Slumdog Millionaire: Was it honestly that good?

Slumdog Millionaire has become the new global sensation. Come on, a heartwarming story about a boy from the slums who wins a million rupees AND gets the girl is irresistible. Danny Boyle certainly struck gold when he decided to work on this film.

While everyone around the world has appreciated this movie and places it among one of the best movies ever made, I feel some disquiet. Was it really that good? I don't think so. I'm an Indian, so the scenes I saw made a small, rather than large, impression on me. I knew how the system worked, and was a bit skeptical about the whole storyline.

Maybe it was because the story was just pushing it a bit. It was an all round happy ending, which let me tell you, is rare in India. While I'm not saying that the film is bad, I'm not saying that it was good either. I certainly don't think it deserved the Oscar for the best film.

There are Indians who vehemently oppose and ridicule this movie for no concrete reasons. Some people protest that Danny Boyle did not portray the good in India, that he did not show its beauty.

Well, to those people, I have only one thing to say: Wake UP!!! Whether or not Danny Boyle filmed beauty, he filmed the truth. What we see in the movies are all there in Mumbai, right from the slum to the brothels to the construction sites swarming with ruffians.

Personally, I think these film makers suddenly woke up and realized just how much of a potential the slums of Mumbai had, and were pissed off because they couldn't film it first.

Then there's another group of people who say that this film only got recognition because it was directed by a foreigner. Well, that is partly true. Danny Boyle did put our slums on the map, but after that, the film had to talk for itself. It did too. Sure, and Indian film maker might have been able to inject a little something 'special' in it, but the film would not have received the recognition it had either.

Then there are the people who say that Tare Zameen Par (TZP) was much better and deserved an Oscar. It was better, I agree, but it didn't deserve an Oscar. The concept of dyslexia in India may be new and unexplored in India, but its been explored outside. So for other people to see a child with dyslexia being helped would have been normal and nothing out of the ordinary.

Slumdog was a side of India the world had never seen, and I suppose much of the novelty came from that. India was known for its excellent holiday locales, culture and rigid value system. But no one had ever suggested that India be known for its slum. the fact wasn't hidden, it just wasn't acknowledged.

There were also some people who said that Madhur Bhandarkar's movies were an amazing depiction of urban life in Mumbai. Despite showing alcohol abuse, drug addiction, extreme nudity, child- prostitutes and homosexual relationships, people believed that they showed the beauty in Mumbai. Where is the beauty in all these issues?!

I'm a Madhur Bhandarkar fan, but there is no so called beauty in these. There is stark, brutal, gripping reality. But no one complains. Put a foreigner on the job and protests ring out from half the nation. My own countrymen disgust me sometimes.

I'll bring this long discourse to a close (yes, I can hear the sighs of relief now) with just one thing. Its time we Indians learned to credit other people with good work. Its also time the world began to realize that slums and money did not make for good cinema. Reverse ageing and wrestling have a large stake in the matter too.