I know I am late by atleast a month, but had to write about this, if not for anything just to break the short hiatus from writing :). A.R.Rahman did India mighty proud by winning India's first ever Golden Globe and followed that immediately by winning the BAFTA award as well, for his musical score in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". The movie overall won 4 out of the 4 categories it was chosen at the GG. What makes this achievement even more significant is that this movie was given absolutely no chance initially and was supposed to have gone straight to DVD.
In my opinion what made the movie tick was its screenplay. The screenplay was adapted from the book "Q and A" by Vikas Swarup. The screenplay made sure the narration never sagged even a wee bit. Two factors I think that worked in its favor amongst the audience here in the US and Europe is its raw depiction of Mumbai and its stuff of dreams, intially tragic but eventually successful romantic angle. That very raw depiction of Indian poverty, societal and caste based differences has ruffled quite a few feathers in India.
No one will deny that these things exist in India. But for people in the US who are so used to picturing India to be still a "third-world country" full of camel-riding, cinema-crazy people("Do you guys have cars in India? I thought you still ride in horses and camels in India" was one of the first questions I was asked by an American when I was in the university);this movie did nothing to change their perception. There were couple of scenes in the movie, which were definitely over the top. Two examples would be the scene where the boy tries to see Amitabh and the other in the studio where Anil Kapoor repeatedly calling the participant a "Chai-wala" to evoke laughter. These things could have very easily been toned down and could have shown a slightly balanced view of things. Atleast personally, I would have preferred if they had shown atleast a few things positive in India. This would have enabled an unbiased viewer could come out of the theater thinking that this story could have happened anywhere in the world -just not Mumbai. Right from the word go, everyone in the movie except for the protagonist and his lover are all shown in bad light.
At the same time, I am not saying that film-makers should show only the rosy side of India. That would help absolutely no one. As pointed by one of my friends in his post India is a country of more than half a billion poor people and there is no point in hiding the reality. Merely projecting the success of a small percentage of people would only give a false healthy facade. People were out-raged back in India because they thought India was projected in the worst possible manner to the western world. My question is are they just simply worried that the Western world would find how bad India is? I doubt if the movie would have evoked the same negative reaction in India, if this movie had been directed by an Indian and just released in India alone.
To be honest more and more the western world learn to interact with us more(they are already doing that quite a bit now)there will be more such movies potraying India for what it is and that is the reality. Otherwise we will be like people blind-folded thinking that the world has gone dark.
.............Will be bak!!!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
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