People; their trials and tribulations; their unique methods to deal with them and their ultimate triumph against all odds. This basic theme has been tapped by countless film makers and nearly all have done great. Slumdog Millionaire is another addition to this and what a glittering addition! Everyone who has seen the movie will agree that the Best Film Oscar was no big surprise. It is worth noting how many facets of Indian life were incorporated perfectly in one movie and that too in a British film. India, with its colossal diversity has such a myriad subjects to portray that one only needs to look around carefully and one gets enough material to last many lifetimes. A hugely popular TV show, an unbelievable sequence of events and an end product that does not have a single glitch anywhere. History repeats itself. Richard Attenborough gave us Gandhi. Danny Boyle gave us Slumdog Millionaire. Both films were fully based in India but strangely, no one in India made them earlier. They say the subjects have been exhausted and that’s why they are forced towards remakes. Whose remake is Slumdog? Why is it that we cannot make such positive cinema in India? The technology is there. The stories are there. The actors are there. The audience is there. What are the Indian film makers waiting for? Winning 8 Oscars out of the 10 for which it was nominated is not a joke. Winning them ahead of movies like Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, etc is not something that is done on a regular basis. What did Danny Boyle do that the Indians didn’t? Have we not heard the music of A. R. Rahman before? Have we not seen Mumbai slums in movies before? Have we not had debut actors in a movie before? Have we not had stellar performances before? Why is there a sudden dearth of all this coming together? Why is it that we need to add the so-called masala items in every movie? For example, what purpose was solved by Jiah Khan’s item number in Ghajini? For that matter, what purpose do the item numbers solve in any Hindi movie? Just for the sake of an eye-candy, the movie carries an item song. No relation to the theme, no value addition to the film. It is just a cover up for a bad job done in making of the movie. How many such bad jobs do we have to face? Why is it that the end of almost every Hindi movie can be predicted by watching the first 15 minutes at the maximum? When do we get stuff equivalent to, say, the Oceans series? Or the Terminator series if someone gets too ambitious? What is it that we lack? Why does cinema have to be loud? Why do we need a gargantuan amount spent on a worthless piece of crap? Why? Why? Why?
Well I don’t have the answers to these questions but what I can guarantee is this: Go and watch Slumdog Millionaire if you have not watched it already. It’s not everyday that you get to watch such quality stuff. Not with Indian actors in it. If you have already seen it and tend to agree with this blog, maybe we can watch it once more!!! A good turn deserves another, they say.
