By: K. Hariharan

K. Hariharan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:36:21 +0000

What is an Indian film?
While I do feel elated about the success of this film and the accolades showered upon my friend AR Rahman, I also feel a deep sense of being cheated! I find it very condescending that this film is going to be shown in India later this month only after the ‘rest’ of the world gets to view it and distribute it.
Discussions about one’s national space without taking into account the very people who are it’s ‘real’ inhabitants seems very disturbing. Honestly I don’t feel like seeing this film because I have not been considered ‘fit’ enough for a primary viewing! Something tells me not to consider ”Slumdog’ as an Indian film despite all its juicy borrowings from Bollywood! How strange it is then, on the other hand, to note that ‘Quantum of Solace’ was released in India first than it was in the United States. So does that make it an Indian film?
Yet again the so-called recent award winning films of Buddhadeb Dasgupta or Adoor Gopalakrishnan or Girish Kasarvalli are also not screened for viewers in India but get pride of place in a lot of international festivals and niche theater releases across the elite western world. So do they get qualified to be called Indian Films? It seems all so confounding.
Ultimately the film text and even its context is what the commercial distribution circuit makes of it while we cineastes fool ourselves that we are determining its ‘locus standi’! And this ‘circuit’ knows no nationality. When I talk about this ‘fictional millionaire’ Indian film to a lot of my friends here they tell me that they have already seen on it on U Torrent. They ask me whether I would like to have a copy on my pen drive too! In short do I want to become a ‘slumdog’ too?
No… and neither do I want to be a millionaire!

Comments on: Slumdog Millionaire

By: K. Hariharan