Dear Editor,
By this evening the Oscars for best picture would have been awarded, and barring a last minute backlash the movie Slumdog Millionaire is expected to win. Here is a movie based on a novel by an Indian, starring Indians, set entirely in India with a brilliant score by AR Rahman. All India should be proud of it. But apparently not.
Some object to its overly negative portrayal of India and Indians, embarrassed perhaps, that the world should discover that India, home to a million gods, has crime and corruption and poverty. For them, India is best represented by shows like Kasamh Se where everyone is rich and fair-skinned. For the rest of us not familiar with present-day India, Slumdog is a refreshing blast of ultra-reality. It reminds us anew that almost all the dross served up by Bollywood is hopelessly studio-bound, that no matter how technically proficient their film-makers are, they never dare take on the real streets of India.
Also, there is the sour-grapes gripe of film-makers like Aamir Khan who cry out that if Slumdog had been made by an Indian it would not have been so praised by Westerners. The fact is, Aamir Khan and his cohorts could never have made a movie like Slumdog. If they had, it would have had at least ten songs, most of which would have been shot in the Swiss Alps and Piccadilly Circus. Can anyone imagine if Bollywood had done its version of Gandhi? The Mahatma would have probably borne a suspicious resemblance to Shah Rukh Khan, would not have died at the end and the movie itself would have featured at least one number of Gandhiji dancing atop a train. Which begs the larger question − why is it that India which churns out more movies per year than any other country has never won an Academy award for Best Foreign Picture? Not that the great Amitabh Bhachchan is overly worried. Witness his shockingly insular comments that “Oscars [are] not the ultimate recognition. If they wish to give us an Oscar they can do it… if not, it would be even better.”
But more to the heart of the matter – why did the movie not do as well in India as classics like KKrish or Dhoom 2? Perhaps the word Slumdog was enough of a put-off. Or that there were no big-name stars, besides the washed-up Anil Kapoor who incidentally is now the biggest comeback this side of Mickey Rourke. Or could it just be simply that in the land of so much intellectual wealth, the mass of movie-goers are a puerile lot who wouldn’t know a half-decent movie if it was liquefied and poured over their eyes?
Yours faithfully,
Robin Muneshwer
