Slumdog Millionaire makes clever Marketing.

The greatness of an artist lies in what manner he presents is art.

The greatness of art does not lie in its esoteric form; it lies in its ability to understand reach out and communicate far and wide.

Art must aim to be inclusive; rather than exclusive. And there lies the success of Slumdog Millionaire; with being dark and real, it is quite entertaining. Good background music, tight screenplay, fine balance of reality and fantasy and great performances.

Along with a great product; it is also great marketing. The sort of senrio that has been generated for this film (sans any major star cast) has brought it to the league of big budget films in India.

In a lot of ways, the film is like the city it portrays – Mumbai – full of dirt and grime, yet teeming with enterprise. Crime infested to the core, yet resplendent with hope. A paradox in itself – very Mumbai.

Coming back to why it is fantastic marketing. I believe the way Boyle has managed to position his work. He notched up nominations at the big league, and along the way, created a huge buzz for his content.

He realized that there is a bigger audience and decided to dub his film in Hindi and Tamil. The film got unprecedented media coverage (helped also by the Oscar nominations); and opened to packed houses across multiplexes in the country.

ART SHOWS CLEVERNESS OF ARTIST. ARTIST SHOWS HIS ART BEHIND HIM.

My Voice

I believe that Danny Boyle was privileged to make his film in India. He enjoyed it and has said that the experience of making it was amazing. If this had been a genuine, home-grown Bollywood project, would it have been enjoyed by Westerners?

It does show Hindus killing Muslims (although this wasn’t in the original book) but I emphasise these point out that this did actually happen. To become angry because a Westerner has shown this unfortunate blip in our history is no worse than when Muslims go out rioting because someone has the nerve to call them violent!

Although the original text on which this film is based DOES NOT show Hindus killing Muslims, that text was changed by Danny Boyle to show Hindus in this horrifying role - one which most people in the world associate with Muslim fundamentalism. Why did Mr Boyle do this?

The two Muslim children offer protection to the Hindu-sounding girl Latka, thus showing Muslims in a compassionate light. What does the Hindu girl do to repay Jamal’s obvious infatuation for him? She has sex with Jamal’s brother Salim and further on in the story she abandons Salim for sex with a rich crime boss.

Nevertheless … SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE CAN NEVER APPROACH THE BRILLIANCE AND THOROUGHNESS OF RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH’S GANDHI.