Now that Slumdog Millionaire has bagged a bagful of Oscars, every Indian is celebrating it. Even those who criticised it only a few days ago. Barkha Dutta thinks it's about the innate fighting spirit that defines India. Suhel Seth says it's about the hope especially in these depressing times.
But there's one journalist Tarun Tejpal - intrepid and uncompromising and visionary - who rubbishes these things about the film, and tells the truth.
The awgee media tells us the film is about hope. And hope, as we all know, is greater than inconsistency, inaccuracy, implausibility, dodgy politics, and partypooper critics. And since the film is about the triumph of impossible hope, it is impossibly greater than all of the above. QED. And yes, of course it is also a fantasy, a fairytale. And since, for these poor sods, hope too is a fantasy, it all coheres, hangs together beautifully.
