Accolades for Slumdog Millionaire

Yes, I tried…and no, it did not work! Apparently the writer in me refuses to die down just yet!! So, I paid heed to its kicking and screaming and here I am back in the arena….

Slumdog Millionaire makes it big….wins the Golden Globe and so many others!! 64 awards since its release in November!! Whatever the critics may say, this counts for something!!

The question that The Husband asked me yesterday and I still haven’t answered, is whether there is so much reason for us to celebrate? We have this uncanny ability to take credit for anything as disconnected as it may be from us. Sunita Williams shoots to fame after being chosen for a space mission. All Indians smile and feel smug about their achievement. Ofcourse, the immaterial facts include the fact that she is born in Ohio, lived in US all her life, served in the US Navy as is not nor has ever been Indian. But lets not burst the bubble….she traveled to space didn’t she??

Aravind Adiga is a sensation overnight having won the Booker. Every Indian looks at the mirror and says, “See how far India has reached?”. Forget the fact that he immigrated to Australia when he was in school itself and spent most of his life in US and only returned to India recently when he wrote this book. So all those insights into rural Indian culture and how we are evolving probably came to him while he sat in his comfortable room in New York if not his hostel in Oxford. I can bet that of the 10 people you hear talking about it, perhaps only one would have read the book….else why would we feel proud of a book so dark and so tainted in its perception of India?

I could go on but this is turning into a monologue. So should I feel proud of awards being bestowed on a British film directed by a Britisher, produced by one of them as well which released in North America 3 months back and still hasn’t bothered to come to India? I don’t know….and I don’t want to be so critical before seeing the movie. This is not, after all a review…

But yes, in response to his question, I concede that I should be as happy about this film getting awards as I should be if Heath Ledger gets the Oscar.

Purely, for the sake of art!