Apna Slumdog from aamchi Mumbai
A movie that was initially spurned by critics and audiences alike for portraying India in poor light is now the darling of everyone and has given India its new anthem, Jai ho. History is written by the victor and so is it with Danny Boyle's film.
OK, IT’S over and done with now. Slumdog Millionaire has won in every category it had got nominations for. It is the Best Film for the year 2008. AR Rehman has pocketed the very much deserved golden stautettes and so have Resul Pookutty (I hope I have got the name right) and Gulzar. CONGRATULATIONS to everyone.
I was up for many hours last night to catch the live telecast of the awards ceremony. I do it each year. This year was more special as I had managed to see Slumdog, Changeling, Frozen River, The curious case of Benjamin Button and Milk so I had my own list ready as to who should win. All my nominees WON.
After watching the ceremony I switched to Indian channels and expectedly they have no news other than the Oscar wins to report on. I have been to Rehman’s favorite dargah where he composed many of his tunes (courtesy Star News), to the slums (courtesy NDTV) and have heard anyone and everyone associated closely or remotely with the making of Slumdog wax eloquent about the film and Danny Boyle. And I am not grudging anyone even one moment of their happiness and fame.
I have liked AR Rehman’s music in most of the films he composed for and I loved his little speech and his performance on stage (although I just could not appreciate the horrid pink short lehengas of the accompanying dancers. They should have asked one of the Bollywood choreographers to do the choreography and costumes).
The child actors who all walked the carpet with such aplomb and who climbed the stage for the award like pros will remain in memory for a long, long time. I hope and pray that each one of them becomes as successful in their lives as their movie has been at the Oscars.
I must admit I have developed a soft spot for Dev Patel (for his infectious 24x7 smile) and for Frieda Pinto. She has a great smile too but I am simply floored by the way she has taken to the world of Vogue covers, red carpet walks, awards ceremonies and designer gowns. Till Slumdog Millionaire happened she was just another Mumbai model trying for a Bollywood break. Now just one movie old and she has become a pro at the celebrity game without sounding pompous or pretentious. She is enjoying the wild ride but with such ease and grace. I still cringe at the memory of that over made up giggling and pretentious Indian actress who for some reason walks the red carpet at Cannes each year and manages to have a wardrobe gaffe each year. While that actress simpers, flashes coy smiles at her husband and generally makes a fool of herself, Frieda is so natural and unpretentious. Oops, I think I maybe guilty for gushing a bit here.
Now to the last bit. I am amazed the most by how India has taken the film to its heart once the awards momentum built up. This is the same film that was not invited to the government run awards because they felt it portrayed India in a bad light and the release of which was accompanied by column after column lamenting the portrayal of the slums and the filth that is a part of these slums. There were some channels who cried foul at the ’exploitation’ of the child actors from the slums and indirectly accused Danny and team for doing nothing for the children (as it turns out there is a Trust for the children and I hope that is the truth).
Now of course with eight ’golden little men’ in the bag all is forgiven. The critics have had to retreat and the victory parade team is having its moment in the sun...the movie that ’portrayed India in bad light’ has now become the film that is giving India its ’India shining’ moment. Slums, poverty, police abuse, lack of hygiene...all those things that this movie was accused of showcasing have been forgotten for the moment and the media has reluctantly started parroting the western critic’s lines of this being a movie about the triumph of hope. I wonder why this was not visible to most Indians earlier and if it is not a movie about triumph of hope then why are we singing that line now...
Well history, they say, is usually written by the victor and so is the case with Danny Boyle’s film. Now this film made by an angrez with Amreekan money in the slums of aamchi Mumbai with a largely Indian cast is the Best Film of the year and India now feels okay calling this film ’apni picture’.
JAI HO!
After watching the ceremony I switched to Indian channels and expectedly they have no news other than the Oscar wins to report on. I have been to Rehman’s favorite dargah where he composed many of his tunes (courtesy Star News), to the slums (courtesy NDTV) and have heard anyone and everyone associated closely or remotely with the making of Slumdog wax eloquent about the film and Danny Boyle. And I am not grudging anyone even one moment of their happiness and fame.
I have liked AR Rehman’s music in most of the films he composed for and I loved his little speech and his performance on stage (although I just could not appreciate the horrid pink short lehengas of the accompanying dancers. They should have asked one of the Bollywood choreographers to do the choreography and costumes).
The child actors who all walked the carpet with such aplomb and who climbed the stage for the award like pros will remain in memory for a long, long time. I hope and pray that each one of them becomes as successful in their lives as their movie has been at the Oscars.
I must admit I have developed a soft spot for Dev Patel (for his infectious 24x7 smile) and for Frieda Pinto. She has a great smile too but I am simply floored by the way she has taken to the world of Vogue covers, red carpet walks, awards ceremonies and designer gowns. Till Slumdog Millionaire happened she was just another Mumbai model trying for a Bollywood break. Now just one movie old and she has become a pro at the celebrity game without sounding pompous or pretentious. She is enjoying the wild ride but with such ease and grace. I still cringe at the memory of that over made up giggling and pretentious Indian actress who for some reason walks the red carpet at Cannes each year and manages to have a wardrobe gaffe each year. While that actress simpers, flashes coy smiles at her husband and generally makes a fool of herself, Frieda is so natural and unpretentious. Oops, I think I maybe guilty for gushing a bit here.
Now to the last bit. I am amazed the most by how India has taken the film to its heart once the awards momentum built up. This is the same film that was not invited to the government run awards because they felt it portrayed India in a bad light and the release of which was accompanied by column after column lamenting the portrayal of the slums and the filth that is a part of these slums. There were some channels who cried foul at the ’exploitation’ of the child actors from the slums and indirectly accused Danny and team for doing nothing for the children (as it turns out there is a Trust for the children and I hope that is the truth).
Now of course with eight ’golden little men’ in the bag all is forgiven. The critics have had to retreat and the victory parade team is having its moment in the sun...the movie that ’portrayed India in bad light’ has now become the film that is giving India its ’India shining’ moment. Slums, poverty, police abuse, lack of hygiene...all those things that this movie was accused of showcasing have been forgotten for the moment and the media has reluctantly started parroting the western critic’s lines of this being a movie about the triumph of hope. I wonder why this was not visible to most Indians earlier and if it is not a movie about triumph of hope then why are we singing that line now...
Well history, they say, is usually written by the victor and so is the case with Danny Boyle’s film. Now this film made by an angrez with Amreekan money in the slums of aamchi Mumbai with a largely Indian cast is the Best Film of the year and India now feels okay calling this film ’apni picture’.
JAI HO!
.nihal bache chup. slum dog main kuch nahi tha. sabi log indias ko slumdog kehne ko shuru karenge
.Frankly, I don't think Slumdog Millionaire deserved the Oscar for best film. And even more frankly, I don't think Resul Pookutty should have invoked "my country and my civilisation" in his acceptance speech for best sound mixing. India was not up there in the Kodak auditorium for approval. It was a British film financed by the indie subsidiary of an American studio which happened to be set in India and as a result they could not help but involve Indian actors (including Indian-origin Britishers) and shoot it in India. We crave too much for international recognition. A bit too much than is seemly. Even as all of us go around strutting, pretending to be a superpower.
Other than Slumdog, I have seen only one film out of the other four nominated. But I've read about all of them. The one that I saw is The Reader. The subject is far more intellectually challenging, emotionally moving and morally disturbing than Slumdog can ever hope to be. Not since A Last Tango In Paris has nudity (both male and female) been so necessary to a film's narrative, and so non-titillating and so touching. A film which stretches over 30 years and with essentially only two characters, and yet a film that is as gripping as a thriller. It's a film that, as my friend told me, demands and requires to be seen in one sitting, with no interruption by commercials and visits to the loo.
But look at the themes of the other movies that were nominated this year. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the love story of a man who is born as an extreme geriatric and keeps getting younger and dies as a newborn. Only for a brief period of time are the man and his beloved around the same compatible age. Of course it's an impossible concept and completely unbelievable, but it's a high concept. Milk is about the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States; Frost/Nixon about the first interview disgraced US President Richard Nixon gave, to has-been TV journalist David Frost. For both of them, it is a chance for redemption, for a somewhat sane life. These are all big themes. I am not doubting Slumdog's quality as a film in any way. Danny Boyle is one of the most talented directors around. But comparing Slumdog to The Reader is almost impossible. It's like comparing A Christmas Carol to Great Expectations.
Scrooge won, little Pip lost. But that's the way it has been with the Oscars. Sometimes the nominations reflect the mood of America's liberals, sometimes the winners reflect political correctness. In 2006, the following five films were nominated: Good Night and Good Luck, Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Capote and Munich. Good Night and Good Luck is about a TV broadcaster who took on the McCarthyist witch hunt in the 1950s; essentially about freedom of the press. Brokeback Mountain deflated the entire mythology of uber-macho frontiersmen by portraying a deep homosexual relationship between two cowboys. Crash interlinked several stories to study racism in all its forms and in startling ways. Capote was about the gay writer Truman Capote who travels to the South of the US to write a book on two multiple murderers. Munich told the story of the Israeli agents who hunted down the Black September terrorists who killed Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics, and asked the question: To take revenge, do we become as base as the men who are our targets?
There's a clear pattern: anger over the Iraq war, the stifling of the media, the stranglehold of neo-conservatism, the contempt for minorities. The denizens of Hollywood were simply reacting to their world as they saw it. The other major critically-acclaimed movies of that year were Transamerica, about one man's battle to change his gender, and Syriana, which told Americans that their nation's policies were largely responsible for Islamist terrorism.
Then there's political correctness. Gandhi won Best Picture over ET. The Academy decided that the biopic of a great and influential leader was more "important" than the woes of a cute alien stranded on our planet. (This incensed Steven Spielberg so much that he decided to give the Academy the "important" films they felt comfortable with, and made The Colour Purple - which didn't win any Oscars - and Schindler's List - which raked them in.) Tom Hanks won his first best acting Oscar for Philadelphia, as much for his acting as for being the first major star to portray a gay man suffering from AIDS. In Hollywood, that's called "courage".
I agree with the point u r trying to make Ramesh.Jab successful ho gayi to hamari film ban gayi........A.R Rehman has made better music in the past but got recognition now only when he is part of a brit film.
Ramesh sir,
I wonder do u remeber wat u have written? Your coment is so long and is almost loosing its focal point, wat r u tliing abt - undeserving Slumdog movie or other movies' stories...?
I understand ur personal opinion and I am cmpltly in favor of the freedom of expression... but next time you put across smdin try to bring that in fewer words so that ppel can understand wat do u want to say
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