I guess it’s either bitterness on my part, or my inability to appreciate films; for me, “Slumdog Millionaire” is the award-winning version of a Sharon Cuneta film that takes place in India. Think “Bukas Luluhod Ang Mga Tala,” sans the catchphrases that made that movie a cult classic.
(Was “Slumdog” a second-rate trying-hard copycat? Nope; I mean, we didn’t win Best Picture. No, we could have succeeded in sending gay-themed-indy-art-film-type movies that are so popular these days to the Oscars, and we settled for “Ploning.” Gosh.)
Not that I didn’t enjoy watching “Slumdog” – I found the movie a tad “racist,” but it was cool – but the people in charge of the Academy Awards deemed it to be the winning formula for Best Picture. Any winning formula, like energy, can be transmuted and translated. What better way to transmute and translate the success of “Slumdog” than in, say, politics?
Now it seems that Indian political parties, hot on the heels of its own general election to be held between April 16 and May 13 (and you thought our elections were long and protracted), are capitalizing on the success of “Slumdog;” Congress Party – the ruling coalition in the Indian parliament – has just bought the rights to the Oscar-winning song, “Jai Ho.” The song – which translates to “Let There Be Victory” – is the new campaign anthem (no, jingle) of Congress.
I don’t know if they’re going to play the Pussycat Dolls version in caravans that will ply the Indian subcontinent, though.
