Slumdog Millionaire slams the Oscar with eight wins including best picture. As usual my Indian friends are evenly divided in two groups. The first group is elated that an Indian movie (Bollywood production) won eight OSCARs including best movie for the first time. The other group is angry because they think that this movie is still following the trend to sell poverty (Slums) and riots in India to Western audience.

I tend to disagree with both the group. Yes I am happy with the success of Slumdog because it was really a well made movie. The movie is not directed by a Bollywood director. The director, producer and lead actors are British or British of Indian origin. The movie along with the soundtrack was edited overseas and not in India.

But on the other hand the entire movie was shot in Mumbai and most importantly the author is an Indian and the story is about an Indian in India. On a more serious note, the story depicted real facts. Mumbai does house the largest Slum of the world – Dharavi. The riots happen every year or so. Ancient Hindus didn’t wage any holy war because probably they were not religious enough. But the new face of Hindutva is not. They are as bad as any other fundamentalist belief system. There are organized crime groups which force street kids to be beggars. So whatever was depicted in the book and the movie was based on truth.

I am happy that Slumdog won the OSCARs.