slumdog to millionaire : a transition generation

as i was watching this movie; i did not want it to be as good as i heard it would be. i wanted to be able to say that roja, bombay and nayagan were better just because i wanted to say that i had seen indian movies that were better than the broader population.

but this was good. this was very good. this was very very good. this was "tearing totally at the end" good. this was o so wholesomelly good.

i hope countless indian kids go to this movie on their first date. i hope countless kids go to this movie on their first date.

they should have picked indian indian kids as the actors. i am a stickler for accents in a movie and some of the indian accents in the movie were rubbish. but that kid in the main role - top job buddy - i think Dev is his name.

this is a must watch across every generation. the best thing about the movie was the way the story was told to us. you have to give the director credit for this. it is so easy to mess up a movie when it shows the characters age and when there is so much ground to cover. god i wish i had read the book. it must have been tingling.

do you remember what it feels like to yearn for someone. to yearn so much that your heart just fills up. fills up so much that it keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger but it never bursts. it is a nice feeling. one that is good to experience. it brings a genuine smile.

i am envious of the generation below me. the indian generation below me. as a friend pointed we are the transition generation. the one below is brash, confident, willing to re-write the rules. they live in a world where global communication and exchange existed from childhood. it was never cool to be indian. it was never cool to be a cool indian. well in my world anyway. there was code, rules, mannerisms, etiquette, cultural norms. they had to be abided by or you were a bit lesser. or rather if you followed them you were a bit greater. it is so funny when i look back at it all. as that first really big generation of indians left the country - it was this absolutely comical competition to see which group/family lived like them and their parents did in india. we are the transition generation. pisses me right off. lol.

i remember thinking about the new indian youth sometime back. i remember reading about this youth in the leading newspapers of the world. when it hit me most though was around 2 years ago whilst i was in chennai and i got a chance to walk through the city. i had not been to chennai for around three years and to this day i remember "feeling" the difference. the vigour, the excitement, that palpable "anything could be achieved here"/"this is where dreams come alive" feeling like in new york except this was young and raw for i knew so.

my india - to this day is fundamentally kerala and really calicut. and i played that charachter well; really well. hey i got my senior crew big points for playing that role really well in my younger days. and that is a part of india. but there is so much more to the indian. i will one day - not too far away; whistle my own tune through india. i yearn to hear the different echos in the different corners of the country.

courage, honesty and sleflessness - you can't really ask more from a person than that. there is a good argument to be made that modern india was forged under the inspiration of those traits. we forget that sometimes. i never used to. i never used to. i have recently.

anyway - it's been a long time i have been inspired enough to write without wanting to stop. but i shall shortly. let's recap.

:) i am angry that i am part of the indian "transition generation" (i wonder if my generation in india feels the same). look if there are any kids below 22-24 reading this who might get snapped up in the former. live your life. there is no set path you have to follow. follow your dreams. sit down work out what you want to do. you are lucky for if you are indian you have a fantastic ancestry - something which can be a pool of inspiration like few social pools can be. do not succumb to the pressures of familial conformity. values are important and will help you to serve, understand yourself and the relationship with society and might even provide clarity on your existence. i have seen however cultural norms used as a stick too many times however just to satisfy fear. do not succumb to this. you can do whatever you want. and by doing so - you do justice to your ancestory.

and finally - well - it's nice to be inspired. really nice. i leave you with this thought. we really have to story in life. write,create, live stories through our life. really that is all we have. good, bad, funny, scary - they are all but stories. nothing really matters. but the more stories we have, the more we may have a chance to understand truths, the more we might have to pass on to the next generation.

this was a fantastic movie. inspiring. a real journey-taker. a good story.

9.25/10

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