Saturday, January 31, 2009

Of slumdogs and millionaires

I’ve been following blogs for quite a while n even thought of starting my own blog... its taken quite a while but m getting there (whew).. As anyone is entitled to his or her opinion (including whether 2 express an opinion or not) here I’ll be giving my take on the issues that are prevalent nowadays..

Well to start things off, I think we Indians are very expert at crying ourselves hoarse over all the wrong reasons. Take for instance the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. The movie’s popularity is almost drowned by the number of protests raised against it. But u gotta hand it over to all the protesting people (they’ve got a gr8 sense of imagination).. Even the formidable Big B(who by the way, is being paid big bucks for his blogs which he conveniently disowns at any early signs of resentment. N u thought the guy wanted to connect with the masses. Yeah rite) has found favor with a certain person who advises everyone to count chickens n cocks n wot not, Mr Arindam Chaudhari (yeah, he dares you to think beyond the IIMs. With the kind of statement he makes, he dare not even think about them). If I get it rite, the hullabaloo was raised over the use of the word ‘slumdog’ in the film. I personally believe that the whole thing is a non-issue. I mean, for Pete’s sake, it’s a movie. So why can’t u treat it like one? N whatever happened to the expression of freedom(or was it freedom of expression)?With their ‘dogged’ determination, slumdwellers have revolted against the use of the name ‘dog’ with slum, with all explanations that it is a usage expression falling on deaf ears. So wot’s next, maybe India should no longer be considered an ‘underdog’, is that demeaning too?? Y cant we get rid of the dogma?(oops, here I go again).. Another issue is about poverty peddling to the rest of the world, why the hell r v ashamed of all the poverty? It’s a fact of life in India much like Himesh, Mayawati and Raj Thakeray… Get used to it or get it out of the system(I was referring to the poverty, of course).. N it’s not about a foreign director resorting to poverty pornography to sell his film. The novel itself has been written by an Indian diplomat. So I would rather advise the detractors to not worry about these aspects but sit back n enjoy one of the most riveting cinema made in recent times….n if u still feel u wanna do something, how ‘bout sweeping the neighbourhood slum this Sunday??