'Slumdog' scores big at the Oscars

Mumbai is back in the global limelight again, and this time, the script could not have been better.

The last time the world media focused attention on the city, it was 10 AK 47-toting men who took centre-stage as they went on a mindless killing spree, targeting important landmarks, including two five-star hotels, in south Mumbai.

But almost three months to the date, it was Mumbai’s vibrant underbelly that shone bright at Los Angeles, thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, which bagged eight Oscars.

The movie — a rags-to-riches potboiler, the kind which Mumbai’s Bollywood can produce on its assembly line, but minus the finesse — earned boys from the slums a red carpet welcome at the Mecca of the global film industry.

Not all the Oscars belonged here, but three Indians stood out: Resul Pookutty, who, along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke, was honoured with the award for sound mixing and musician AR Rahman who picked up Oscars for the best original score and best song (Jai Ho!) categories. Rahman shared the second Oscar with lyricist Gulzar.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh said: “They have done India proud.”

Nothing can take away the Oscar glory from them; not even the fact that Slumdog was a British film. Bollywood seems to need a Danny Boyle to bring the honours to the likes of Pookutty, Rahman and Gulzar, as it did a Richard Attenborough to get Bhanu Athaiya the recognition (for costume design) 27 years back for Gandhi.

As director Sriram Raghavan puts it: “The west is finding more brilliant stories than what our film-makers are doing. Indians winning the Oscar will make western heads turn to India for stories and definitely to technicians as they have been the torchbearers of this glory.”