Another view on Slumdog Millionaire...

I haven't seen the movie but every day I read about a raging debate on its potrayal of India. Most Indians are irritated that the movie shows everything that is worst in India. And what is the chance that it all happens to one person? They say it is not a balanced view. I have a slightly different perspective.
Will start with an excerpt from rediff.com

Shyam Benegal [Images], veteran film maker who is credited as the pioneer of art house cinema in India refuses to take sides and says "I have not seen the film but answering the question from a theoretical point of view, as a foreign director filming in India, Danny would view his surroundings as a foreigner would and that is natural."
"Richard Attenborough made a film on Gandhi in 1982 and it went onto win eight Oscars; I too made a film on Gandhi but it did not get that sort of response. That is because Attenborough could place Gandhi in a cultural context that could be easily understood by a western audience," Benegal says.
"But an Indian film made by an Indian director is different because he brings a completely different perspective to the table, one that might not be well understood by a foreign audience," Benegal told PTI.

Benegal has put it perfectly. We keep complaining about west's potrayal of India but forget movies like 'Purab aur Paschim' or even 'Pardes' which were both immensely successful, and I believe even won awards in India. I haven't heard of an American or a British complaining of these movies showing the western culture in a bad light. Up until Aamir Khan started taking some real actors from the west and giving them some real roles, most goras in Indian films were dumb side-kicks (Remember the 'hawa hawai' song from Mr. India). Tom Alter made a career playing such roles, speaking Hindi in a so called British accent. I also don't hear the Americans or British complaining when our directors make movies 'inspired' from hollywood movies. But the minute some guy uses a part of an Indian song, our fat music director complains. The reason is the west doesn't care about what we think of them.

My point is, why do we care about what they think of us? India churns out more films than hollywood. More people watch Indian films than they watch hollywood films. Indian economy is doing well. Indian army is one of the strongest in the world. Indian cricket board has more money than any other cricket board. Indian cricket team among the top teams. Then, why be defensive? The only thing that our irritation at this western potrayal of India shows is, as my wife would say, our lack of confidence. India is now among dominant forces in the world. It is high time it should start feeling like one.

Love

I wrote this blog some time back, but did not post it. Thought I might as well do it now.

I sometimes find the term 'innocent civilians' naive. I mean, if India is waging a war against the believers of a certain ideology, your Indian identity makes you a participant in the war. It is the taxes you pay that are being spent on the army which is fighting against them and this gives them right to try to kill you. They call it a war of civilisations, I call it a war of ideologies (the difference being people and ideas). Religious freedom vs religious fundatamentalism. Freedom of speech and thought vs adherence to a single ideology. Love of life as we know it vs contempt for it. And we all are soldiers in this war.

Long time back I posted on my blog that reason can not answer everything, and emotion or personal likes and dislikes, are a major determinant of ones decisions. It was a major milestone for me because until then I had been made to believe that reason or intellect is the end all of human thought. I have since not been able to write anything worthwhile.

My point is that one can argue for argument sake about different ideologies and religions to prove which is better. Ultimately the decision we have to make is which ideology appeals to us. Hence our motivation can not stem from the fact that we are right, because that is impossible to prove, but simply from our love for an idea. I love the idea that I get to determine the course of my country by voting. I love the idea of being able to protest and make my voice be heard when my government does something I dont agree with. I love the freedom of thought, expression and belief that a democracy offers me. And love needs no reason. I love my wife and I don't care about proving that she is better than anyone else.

And quite similar to us, the terrorists too love an ideology. The belief that one's life has a purpose which is higher than fulfilling the daily needs of oneself and family, is intoxicating enough to die for. We too need to be intoxicated by our love for our beliefs and rather than be 'innocent civilians' we should all be 'active soldiers', not weilding guns, but armed with our zeal to protect and nourish our idea of a good life. Not by shooting people but by being socially active to make our opinion count. Because, by not having an opinion at all against terrorism or being ambivalent in our views, we are actually being complicit in terrorism. Hence people who died in Mumbai during the three day hiest, were martyrs for one cause or the other.

Seeing the way the whole of India came together after the attacks, and the way different countries are standing behind India, it is heartening to know that people do stand for what they love.