THINK OVER IT!!!!

    Slumdog Millionaire  - a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writer’s Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. This movie has won 8 annual academy awards, 5 critics choice awards, 4 golden globe awards, 7 BAFTA awards and also a lot of criticism and controversies.

         There are some things in the movie which are not known to everybody. It is not the exact story of the book Q & A, a lot has been changed to suit the audience like - The Bombay Hindu-Muslim riots played no role in the book, as the ethnic or religious heritage of the main character was uncertain. In the book, the character of Jamal is instead named 'Ram Mohammad Thomas'. He was given a Hindu name, Muslim name and Christian name by the village elders in order to maintain the balance between all the religious communities after his mother abandoned him after birth. Unlike the movie, Ram does not have a biological brother, but Salim is instead his best friend in the novel. He grows up in an orphanage and his only 'brothers' are his fellow orphans. He never knew his mother. Ram is adopted by a Christian priest as a youth, which is where he learns English, and then is nearly molested by a visiting priest. The priest scenes were not included in the script for the movie, and the movie does not explain how Jamal learned fluent English. Latika is not his childhood friend in the book but rather a prostitute named Nita that Ram falls in love with in a brothel when he was 18.

   In August 2007 Warner Independent Pictures acquired the American and  Warner Independent Pictures paid $5 million to acquire these rights to the film and became a co-producer.However, in May 2008, Warner Independent Pictures was shutdown, with all of its projects being transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures, its parent studio. Warner Bros. doubted the commercial   prospects of this movie and suggested that it would go straight to DVD without a U.S. theatrical release. if it was done so the movie would not be even eligible for the annual academy awards. This movie has been appreciated and acclaimed in our country , even it was appreciated in our parliament for its good run in the awards ceremonies, the central board of film certification commonly known as sensor board has also approved for the release of its English, hindi and tamil versions of the movie without any corrections or changes, but it was not the case with other Indian documentaries which portrayed our Indian slums like slumdog. The reason behind this is it has got international fame and name.

     The success of this movie is celebrated all over the country. Of course cast and crew were mostly Indians. And the awards for A R Rahman and Resul Pookutty should be duly appreciated for their work on this film. But just two Indians got awards respite a lot of other Indians working on it, slumdog’s success is not Indian cinema’s   success.

     The main problem in our country is that we take pride for others work, for instance a person who achieves something some where in the world, whose great grand fathers would have lived for sometime in our country and we take pride and say that “He is an Indian, A man of Indian origin has done that”. We don’t understand that it s not a pride, it’s a shame for us for taking the pride for others work. Same is the case with this movie. we say  “its a victory for Indian cinema”, “its the pride for Mumbai”, “Mumbai’s victory” etc etc.

      The critics – who are paid for doing criticism, play a major role in the success of this movie. There are a whole lot of critics from India and as well as from other countries who have poured in a whole lot of their opinion about the movie.an American critic who works in India has said "Say an Indian director travelled to New Orleans for a few months to film a movie about Jamal Martin, an impoverished African American who lost his home in Hurricane Katrina, who once had a promising basketball career, but who -- following a drive-by shooting -- now walks with a permanent limp, whose father is in jail for selling drugs, whose mother is addicted to crack cocaine, whose younger sister was killed by gang-violence, whose brother was arrested by corrupt cops, whose first born child has sickle cell anaemia, and so on. The movie would be widely panned and laughed out of theatres. " Anand Giridharadas argues in The New York Times that the film has a "freshness which portrays a changing India, with great realism, as something India long resisted being: a land of self-makers, where a scruffy son of the slums can, solely of his own effort, hoist himself up, flout his origins, break with fate." also calls the film "a tribute to the irrepressible self." Some even say that the depiction of the Mumbai in the film was spot on. Some even wonder " how did he know about all these things ".

     The movie slumdog millionaire was a British movie shot in India has won several awards has nothing to do with India, in spite of Indians working on it.we should be proud for the music of Rahman and the work of Resul pookutty for their extraordinary work in  that movie. The movie has best showcased the country and what ever it has showcased it is true. The movie slumdog millionaire is a treat for the movie lovers and we the Indians should not take pride for the success of the movie.