Yahoo! A.R. Rahman bagged two Oscars, and Slumdog won 8. That’s one hell of an achievement for the Indian Music and Film Industry. Finally, we made a mark in the world, in the genre of music and entertainment.
While lavishing all the praise on this success, suddenly my brother’s words crept up in my mind : What if Slumdog Millionaire were a Bollywood production? And the thing that came up to my mind the next instant was the article by the Management Guru Arindam Chaudhary : Don’t See “Slumdog Millionaire”. It sucks. With people like him around one thing is sure, that the bollywood Slumdog wouldn’t even have made the Filmfares let aside Oscars.
The way many people see this movie as something that describes India in a very poor light is something I find very inexplicable. I mean what the hell do you people want ? India isn’t a country of Gods anymore, that’s a fact. Be it the problem of extreme poverty, or the stigma of child prostitution or be it the beggary problem, its all very real and what wrong did Danny Boyle do if he showed the world the darker side of our country?
Yeah we have the Taj Mahal , one of the seven wonders of the world, the symbol of eternal love. But we also have the so called moral police (the likes of Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Ram Sene to name a few) who thrash and insult all the starry eyed couples on Valentines Day, and run campaigns like ‘Tie or Die‘ : Its a reality! Yes we were the earliest nation to give voting rights to women, and yet we only are the people who burn brides for dowry, who kill them after branding them witches, who thrash them publicly just because they were having a drink in the local pub. Its a reality my friends!
Yeah we have a culture thats as old as civilization itself, the sacred culture of the Aryans. And yet most of the politicians out here, the so called leaders of the world’s largest democracy exhibit their talent of amassing illegal fortunes through all kinds of scams, be it the Hawala Scam or the famous Fodder Scam! Where did the culture go? Where did it go? Isn’t this a reality?
The problem of beggary isn’t hidden from any of us. The cruelty with which innocent children have their limbs and fingers hacked, or their eyes taken out of their sockets to make them ‘eligible’ to beg is a reality that no Indian can escape from. Same is the case with child prostitution. However hard you may try to deny it, it happens and is as real as you or me.
It isn’t at all that I don’t love my country. I assure you that I am a haughty patriot and I love my country as hard as any of you do, but still I am not someone who will turn his eyes away from the weaknesses and concentrate only on the purple patches that we have out here. I am not one who will praise only the goodness, and turn a blind eye to all the defects that is present out here in India.
Its time that we appreciate that yes these evils have burned themselves in the clothing of our country. Its time to change the nations attire and not the time to spit venom on movies like this which depict whats true and whats bad.Its time we grew up. Its time we wake up.
The Vidyarthi 
