Dog of the Year

Slumdog Millionaire has been true to its name. It has created winners out of dogs who would otherwise be remembered as '‘also barked’.

Freida Pinto and Dev Patel are all over.

Pinto has a blog covering her every dress, fashion faux pas and interview. Dev Patel is likely to crossover from British telecom to global cinema soon. I hope they do not make a Tintin with him in the lead next. I also pray that he does not become the new LBHC (London Born Hindi Confused) face of Bollywood.

The kids from Dharavi have a face, are sought out by ex parents and movie directors, have a bank balance and hopefully a promising future when they turn 18.

Interestingly, despite the best movie Oscar, SM did not rake in any awards in the acting category. But then SM is an example of what hype can achieve.

Does anyone remember that AR Rahman was the music director of Lagaan. The richness and the diversity in his music went unnoticed then. The movie was as rich in dog value as SM is. It was as Indian as SM is.

Lagaan lost but SM won. It won over heavyweights like Milk, Benjamin Button and Revolutionary road.

What made the movie click was its foreign producers and global publicity (Aamir Khan has been quick to realise what marketing can achieve since his Oscar days)

The movie also capitalised on the underdog flavour of this season- Obama has won despite his blackness and Michelle is the new diva at the White House, Mumbai persevered in the face of attacks and people worldwide are living on despite the downturn and layoffs. I think this is what made a regular Bollywood masala stewed to phoren tastes clinch the top awards this year.

What I wish the movie had achieved was that it brought down dogmas attached to Indianness. It made the white, browns and blacks of the world more accepting of turbaned men and salwar kurta clad mommies around the world.


PS: Many Indians have taken offence to the dirt, poverty and dog-eats-dog undertone of the movie. But why the anger?

It is true that the image of Jamal as a kid jumping into shit to meet Amitabh Bachhan will be added to the lore of snake men, elephants and rivers of milk.

But then do we not have a metropolitan called Mumbai interspersed by Dharavi, middle class slums and concrete slums where bomb blasts, terrorist attacks, floods and riots are as common as in any slum of the world.

Let us live with it.