OK…So we finally made it to the Oscars! Kudos to A R Rahman for putting up ‘dhols’ and Indian dancers on stage at the 81st Academy Awards. And kudos to Gulzar and Rasool Pukutty too for the smart song that is now echoing throughout the country! Any Indian will feel proud of what these men did and what they achieved. But on a personal note – it left a rather nagging feeling for me. Sadly, reading the book before watching the movie was not a great idea at all! A few questions that continue to bother me a day after the great feat was achieved remains:
1. Why do we have to go overboard just because he won a couple of Oscars? Weren’t we mesmerized by his genius even without this recognition?
2. Why is it such a great achievement to be recognized by a body that patronizes World Cinema and has been ignoring Indian Cinema since the last 80 years of its inception in spite of masterpieces being created here continuously?
3. Why did Gulzar have to be appreciated for his poetry with a ‘Jai Ho’ which according to me and many more Gulzar fans, certainly does not feature among his best creations?
4. Why does a British screenplay writer need to bare a poverty and dishonesty stricken face of our country in front of millions of movie watchers around the globe and get awarded for that? How many of us actually read the book by Vikas Swaroop, the novelist (who the crew almost forgot to take along for the Oscars) to see what Simon Beaufoy made of the rather nice story? (Just a trivia – the book ‘Q and A’ is now called Slumdog Mllionaire, so much for a Western touch!
6. Why don’t we realize till now that the movie is actually a British Cinema shot in India with Indian character artists, to make it look Indian? Even the hero is an imported one, for heavens’ sake…are there no good actors here who could have played the lead role?
7. Is Poverty Porn all that we are left with to offer or to sell? Is India all about slums, slumdogs, dishonest people, religious riots and crooks?
8. Why can’t a Tare Zameen Par appeal to them? Or a Lagaan? Only because one looks at the middle class – the average India and the other glorifies India over the West (Even if it is in a cricket match)?
And a few pointers here as well –
- No participant on a reality quiz show is ever ridiculed by the host, on screen for being whatever he or she is by profession!
- Slumdog is not the only name by which an Indian street child can be called!
- A star like Amitabh Bacchan would never suddenly land his chopper in the outskirts of Dharavi and give an autograph to a little boy plastered in shit!
- The questions were modified as best a British could, leaving gaping disparity between the way the incident shaped the boy’s life and the reason why he could answer them. The questions in the book and the way they relate to the boy’s life are far more realistic and thought provoking!
- The boy was very secularly named Ram Mohammad Thomas in Vikas Swaroop’s book ‘Q and A’, of course with a rather sensitive story behind it – which was twisted to Jamal Malik and a rather predictable Hindu-Muslim difference angle added to sensationalize the story and add a typical Indian touch to it.
Perhaps this is a one sided theory but as far as I know they are all valid. Now, if with a typical ‘forget it and enjoy’ sentiment we choose to ignore these and bask in the false glory of the success of an Indian Film at the Oscars, well I might as well remain silent and listen to far better compositions by both Rahman and Gulzar in solitude and appreciate their genius!
Just to add…in case you would want to listen to one of the many compositions that truly shows the genius and mastery of Allah Rakha Rehman, listen to ‘Jiya Se Jiya’ from the album Connections.
