May be this is my first article in this blog which gave some work to critic in me :- )According to me Slum dog millionaire is totally an unworthy movie to get rewarded. Its not only about Oscar but about contagious appreciation it got all over. Here in this context I would like to add that we should realise that Oscar is not an international award like Nobel but an award that is meant for english movies only. Best foreign movie is the only category available for all other languages how ever great technical brilliance they may have. So , never look at it like an international standard. Can you imagine an english movie recieving a Nandi award which is meant only for telugu movies? Your answer would be "sutpid, how can we "? right?, For me question relating to Oscar is also as simple as the earlier question :-)
Coming to our actual topic of Slum dog millionaire, it is a movie which conveyed to external world that Indians are more like cunning, cheaters , less of morals and India is full of slums( If you dont believe , imagine general public impression (not including those who are well educated and surf internet)about Mexico and China. When you say mexico they remember cow boys , horses and guns. When you say China they remember martial arts and fights. .They got all this because of movies.Its the same way here .If more such movies like slum dog millionaire come , they remember slums and cheaters when India comes to their mind) There is a saying in usage that "If you want historic movie in India to be a hit ,you should show fight with Britishers and if you want international appreciation for an Indian film ,you should show slums and poor in India but not it's rich cultural heritage,history ,intellectual abilities , achievements etc . Proof for this statement of mine would be international appreciation to movies like Mother India, Salaam bombay and now Slum Dog millionaire . I can't say or conclude exact reasons for this but can guess that they will be happy when ever India is potrayed as a poor country which is full of slums.
Some may come up with a thinking asking "Is it not true that India have slums ? and have poeple like those are shown in the movie ?, they have shown the same. Accept the reality!" .... I agree with them. But when
ever one is taking some sensitive subject,country ,culture , issue etc to show in a movie or media,they must deal it with proper balance and show positives and negatives of it. Then that would be unanimously aprreciated as matured film making.Slum dog millionaire is neither great in technical stuff nor it is a classic subject with a message. No great emotional content and no great casting or actors. In telugu we have a saying called "Setha koti lingallo bodi lingam " which means it is one among the waste things which are 100 crores in count. This
movie is like that to me :-)...sorry if I have hurt some who are fans of that movie.I strongly say that they capitalised the curiosity about India among foreign people by showing India in more degrading way.It decreased the respect that I have Oscar. I am very happy for A.R Rahman and Rasool pukutti who got awards though they have given very less of what they can actually give and already proved themselves that they are much better in many Indian movies :-)
