Tag Archives: Dev Patel

My hate campaign against Slum Dog Millionaire continues….

1 Mar





Re-emphasising  my views …..


Slum Dog Millionaire


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Why Slum Dog Millionaire and Rehman should never have won the Oscar

26 Feb


I am going to take the risk of falling in to that minority group of people who thinks and believes that Slum Dog Millionaire should not have won the Oscar.



What went wrong, guys?

The movie is by a firang and SLDM movie has a hero born and bred in slums speaking British accent. How ridiculous can that be?

There are scores of movies made which showcased India in much better way. When AR rahaman has made much better music where did all these awards and recognitions go? Laagan , RDB , Roja were all from India sent for Oscar nominations. Why dint the world take notice then ?

Are we saying that Slum D M movie was better than Tare Zameen Par or Laagan in terms of direction and music ?

Only cos the movie was made by a British bloke with immense PR backing cum excess Media hype did the movie come up… This was the movie which so badly received by the American and British audience that it was all set to be released in DVD! 

Therefore ,I stick to my opinion that SLUM DOG M doesn’t deserve an Oscar .. AR … definitely doesn’t deserve an Oscar for this movie.

Let’s take it one by one shall we ?

SDM movie dint deserve the award cos it was not up to the so called Oscar standards (if we consider its past as a benchmark). The music was mediocre compared to what Rehman churns out for Shankar and Mani Rathnam. It definitely dint deserve “best director” when you had heavy weights like “the curious case of BB” and  “Doubt” and “milk” 

Between Smile Pinki and SDM . SP dint get any PR, dint have newspaper/TV/radio coverage. No one knew such a movie was coming out which had Indian background. None cheered for Pinki? Not a single “jai jai” for Simile Pinki . And yet it won an Oscar.

A real  underdog performing! Not a movie which was wining bafta, golden globe.. And all that jazz on sheer media hype and on merit. 

It was going to be a DVD release cos Warner bros (the original launch company) closed down their speciality division for low budget movies named ‘Warner independent’… it was ‘saved’ by Fox cause they obviously saw the potential and launched it.” – The movie dint not even give a whimper to survive in theaters.Fox saw the potential of a “marketing gambit under the recession cloud”….

That’s why it escaped the DVD gallows and was given a chance to survive and pumped it with huge PR campaigns… No one has ever heard of Danny Boyle in India before that.

 I bet no one in India had heard of Danny till SDM movie came along.

 Why doesn’t AR deserve an Oscar for this movie?” – Because “jai ho’ is a mediocre song in every sense. Do tell me that western audience so loved this mediocre song and decent background music that they gave him an Oscar?

That would be that “Oscar” in itself is a cheap version of our national award which recognized AR R 4 times for his music. Imagine the taste of the western audience who enjoyed jai ho… If that was the case, AR R should be given an Oscar for every Mani Athena movie he scores music for. 

Laagan and Rang De Basanti went for ” best foreign movie” and that too had AR R music. And the music was much better that SDM. How come the world dint  notice of his greatness then?

 Someone told me in an online discussion , ” Vikas trust me anyone who has lived in Bombay will stand by the depictions in the movie . “

Huh? Why Bombay? I am from Chennai and I stand Bombay what was shown in the movie. The director indeed has the guts to show the rawness of slums of Bombay.. But then Chennai has slums too , so, we have a National Image problem not something to celebrate about ! One British comes in and shows it to the world and he becomes the best director around? He exploited our image problem and made tons of money and got an Oscar.

“A Wednesday” also showed the plague India is witnessing  … no one recognized the director! 

That same person in the online discussion told me , “The director used actors from slums and Indian actors where he thought were appropriate..Dev Patel got the role cos most Indian protagonists he auditioned were beefy, slick Sallu and hritik wannabes.. He basically wanted someone who looked like a wanker…” 

A wanker is a guy who ” masturbates” or ” a stupid person” . Let us for the sake of argument take the second meaning… 

Does it mean Danny Boyle couldn’t find a single actor who looked like a wanker in India? Ridiculous! 

Every actor in India wants to act in a Hollywood movie. Cos it would look good on their CV! Check out PINK PANTHER 2 – aish rai gets the smallest role and yet the media is jumping like rabbits in heat to cover the story. The movie is flop and is sinking… Here the protagonist gets all the scenes in the movie and yet you mean to say Danny dint find a “wanker” looking guy?

Abbhay Deol in Oyez Lucky Oye .. Doesnt aim to be a Sallu or amir or whatever. He is not beefy either! 
The hero of the movie ” Aamir” doesnt look beefy nor has aims of becoming a Sallu or whatever .. Incidentally, Aamir (one the lowest budgeted movie” went on to win critical acclaim and box office hit and it was the same year when almost all movies of Sallu sank without a trace. 

Sheryas talpade doesn’t aim to be a Sallu or mallu or whatever .. Danny could have chosen him – he speaks Hindi, English and he is a better actor than dev Patel and definitely doesnt look beefy .. 

Still not convinced? head south and I can show you some really talented guys who can speak him and look great on screen and do a better job than dev Patel ( check out Evam Karthik) ..

Meaning: Danny delib chose a British Indian and suddenly he is the toast of the town. 

I am not taking any credit away from Dev , of course!

I say it again .. 

SLUM DOG MILLIONARIE never deserved an OSCAR ..

It aint worth it ! 

The original ” Q and A” by Vikas Swarup dint have a British accented protagonist, either ..