Story of Rags to Riches- The Boyle way

So much filth, poverty, corruption, dirt! There's more to India than that we may argue! There's rapid development. There is change in lifestyle. There's economic growth. But still, however much we want to, we cannot deny that all the filth, dirt and poverty is very much a part of our country and our cities! Yes, this reality is too harsh but it’s something we need to accept and maybe take concrete steps and get rid of it and not try and pretend that it does not exist at all. And on top of that blame a person for depicting that in his film and winning awards for that! Slums, filth, corruption, poverty very much exists in our country. Danny Boyle has not shown something, in his critically acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire, which does not exist. There are arguments that there was no need to show so much filth, but then how else would he have shown the slums? How else would he have told a rags to riches story without showing poverty?In a clean locality? What SM has shown is stark reality...not in terms of the winning a reality show, but in terms of the life and the hardships that most people have to face. And then why blame him for making the film; blame our film-makers for not having thought of converting 'Q and A' into a film.

The film opens with shots of filth and dirt. I won't deny I felt ‘yuck’ on seeing the first few shots. But then after having seen the complete film, I doubt Boyle and his team’s intension was to show filthiness as such. They wanted to show a rags to riches story, a story of hope and never ending love even in times of diversities. We Indians have seen numerous films on these themes. Infact Indian film industry strives on these themes. SM is also a typical masala film. And Boyle himself has accepted that! The difference though is in the story telling. The difference is in its visualisation. I am sure none would have imagined the young Jamal to jump in the pool of shit just to get an autograph of Amitabh Bachachan. Could the film have done without that scene? Yes, maybe. But then the complete screenplay would have gone for a toss. And the same applies for most of the scenes. The story would have changed completely if all those scenes were not shown the way they were.

The film need not be viewed with a negative feeling because it’s been made by a non-Indian, but for its cinematic excellence. The screenplay and the direction is fantastic. Throwing flashbacks to justify Jamal's answers to the game show questions is very well done. Rahaman's music, as always, adds to the movie's charm. There are a few things that were left unanswered though; Prem Kumar's character and his annoyance at Jamal's win being one of them.

But all in all I enjoyed watching the movie for its direction and screenplay. I refuse to look at it as something which puts India to shame but as a work of art. If there's anything that I feel ashamed of is that we as Indian's don't want to do anything about all the filth and dirt but choose to ignore its existence!

Direction Driving

"Keep on going straight. You will see a lot of roads in between but don't take them even though you might feel like." Seemed like he had read my friends mind! Just before we stopped to ask for directions from this gentleman, my friend was keen on taking a turn because he felt like it! But then we couldn't blame him. We were royally lost. We had no clue where we were heading. We did not have the postal address of the location; just a map which made no sense. So it was the directions of the people on the roads that we had to rely on. And follow these directions we did. Even though some of them were as vague as "Left right lete straight jao..." Well were we supposed to go straight or turn left and right and then go straight, or was the road itself a left-right curving one? No clue. We just followed our instincts and followed the roads we thought were the right ones. Only to realise that we had reached the other side of the town! Then after another round of enquiry, we were heading back on the road we had just come by. Wow! One more round of enquiry and we headed on a track which we hoped was the right one. After driving a few miles, we guessed that we were finally on the right track. After all we could see the railway line which was given on ‘that direction’ map. Finally on reaching the location, we realised that the place was probably a few kilometers away from the first turn we took. It's the ‘left-right lete jao's’ that saw us roaming on the streets of the unknown town for almost an hour!