OSCAR Night - Slumdog Millionaire – 23rd Feb 2009

And the Oscar goes to………. The impact of those 5 words on the Danny Boyle and the cast of Slumdog millionaire must be quite awesome!!!! And hearing that 8 times in a row on the same night, should give anybody a run for their money. The movie itself is not a Hindi movie… it is a British movie cast in India about a section of Indian people. And yet all the Indians all over the world would be so happy today that this movie has won. After all we Indians feel joy at others success, make it our own, and sometimes get so carried away that we start believing that it is our own! Some might argue that the movie is way overrated - that it does not justify the amount of popularity it’s been given. I’d say yeah maybe it’s true if you compare it with movies of the Spielberg category with aliens invading the earth and special effects that have to be seen to be imagined. Others say that it has portrayed a very wrong aspect of Mumbai, and India at large and that now all of the world would consider India a place where you have to kill to survive. That I strongly disagree with. This is a movie at the end of the day. It is not what Mumbai is about. If anything the movie is about the spirit of Mumbai. To come out triumphant no matter how adverse the odds are against you, to fight it out till the end. It’s a movie that makes you feel sad, gives you hope but finally leaves you with a sense of calm. That in the end good will triumph over evil and all will be well in the world. So this movie then, is definitely not about Mumbai, Mumbai is much more than a movie can ever capture. And to be very honest a bollywood movie, which is truly Indian can never capture emotion like this one did. So slumdog, congratulations- you do deserve every bit of that Oscar - you do!