Booker and Oscar 2008 go to India

chillibreeze writer — Thariyan Chacko

‘World renowned superstar India has made history by winning the prestigious Booker Prize and the Oscar.......’

If India was a person whom we could call by first name, this would have been the headline and subsequent text for any news piece fresh out of the press oven. But alas India, even though referred to in the feminine gender, is a nation. Hilarious as it may sound; the fictitious interpretation above forms the crux of recent recognition that has seen India in the limelight, twice. The prestigious Booker Prize for ‘White Tiger’ by Aravind Adiga and 8 Oscars for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ by Danny Boyle, one a book and the other a movie, both are featuring the same hero!

Many people say that the Booker and Oscar are yet other instances that underscore the fact that international award committees and moreover, the international community, always shower awards on individuals and teams that highlight India’s dark side. This sounds ridiculous and absurd to say the least.

‘White Tiger’ is a crisp book written in a way that takes the typical Indian-writing-in-English style to a new dimension. In his self-created style Adiga embarks on a journey that brings out startling realities about the divide between the rich and the poor. Realities about what the real India is today. The letter that the protagonist seems to be writing to the Chinese Premier, takes us on a very quick journey, much like some very well edited movies we have all enjoyed. A fair share of humour has also been thrown in to drive home lots of inner meanings that the book entails. This doesn’t look like a debut effort by any standards. To say that this just won the Booker for portraying an India that is dark, is an insult to the brilliant author himself.

And then there is ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Yes, it openly shows another angle of India, the slums that the world has heard about, but not seen before. Kids wooed into begging, there eyes scooped out to increase the sympathy factor and hence a rupee more. The riots, the killing in the name of God’s religion. The movie shows the red street, the gang lords and sidekicks, and lot more things that we all took as part of our daily existence. If this is not India, then what is? And if the foreigner captured it better than the Indian, why make a hue and cry about it. Maybe every Dog has its day!

To see the movie and read the book are experiences which are beyond doubt very humbling and embarrassing for any true Indian, but is there any point in defending something that we know couldn’t be truer? Haven’t we been on the rickshaw that the aged man pulled? Haven’t we seen people being fatally slashed in the name of religion? Are we being too judgemental ourselves when we say the awards were awarded in lieu of the fact that they showed India as India!

Another fact that is equally bewildering is the public ire that Slumdog received and White Tiger did not. The so called literate India probably did not even know that an ‘English’ book on India won a global award (Booker who?). Easy to mudsling a movie that’s just a three hour visual, not much effort and time needed to give the verdict? Going by equal measure, both the movie and book derides India and both talk about the dark side of the country, but why the partiality? Was it because the book is by an Indian and the movie by a ‘Phirang’? One wonders....

Guess it is high time for the ‘elite’ and the ‘not so elite’, Indian, to accept reality and move on. If someone has an issue with the ground reality and wants to hide the nakedness beneath, that person must do something about it. Maybe then some Hollywood director might get an Oscar for portraying that Bright side of India and another Adiga wins a Pulitzer or a Booker for the India Shining theme. Till that happens let us all appreciate creativity, let’s all appreciate real art, and lets all accept reality.

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