Why I won’t celebrate if Slumdog Millionaire wins an Oscar?
I finally saw the movie that world is going ga ga over - Slumdog Millionaire. And there are two people associated with the movie who deserve compliments – Frieda Pinto coz she looked ravishing and Vikas Swarup because I liked the way he presented the basic idea of the story that life at times teaches you much more than what years spent in universities could.
But unfortunately that’s where I will stop with my compliments about the movie. What about AR Rahman’s music? Well, it didn’t help that just a day back I had seen Delhi-6 with some excellent music by Rahman and if you ask me - Masak-kali or Jai ho? Well, masak kali for me, i don’t think any Indian walked out of hall humming jai ho.
As for the movie’s portrayal of India – well, I don’t remember another movie that was such a comprehensive collection of everything ugly about India. Everybody in department of tourism spending millions on ‘Incredible India’ campaign must be running for cover after watching this movie whose commercial success could undo all the branding they may have created over years. But yeah I won’t hang Danny Boyle for showing what he did because as few of my friends have strongly insisted – what he showed is what exist in India – it’s real, it’s the other india which lot of us see very little of these days but we can definitely not deny its existence. And they are right, what Danny Boyle showed is the other India. But I can’t help holding a grudge against him for dividing Indians into the ones who have never jumped into a shit-pool and the ones that did. I also hold a grudge against him for being so selective about his depiction of our country.
What if I promise to show you a rainbow and then show you a blue streak in the sky. But that’s not rainbow – it has 7 colours but see am just showing you a part of Rainbow, the blue part. So technically, you can’t deny am right – blue is part of the VIBGYOR that constitutes rainbow but guess you would still feel cheated and that’s what I felt after seeing slumdog. I saw just one shade of a multi-colour country and I know I can’t fight those who insist that the shade shown is actually one of the many that form India but I still feel cheated. Just think of those who never saw a rainbow before and when I showed them blue they just accepted that rainbow is nothing but a streak of blue – for many who have never been to India, this movie may just be what India is all about. The commercial success of this movie could well be the worst advertisement of our country probably after Mumbai terror attacks.
But may be my fears are misplaced, after all it’s just a movie. Should Indians take pride in this movie –I don’t know about others but I can’t take any pride in this movie by an Englishman that seems to be celebrating the poverty, crime and filth in India. I can’t join that celebration. But then in India – we really take international recognition a shade too seriously and a lot of people have embraced this movie as their own given all the golden globe and academy nominations but I fail to see what recognition are they seeking and recognition of what.
I want to make it clear that am not trying to wish away the poverty in India – it exists and we all hope one day people in our country will not be living in such sub-human conditions as many do today. Maybe, all am saying is that I saw this movie -I tried hard to like it and I couldn’t. So, may the best film win the Oscar tomorrow but I wont be rooting for the Slumdog Millionaire and if it indeed wins the award, despite all its Indian connections, its not going to make me feel any good.
I finally saw the movie that world is going ga ga over - Slumdog Millionaire. And there are two people associated with the movie who deserve compliments – Frieda Pinto coz she looked ravishing and Vikas Swarup because I liked the way he presented the basic idea of the story that life at times teaches you much more than what years spent in universities could.
But unfortunately that’s where I will stop with my compliments about the movie. What about AR Rahman’s music? Well, it didn’t help that just a day back I had seen Delhi-6 with some excellent music by Rahman and if you ask me - Masak-kali or Jai ho? Well, masak kali for me, i don’t think any Indian walked out of hall humming jai ho.
As for the movie’s portrayal of India – well, I don’t remember another movie that was such a comprehensive collection of everything ugly about India. Everybody in department of tourism spending millions on ‘Incredible India’ campaign must be running for cover after watching this movie whose commercial success could undo all the branding they may have created over years. But yeah I won’t hang Danny Boyle for showing what he did because as few of my friends have strongly insisted – what he showed is what exist in India – it’s real, it’s the other india which lot of us see very little of these days but we can definitely not deny its existence. And they are right, what Danny Boyle showed is the other India. But I can’t help holding a grudge against him for dividing Indians into the ones who have never jumped into a shit-pool and the ones that did. I also hold a grudge against him for being so selective about his depiction of our country.
What if I promise to show you a rainbow and then show you a blue streak in the sky. But that’s not rainbow – it has 7 colours but see am just showing you a part of Rainbow, the blue part. So technically, you can’t deny am right – blue is part of the VIBGYOR that constitutes rainbow but guess you would still feel cheated and that’s what I felt after seeing slumdog. I saw just one shade of a multi-colour country and I know I can’t fight those who insist that the shade shown is actually one of the many that form India but I still feel cheated. Just think of those who never saw a rainbow before and when I showed them blue they just accepted that rainbow is nothing but a streak of blue – for many who have never been to India, this movie may just be what India is all about. The commercial success of this movie could well be the worst advertisement of our country probably after Mumbai terror attacks.
But may be my fears are misplaced, after all it’s just a movie. Should Indians take pride in this movie –I don’t know about others but I can’t take any pride in this movie by an Englishman that seems to be celebrating the poverty, crime and filth in India. I can’t join that celebration. But then in India – we really take international recognition a shade too seriously and a lot of people have embraced this movie as their own given all the golden globe and academy nominations but I fail to see what recognition are they seeking and recognition of what.
I want to make it clear that am not trying to wish away the poverty in India – it exists and we all hope one day people in our country will not be living in such sub-human conditions as many do today. Maybe, all am saying is that I saw this movie -I tried hard to like it and I couldn’t. So, may the best film win the Oscar tomorrow but I wont be rooting for the Slumdog Millionaire and if it indeed wins the award, despite all its Indian connections, its not going to make me feel any good.
3 comments:
Couldn't agree more about the music. There are numerous ARR numbers which stand way way above 'Jai Ho', let alone masakali.
But I dont understand why everybody (including you) is all worried about the 'Depiction of Poor India' by Mr. Boyle.
Did Mr. Boyle ever come to you guys claiming the responsibility of advertising India to the world ? For a film maker, everything is a subject and he just exercised his right to it. If we are so defensive and so protective about that one color of our esteemed rainbow, we have all the right in the world to make million movies on them and doing our bit to 'advertise india' (if movie making is the only way to do that).
I agree we have got no right to claim these oscars as ours and even I am not at all elated on this success. But I frankly see no reasons to be pissed off at it either.
On a different note, go watch DEV-D if you haven't already. One of the brilliant flicks of recent times :)
I wouldn't worry about the perception this movie would create about India.
The IT brigade, various beauty pageants, Pink panther (Ms Rai-Bachchan) ..and what have you have created enough of an interest in India to make it a notice-worthy subject for the Oscars in the first place.
A R Rahman happened to be at the right place at the right time, who cares if he won for the wrong song.
Personally, I feel Lagaan should have won at the Oscars all those years ago. Perhaps if Bhuvan had played basket ball...
@Siddhish….Buddy, I agree with you…Mr. Boyle who has since I wrote last have indeed won the Oscars never claimed to make a documentary on India, nor was he paid by UPA govt. to contribute to “Achieving India” campaign (though am at my wits end to understand why have they included this as their governments’ achievement guess they have not seen the movie yet). But I will tell you, why so many of us are a bit/a lot peeved by this movie – had this been an Indian movie by Indian filmmaker for Indian moviegoer, I would have not been so critical of depiction of India – as politicians say then it would have been an ‘internal affair’ – but this is a movie by a foreigner about my country, which he anyways knows little about and it has turned out to be such a negative collage of Indian society that I can just help but feel peeved. Its just like if you make a mistake, if one of your family tells you that you are wrong – you are fine with that, but if it’s a stranger – you take an offence. ON a personal level, I think lot of my negativity emanated from the fact that till last saturday I was also rooting for slumdog and trying to celebrate its success mistaking it to be India’s arrival on the big ‘stage’ and then I saw the movie and realized that the movie has nothing that I can take pride in. So, maybe its disenchantment turned into dislike.
@MiM Well, Slumdog by no means is great cinema – I have seen better Indian movie but probably it was a case of ignorance is bliss for the academy so let them bask in their choice. As I wrote in my post biggest strength of the movie was the concept, after that best I could salvage was praise for Freida pinto ;-) As for Lagaan, it was a fantastic movie but as I have not seen the movie that finally won the foreign language oscar that year so cant really say if it indeed should have won or not but then as Mr. Bachhan says atleast for us – hindi movie buffs - Oscars shouldn’t not at all be ultimate recognition. Alas, we have no single reliable film award in India.
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