Why look to West?

The day ‘Roti’ posted that comment on the Slumdog post http://www.zhagdoo.com/2009/01/17/india-only-about-slums-sums-to-scramble/ I wanted to write this post there and then only. The comment in itself is mega one and floats a new idea. It answered all the why’s which appeared in the Slumdog post towards the end, and this post is nothing but meager elaboration of Roti’s comment. So plagiarism here can be overlooked I suppose.

Slumdog got 10 Oscar nominations, and going by the usual trend it will surely bag a couple of them; I won’t be surprised if best director is one of them. But frankly speaking I don’t think it deserves it. No doubt it’s a good movie but it is not the best movie.

Rehman’s music of this movie was originally composed for Yuvvvvraaaj [don’t know exactly how many ‘v’, ‘r’, ‘a’ comes] but Subhash Ghai didn’t liked it and rejected it. After Golden Globe victory, many newspapers commented Ghai’s loss Boyle’s gain. If Ghai had not rejected the music, do you actually feel Yuvvvraaaj would have won the golden Globe or managed Oscar nominations? I don’t think so. Rehman has earlier also given music far better then this one, for which he didn’t received even any nominations, forget about awards.

But then why [it is the same earlier post why] is it actually doing well in all these western award circuits. As pointed out by Roti “Awards are for something they (the jury and western world) don’t see in any regular Hollywood sequence.” we all find Hollywood movies enchanting, because the genre to which they belong is generally different. Even if it is same then their way of presentation is different. It is this change from the daily routine which places the Hollywood movies somewhere at better footing. Same is the case with western viewers. When they see poverty, struggle, misery etc [which they don’t get in their cinema] they like it right away, because it is a change from the routine.

This was about the winning of awards! but why get so much excited about the western award functions? Everytime some Indian movie makes it to the Oscars, we are overwhelmed and certify it as a good movie. Was it not a good movie before being nominated for the Oscars? Or just because it is nominated for Oscars it is a god movie?

Because they are white so they have superior choices?  Or are they better judges than us? Why they are considered to be benchmark in everything? Why we want to have a Bollywood because they have a Hollywood? Why we always look to west for references? After the recent Mumbai attacks the media in no time labeled it as India’s 9/11 [Why? if I may ask so!].

The point is simple, stop making comparisons with the west. Stop giving references from the west. Stop making them the benchmarks. Stop looking for Bharat’s Barack Obama; instead start searching for US’s L.K. Advani.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *