SHOULD SLUMDOG MILLIONARE BE REWARDED IN INDIA?

Walking away with 8 Oscars out of its 10 nominations, the movie, Slumdog millionaire created history not only at the Oscars but also in India. A.R.RAHMAN became the first Indian to win two academy awards(one for original score and another for the song “JAI HO”) .Resul Pookutty made it to the Oscar for sound mixing category.(Earlier only two Indians Satyajith ray and Banu atthaiya of ‘Gandhi’ fame have made their way to the academy awards). Hence, India has a reason to rejoice. But as an ardent fan of the maestro, I feel that “JAI HO’ is not the best of his compositions. A.R.R was also quoted saying the same and that he had expected an Oscar for ‘lagaan’ than for Slumdog As far as direction, script, etc. are concerned, there are many Indian movies which truly deserve an Oscar. The reason for ‘Slumdog millionaire’s recognition is that it is a British movie based on India and not from India. The negative sides of our nation have been exaggerated (like child beggars, prostitution, Hindu-Muslim conflict, shit-swimming). The movie’s recognition by the west only indicates that west likes such a portrayal of India. The western people, who have not been to India, merely take it for granted that the movie depicts the real India. At a time of economic downturn, when Indian economy is quite stable compared to that of the west, the awards have come as an opportunity for the west in devaluing our nation. And honouring such a portrayal will be the worst move from our side!

IPL II- AT THE VERGE OF POSTPONEMENT:

The year 2008 had been great for BCCI since its T-20 venture through Indian premier League saw a tremendous success. With the auction of international players for huge ransom and media cashing in through live telecasts, IPL became popular compared to league matches in other countries. This year too the auctions started off well with players like Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Peterson being bought for about $1.5million each. But IPL now faces a backlash with some sponsors and advertisers giving up, thanks to the recession. The Lahore attack on SriLankan cricketers has only added to the woes of BCCI with the security arrangements being questioned. England Cricket Board has raised doubts about sending its players to India on security grounds. Last year saw the IPL matches being attended by celebrities like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and a lot of Bollywood celebrities too. Thus the security of these celebrities becomes the need of the hour. The overlapping of poll dates with the matches has worsened the situation. Though slight rescheduling of the matches have been done(A gap of at least 48 hours has been given between the polling day and the match in a particular region), IPL still faces the threat of postponement since the security of the leaders during the election rallies are of utmost importance in this situation. There is also a thought that people will prefer attending the IPL matches rather than the election rallies. Hence there are chances for BCCI to come under political pressure to reschedule the matches.

OUR INANE PARTISANS:

With the elections round the corner, all parties are busy holding alliance talks while their headquarters are busy issuing party tickets. The party men and leaders make it a point to make the maximum profit out of the happenings in our nation. In such an attempt, some politicians including the honourable ministers were found to make immature and irresponsible remarks on the issues. Mangalore was in limelight recently with its infamous ‘pub attack’ when the activists of the Ram Sene headed by Mutalaik attacked women returning from a pub. The incident caught the nation’s attention and had both defending as well as criticizing remarks. Renuka chowdary, being the incharge of woman and child development ministry, called for ‘pub bharao andholan’, where women were asked to fill the pubs as a sign of protest against the ‘pub attack’. Such a ludicrous call for was made by her simply to attack the ruling party of the state, The BJP.
Indian music obtained international acclaim with our very own “Mozart of madras” winning two academy awards. While every Indian seemed to appreciate the musician’s talent and dedication, Abhishek Singhvi, a congress leader was quoted saying that these awards and the Olympic gold medal by Abhinav Bindra were possible because of the ‘good environment’ created by congress led government. What a historic achievement by the ruling party! JAI HO!!!
The 26/11 attacks in Mumbai have also not been spared by our partisans. When it has been clearly proved that the attacks were rooted to Pakistan, our honourable Home minister was quoted saying that the partial admission of guilt by Pakistan was an achievement of the government’s foreign policy. When Pakistan authorities allegedly blame that the recent terrorist attacks on Sri Lankan cricketers has been plotted in India, there has been no condemnation from the Indian government yet. Will the so called achievements help developing India by any means? Nor do these achievements help the politicians to woo the voters?