There has been mixed reactions from the viewers of the film Slum dog millionaire all over the world. For many westerners, it was a ‘feel good entertainment movie’ of the year, particularly when the world is facing the most horrible economic crisis. For them, the movie came as a relief amidst their bankruptcy and layout problems. The ‘rags to riches’ theme with a successful love story in the background became an instant favorite among the Westerners. Thanks to the Global Recession!

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Back in India, the film according to many was a Hollywood movie in a Bollywood style, with songs and dance sequences which are unusual in Hollywood. The movie was criticized as depicting only the negative aspects of India and Mumbai alike; the slums, poverty, prostitution, under-world mafia and robbery. According to a popular Bollywood star, India has been portrayed as the Third World’s dirty underbelly in Danny Boyle’s film ‘The Slum dog Millionaire’. He added that the movie could cause “pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots”. Did he want the westerners to see only the rich and wealthy side of India when the biggest of the worlds’ slums, the Dharavi, is in Mumbai? Slums are there in India and everywhere on Earth and that’s a truth, so why hide it. The cruel fact is that it took a Westerner to direct and produce this movie on Mumbai’s slums and slum kids. Are the Bollywood directors too blind to see Mumbai’s slums and the realities? Yet many argued “was the slum dog millionaire better than Lagaan”? “Was ‘Jai Ho’ the best music ever composed by Rehman”?

What ever be the questions the critics raised, it is clear that the Oscar for an Indian musician has increased the confidence among all the Indian composers. For many, Rehman has become their inspiration.

May be many thought the movie might have a negative PR for India. Many westerners might shun away from touring this Incredible India. But it seems on the contrary, there has been an increase in ‘slum tourism’.

The name of the movie ‘slum dog’ itself has spurred controversies back in India; calling the slum dwellers as dogs is a form of human rights violation. But the name, according to the director, had a big impact on the film’s success and merely suggests the underdog triumphing to be a millionaire.

The movie was based on a book ‘Q&A’ by an Indian IFS bureaucrat Vikas Swarop. He was surprised with the hostile reaction to the film from India and adds on that the Indians have taken it too very personal.

According to the Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, who featured in this film as the quiz master, the movie will be a source of inspiration and hope for the million slum kids in India

It was the kids in the movie who enjoyed the limelight. It was their own story, so their acting was too natural and spontaneous. They come from the same slum pictured in the movie. Their homes are just plastic sheets with tinned roofs, near the railway tracks. They were taken to the Oscars; standing in par with other Hollywood actors gave interviews claiming their excitement to walk the red carpet.

 They also enjoyed a trip to the DisneyLand. The world out cried when learned that these kids returned to the slums in spite of the movie’s million dollar success. Boyle was criticized for taking advantage of the slum kids. But the kids were enrolled for the first time in school, paid promptly for their roles and even a fund was set up to pay for their health, tuition and other basic living, claimed the director. If they continued schooling till 18 years, they would get a huge lump sum, added Boyle. The Indian Government initially promised apartments for the three kids but those things just remain as words till date.

All we can hope is that the Indian Government and the rich Indians does something fruitfully for the slum kids; there are thousands like Jamal out there, with not even a roof over their heads. As the music director, who won the Oscar for the best music for this movie, A.R.Rahman suggests the essence of the movie was hope and optimism, lets all hope for a better India with no slums and poverty, at least with minimum standard of living for all.