Slumdog Millionaire – Oscars ultimate recognition?

With its mixed c a s t , the muchfeted and hyped film is also British director Danny Boyle’s paean to Mumbai, India’s edgy metropolis of extremes and Bollywood, the
world’s most prolific film industry. The technically well-done portrayal of the city’s stifling and colorful squalor and its people has struck a chord with the western audience.

These awards hold significance in wake of arguments that so far Hollywood has ignored the Hindi film industry, which churns out maximum number of movies every year in the world. Our movies had been given shoddy treatment for a long time for being song-dance melodramas.

The presence of both rich and poor strata of the society in a relatively peaceful coexistence is a peculiar characteristic of India. One does not negate the presence of the other. Indian arts have preceded the western arts by thousands of years and it is not the recognition of a 300 year old nation that a 5000 year old civilization should be so desperate for.That frenzy and pathetic desire for validation is the real poverty facing us today. Of course, the Oscars for A R Rahman and Resul Pookutty are well-deserved.Though Rahman has given better music in the past and this was certainly not his best. Recognition to our technicians, musics and all those who contribute in making the cinematic wonder is any day welcome.

Slumdog Millionaire incorporates most of the elements typical to Indian cinema yet suddenly the West has latched on to it like fish to water. With its success, it seems as if all things Bollywood or at least, from India, are catching fire in the United States. Indian food is no exception, with new attention being focused on that type of cuisine. Indeed, Indian flavors are playing a starring role in more and more kitchens and restaurants here. Besides Bollywood dance has suddenly become a huge hit with Americans loving to gyrate on hep Hindi movie songs while they shed loads of pounds in the process. These can be called positive influences of movies like Slumdog, which help connect the western audiences with true Indian culture and traditions.

Directors make movies for two reasons mainly – it’s a cinematic representationof what he feels strongly about or it’s a commercial venture for him. Slumdog certainly falls in second category. But aren’t there plenty of filmmakers in Hindi film industry who have made films for both reasons.When Amitabh Bachchan said that this movie portrays Mumbai or India’s dark underbelly he was right.Westerners have sold India’s poverty in the past too. But the true test will be when people here also buy the Indian traditions, family values, culture equally. Say if a Sooraj Barjatiya production manages to run packed houses in major theatres or a Lagaan bags an Oscar. Our filmmakers need not consider the Oscars as the ultimate recognition of their work. The more than one billion audience which waits every Friday for the new releases, many of which are the Jamal Maliks who don’t mind shelling their hard earned money for three hours of retreat into the fantasy world created by our dream merchants which takes them far away from their realities of life.

- Editor