Disregard for Indian movie culture dismantled

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) British filmmaker Danny Boyle's award-winning underdog drama "Slumdog Millionaire" has shattered the age-old Western perception that Indian movies are too long and jarring - courtesy the song-and-dance sequences - by picking up 10 Oscar nominations, including for its music, in the main category.

The movie has received three out of 10 Oscar nominations just for the music composed by Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman.

Rahman has been nominated for three golden statuettes - one for the Best Original Score and two for the Best Original Song for a motion picture.

Indian movies have always been infamous abroad for featuring songs and dances and for being excessively long in duration, which the Western audience found difficult to sit through.

However, the recent acclaim "Slumdog Millionaire" has bagged worldwide and the four Golden Globe awards it received recently has shattered the perception about Indian movies overseas.

"Questions were raised in the West as to why have we kept a Hindi song at the end of the movie, but that was the essence of it," Boyle told reporters here Wednesday.

Added actor Irrfan Khan: "You will now have people in the West sitting in their homes chanting 'Jai ho'-'Jai ho' without even knowing its meaning. 'Slumdog Millionaire' has taken the Indian movie to their drawing rooms."

"We make movies with emotions and that's why we add songs and dances in it and 'Slumdog Millionaire' has followed just the same way," chipped in Anil Kapoor, who plays a game show host in the film.

Based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel "Q&A", "Slumgdog Millionaire" has also bagged 11 BAFTA nominations and stars British-Indian debutant Dev Patel and actress Frieda Pinto in the lead, apart from Kapoor and Khan.

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Slumdog Millionaire