Is India a Slumdog ?

The recent controversy or should i say debate over the portrayal of Mumbai in the really popular Slumdog Millionaire is absolutely necessary in my opinion.

There are two reasons why Indians could dislike the film:

1) The more straightforward reason - because it is an insult to India & its people.
2) The way it was received among the western audiences-they called it path breaking & original.

I am an Indian who dislikes the film because of the latter reason. Even in Indian films, the spirit of the poor people is glorified & romanticized, so that can hardly be cited as a reason to dislike the movie.

No..
What bothers me as an Indian is the way it was received in the West. The Western audiences called the film "path-breaking ". Haven't we seen enough of Laawaris, Deewar & Nayagan to actually use a different term "cliche" to describe the film ?

What bothers me as an Indian is that if slumdog deserved 11 Oscar nominations(and i expect at least 5 awards), didn't Lagaan or Mother India or Salaam Mumbai deserve at least 1 award ?

What bothers me as an Indian is that if A.R.Rahman deserved 3 nominations in the Oscar for Slumdog, didn't he deserve an award for those hundreds of masterpieces he has made till date ?

What bothers me as an Indian is that if the westerners like a story of determination & winning against all odds, wasn't Lagaan a much better film than Slumdog ?

I understand that I have more questions than someone can answer.But if I don't get those answers, Ill be just one more of those million Indian teenagers who'll have a troubled sleep thinking that its much bigger a challenge to look developed than to be developed !

My new born grudge against TV news.......

My impression on most TV News channels fell sharply after their coverage of the Mumbai attacks.Still I put that on occasionally and still followed it for most of my news on day to day news......
It happened again,a month later, the mangalore incident....cameramen stood ready to take the shot as the women were being thrown out.....A man with a camera running behind a man being bashed up was a pretty shameful sight.......
Still my impression with those TV channels was not killed, still alive as a horcrux........ Until yesterday.........

All TV News channels were quick to bring to our notice the policemen in UP beating up the 6 year old girl (I actually cried after seeing the video).......first impulse was to kill the policemen(I dont think people are convicted for murder in India !!)........
But once that impulse gave way to clarity, i saw the video again( U C ,our news channels have that unfortunately irritating habit of looping their images.)

So when i saw that video again, something made me sit up with surprise....One of the policemen was actually staring at the camera !!!!! Now if the policeman was aware that he was being shot in the camera, would he have still continued with that torture? (Im sure he knew of the repurcursions).....And it isnt exactly easy to hide the camera is it ??

Put them together and u end up with something you dont want to believe.......I mean ,
did the policemen want to show India that they were torturing that poor girl ???
Or did the media houses ,thirsty of some great news organise this ????

A Union Minister,Antulay, once said this & recieved a lot of flak........
But "There is more than what meets your eye".....