Slumdog kids walk the ramp - can we stop this nonsense please?

Now the two little kids from Slumdog walked the ramp today. What's going on?
There is this highly irritating show going on NDTV just now and and an even more irritating lady (Leena Singh) gushing forth about how she put them up in a 5-star hotel, how she took them to the swimming pool, and other equally idiotic stuff. The amount of money being spent in this completely meaningless exercise could be spent on other worthwhile causes. Say, building toilets for the school in Dharavi, where these children hail from. I am also sure that if you ask the kids, they will agree to this. But who really cares for what they want? Come on Leena Singh, they are KIDS. You give them a chocolate, they will eat. But remember that you are making them do it so that YOU can be on TV. Not because you want the to enjoy chocolate.
I fear what's gong to happen to these kids when they grow a little bigger and stop being cash cows for armchair social activists.
There was this other lady (I missed getting her name, sorry lady) who went blue in her breath trying to assert that "its not about these two kids. Its about millions of kids like them. " I agree with you Ms. But unfortunately the world, read TV anchor, wasn't listening to you. She was more interested in getting unnecessary details about the ramp walk.

The Big Fight on NDTV - or is it?

I just saw 'The Big Fight' on NDTV about "Should India Really Be Celebrating Slumdog Oscars?". The panelists were Sudhir Mishra, Nafisa Ali, Simon Denyer (Reuters India), Arindam Chaudhary and Jug Suraiya. Now, I failed to understand exactly what was Arindam doing there? OK, he has has produced a handful of movies - which does NOT in any way mean that he understands movies. He went to prove that in the show clearly - thankyou Mr. Chaudhary. Thankyou for finally telling us how little you know about India and its people and what movies mean to Indians.
Now these people were at each others' throats debating whether Indians should be celebrating the Oscar success of SM or not? Just consider these facts about Jai Ho -

1. A sikh born in pre-partition Punjab writes a song.
2. A practicing sufi muslim based in Chennai composes the music.
3. Another sikh born in Amritsar sings the song.
4. A muslim born in a little village in Kerala engineers and mixes the sound.
5. It features a boy born in UK to Gujarati parents (who were born in Kenya!) and a Christian girl educated in Mumbai (and scores of other budding dancers.
6. And finally the song is picturized in one of our country's best-known landmarks.
This song goes on the win an Academy Award. Now, show me a better example of what Indians can do when we come together and then dare ask the question - should Indians be celebrating Slumdog Oscars?

And finally, some examples of Arindam Chaudhary's 'wisdom'.....

1. "I think it is a very negative feel-good film." Now, what does he exactly mean by that? How can anything that is feel-good be negative or positive?
2. "How many blind beggars have you really seen on the roads?" This clearly shows that one of the following must be true. And your options are.....

A. He never travels anywhere in India by road.
B. He never really bothers to look out of the window of the car when traveling.
C. He does not actually know what a blind beggar looks like.
D. All of the above.

This is not a question from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, because it is too simple. But please post your answers nevertheless. It will at least stop TV channels from calling him henceforth.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is all about chasing your dreams - using whatever vehicle you can find coming your way. Wait, its not a motivational film, not the Chicken Soup variety. Its about the world of opportunities, both missed and grabbed. In the movie this vehicle changes from being a die-hard Amitabh fan to being a beggar, from traveling on top of trains to finding your way through the underbelly of Mumbai's slums. And eventually being on a reality TV show. But these are all tangible ones - the real vehicle is the burning desire that's inside.
The movie is disturbing on many fronts. It would be difficult to turn your face away as you are driving past the slums next time. It would be difficult to listen to 'Darshan do Ghanshyam' the next time without feeling the bile rising inside.
The ending is fantasy-like, the stuff that dreams are made of. But you believe that it can happen - more importantly, it can happen to anyone, including yourself. That's the magic of reality TV, isn't it? It makes a character from the screen step out and sit next to you, put an arm around your shoulder and say to you, "You are not yourself anymore. You are now me."
The film spends a lot of time in the Mumbai slums. In a Shantaram-esque way, it neither glorifies them nor pities them. Just shows them the way they are.
The casting is brilliant, to say the least. Anil Kapoor is really the only celebrity, as the script demands. Yes, there are other well-known characters like Irfan and Saurabh Shukla - but those who stand out are Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. Dev is like the boy next door, ambivalent in his choices, believer in his destiny, one who finds himself at crossroads more often than once in the story. So many times he gets pulled in one direction by a larger force, but as he grows up, he starts making his own choices at the cost of upsetting the same larger forces. Freida is not exactly beautiful in the conventional sense of beauty (the script doesn't demand it in any case) but she is beautiful in a different manner. She speaks through her eyes (her character doesn't have too many lines) most of the times and evokes a pain that may of us - I daresay all of us - keep wishing that it never surfaces. She is achingly beautiful. The little Jamal and Salim are equally brilliant, spontaneous as only children of that age can be. One cant say the same for the teenagers portraying the middle stage of the characters.
The film has deservingly won four Golden Globe awards, but I must say that Jai Ho is certainly not AR Rahman's best output so far. It shows how a not-so-great-music can ride piggyback on a great movie. In fact, the background music near the end (just before Jai Ho) is the piece de resistance - truly superlative.
You might hate reality TV and Kaun Banega Crorepati. But the movie is not these. Don't miss it.