Salaam Mumbai

What is Mumbai?
a> City of stark realities and deep rooted divide

b> Underworld capital of India

c> Cultural melting pot of India

d> City of dreams and ambitions

Why am i trying to start this blog with a question.... because that's my latest addition to the known ways of starting a story, story of an endless, untiring, unblemished perusal of love epitomed in the movie called "slumdog millionaire"

A love story enthralling and of epic proportions.... but is that the only reason why people are going crazy about this movie? I believe there is much more to it, and would like to compare this to the epic novel Sir Salman wrote "Midnight's Children"

So here I start...

Salim and Jamaal.... two kids grow up together facing the same brutalities of life.. poverty, communal violence, abject poverty, brush with crime etc etc. Still in spite of all this both of them turn out into different persons. Salim probably is what has become of India and Jamaal.. He represents the India that could have been shinning land with possibilities and dreams. There are other plots and subplots that run throughout the movie but the stark undercurrent remains the same...... of people taking different means to achieve the objective.

But before I come to Salim (my favourite anti hero) i would like to set the record straight. yes slumdog does show India in poor light, but we don’t need to be intolerant of this... we don’t need to be defensive... we should not hang our head in shame because its only in India that directors like Danny Boyle can make movie like slumdog. Unlike communists in China/North Korea we don’t brush our problems under the carpet/impressive shanghai skyline. The magic of India lies in it being a land of contradictions and inequalities. We have problems.. Illiteracy.. Slums.. Corruption.. Organised crime.. population.. u name it and we have it and we should not be in denial about any of this because like every other nation in this world we also are not perfect.

We don’t need Danny Boyle to tell us we have slums, neither do we need Amitabh and other self appointed custodians of Indian pride to tell us what is offensive and disgraceful for us and what is not. Never the less, the bottom-line is we are getting there and we will get there!!!!!

So coming back to the topic of discussion.... salim the perfect anti-hero the nation India has become. Why did he do things he did..... What transformed him into a hard broiled murderer and a gangster? And why did all these factors failed to have the same affect on Jamaal?

I believe that this is all because we all each on of us are either dead pessimists or eternal optimists. (The demarcation is not in black and white as it seems.... remember the days when nothing goes right and u end up having a fight with the first person that comes before u !!) Jamaal Malik the "Chaiwala" signifies the optimists in us all.. the hope that things will get better. The mirage of a better life we keep on chasing all our life... whether its the endless wait for electricity in rural India or the hope for better roads when dodging every pothole in a metro the belief that things will get better and that there is light at the end of every tunnel is part if the psyche of every Indian.
What makes Salim .. what does he represent? ironically like all great characters this guy also imbibes a powerful undercurrent that's present in us all. The resolve to make our own rules.. the urge to break out and make a difference. The significance which is associated with every spontaneous outburst of democratic protests to every angry violent demonstration..... The passion to fight it out .. slog it out is always there. This is a nation of young people who will go to any length to realise and live out their dreams (the similarity of baby boomer generation of the US of 1960's is erringly similar)

And so that makes Salim more like us human and vulnerable.... and so he is not a villain, he is not hated... we cheer out for Jamal but end of salim makes us sad. But like all great ideas Salim's assertions of life live on. The perfect “anti hero”.

"Slumdog Millionaire" has won 8 Oscars at academy awards today. Low budget film with unknown Indian actors... probably “D. its written”.

Mumbai..... What is it? I think its "D"
D. City of dreams and ambitions
D. Destined to be great
D. Diversity

Salaam Mumbai...