Thursday, February 5, 2009
Slumdog aiming Oscars!
Slumdog Millionaire has sparked off serious debates all over India. One set of people are proud of the movie because a film based on India and acted by Indians and it won prestigious awards and got nominated for Oscars while some feel that the film portrays a wrong image about India.
The film was severely criticized by greats like Amitabh Bachan for showing the slums of India and projecting a wrong image. The film has disturbing visuals of India and its hard to digest for any proud Indian. However, it is unfair to say that Danny Boyle has projected a false image of India to the western audience. Whatever he has showed in his movie, is a reality which still exists. Slums can be seen in almost every Indian city, there is a vast majority of people under poverty line and are deprived of basic amenities. The riots against Muslims is another scene which can damage the secure image of India. The riots, slums and underworld featured in numerous bollywood movies before. Now people are worried about the image of India just because the movie is directed by someone from west. Why do we have to cover up the truth?
The movie is about Jamal's journey of life and love from the slums to the hot seat of TV show, "who wants to be a millionaire". It portrays the survival instincts of a slum
kid and his never-say-die attitude and determination to find his lost love. Fresh faces, brilliant screenplay and amazing direction makes this movie better than typical bollywood stuff. Its a refreshing change after stupid movies like 'Rab Ne Bana di Jodi'. May be our bollywood directors should learn a few things from this movie.The focus of bollywood is on size zero actresses, designer costumes, foreign locations and six pack heroes. They have completely gone offtrack as they forgot that the essence of a cinema is its storyline, screenplay, characters and direction.
I think Amitabh is just annoyed coz his real life role as a TV host was portrayed as an arrogant character in the movie. Kudos to Anil Kapoor for his excellent acting skills.AR Rahman is finally being recognised in International arena. We all know he is a rare talent and a musical genius, however his best works over the years went unnoticed in the west. Dev Patel, Irfan Khan, Freida Pinto and the slum kids put up a good performance. (some of the slum kids are actually from the slums of mumbai). Now the wait is for Oscars, for the first time Indians will be eager to watch it live.
The film has a typical bollywood ending of Boy and Girl getting reunited in a crowded place. It is a masala mix of romance, drama and suspense. It will not be easy for a movie influenced by bollywood, to compete with hollywood movies in Oscars. Anyways lets hope for the best. Jai Ho!
Also read - Real Vs Reel
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9 comments:
truth is always bitter...
Hi Ajith,
I just saw your comment on Hindu Atheists blog. There are quite a few atheists, who were born Hindus, (although much less that theists) on the blogosphere. However not all of them write blogs on Religion or hindusim but you can find some of their posts alluding to their disbelief in a fairy up in the sky.
Btw, if you are hoping for quick fixes for changing people's mind in something which has existed for thousands of years I don't think it is possible in our lifetimes. However thanks to scientific knowledge which has increased exponentially in the last 100 years we are in a much better position to explain the fantasies propagated in the name of religion. But that doesn't mean we lose hope. This will come slowly but surely since people are by nature logical and rational. However they have been brainwashed for so long since childhood that they just act out of habit in matter relating God rather than reason. That is why it is so easy to encourage rational thought in children, since they are more open to logic.
As Sam Harris the famous American atheist once pointed out -"People just don't like to publicly change their minds. They change their minds in private." So don't worry what people say in public. There's ego involved but I am sure many of them change their minds in private. I was once a staunch believer too but changed my mind slowly. Just keep writing and try to be rational and logical and you will see that there are many people who do accept your position.
I somehow agree with the critics probably because people in the western part of the world still thinks that poverty and slums are synonymous to India and Asia as a whole. Such movies only deepens their misconception. Of course it is true that we have slums in majority and living conditions are much poorer than advanced countries but that is not the only thing to show. You are right, there is no reason to cover up the truth but there is no reason to showcase it either:-)
Big B is annoyed with anything and everything these days, maybe Amar Singh influenced him ;-)
P.S Rab ne was not stupid, it was a nice movie in its own genre (hey I am an SRK fan):-)
@Seema - The story is about a boy from an Indian Slum. Without showing slums, its impossible to make this movie. There is a specific scene in which they show multi storied apartments in place of slums. So I feel its unfair to criticise the director for that. An otherwise silent AR Rahman answered the critics recently and I think he is spot on - http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Make-your-own-film-Rahman-tells-Slumdog-critics/420128/
I liked SRK in DDLJ, Swadesh and Chak de. But in 'RNBDJ' he was totally fake and was overacting in every scene. I guess u r blinded by his charm.:) (and may be his six packs)
Jai ho to you.... :)
i guess amitabh didn't like the way he was portrayed in the movie! if you consider boyle's movie - trainspotting, slumdog can't even compare. i don't know how slumdog managed to trap the attention of the attention deficit hollywood committees. maybe the 'indian'-ness is an exotic draw for them.
the tirade of bachchan against slumdog can be attributed only to jealousy... In Indian films like 'naan kadavul' we have even horrific scenes of beggars and all, but nobody complained...anyway, y shud they complain? Films are a reflection of reality...and let it be like that..atleast its 1000 times better than the usual masala fare..
loved ur previous posts too...especially the hilarious predictions for 2009...blogrolling you
@ Praveen - Spot on,realistic films are any day better than the ususal masala films. Thnks for the visit :)
You are right, ajith. The criticisms against Slumdog and those against The White Tiger when it won the Booker Prize have many things in common. It is better to present the true picture and make foreigners stay away from India than a glossy picture that may invite more... as the truth is powerful enough to make them disgusted and turn them away...
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