Slumdog Millionaire - Two points of View - View 2- from Sudasgup - response to Ajoy Gupta's View

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2009)

Good review Ajoy, and I agree that compared to most past winners in Best Film category across major awards, this one is not a classic, not a film for posterity. It-s a very "now" film, as compared to that other British made India-based award sweeper "Gandhi". But it must be seen in relative terms to the "competition"on offer, and the general mood prevailing in the Western world right now. In these times of hopelessness and bleak futures, with so many jobless and despondent, this offers a kind of comforting escapism, where a classic underdog, or Slumdog in this case, overcomes every kind of difficulty to emerge a winner, albeit aided in dollops by luck and destiny, but also by sheer grit and resourcefulness - very human qualities that are sorely needed right now. Interestingly enough, the film, while warmly received by critics in English-language press and TV, has been largely rejected by audiences in India. The Hindi version is officially a flop, while the English version has been a moderate success - qualifying the film as an average earner in box-office terms. In India, it is nowhere near the all-conquering cult status achieved in the West. In fact, there are significant protests and criticisms from the general public about the "poverty-porn" it peddles, and how India today is much more than the sum of it's numerous slum-dwelling poor multitudes.Therein lies a tale - to be rejected by the audiences of the very country whose story it tells,yet lapped up by an exotica obsessed West. The treatment is classic Bollywood, the basic premise oft-repeated in countless potboilers from the 70's through early 90's. The scene where the boys, while rolling down from the roof of the train, grow into teenagers is so typical of the hero's introduction scene from old Amitabh Bacchan movies, as also scheming rich men standing in the way of the poor protagonist, cruel cops, good brother/bad brother, bad brother turning a new leaf and attaining redemption before a violent death, innocent heroine forced into prostitution etc. etc.. So credit must be given where due , for Danny to get under the skin of the genre and deliver this movie in the way it has been presented, with no foreign actors (barring Dev Patel) and few foreign technicians, is an achievement in itself. It is by no means a great movie in the timeless traditions of earlier similarly lauded films, but it certainly seems to have struck an universal chord somewhere (barring India - where this is all too familiar) - and, credit-crisis notwithstanding,due credit - if only for delivering the right message at the right time - must be given! The soundtrack by Rehman is outstanding, but once again, from the Indian perspective, it is by no means Rehman's best - and if he does add the Oscar cap to all the other awards he has picked up for this soundtrack, I will consider it deserved reward for his whole, largely unheard in the West, body of work till now.