Slumdog Glory and Indian Cinema

Aaah ... finally, it's over. Slumdog Millionaire has won 8 Oscars out of the 10 nominations.

For me, the proud moment for Indians was Resul Pookutty, Gulzar and AR Rahman winning the Oscars. Rahman for Original Music Score and along with Gulzar for Original Song. Resul for Sound Mixing.

Now that the Oscar is over, I am waiting to see when the Indian media will stop the whole hype about Slumdog Millionaire. When will Rajeev Masand stop dissecting the movie to death?

GreatBong writes in his post:

... Surely a movie/documentary made by non-Indians with India as the subject winning equates to India conquering the Oscars. Just like if the “March of the Penguins” would have swept the Academy Awards, it would have been a glorious achievement of Antarctica and a proud day for all penguins. ...

The media is out to tap whatever is possible to increase their TRP, and we have Congress party claiming the credit and talking about "good governance".

The movie was a win for Danny Boyle and a few Indians who were part of the movie. It is definitely not a win for Indian Cinema yet. Indian Cinema has a long way to go. We were able to demonstrate to an extent that we are technically capable and there is a lot of work that can be done in India at a lower price. (Outsourcing here too???) But, the driving force behind most of the movies in India is financial benefit more than creativity. This has resulted in a very slow evolution of movies from a technical and content point of view when compared to Hollywood.

I remember watching "Jumanji", "Independence Day" and "Twister" way back in 1996-1997, but I doubt if the Indian movie industry has the muscle to make a movie of that scale and technical excellence even now.

Feel proud of what Rahman, Resul and Gulzar achieved. Be happy that Mumbai (and India) is in the spotlight. But, grow up and innovate. Break out of the traditional shell and move forward, else there is no way, at any point, that we will match the caliber of Hollywood. Not just Hollywood, but British, French, Japanese or German Cinema.