A few weeks ago, on a Facebook status no less, I praised Slumdog Millionaire. Several of my friends from India were quite surprised at my response and expressed their chagrin over how much I enjoyed the movie.

This morning I received a note from Binit Vasa, a young designer from Mumbai I met in Cannes last year.

I thought many of his comments about Slumdog were interesting enough to share:

“Which movie has contributed significantly to the illegal kitty of Mumbai’s street side movie pirates, generated loads of conversational currency for the widely connected social networking population? Which movie will very soon hog more reams of print, and endless number of television bytes (Indian media) which will analyze everything from the misery of slum residents to a certain Mr. Boyle’s obsession with shit, shit pots and loads of other crap (metaphorically)?

Well, this note is my humble contribution to the aforesaid propaganda on Slumdog Millionaire.

For starters, the précis of my personal opinion on the movie would be 2 words and a hyphen: over-rated. And unlike some of my friends, this verdict is not a result of watching the movie with inflated expectations post the laurels that it managed to, and continues to garner (16 awards till date).

1. Slumdog is a movie, essentially made for the Western audiences.

Dear Brian: Thought my answer to this question might interest you.

After watching the film, many people in my periphery thought that the film’s raison d’etre was to appease western sensibilities. The others alleged the film as voyeuristic and glorifying the poverty / plight of the helpless slum dwellers. If this wasn’t enough already, a dear friend thought it was reduced to a romantic pot pourri instead of the dark, gripping, realistic story it could have been (to quote you verbatim)

Now now. I just have one plea against these comments - the movie is based on a book and hence the adaptation came with a ready plot - which comprises of the slums, the poverty and most certainly the romance. Period.

The film’s core thrives on the universal emotions of love in troubled times or love that overcomes its share of trials. Films across the globe deal with the same issue and hence I agree with a certain Anurag Kashyap when he rubbishes allegations of Slumdog’s inherent intent to appeal westerners.

Besides, as many of you agree, despite being an outsider, Danny Boyle’s immersion in the life of the city has given us some scenes which are visually stunning for any viewer - Indian or westerner.

Having said that, one reason, the movie will be far more entertaining for you Brian, than for me is the displaced geography. The movie’s pulse is my city and since you’ve never seen Mumbai (Read: the things people do for the sake of survival, the city’s deranged law and order etc etc), you will find it more interesting than me. Which is why, I enjoyed City of God or even Bienvenue chez les ch’tis. I am not quite sure if a lot of Brazilians and French thought that both the aforesaid movies had mind blowing stories.

There is one more reason a lot of Indians found the movie just ok while the world went bonkers over the film. Living in India, a lot of us thrive on Hindi Cinema which is all about heightened, exaggerated story lines. And considering the fact that at least one movie releases almost every Friday, there have been enough films released that deal with predicaments of either the poverty stricken or stories of unattainable love due to various divides.

As a result of this, we were neither surprised by the begging street kids’ disparaging life that eventually turns them into assailants nor left aghast by the insanitary living conditions. And very few of us will weep with joy for Jamal and Latika’s bond inspite of the insurmountable circumstances as Indian script writers have crafted more tragic love stories. (If anything, we all adored the little Jamal’s enthusiasm for Amitabh Bachchan’s autograph.)

Point is that we have been subjected to more ‘real’ films that talk about the grave misery of various lives and clearly Slumdog did trot on the surface of what is already a ‘cliche’ subject.

Movies like the Munnabhai series and Chak de India clicked with many indians as they stayed far away from ‘melodramatic love triangles’, ’sugar coated romance’ or ‘reality oriented’ commercial films. Most recently even the intellectual elite, who always denigrate Bollywood suddenly seem to appreciate the ‘Indie film revolution’ which seeks to offer an unusual fare.

The other reason for which I lost interest mid way was the English dialogues. Most of the inhabitants in the city speak and understand a fair amount of English yet its difficult to digest the invincible ’slumdog’ growing up to speak with fluency and articulate so well in the Queen’s language.

By no means am I prejudiced to anyone with this comment. All I am implying is that when your film is based in Mumbai you relate to it more when its in ‘Bambaiyya hindi/english’ with all its nuances. All the more when the language is a strong reflection of the economic divide in the city and the characters featured become imposters instead of real, humane people - only because of their language. Yes, agreed that the movie had a bound script but I will take the liberty to say that Danny traded the soul of the film for Global recognition…. Pity.”