One Oscar to Lagaan ...

This year's Oscars have been swept by Slumdog Millionaire. Earlier, there has been debate within India about this movie and how people reacted to it. Amitabh Bachchan in his blog had criticized the movie for showing India in bad light, but he was criticized by others for it. It is likely that the debate will be opened again. So, I would like to make my contribution to the debate by voicing my opinions.

Let me first begin by saying that the individuals (A.R.Rehman, Sampoorna Singh Gulzar, and the rest of the team) who delivered world-class performance need to be congratulated. No other team of Indians in the past has shown such a performance at the Oscars. So, kudos to them.

Now let's talk about the result of their work. The way the movie portrays India is not something that will make us proud. One might say that poverty is a reality in India and so there is nothing wrong in showcasing it to the world. Well, that's right. Poverty is a reality in India. It is only as much a reality as India's mission to moon or India's nuclear program or India's rise from a third-world country to a potential economic superpower within a short span of less than two decades. It is no more a reality than India being the largest market of mobile phone connections.

India has list of spectacular achievements and spectacular failures to its credit. What do we want the world to see and know about us? Our failures or successes? Things that make us proud or things that make us shamefaced? As individuals we have our short-comings and our achievements? Do you go around the world flaunting your weaknesses or your strengths? Why then should it be different for the nation?

Within the borders of our nation, let's talk about our poverty to the death. But why showcase it in international fora? Those who have worked on this movie haven't done anything wrong. But if we start glorifying them, it would not be right. We always knew that A.R.Rehman was a great music director. Was his music in Slumdog Millionaire better than that in Lagaan or Roja? Why did Slumdog Millionaire win Oscars, but not Lagaan or Roja?

Why does the western world fete only those creations that depict the poverty and degradation in our country? It's not just true about India, but it's true about the entire developing world. A couple of years back, the movie "Borat", which won several awards in the western world and was big commercial success, became a topic of debate in Kazakhstan, because it made mockery of the culture of Kazakhstan.

We should ponder whether anybody in Hollywood would ever make a movie on Virginia school shoot-out? If such a movie is ever made, will it ever win an Oscar, no matter how good the movie is? Will Americans go ga-ga over it?

Despite it's Oscar performance, Slumdog Millionaire is not something that would make us proud. We would have been proud if Lagaan or Roja would have won an Oscar. But we can't be proud of Slumdog Millionaire. That's why I believe that one Oscar to Lagaan would have been equal to a hundred Oscars to Slumdog Millionaire