Slumdog Millionaire has won several awards at the Oscars. Eight to be precise, which includes, Best Music, Best Director and Best Film. I can understand the Best Music award for Jai Ho is yet another gem from Rahman (the music for Roja still lingers in my mind). But Best film?
If you see the films it had competed with
Milk – which sends out a strong message from the gay community,
The curious case of Benjamin Button – a story of an old man growing younger physically but wiser with age
Frost/Nixon – a window to American politics and the Nixon era and
Reader – a movie which won the Best Actress award for Kate Winslet

every one of them has a powerful taut story. What does Slumdog have? The same ‘rags to riches’ story where the hero walks away with the heroine into the sunset. The actors have done a great job, but is the movie as powerful as its competition? While some say its good timing, to portray a movie that shows optimism and hope in times of recession, there are others who say its mediocre.

Whatever is the opinion, one thing is true. The movie, a simple love story, in an Indian setting, made by an Englishman, nominated for the Best Movie in an American film chamber, has won the award. Truly, cinema can’t get more global than this.

p.s – While everyone’s besotted with Slumdog, my heart cringed at the story of Pinki, which incidentally won the oscar for the documentary feature. Reminds me of another bizarre physical deformity story which got corrected through surgery.