Oscar showers for Slumdog Millionaire - Overhyped or Deserved?

Slumdog Millionaire has indeed been one of the most talked about movies this year. Since the day of its release, it has been in the news for some or the other reason ; surrounded by controversies. But this doesn’t seem to affect the Slumdog team as they are on cloud nine, for history was created on 22nd February 2009 when the film bagged 8 ACADEMY AWARDS!!!!!!!!!!Take a look at the stars celebrating their success.

From left: Dev patel, Anil Kapoor and Imraan Hasnee

The film gloriously swept away eight awards out of the ten categories it was nominated in. They are:
1. Best Picture: Producer Christian Colson.
2. Best Direction: Danny Boyle
3. Best Original Song: A R Rahman and Gulzar for ‘Jai Ho...’
4. Best Original Score: A R Rahman
5. Best Film Editing: Chris Dickens
6. Best Sound Mixing: Ian Tapp, Resul Pookutty and Richard Pryke
7. Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
8. Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy

Music Composer A.R Rahman

At the Oscars.

Even though the film has celebrated internationally, it has faced criticism in India. Many people felt that the movie was indirectly selling poverty. Bollywood Actress Jaya Bachan was quoted by Times of India Newspaper

“It was a British movie and not Indian, implying that the euphoria over the film's success was misplaced”

Previously also the film was slammed by Bollywood Legend Amitabh Bachan. In his blog he had posted the following comment.

“If 'Slumdog Millionaire' projects India as Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations, Its just that the 'Slumdog Millioanire' idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a westerner, gets creative global recognition”

Even Director Priyadarshan shared similar views. In an interview with a news reporter , he said;
“Slumdog Millionaire is nothing but a cheap trashy mediocre version of those commercial films about estranged brothers and childhood sweethearts that Salim-Javed used to write so brilliantly in the 1970s. And please quote me clearly on this. If the Golden Globe and Oscars committees have chosen to honour this trashy film it just shows their ignorance of world cinema, I saw the film with a mixed audience at the Toronto Film Festival. The Westerners loved it. All the Indian hated it. The West loves to see us as a wasteland, filled with horror stories of exploitation and degradation. But is that all there’s to our beautiful city of Mumbai?”

Top: Slumdog team, Bottom: A.R. Rahman.

However it was appreciated by many eminent personalities. President Obama is keen to watch the movie as said by Whitehouse Spokes person , Robert Gibbs. In addition,British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated the cast and crew of the movie and said, “I was lucky enough to see the film myself and understand how it has captured the imagination of people all over the world. Its success is truly well-deserved.” Back in India, the slums in Mumbai too celebrated the film’s success.

People celebrating Slumdog’s success.

So now I come to the concepts learned in class this week. Media plays a vital role in communicating information to the masses. This is known as Mass Communication where communication occurs when institutional sources address large, diverse audiences whose members are physically separated from one another.(Thinking Through communication- Sarah Trenholm).

According to Moderate Effects theory Media effects audiences in many ways; as a result, influencing and moulding their opinions. One of them is AGENDA SETTING where the media consistently raises an issues to make the media consumers aware and conscious about them. Through this movie; the magazines, news channels and newspapers have consistently raised questions about the poverty situation in India despite our economy growth. Whether it was exaggerated in the movie or not ,was discussed by many critics. They even raised questions on the film winning the Oscars; did it deserve it or was it overhyped? The next theory is SPIRAL OF SILENCE and MEDIA HEGEMONY where the media highlights some issues and reproduces only those ideas which uphold the interests of the power elite or famous personalities. In this context, views of eminent personalities like the Bollywood celebrities and Political leaders were highlighted but the powerless groups were kept away from making their ideas known.

The receivers also resist media messages in certain ways. Due to SELECTIVE PERCEPTION, the receivers assign meaning to messages in selective ways. Due to this, the movie was interpreted differently by different people as some were affected by their preconceived notions and by the intention of the media. Here are some contrasting views of people on the movie.

1. Blogger Juan Cole finds fault in the film’s focus, not on poverty, but on the crime in Mumbai slums.
2. Blogger “Lekhni” believes this criticism stems from the discomfort that middle-class Indians feel towards “the other” India.
3. A blogger of “Voice from a 2.5 World Country“ disagrees, arguing that poverty remains the enduring, but increasingly inaccurate, image of India:

Again, the users use different media texts like magazines, televisions. Radios etc for gratification. If the nature of the news is obtrusive( relevant to the user, direct experience) then it will have limited effect on the receiver and if it is unobtrusive, it will have a greater effect on the media consumer. With reference to Slumdog Millionaire winning the Oscar, it didn’t have a big effect in some parts of India and Britain as the people were familiar with the developments. On the other hand, it had a huge impact on the other parts of the world and was appreciated by most of the westerners.

I personally loved the movie and think that it deserved every bit of the success. I was elated and thrilled to know that it won 8 Oscars. Do let me know whether you think Slumdog Millionaire deserved all the success and glory or was it simply overhyped? I know your views might differ.