Millionaire City sways to 'Slumdog' child stars’ tunes

Hong Kong’s reputation as a city of millionaires has been somewhat dented by the global financial turmoil, which has destroyed trillions of dollars in investor wealth. But over the weekend, the city found some solace by rejoicing in the boundless joy of interaction with the three child-stars of Slumdog Millionaire, who were in town for a charity event.

On Sunday, child stars Rubina Ali, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar performed along with a group of dancers from India at two high-end shopping malls to raise community awareness about Community Chest, an umbrella organisation that provides grants to various projects.

Throngs of mall-crawlers overcame their shopping instincts for the afternoon and instead cheered the Slumdog stars’ somewhat halting rendition of the signature number ‘Jai Ho’, and clapped and swayed to some rambunctious Bollywood dance beats.

“The children are so adorable, and despite everything that’s happening in their private lives, they’ve been able to spread lots of good cheer,” said Joyce Wong, a Hong Kong housewife who had come with her seven-year-old daughter to watch the stars.

Earlier this month, Mumbai civic authorities had pulled down the slum-tenement shacks where Rubina Ali and Azhar Mohammed lived. And last month, Rubina’s father was called in for police questioning following a British newspaper’s ‘sting’ report that he was preparing to “sell” her to a reporter posing as a rich Arab.

To avert media attempts to pry into the stars’ private lives, organisers in Hong Kong had enveloped the children in a cocoon, declining requests for interviews or even a media interaction. “We’re only preventing media intrusions so as to let the children be children,” said a Community Chest official.

Of that, there was plenty of evidence. Azhar, who plays the young Salim and walks with a swagger in the film, showed himself to be an impish, flirtatious, attention-loving brat who had, it appeared, to be tied up to keep him from wandering away for photo-shoots with his adoring, and somewhat hysterical, young fans.

Just how little the stars have been affected by the stardom that’s been thrust on them became endearingly evident when, off-stage, they did their own dance gigs while the folk dancers from India performed on stage.

And with touching, child-like enthusiasm, they asked to be allowed to try their hand at an ice-skating rink in one of the malls they were performing. Such was the persuasive power of their sweet innocence that the skating club’s unbending rules yielded enough for them to slip on their blades and go for a twirl on the ice.

It wasn’t all just fun and games, though. On Saturday, the kids appeared on a live TV show and raised more than HK$17 million (over $2 million) in charity, including a HK$830,000 donation from an anonymous contributor. More proof, if any was needed, that the Slumdog stars had touched many hearts in Millionaire City.