike. It's just an opinion afterall.
When a movie based on Mumbai is going places, we can choose to support the caste (who were mostly indian) / or turn around and pass judgements and say," we only won because the director was white).
We can maybe open our eyes and accept what really does happen at the end. Smile. And remember that it was just a movie. And tomorrow, there would probably be more. Not of the same kind, but movies nevertheless and it's not about who made the movie as much as how well the majority of people took to it.
Jai ho.