That seems to be the question on the minds of a lot of people. I have heard people calling the movie “overrated”, saying that “Rehman has made better music”, “there weren’t enough nominees”, “would it have won the oscar if an Indian had done it” and questioning the “depiction of India”.
Honestly I am not normally bothered by opinions. I accept that its just another opinion and as important as mine and move on. But in this case I find the arguments ‘unconvincing'(I am putting it mildly to avoid insulting anyone). Now lets examine each of the arguments…
Before anything, since all the madness is around the Academy Awards, lets see how oscar nominations are chosen… you can read how that is done here
Now about the opinions:
“Slumdog is overrated”
That is simply a matter of opinion. I also think a lot of popular movies are overrated… I cannot make you like or hate a movie, if you dont like something then you dont like something
“Rehman has made better music”
Ofcourse he has, I wouldnt think the soundtrack of Slumdog would feature in his top ten movies. But Slumdog was at the right place at the right time. A movie like Slumdog normally sees the light of some film festival and dies a silent death but this movie was marketed well and it reached audiences that appreciated it. Why “Dil Se” or “Roja” wasnt seen by atleast 1000 of the 5000 oscar voters isnt much of a mystery.
Also the award was not given for Rehman’s best song. It was for the best Song of 2008
“There were too few nominees”
This was with regard to the Best song category(which had 3 nominations). Nobody can help it if nothing else was regarded worthy to be nominated. Actually this makes the award more unanimous.
“would it have won the oscar if an Indian had done it”
My favourite argument. Well an Indian didnt do it… Danny Boyle is not a Spielberg that just coz he made a movie it would become a serious contender for an oscar. The man has won a bunch of British awards but had never been even nominated for an Oscar. Also this movie was made for an international audience, Indian directors have this thing about making movies only for Indians… Lagaan made with a global perspective would have been nominated for an best movie oscar for sure.
On the flipside, How many have watched “Water”? Water got a lot of critical acclaim and was recognized by the Oscars. Anyone watching the movie would know that it is a top class movie. Yet how many Bollywood award nominations did it get? And Water was a “hindi” movie.
Apparently movies get either Bollywood award nominations or Oscar nominations, the crossover hasnt happened yet.
“depiction of India”
This argument is the most common and the most famous. Lots of celebrities have commented on it and a lot of patriotic Indians have expressed thier opinions. Well my dear friends the running length of the movie is 2 hours and the movie is about a slum dweller’s life, sorry if they forgot to show the Malls of Mumbai or the beautiful Himalayas or temples of the south.
When you write and make a movie you have a single motive and giving a full view of India wasnt in the agenda. This movie was about Jamal and his life, his struggles and his love. If you believe that there is no slum of that sort in Mumbai or that no footwear has been stolen from the steps of the Taj then you have a fair argument, but I doubt it.
If you want a very fair depiction of India, I suggest you watch “Travel and Living” or maybe pick up a photo book with high resolution photo-shopped photos of India (which is deep down not that honest too).
Oddly the best argument against Slumdog would have been if someone told me that “Milk”, “The Curious case…” or any of the other nominees deserved the oscar(s)… but no, all I have heard is Slumdog shouldn’t have got it.
If you have more arguments bring it on… I would like to hear it.