P.S. : Wrote this on 13-Apr-2009, but some how couldn't post it.
The weekend after the fun filled and eventful Alibaug trip seemed too long and boring. To lessen some of that I searched my dusty pile of books to find any old novel that I had only thought of reading. Luckily, I found ‘Memoires Of a Geisha’, by Arthur Golden. The book catches attention right from the beginning and doesn’t lets you leave itself easily. The author’s description of characters, feelings, and other events in the novel matches the perfection of J.K. Rowling’s in Harry Potter’s series (I haven’t read any other of her novels).
While reading the book I found interesting similarities between the book and ‘our own’ Slumdog Milionaire (yes, Danny Boyle’s movie).
No doubt the movie was a brilliant work by a bunch of very talented artists and technicians. It was an entertainer. But was it brilliant enough to justify the award of best film at Oscars, beating the likes of ‘The Dark Knight’ (which I personally felt was a better movie compared to Slumdog.. in many respects) and Brad Pitt’s ‘Curious case of Benjamin Button’. Even the nomination in the Oscars was surprising (of course pleasantly), leave alone its winning the award.
As with the novel, the movie for the most part focuses on a lot of pain, poverty, hate, misfortune and other negativities, which particularly annoyed us Indians. But to tell the truth, the movie wouldn’t have been a blockbuster had it shown all the good in the world (rather Mumbai ;)). The fact is, negative feelings have more power to catch one’s attention compared to positive feelings. The hate speeches of Varun Gandhi and Raj Thackray, that fetched them so much media attention that the two became the topics of national talks, are enough to justify the point. Perhaps such negatives had greater effect on US audiences who are not at all used to the things shown in the movie.
Other thing, similar to the novel, that I believe had compounding effect on the US audience was the fact that movie was based on different culture and people. When the movie (or for that matter a novel) is based on different culture and people, it increases the curiosity level and makes most of the things largely unpredictable (unless it is another Bollywood film copied from a Hollywood filmJ). In this way it catches more attention and also makes the viewer (or reader) accept what is being presented easily and with lesser skepticism. I found many parts of the movie ‘filmy’ because probably I could relate more to the movie as compared to a viewer on the part of the world.
Furthermore, I found the movie similar to any other Bollywood film (except that it was in English). We have had many films on Mumbai Underworld and bhais, but this was new thing for the western audience. The concept was also a hit in Bollywood when it was newly introduced in the form of Satya and Company (although even these films couldn’t get the Filmfare for best films, very much India’s Oscars). Also, I found it just another love story (as it is the favorite topic of Bollywood and I think it has exhausted almost all combinations of a love story by now). In short I found nothing new in the film, which might not be case with those audiences who must have found the concept refreshingly different.
Last but not the least, the fact that the film involved most of the artists and technicians who are one of the finest in Bollywood and are enough to convert ordinary into extraordinary, only helped realize Mr. Boyle his first ever Academy Award. Jai Ho.
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