The Slumdog Factor

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.

What will you live for?

When we think of all the things that matter in life, we are generally focused on the things that are most relevant in the present context of things. The bike we own, the project at hand, the subject that we are studying… But is it all there is to life? There are a lot of things, apart from those relevant only to the present situations that we desire in life. Over time, this list gets prioritized and we tend to veer off in a particular direction. Then comes the phase of jobs and career and certain items from this list take a back seat. What are these things? Are these just the figments of youthful imagination and are they doomed to remain the fragments of a raw mind? Why is it that in spite of all factors there are a select number of items that bring up the top of the priority list? Why is it that these things keep on reminding you of that list? What are the things that you care about? What are the things you despise? What are the things you love? What are the things you’ll die for?

Is there anything that you’ll LIVE for? In this whole world, there are a few things that remain worth dying for and these things tend to break the shackles of time, location, caste, religion and all such factors that dictate what and how we think. I’ll fight for my friends. I’ll love to take a top-end fighter jet out in the skies for a spin. I’ll drool at the sight of a Ferrari or a Lamborghini and I would give almost anything to own a Lamborghini Gallardo but are these the things I’ll die for? I wouldn’t hesitate a moment to lay my life for my country. THAT’s something I’ll die for. But, what will it be for which I’ll live? Will it be a person? Will it be a material object? Is there something for which I’ll give Yama raj a run for his money? What about love? Will it be true love? Perhaps a thought, an idea, a way of life? Am I getting confused?

When you look at life, are we looking at the picture painted in front of us by others? Are we looking at life the way others expect us to? Or are we staunch enough to define what we stand for? Is our thinking style dictated by the world or do we define the world as we think? I wonder, is this the thing that you’ll live for? For the ideas that define you. For what you are? For the way you perceive things and the way you want them to be? Deep within us is the consciousness of what is right and what is not and in spite of all the battering from external sources we tend to know if we are right or wrong while doing any damn thing. What you live for should be this particular insight that survives the test of time, external influences and worldly beliefs that try to corrupt this insight. What you live for should be the freedom to know what is right and what is not by yourself rather than someone instructing you into thinking the other way round. There are many reasons for you to die. Only one for you to live. That one reason… is YOU.