I am bemused to see so much hype about Slumdog Millionaire. Let me confess on the onset I haven’t seen the movie yet. But have read a lot about it everywhere and seen clippings on TV. Going by the movie storyline, music, interviews, Oscars and other awards the movie seems to be must see. But yet I am not very keen on watching this film.

I am happy that the film shows darker side of ‘shining’ India. I have no problems with slums, dogs or ‘Slumdog’ but am uncomfortable with the millionaire part. You would say it is a fairy tale about dream of a Slumdog to meet his childhood sweet heart coming true that too with a bonus of millions of money. But for someone who has been to Dharavi and many dark alleys of various slums in other cities, it seems like a cruel dream to sell. The slum reality is beyond the shit pit. Even a dead body has to be tilted to be brought out from those narrow lanes. The alleys are so dark and narrow that light never reaches there.

The population density in Indian slums is too high. People have no choice but to hang on to never die spirit and dreams because that’s the only fragile thread their life hangs on. Generations of people have lived in Dharavi and maybe some have made it big. But the very fact that it continues to exist is a big slap on the face of modernity that India harps about.

The film at the end of the day has cashed on poverty, dirt, grime, suffering, innocence, hope and dreams of millions who’ll never become millionaires.

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