For a million Slumdog Millionaires
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
I believe that a big way to identify the zeitgeist of a generation is through film. The post-reform generation doesn’t automatically understand the hold that 1970s and 1980s Hindi film had on those of us who were in their twenties when these movies came out. More than anything else - plot, actors, cinematography - films like Zanjeer, Agneepath and Tezaab were angry. Their heroes - Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty - were constantly getting into fights with corrupt and powerful figures, from crooked politicians to white-suited mafiosi. These movies were a cultural response to the helplessness many Indians felt in the face of incompetent governments, a stagnant economy mired in massive red tape, and a surging black market.
The tone of films made in and about India today is very different. It probably comes across most clearly in the plot of Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s paean to Bombay, our vibrant, hellish, colourful and eternally entrepreneurial city. The movie follows Jamal Malik, as he goes from a young boy in the slums to a contestant on a game show on the verge of winning twenty million rupees.
The movie is at its heart, about aspiration, and about dreams coming true. This ‘common man’ Jamal, is not angry, like the Indian men of the 1970s. He is both hopeful and relentless, defiant and proud of his origins even as the people around him call him a ’slumdog’. He knows better - that it doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you are headed.
This dream of making it big is now writ large in our films. I had met Jaideep Sahni, the scriptwriter of Chak De, Bunty Aur Babli and Company, last year and during our conversation - I am a great fan of his movies - he pointed out how these films were merely following Indian sentiment today. In real life, as in movies like Chak De and Slumdog, young people who come from small towns or desperate poverty are searching for a better life, and truly believe they have a real chance of success. They have examples to look up to - Mahendra Dhoni, Sunil Mittal, Dhirubhai Ambani. The market beckons, with its possibilities.
This story however, is still incomplete. What we have to do now is ensure that the opportunities in the Indian economy match the aspirations of the people - that this young, entrepreneurial generation get the chances they need.