When Gandhi won a record number of Oscars we had lots to be proud about. But remember Fahrenheit 911 and its awesome Bush-bashing. Imagine if George Bush was to stake claim to the movie’s success! Now that would have been a funny sight but then something as strange did happen today. The congress in a press conference claimed ‘Conducive UPA rule led to Oscar wins’ (Read the full news article here). Now that’s a brave statement to make and perhaps not many in the government have seen what the movie’s about. It’s a movie about a slum dweller who wins a handsome sum of money at the popular show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ not because he went to school or because he was educated, but because he related to the questions in a completely different way. Answers that he was reminded of because of seeing his mother die during the Hindu-Muslim riots, homeless children referred to each other as the three musketeers, his beggar friend being blinded so he could collect more alms, a 100 dollar tip he got after swindling an American tourist, a revolver he saw being used for a murder and a thriving prostitution racket.
So what makes a movie so good? The fact that it depicts real life drama or the fact that it’s a surreal story of a slum dweller turned millionaire. And guess what, the congress government claims to have provided a ‘Conducive UPA rule’ that helped win the Oscar. The government has still not quelled communal tensions and India still boasts of the largest slum in Asia. Children are still regularly exploited and maimed children are a common sight on the roads of several metropolises. Women are often sold to brothels and suffer a lifetime of oppression and disease. Slumdog did so well not just because of the brilliant background score but because of the story it told, a story which we all know is true and probably unfolds somewhere in India even as you read this small piece. Hats off to the UPA for staking claim to Slumdog’s success.
But to be fair to the politicians, it’s not just them but our society in general that can be blamed for going overboard celebrating the success of Slumdog. There will be a real and lasting change in politics only if there is a change in our society. I would just like to close by saying that its alright celebrating the success of Indian cinema, but the ulterior motive of cinema isn’t to win awards, albeit the Oscars. Such cinema aims to depict the real world and bring forward the hidden malice that has infected our society and maybe it's our duty to work to remove it.
