I suppose there are scores of rave reviews for Slumdog Millionaire out there; so i figured it wouldnt hurt to do make the count into count+1 (spoken like a true geek).  Even though Bollywood is still the most profilic movie churning machine in the world, there are probably only a dozen or so truly unique and inspirational films that emerge from it each decade. I have to wonder how a nation of such diversity, rich heritage, and endless possibilities, continues to dwell on the rich girl-poor guy and the two guys-one girl-triangle stories month after month. Is it because love, especially forbidden love, is such a difficult subject in India that it exists only in our imaginations and in our movies.

Slumdog to me, was everything the papers said it would be – simply beautiful, spellbinding, and inspirational. But very rarely does a movie come along that actually gives you that shiver down the spine, that tintillating good feeling, and that sense of joy that one might only experience in a first love or first kiss. The cinematography and the screenplay are of course meant to provoke such emtions, but deep down Slumdog reinforces for us feeble-minded folk that the purpose of life is not just in the achievement of our heart’s desires, but to take in the full richness and enormity of the elements in the journeys we make. Though I would work hard for those material luxuries without a second thought, once in a while I wish I was the protagonist from Slumdog who got to live and experience life and its hardships in their full glory. Does being born as an average middle-class person simply justify the morosity and morbidity of our everyday life, and more importantly does having a wonderful childhood and never feeling amiss of anything make us boring, weaker and risk averse in life.

The underlying love story, the rags-to-riches rise of an underdog, and the happy ending go a long way to defining the success of the movie. If in an alternate universe, the same movie did not have a happy ending, would it have received the same acclaim and admiration its audiences – chances are it wouldn’t have. Over the last twenty years, of all the thousands of Indian movies I have watched, I can probably count on my fingers the ones that didn’t have a happy ending. I am not a sadist even in my worst of times and love happy endings myself, and believe that they play an important part in shaping our opinions about any art form. From the rising tempo of an orchestra to the suspenseful end of a paperback to the finding of the true love in a melodrama, they play an important part in how the human psyche assimilates and associates the theme of the art form into a lasting impression.

It is my understanding that our thoughts and consequently our behavior in this world are based more on the principles that are passed down to us and the barriers that society implies through its norms, and most of us live our life through a template built and shaped by those that came before us, a template that is defined by the perceived happiness of the people who surround us and the at-occasion artificial goals that seem be glorified by our families. However, Slumdog Millionaire shows us a different picture – that simple and mundane events of our daily lives actually define who we are, and such fleeting instances of our existance can either be relished in all their glory or simply ignored as another iota of time in the vast bucket of eternity. Before this review turns into a Deepak Chopra tome, I will pause and defer to the oscars that will be awarded tonight. If the academy has any sense of the impact a movie like this has on people, it would emboss Slumdog Millioire into its big prize, and allow me and a billion other yearning souls to rejoice  and appreciate both the intrinsic beauty of our simplistic lives and our wonderful heritage that is India.

Update (9 PM): Slumdog did win. I used to keep telling my friends at my workplace that “The Indians are Coming”, and I am happy that I can continue to make that assertion without a doubt in my mind. This is a proud day for my countrymen, the Oscars reflected both the admiration and the enthhusiasm for the Indian people, and while the show itself could have been a lot better, it was a good start. As always, I am inspired by the humility of AR Rehman and tip my hat to him; there are few people like you who can make such beautiful melodies that touch millions of  lives and yet be so grounded to their roots. Hence, I say unto you as I hath said before, “the Indians are coming”.