Obsession with Slumdog!!

"Oscars are no Olympics", said veteran actor Kamal Hassan. Indian film fraternity in its search of Global recognition has always been in awe of anything related to Oscars. I don't understand why is there so obsession with Oscars. Oscar is just another award and not the only criteria to judge a movie or a performance. Many a times deserving nominees have not been given Oscars. But we Indians are so mesmerised by anything western that we do not leave any stone unturned.

Recently the Slumdog mania hit India harder than the recession. Though there is no question about the geniusness of A.R. Rahman as a Composer but people have been over zealous in their reactions to the event. A lot has been said about in favour and against the movie. Legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan and noted writer Salman Rushdie have slammed the movie.Their point is it shows India in bad light. Here I'm not very convinced with the arguments of these two personalities. Slums are very much part of India as the high rise buildings and duplexes are. But we have overlooked this very important part in awe of our ever growing GDPs and Salaries.

Personally i feel the movie was very well made and the idea was superb, but when i watched other movies that were nominated i found Slumdog nowhere close to the other movies. The Reader for which Kate Winslet won the Best Actress Award was based on an exceptional storyline. The subject was highly mature.Though the plot of Curious Case of Benjamin Button may seem highly unlikely but the quality was better than Slumdog. Another movie which was nominated was about a Gay person being elected to public office.Here let me make myself very clear that I'm not taking anything away from Slumdog. Danny Boyle is one of the most talented directors around and the performances in the movie were also too good.But still it was not close to other nominations.

There has also been much talk about Slumdog being Indian or a foriegn film. I would not get into this debate but I would like to put forward one simple question: Would Slumdog Millionaire have got same response globally, had it been produced and directed by Indians? I guess we all know the answer. As has been the case before many deserving Indian entries have not found place in final nominations.

But yet as Indians we so much undermine ourselves and are so blindly after foreign recognition that we do not trust ourselves. Why is it not that Hollywood people make movies and leave no stone unturned to get them nominated to say Filmfare Awards? Why are we so obsessed with anything that is foreign?