Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Slumdog—Jai Ho

After all Slumdog has kept up to the expectations of the Indian people. At last it has happened. With eight awards in its kitty will it be right to say “Slumdog Millionaire” is a Bollywood win? Was it the depiction of poverty that still stinks in the slums across India the cynosure for the Oscar nominations? How well would this topic have done if it was filmed by an Indian director? Doubts and questions have come up and will haunt people of this country time and again when this topic is discussed.

But in all totality, the slums of Dharavi and the poverty that sticks in the heart, soul and the walls of each house, the question that echoes in my mind, “How are the children involved in this film going to face the challenges of this world having faced the lights and cameras in the process of the making?” Surely it will make a lot of difference in their lives.

In all sanity Danny Boyle has shown our poverty to the world but the remedial measures lie in our hands. We may brag about Rehman, Gulzar and Pookutty as winners at the Oscars, but the nameless children who have made all this happen in the small roles they have played will remember that they have been a part of it and will have stories to tell their next generation.

Who knows what happens next?

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