Presently there is a great hype on the movie, "Slum dog Millionaire", what with its rave reviews and being academy awards contender.
So it was with great expectations that i managed to watch the movie few nights back.
Was i impressed and captivated by what the movie has to offer?
Thumbs up to the director though, it was a great story telling feat and has a good pace to it.
The only actor of notable recognition was Anil Kapoor so it does speak volumes for it being an academy award contender despite its relatively low budget and unknown faces in the movie
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The Indian public however was not too happy with the India that the movie portrayed..its pitiful squalor, the slums and the woeful lives of the people on the streets.
India? One thing that one always observed now when travelling overseas is the increased number of middle class and articulated Indians one met either as tourists or on business.
This is possibly the face of India that their people and politicians want to wholly portray to the world. The world's biggest democracy on the brink of great economic success with a bulging array of its citizens showcasing their Louis Vitton bags, Bally shoes and top range laptops and hand phones.
Someone did ask me which country you want to dearly revisit?
Without hesitation i said India. Why?
Well i have been to India once way back in 1996 to Madras(now Chennai) and visiting a factory near Pondicherry.
The India then was indeed to an extent as portrayed by the Slum dog Millionaire movie.
My road trip using India's version of Proton,the Ambassador(just a mass of steel on four wheels) i remembered still clearly. Passing through villages ,stopping by at a temple all one can see is abject poverty.
The great Indian leader,Mahatma Gandhi once said,"Poverty is but the worst form of violence."
So i really want to see the massive strides that we always hear about India nowadays,its highly successful IT industry and its great infrastructure development.
Back to the movie...the movie if anything is worth watching just for that one particular great scene.
Jamal,the main character of the movie was stuck in this ramshackle wooden shed of a toilet and cant get out while all the slums inhabitants were awaiting for Amitabh Bachan coming down from a helicopter.
So what did Jamal do? He just jumped into the shit and you can imagine the smell as he ran towards Amitabh with a photo that he wants Amitabh to sign!!! Hilarious and great scene!!!
However for me i am more taken by the character Salim,Jamal's elder brother.
He's the kind of personality that one will expect to evolve from such slums and more real than the sensitive and articulate Jamal, the slum boy turns millionaire through the TV challenge show.
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