Monday 2 March, 2009

"How dare he call one of us a slumdog??"

"How dare he call one of us a slumdog??"

"Oh! But the story....where is it from???"
"Who cares, the matter is not his to judge!"


"Why but it swept the Oscars and Globes!"
"Bah! those are just capital plays!!"


"You mean to say the film is to blame?"
"Hmm...Ofcourse yes! It throws all the bad cues."


"But many of our people were at the world's stage!"
"Thats because they went and honoured that stage!"


"Isn't it a pleasure to have our men honoured?"
"Right but those sadists; laughing at our plight!"


"You think they really keep thinking about us??"
"Oh yes always yes. We are the real focus."


"What if one of us, had made this one up?"
"Might all these crowns, to Button, have gone!"


"So what really got us the fame and fortune?"
"Packaged poverty, beggars and more!"


"Isn't it all about love, hope and resolve??"
"The slums!! they keep showing those slums to the world!!"


"Isn't it a real picture, what truly is?"
"Why can't they show some good realities??"


"Reality? Now when did that start to matter?"
"Oh always we need to focus on real life!"


"Why then no uproar over K series?"
"What who.. Oh I... hmm.. don't have no time!"


"Don't you think the marketing's really what matters?"
"But see he shouldn't have called one of us a slumdog!!!!"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read it...took me some time to get the flow!But got it finally...

Great piece Jiya...the way you have written it, that is!

The part about the K-series is really cool...he he!

Still I think Danny Boyle has done a great job and the movie is worth watching,isn't it?

Maybe it depends on how each one sees the movie.To me it was a refreshing movie...a really different theme!

Jaggu said...

nice... :-) he he...an objective point of view...

i for one cannot understand all the hype and hoopla over SM...it's just a movie...n a very typical Bollywood masala movie at that...but i guess it's that novelty that captured the imagination of the Academy, plus the marketing n promotion of course...

Personally, i believe that this is a mirror to a much bigger problem...that India is slowly becoming intolerant...

Anju said...

The way u've written is absolutely commendable :) It shows the way, right and left of the heart works, for each Indian after watching the movie. What I feel is that, the movie is worth-watching, if and only if it has been directed by an Indian and exposed only in Indian society. Why should we let a foreigner dig the inners of our land and make it a public showpiece to laugh at !!!

Anju said...

Coming to Oscar!I am an ardent fan of Rahman from his debut movie Roja onwards.If they give him Oscar for 'Jay-ho' song, which according to me,is a pretty average one,then why not for his master-piece works!!! The only good thing that I can find out of all these is that, two poor kids got an exposure to otside and their future will be taken care of !

jiYa said...

@Anu.. Yes Indeed, Danny Boyle has done a commendable job, but I think his greatest contribution now is catapulting a sensitive issue to the forefront of Indian conscience.

@Jaggu..Well put. We are fast becoming an obstinately intolerant bunch of people.
All the same, I did like the movie much better than its recent contenders. Yes, the main factors are the beautiful music by ARR and the adorable kids. But the movie did touch a chord somewhere. Which I believe is the precise reason why there is such a big hype about it.

@Anju.. I would disagree with you there, cuz it's we who assume we are becoming a laughing stock. India is not a country whose image is formed just because of one single movie. We have been a symbol of moral uprighteousness to the west, for centuries. More than to the west , I think we are uncomfortable to accept the truth that's here. What we are now doing is criticising the effect, not the cause. viz., the slums. Are we ready to do something about it??

And I agree SM is not ARR's best work, but he can be awarded only for what is presented to the jury. And that was the best among the lot! Now that he has arrived, I believe he will sweep every Oscar from now on.

Anonymous said...

echo.! I guess you already know my stand on this.

Unknown said...

i think you are right..we should divert our energies to think what we can do about our slums...rather than being bothered abt our image.

As abt the oscars, we all know this isnt the best of ARR, we all knw tht there were far superior films made in india..far classier ones...but lets not brag abt it..lets just be proud be of it!!

I dont really think we can blame others for not getting oscars till now...For one, oscars are meant more or less for english movies. And when we compete, we r doin it just in the foreign film category....so there is a tight competition....

Unknown said...

Director of Slumdog Millionare is looking for u in his next film.