Reflecting back at this hollywood recreation of how a television reality show transforms the life of a poor Mumbai slum-dweller in an instant, i am compelled to ask myself," Is India still all about slums, chaos and the great Indian rope trick?!" My answer is a straight-forward "No". The movie deserves appreciation, no doubt, but certainly not at such astronomical levels! Whats even more ironical is AR Rahman getting an Oscar for the Slumdog soundtrack, a composition which, I thought, was pretty ordinary by the maestro's standards. Yet, the world (including a high percentage of enlightened Indians) is all agog over Slumdog.
There have been several movies in the past which would have been better Oscar candidates if kept on the same basket with Slumdog Millionaire. The fact that this movie was backed by a Hollywood production made all the difference. Sadly, at the end of the day, the world perceives India as is depicted in such high profile, mass acclaimed works of cinematography.
The underlying thought here, is not taking credit away from this movie, but rather use this example to prove how cinema can create a biased projection of a country!
