Previously Dileep

Regarding the headline - it was a great name someone gave AR Rehman yesterday, I don't quite remember who it was mentioned it, but anyway, now for my daily rant...
I was complaining to a couple of senior editors about the massive reams of newsprint wasted on Slumdog coverage, even The Hindu went mad, possibly because Previously Dileep is from Chennai. Three of the eight Oscars the movie won are coming back to India and that is great. But the movie is a British movie created admittedly by a lot of great, highly professional technicians and film crew in India. The acting is rather ordinary, but I still believe that Danny Boyle takes on Bollywood quite well by using total unknowns instead of the sons and daughters brigade.
Back to the story, one editor told me that if relevance to India was a concern then rural poverty and agriculture would be on the front pages all the time. The sad thing is, he noted that the middle classes probably don't give a shit. Though we will when we get saddled with the casteist idjits that will be voted in shortly and we will ask why even though few of us will vote and because we wouldn't have read about the crisis we won't know why they voted the way they did. Anyway, I guess the Slumdog hype is partially because the movie was made in India using Indian crews and also because it is a happy story. And that story is made even happier in a time when the middle classes are getting hit. We don't care about the problems of the rural poor and rarely did even in the good times, but Slumdog coverage is like Bollywood. A state of denial. Something good has happened, lets report about that rather than the constant stream of bad news.
The media, print and television is for the large part taking the tried and tested method of Pakistani politicians - dig your head completely in the sand, and because you don't hear anything nothing is happening. Honestly, things aren't that rosy, and I'm not fear mongering. Good on Slumdog Millionaire, but the coverage today was far too over the top in times when I would want to know what else can go wrong.

Hai Jo!

Good on AR Rehman, Airtel will take out massive adverts in the papers tomorrow acknowledging his success. And he deserves it, he is one of the most gifted music writers of his generation, and the music and soundtrack to Slumdog was brilliant. Did it deserve the Best Movie and Best Director awards? Well, Danny Boyle is a great director, and while I've admitted that I am still iffy about the movie on the whole, I am not on the Academy's list of voters. That said, a movie like this could only be made by a foreigner looking into India rather than an India - not because of the money or the script but because our movies are mainly about denial and have always been, this movie takes on Bollywood at a level and with these awards shows essentially - 'See what you CAN do if you only tried.'
Congrats to my friends AB and RVP who worked on the movie, I don't know what you did but having Slumdog on your resume will help immensely.