I started keying this thought after reading an article written by Hasan Suroor in the Hindu about the themes that were portrayed by Slumdog Millionaire and White Tiger, which have been in the center of the news lately. In the article Suroor goes on to exclaim that it is the reality that the acclaimed works have painted, which had been clouded in the euphoric and yet false claim of Incredible India! It was interesting for me to read this article as I happened to read the book and then see the movie in quick succession and the similarity between the themes selected seemed to loom large on me. To be very frank, I was not totally amused by White Tiger which actually had left a bitter taste and the movie only seemed to have heightened the bitterness!
Despite my disappointment I’m not trying to mark the two acclaimed works as false denotation of a contrary reality, of course there is bitterness in our society, which has plagued us for generations now. However this isn’t the complete truth as well. Life as portrayed in any drama or writing is not always in the black and white areas rather they are always in the ‘dynamic grey zone’. India is not all about its stagnant and rotting poverty along with the stinking rich standing only as a contrast. As many other nations, India is a country on the move and in my feeling it is pretty much on a very flexible and relatively positive direction despite of the slowness.
My disappointment with SDM and White Tiger is because these works are not extraordinary in their domain to be awarded the honors that they received. In my opinion as a reader and an unbiased film viewer, there have been better presented and better narrated works, which probably have not been even considered for the honors. Although I have not seen or read all the other works which were competing with SDM and white tiger, but it is quite difficult to be believe that no other work was good enough to beat these ‘just above average’ works! Thus it leaves me in a doubt whether the so called judges for such awards are looking for a portrayal of negatives as the most positive aspect for getting the award!
The even bigger disappointment is that this is probably the first time that a film with such strong Indian content has been recognized in such a big way at an international forum and unfortunately it is a tale of the ugly side of India. In my view a piece of art should be in context of its time and should have a positive epitope to inspire its seekers. The tale of rags to riches as only a ‘matter of luck’ (or destiny!) and a murderous path way to Success (that too addressed to Wen Jiabao!) is neither inspiring nor worth noting. There are more astounding paths and stories in this country that would be worthy to grab the attention of the world and even more so when it is presented as a fiction!
