So "Slumdog Millionaire" has everyone raving about it...from the critics to Golden Globe to, well, potential Oscars. Does something universally acclaimed really need to be commented upon let alone dare to be reviewed by a non entity like me? Perhaps not. But I feel almost impelled to write and beg to differ from all the rave reviews it has earned.
So does it not deserve all the praises and awards it has earned? The point I want to make is simply that one ,it is over hyped and secondly it is a typical case of India bashing that has always found favour with the west. No doubt the music is beautiful and poignant as is the rags to riches story told very innovatively. But the India it shows is one that has typically found favour with the west...a India of poverty, slums, naked children. All the staple ingredients that define “India” for the west make their appearance in the movie...the slums of Bombay, communal riots, child beggars, ruthless small time dons who mercilessly blind children and sell them, prostitution...name it and the movie gives it to you.
Where then ,one might ask, lie the originality of it all? Honestly, even I’m wondering. West has always seen India through its own tinted glasses wherein India is a poverty infested land of snake charmers, rogues and children left to the mercy of Almighty. While this is true but its only a part of the truth and not the whole truth. We are as much a land of slums as West is of bikini clad babes a la Baywatch.
It is good to bask in the glory of awards and recognitions but will the Real India please make an appearance too and get its due recognition and not simply the “Slumdog India” we are fed with time and again?