I do not understand what is all this hype about the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. It is coincidental that I am writing about my views on the day of the Oscars. I watched this movie in the first week of its release. Ever since I watched it, I have been thinking about writing my views. I have objections to it at various levels. My objections are not emotional at all like some others, who are saying that India has been shown in a negative light.
1) There was nothing new in this movie, at least not for the Indian audience. I went in to watch this movie because of the hype that was created by the people who had already watched it. This was, at the heart of it, a romantic movie with highly unlikely events tied to the life of the protagonist and not to mention some directorial glitches along the way.
2) There are many Indian directors who have made much better films that this. There are many Indian movies with a similar kind of theme of struggle, romance and success. Just because it was made by a westerner, it got all the publicity which according to me it does not deserve. Would the same movie made by an Indian director have made it to the Oscars, definitely not.
3) Indian media, the film fraternity and Indians, as always, are owning it as if it is an Indian movie. Just because the dialogues, actors and the story is Indian, does not make it an Indian movie. Would you call Gandhi an Indian movie ? I certainly would not say so.
4) This is not A.R.Rehman's best music score. It is just about average. We all know what he is capable of doing. I do not think I need to get into it now. But I am happy for him. I do wish he wins the award for the best music score.
5) Anil Kapoor was just horrible in the movie.
Finally, there is nothing wrong in aspiring for an international recognition but I do not think that Oscars are the benchmark for movies.
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