If I ask you whether you are proud of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, the answer would of course be yes. And why not? Slumdog has already won four golden globe awards and has send 10 nominations for Oscar. But as far as diplomatic side of the country is concerned, is it fair to show a movie to the whole world where more that half of the movie scenes belong to poor slum dwellers? Slumdog Millionaire disclosed the brutal truth of our society, the ever-widening gap between the riches and the poor. This may not seem unusual to Indians, who are totally aware of the fact, but when a man from west watch this out, don’t you think that it would make some difference?
Indians has always been crazy about awards. For awards, an India may do anything; even he can be pessimistic in front of the whole world. What is the difference between India and other developed and prosperous countries? They concentrate on a very simple policy- “never highlight the dark side of our society as much as possible; always try to be optimistic, especially before the foreigners.” I think that none of us have ever seen scene of beggars in a Hollywood movie. The reason behind it is that they are always optimistic and always have a positive attitude. Our literature has always focused on introducing positive attitude. But as we are entering to a new era, are we overlooking the moral values and respect to our motherland? Patriotism does not mean singing patriotic songs, but it means to respect the nation.
Slumdog is not the only film where dark side of the Indian society has been depicted. The Man Booker Prize winning (2008) book, The White Tiger is also based on the brutal truth of our society, Written by Mumbai based journalist, Aravind Adiga, showed the ever widening gap between rich and poor of India. It’s a matter of surprise that outsiders were very much impressed by the slums of India, probably not because they don’t have slums in their country, but they don’t know about their miseries.
Obama has imposed heavy levy on outsourcing companies. So, India would face the problem in form of job cuts from American companies in India in upcoming years. In addition, these companies will try to find other bases where profit will be more and new companies will first experiment on India and then set their feet in water. But, when these companies will become the bystander of Slumdog Millionaire, don’t you think that they will think twice before they set their feet on the land of slums?
Slumdog touched the sky in bollywood box office and critics reviewed it by awarding for-and-a half star, probably the highest any movie has got in recent years. Indians are always crazy about cinemas. But is Slumdog the real movie, which Indians would love to watch? Don’t we feel ashamed to call ourselves a Galli Ka Kutta?
nice and interesting article....
ReplyDeletekeep posting articles.......
nice work done......
keep it on....
god bless u!
regards-
Altamash.