IF Slumdog Millionaire had an Indian director

Slumdog Millionaire has had resounding success all over the world.Award nominations everywhere be it for the music or the direction.The movie has 10 Oscar and 11 Bafta nominations.It has had its share of criticism from Bollywood as well as the media.


There have been many comments about the recognition and success of the movie due to its Hollywood status despite the Indian/Bollywood setting.Which has raised the question of its level of success had it indeed been made by an Indian director.



WARNING : Text below might reveal the plot of the movie.So people who aren't from this planet and have been living in a cave for the past few weeks and haven't seen the movie and plan to,then don't read as yet.Read after you have seen the movie,its a must watch.

Sooraj Barjatya

Sooraj Barjatya is the ultimate king in slow and boring family movies.

• If Sooraj Barjatya had made this movie then the slum children would have been living all huddled up with their families.

• Saleem and Jamal would have been living with their families and would have been stinking rich.

• There would have been songs every now and then for no rhyme or reason!

• The adaption of Who wants to be a Millionaire? would in itself have taken two and a half hours!

• The character of Dev Patel would have been played by Salmaan Khan and the character would have been called Prem.

Mahesh Bhatt

• Mahesh Bhatt or Bhat(whichever he prefers now!) would have launched a ravishing girl in the movie.

• Freida Pinto would have worn some very questionable outfits in the movie.

• Here,the character of Dev Patel would have been played by Emraan Hashmi.

• Character of Dev Patel would first love Freida Pinto's character but then would fall out of love and find someone else.Then he would realise how its all been a big mistake and beg for forgiveness.

• The music would be totally fabulous,not sure if the same could be said for the movie though.

Ram Gopal Verma

• The movie would come and go and you wouldn't have a clue!

• The attempts to scare people in the gun battles and eye destruction would have been rather funny.

• Instead of appearing on the show to win a million bucks,character of Dev Patel would have joined a gang and engulfing in fierce gun battles with other groups.

• Freida Pinto's character would have been played by Urmila Matondkar.

• The slum kids would have rather preferred to take autographs of Daud Ibrahim than Amitabh Bachchan!

Now I wonder whose version would the audience prefer,Danny Boyle's or the Indian directors?Let me know!

Slumdog Millionaire's success and Big B's views

I'm sure everyone is aware of Slumdog Millionaire's stupendous success in Europe and America with awards at Golden Globes and nominations for the BAFTA awards and the expectancy for Oscars thereafter.If you aren't aware then click here.

What has created far greater media furor is not the movie itself but how Amitabh Bachchan criticised the movie on his blog and his comments have not gone down well with many of the film critics.

Amitabh Bachchan had earlier said :

"If SM projects India as Third World dirty under belly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky under belly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations. Its just that the SM idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not."

I do not agree with The Big B's views like many others.Am the kind of people who would call a spade,a spade.If India is a third world country,it is a third world country.Its not that only the under developed countries are portrayed as poor in the movies,there have been many instances of developed countries being shown as under bellied too.The best example that comes to mind is,Erin Brockovich or The Pursuit of Happyness.Both of these movies showed how hard it was for the family to make ends meet.

Other point which he mentioned about the idea being used by the Westerner gets global recognition whereas the same cannot be said about an Indian doing the same.I wonder if any Indian film maker would move on from their concepts of love stories and "rona dhona" to interesting concepts as these.

P.S.Dharavi,the biggest slum in Asia is in Mumbai.Lets not forget the truth rather than reflect only upon the flowery picture of developing India.

What are your views on Big B's comments?

In the end,I would like to wish good luck to the whole crew of Slumdog Millionaire for the releasing of the movie in India on January 23rd and the awards nominations thereafter.