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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Slumdog Madness

Slumdog millionaire has created ripples across the globe for portraying a rags to riches story set in India's slum in Mumbai which has the dubious distinction of the Asia's largest slum. This movie also has its share of detractors which say India is depicted in a poor light as India is a archetype for growth among the so called developing nations, its a IT capital of the world and so forth!
Lets get the facts right, the movie is based on the novel by indian diplomat Vikas
Swarup's Q & A,in which the write calls a spade by spade, it doesnt try to sugarcoat or conceal the abysmal living conditions in the slums of our financial capital. It is presented as it is, if we cant digest or have a firsthand experience of this plight it doesnt mean that it is non existing, infact it exist right infront of our eyes,Sadly, We just choose to turn away and when a movie dares to depict this, we decry it by saying it is a imperialistic and vicious view of our country. I do agree that the movie is not a masterpiece and suffers from some incoheret performances,albeit the movie is salvaged by the brilliant acting by the child artists. So why does movie is busy garnering awards one after another and knocking Brad pitt's The curious case of Benjanim button out, It is cause the movie has a better storyline, its dicknesian storytelling and is more closer to the reality than others. Usually the American critics over the past years have been awarding smaller movies more exposure than the big ones, What could explain the horrific overlooking of Batman Dark knight, the years biggest grosser. Movie like The Reader, which stars Kate winslet as a Nazi and has received tepid response at the Box office, gets a running at oscars cause it is based on holocaust silly, the Academy's favorite subject. Just make any movie on World War 2 suffering of the victims in short holocaust, you are bound to get a nomination irrespective of the movies performance.
So why doesnt the Germans cry foul each time they are shown as merciless and vicious in the movies,cause it exists and they cant change it unfortunately
So lets cease being a bigot and accept the reality as it is, and also definately try to change this picture. This is what we can do, instead of crying foul on how the movie depicts India, Are we so insecure about our country that showing a slum in india makes West a sadistic society? How many times West has shown dark underbelly of their country and we quickly laud it for its reality on display and what research the director or the screenwriter must have done, What a crap!
Lets get over it, the movie could have been based anywhere and not necessarily in india. The movie is nominated for a whopping 10 oscars which in
itself is a big feat considering the movie is gettig more mileage than it deserves but what the heck we should celebrate, if the movie manages to win atleast in its half of the nominations category after all the movie is set in India

See the movie to have your own review and let not others like birdbrain Aridham chaudhari say it otherwise.