Does 'Slumdog Millionaire' deserve all this hype ?

What's all this hype about the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' ? The IMDb site shows that the movie has been voted as top#34 in the all time list at a rating of 8.7/10. Quite Interesting. You believe that ?

I am an Indian, so I see the hype more pronounced all around me. I have heard a varied number of people talk varied things about it, both people from USA and India. The attitude with Indians, mostly has been a feeling of pride about the movie and the attitude among the Americans also has been on similar lines, in fact they like the movie better. With Indians, the feeling is understandable, rarely does an Indian movie get nominated for Oscars these days ( that says nothing about the movies that get made in India). Surely, having made by an American, this movie did enjoy that 'luck' which other great Indian movies made by Indian directors, lacked. That's a good starting point to be noted.

Coming from an American's point of view, they had a shot at seeing more about India, and what do they see? India in bad light, as usual !!! For most Americans, even in this 21st century India is still all about Snakes (cobras), Elephants, Cows, Taj Mahal, AIDS, 2nd most populous country, Kama Sutra, Gandhi, cheap labour and of course the land of beggars and slums, the latter shown in particular by the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'. So for once the world got a chance to look at India, much deeper than the surface and again the director portrays the same old bad things about India.

There are people who tell me, isn't that true ? I agree partly though. The way the movie has been picturized is bad. Sure, there have been beautiful movies in the past which threw some light on aspects like these. India is the country which makes the most number of movies in the world. All Indian languages put together, India makes more movies than the movies of all countries put together. Have any of these movies ever made it to Oscars ? Well, apart from "Mother India", "Salaam Bombay", "Gandhi"( not totally Indian) and "Lagaan", none of the other movies ever made it to the world stage. Does it mean those were the 4 best movies ever made in India ? NO. So when Slumdog gets nominated for Oscars ( mind you, it's not even in the best foreign film category, but in the 'Best Film'), is it as good as the 4 movies mentioned above ? NO. Not even close. It is not even close to any of these movies, a list of all Indian movies sent to the Oscars. What happened to movies like 'Roja' or 'Bombay' or 'Yuva' or the recent 'Rang De Basanthi' or 'Taare Zameen Par', does anyone outside India know about these movies ? NO. They were made with much better intentions, they and many others do show India in bad light, because that is the truth, but the way you show it, matters. Of course as a director, you try to cash in on the bad things of a society and in the process pass a message to the movie viewers. What was the message passed in this movie, other than the obvious bad things in India, known to everyone. Every country has its own unique bad points, but how many movies made in India, make fun of America? Hardly any and how many of those movies made it to Oscars ? NONE. So, I personally feel, this is where 'Slumdog' lost in comparison to other Indian movies.

It depicts how, many kids in Mumbai (India) are exploited in their infancy, the poverty in Mumbai (India), a glimpse of the Communal riots, the economic problems, the gangsters, the bad people, etc. That is all true, but the way it has been shown, never in the movie, I felt the movie made emotions flow out of me. Any of the other great Indian movies would do that to you. But I never felt that at any point in this picture ( except maybe a couple of scenes, but that was due to the merit of the scenes, not because of the attitude of the movie). It lacked compassion to all these problems, I felt.

I feel the movie's main theme was 'Entertainment' and if not for the horrors shown in the movie, it did achieve that. The sad thing is, the movie used the 'Indian common man's sorrows and tragedies' as its USP. It has cashed in on the sorrows of these Indian people to entertain the movie viewers the world over, as an entertainment. It doesn't have any message, doesn't have a stand on the bad things depicted in the movie, like say a Bombay or a Roja or a Yuva does. Neither does it provide any solutions to the horrific horrendous horrors that it has portrayed India to be, in the movie. It was an out and out, pure entertainment movie sold with India's sorrows as its USP and lo, it is in the nominations for the 'Best Film 2008' in the Oscars. Rest is for you to decide.

Also some scenes portrayed in the movie I feel, left a lot to be desired. What are we supposed to make out of the scene in which a Kid gets beaten up a taxi driver for stealing his passengers(Americans) luggage and the kid tells them, ' Here is a taste of Real India for you, madam'. To which the lady says,' here is a taste of Real America for you and hands him a $100 bill'. Also quite nonsensical has been the way ' the SLUMDOGS' aka the 'The kids/gangsters/ illiterate people', converse with each other in English. If the director, was so hell bent on showing the true colors of India, where did this trick come from ? Also the concept of the 'Kid' having come across each of the questions at some point in his ' slum life' was quite unrealistic to believe. But isn't that entertainment!!! These are few points, I noticed when I scratched more on the surface.

Also as a closing statement, I want to just mention about the music director, A. R . Rahman. Many consider him to be India's finest music director and it is sad that one of his worst works ever gets nominated for Oscars. It just gets to show us, how bad the other nominated movies music was and how lucky it is to have an American director, direct the movie for you and show bad things about your own country. Well as you see, it counts:). Btw I would suggest the interested readers to listen to his other works. ( people who do not know about A.R. Rahman's works I mean).

Well, I dissected it for you. There are many out there who totally disagree with me, here is an example, but this is what I personally felt after seeing the movie. As they say , to each one, his own, so it's upto you to decide now !!!!