SLUM DAWG

Are Bollywood dance numbers groovier than our local movie dance numbers?

            A. Bollywood numbers are Austin Power groovy

            B. Pinoy dance numbers are Vilma Santos groovy

            C. Only Jean Agor dance moves are groovy

            D. It is written…in this blog

 

Watching the 81st Academy Awards or Oscars is not a priority for me. Despite the event being televised all over the different TV stations, the red carpet fashion being prophesized, and the after-Oscar parties being planned, I had no desire to watch it whatsoever.

But the desire to see the organ-less male figure holding a sword overwhelmed me. Am I glad I did.

 

Hugh Jackman’s one-man opening number was just hilarious in an Australian-playing-an-Australian-in-a-movie-called-Australia kind of way. His song number about the big films nominated for best picture was just crazy, and the ending “Wolverine” stretch was just hilarious.

 

But I’m not about to rave about the rest of what transpired in the Oscars (which was uneventful after the opening number save for the time the audience gasped when the camera panned to Angelina Jolie while Jennifer Aniston was presenting), I am here to rave about the best picture for the 81st Oscars: Slumdog Millionaire.

 

Danny Boyle’s masterpiece about an Indian “slumdog” who tried his luck in the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” to find fortune, love, and ultimately his destiny, is a compelling and inspiring feel-good movie. Despite the film being produced by the Brits (insert funny British accent), one cannot deny the fact that SM is a Bollywood-inspired film, and as such, MUST include a dance number.

 

The dance number at the end was so groovy I just had to download the song used for it. Every time I play it, I cannot help but imagine Dev Patel and Freida Pinto shaking what their mommas gave them. Just when I thought it can’t get any better…it did. While searching for that dance song, I stumbled upon the Pussycat Dolls version of the song which is as danceable as the original but sexier and spicier (remember that Indian movie, Queen of Spices?), and because I am a good person who loves to share good music, I am uploading the PCD version of the song Jai Ho! Hohohoho!

 

Anyway, back to the movie.

 

The social commentaries on poverty, superficial “economic development” and the brutal nature of the underworld are in front and center in this film. It is funny how the state of poverty-stricken Mumbai is very much the same with that of Manila. The slums, the religious tension, the rising call centers, the orphaned beggars, the singing blind beggars, the various syndicates, prostitution, we have all those in Manila…and even more. If that film was filmed in Manila and not in Mumbai, it would have been more colorful! Heck, even our local films have dance numbers in them! Instead of doing it in a train station, they can do it at the MRT or LRT.

 

The portrayal of India as a Third World underclass nation was of course met with negative reactions from many patriotic Indians as well as “India’s biggest superstar” Amitabh Bachchan himself, who was also portrayed in the film.

 

Well whatever you may think about the film, I believe it’s a good film which portrays realities which may be too harsh to handle, but are very much true. These realities however are not limited to just developing countries like India or the Philippines. Even the best nations of the Western World have thriving underworlds, which are—more often than not—even more dangerous than the underworlds of developing nations.

 

At least developing nations have an excuse for a thriving underworld industry: they are poor and in need of money to survive.

 

The underworld industry of more developed countries are just plain greedy.