Star of Mysore   March 01, 2009

... And the Oscars go to ... Why a "Slum Dog"?

The film Slum dog Millionaire winning eight Oscar awards was an event for every Indian to rejoice. It was as rare as the red moon. It had not happened in the last sixty years and everybody wondered when it would happen next. Across the length and breadth of the country people talked about it and felt happy. The residents of Dharavi, Mumbai's most notorious slum (where the movie was shot), partied all night in praise of their local heroes.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was among the first to congratulate the Slumdog team. Even our octogenarian Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterji, joined the country's mood by greeting the House with A. R. Rehman's Oscar winning song, Jai ho!

And Bang! In the midst of all this joyous hoopla, I didn't even think twice about the name. As soon as someone said "Slumdog", the contrary image of Rehman winning the Golden Globe and two Oscars floated across. Therefore, it came as a surprise to me that there was somebody terribly bothered and unhappy about the name "Slumdog Millionaire". But someone certainly is; to the extent that he has registered a case against all the Indians associated with the film. "Why did Danny Boyle call the film Slumdog Millionaire? It's the most humiliating and offensive name on earth. It sounds most derogatory! Is Danny Boyle's a case of some long lost British dream of Colonial India?"

Give me a break, will you? If the films "Chameli" and "Chandni Bar" could get critics awards; why not "Slum dog?" They were about sex workers, and they were as much poverty porn as "Slumdog" is. And let me assure you, if a Bollywood director had done the same movie and called it "Galli ka kutta", he would have won accolades too. "It's a movie for god's sake... the name is being used constructively," says a blog.

Parents in rural Karnataka name their children Thimma (monkey), Thippaiah (from garbage), Kariya (Black or blackie), Huchappa (mad person). They superstitiously think that being named so will ward off evil, and instead bring them good luck, prosperity and health. Maybe some one told Danny that the name "Slumdog Millionaire" would bring his film good luck, prosperity and health in the form of an Oscar! And if someone's not happy about it, that's just too bad!

What is indeed wrong and what we should really be concerned about is the manner in which these slum kids are treated by our own people! We lack empathy for what these kids go through in their struggle to survive. Hundreds are maimed and have their eyes gauged out by the unscrupulous, just to be forced into beggary.

If not anything, Danny Boyle has at least made half a dozen "slum dogs" millionaires. He has given a bunch of kids, who lived their lives in dirt and squalor, a chance to travel by plane to the land of opportunities called America. More importantly, he has proved to the world that even in the slummiest of slums there are raw diamonds waiting to dazzle. If only one made the effort to cut and polish them.

To quote Thomas Grey, the slum children were like flowers "born to blush unseen". But, only until Danny came along?
Jai ho, Danny! Jai ho!