Experiences of a Lifetime

Q and A was brilliantly written by Indian author, Vikas Swarup. The ingenuity of Swarup in naming the protagonist, “Ram Mohammed Thomas” and his story of Rags to Riches has totally amazed me. So when I got to seeing the much acclaimed and talked about movie Slumdog Millionaire, I decided to post my views on it out here. Why do Indian movies never really make much sense to most sane people? With the exception of ‘Salaam Bombay’, very few movies, I think, have been able to project the lurid and extreme social realism in India as was done in Slumdog. A certain Karan Johar or a Yash Chopra seems to, more often than not, wants to please not just the Punjabi audience but the Tamilian, Telegu and Mallu audience, the Bengali and the Bihari audience and ALSO win the Oscar for it!! No offences meant. I admit I myself have loved these regular ‘masala’ movies like OSO and Rab Ne… where everything is all hunky dory as the curtain drops. But the ‘famous’ Bollywood should have churned out such stuff ...