What won the Slumdog Millionnaire the Oscars

Kudos to the Slumdog Millionnaire team which on expected lines (after winning various awards for the past few weeks) swamped the Oscars with an 8 count. It was a great feeling – I am sure all those who watched it live from Los Angeles will agree with me – to finally see lots of Indian actors on an Oscar stage along with scores of all time greats. Guruji AR Rehman bagged 2 Oscars (not to forget Gulzar for sharing the Oscar for Best Score – for lyrics) – that simply is one of the happiest days of all musicians in the country. The movie of the year – while almost expected, but “The award goes to….” sounded like bells in a fairyland. Amazing stuff!

Now that was the perfect formula, some critics will say, a Hollywood movie under the banner of the WB and a British Director, an international crew, sleek storyline, editing and cinematopgraphy, great music (Rehman... Rehman) and Indian poverty in slums (again!). Well Satyajit Ray faced the same critics, who said he was selling Indian poverty abroad to win awards. True, lot of winners from India in the past in Global awards like Cannes had similar themes. But then, at least they are not trying to hide any facts behind the facade of a multi-billion IPL industry or similar riches that India boasts of (like 4 out of top 10 richest men in World are Indians). Truth lies out there!

But then, there were many such movies of better substance, like Lagaan for example, which to me was one of movies with the best potential to win an Oscar. Mother India was another potential, and so was Salaam Bombay to some extent. Gandhi won 8 Oscars, but again it was not an Indian movie. It was under the Hollywood banner with an international crew and a international hero, that were major pull factors for multiple Oscars). But the kind of mass appeal that Slumdog generated was unmatched probably. There was a typical Indian disbelief at our hearts, because we have never experienced glory at this level before, and we were looking at the screen more with hope than anything else, though all the logic pointed at a sweep of Academy awards 2009 by Slumdog. It was more of a question of “how many” and they all happened in a heap at the end, again, more or less on expected lines. Folks in India were ecstasic, but not majorly surprised. There was a hint of disbelief, but it was "kind of expected". Thanks to the media who made us starting to believe, that it will happen this time!

The common factor of Indian movies that failed in Oscars was that they were “Indian” movies vying for just one slot in the ‘Foreign language film” with thousands of competing movies across the world. It may sound weird, but the competition is less when it comes to Hollywood movies! Think about it! The only other so called “Indian” movie (root wise) that made similar waves was Gandhi which also won 8 Oscars. That also had the international appeal of being a Hollywood film, directed by Richard Attenborough with a foreigner (Sir Ben Kinsley) playing Gandhi. It even had another common factor with typical Indian movies - it was long!

Other couple of points to note why the 3 pure Indian movies didn’t make it - Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan. It “pure Indian” tag may not have raised enough public interest, vis-a-vee a white man looking at India though much more credible (!!) eyes, dissecting Indian poverty through its naked lens! And of course, as I said earlier, in the “foreign film category” they were battling against the world’s best rather than Hollywood’s best for just 1 award. Mother India and Lagaan also had a hint of patriotism which may not have cut ice with the jury. “Water” was the other Indian film which participated in Oscar under Canadian banner for whatever reasons. It was a nice movie, on a controversial theme as usual like other Mira Nair films, but even the avid Indian watchers had doubt about its fate in the Oscars. As it happened it went down without much of a whimper. Rang de Basanti was a strong movie, but couldn’t bag nominations against stronger “foreign films”. Strong messages are important, all the winners have them, but the presentation and the pedigree of production look like pre-qualifiers.

Bottomline, whether the Academy awards jury trusts a western eye to describe Indian facts based stories (and yes, along the truth of slums and poverty – that is a proven winner – you don’t expect to win Oscars for “dishum dishum” and “running around the trees” movies) will become a debate I am sure with more and more movies trying out the formula of an Indian theme, an India crew along with international crew, a Hollywood director and of course, most important - it should be a hollywood production. May be there’s a “Returning to The City of Joy” awaiting us in the Oscars tomorrow!