I rarely see movies and certainly do not like Bollywood or Kollywood movies. But I am keen to see Slumdog Millionaire. So far, I’ve only seen the trailer in Youtube.
Slumdog Millionaire, which was directed by Danny Boyle has won 8 Oscars. The movie was inspired by a book called Q & A written by Vikas Swarup.
It has an interesting plot, is clean enough, and brings out some of the wretchedness of the ‘other’ India that many Indians have tried so hard to suppress from overwhelming us. The pathos is couched, thankfully, in an entertaining film that has many fun parts that bring relief.
The actors in the film, I believe, were hitherto unknown, and the slum children in the film were really slum children. These kids were taken to the Oscar celebrations. What a trip of a lifetime this must have been for them!
Sure enough, there were TV cameramen crowding at the children’s slum just before and during the Oscar Award celebrations.
The NZ Herald reports about how things were after the Oscars were announced (Slum celebrations as Slumdog Millionaire tops Oscars):
. . . The journalists left, the dancing stopped and life pressed on as always. The sweatshop men hunched over humming sewing machines. Squatting children relieved themselves by the train tracks. Mothers washed their dishes in murky water. . .
Neighbours said they were nothing but happy for the child actors. . . “We don’t want anything from her success.” . . .
Rubina’s best friend Saba Qureshi wants something, however – lots of stories and pictures from Los Angeles. “My eyes couldn’t believe that I was seeing Rubina in America,” said Saba, who led her sisters in Bollywood dance numbers throughout the morning. “She looked like an angel.” “When she comes back,” Saba said, “we will have the biggest party.”
Courage to tremble 