Disclosure: I have seen Slumdog Crorepati and not Slumdog Millionaire, aka i have seen the hindi version.
Let me start with music. I think my delay in this post was because i had not heard the music. But today at 3 am (thanks to my jet lag), i started to listen and here i am at 5:25 blogging about it.
To start with, i am glad that Rahman is getting recognition. To be frank, i have not read any article, seen no discussion on tv beyond the headlines about Rahman's praise. Why? I do not have to. I (and there are many like me) do not need a TV channel or a newspaper to tell us how good Rahman is. We have followed Rahman for the last 10 years and we know him better than these papers who are waking up to him just because he received a Golden Globe. This is indeed SAD! But anyways, this is not the post to rant on Indian journalism.
Second point: I have heard Jai Ho and in my honest opinion, it is an average song (compared to Rahman standards, ofcourse). He has composed many brilliant tunes/songs and we have loved them dearly. Jai Ho is not one of his best and is not one of our Top Rahman number. To talk in terms of Hollywood, it is like giving Martin Sorcese best director award for The Departed after he has given us Taxidriver and Raging bull.
Third point: The actual music review. This is the meat. I love the soundtracks of Slumbdog millionaire. It is a typical (by that i mean brilliant) Rahman album. My favorites are Millionare (see how the whole song changes after 1:30, and changes to such classic music!), Mausam and escape ( Great use of classical instruments) and Liquid dance (listen it using a good quality headphone and your head will swing).
The good part about this album is that there are more instrumentals and less vocal compositions. One can clearly listen to Rahman's experiments with drums and beats - something which he does brilliantly (remember dol dol from yuva). The Millionaire soundtrack is seriously classic! Paper planes and O Saya are also very interesting.
Overall, it is a great album and i am confident that it will win Oscars. It is definitely Oscar level. It is different from LOTR theme, different from Eternal Sunshine theme, different from Nyman's music but it has its own class and its equally good.
Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
But it is not about Rahman's music that these discussions are happening. So they say that this movie is again glorification of Indian poverty. They say that westerners are liking this movie only because it highlights Indian poverty. Had it been otherwise, it would have been just another movie.
I have many views on this. If westerners are coming in large numbers to view this movie and not any other Indian movie, if i forget for the moment about the quality of other Indian movies and how they are released, i think then this is more shameful on westerners than it is on us ( Yes, i am an Indian as well). They are unable to appreciate other beautifully made Indian movies but are drawn to movies highlighting poverty tells us how much backward they are when it comes to appreciation.
But anyways, i disagree with the statement that non-Indians like this movie because it highlights Indian poverty. The true fact is that there are very few Indian movies made keeping that audience in mind. Indian movies are not even released in US theaters. Indian movies outside India are only targeted to Indians living abroad and are released only in Indian theaters. Moreover, it takes money to release movies in public theaters and i guess the ones that were released were Devdas, K3G, Namaste London which were all pretty bad movies.
But coming to the point again, whats wrong with a film that shows Indian poverty. To start with, they are not telling something that is a lie. If you are concerned with the fact that they are portraying a negative image of India, then why don't you do something about it. Secondly, no one complains when Ekta Kapoor shows domestic fights in her TV serials one after the another. No one complains that she is portraying a negative image of Indian society and Indian customs. No one complains when Karan Johars, the Yash Rajs make films outside India in exotic locations implicitly conveying that India is too backward to shoot films at home. We (including me ) is a hypocritical country. Harvey Dent was a two-face and Indians are two-tongues.
And finally, by making this wrong allegation, you are taking a lot of credit away from the people who had worked for the film. The movie has a good storyline with a brilliant screenplay, good acting and a wonderful direction. We all now know how good the music is. The story is based on a novel QnA written by Vikas Swaroop who is an Indian btw. It is a slap on Indian directors that Danny Boyle is making this movie. There are many Indian writers who have penned brilliant novels, it is my plea to Indian directors to take their work and make movies ahead. This will be a big boost to Indian book industry as well.
As a closing remark, it is said that a man is great who can laugh on himself and a society is great that can be self critical. We need to learn this. American Beauty was made and released in US and everyone liked it. Movies like American Beauty and Little miss Sunshine give us a glimpse of American culture (little exaggerated ofcourse). Homosexuality, sex, foul language etc are common subjects yet no one complains. But in USA, an action movies sells more than American Beauty (which is understood) but the point is that no one complains about American Beauty. Similarly, we as a society should be more flexible about ourselves and start taking unimportant things with a light heart.
Fahrenheit 9/11 gave us an important lesson - a movie can not change people. We need to learn this lesson.
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