Craving for international fame

Stop this embarrassing fleecing, please! It���s been troubling me for a while now. Why are the Slumdog... kids��� parents have behaving like creatures of the third world?
All this whining about how Danny doesn���t care, Danny hasn���t done enough for the slum kids, makes my blood ���Boyle���. When it comes to self-interest we Indians suffer from an exemplary amnesia.We talk about swabhimaan. But we expect more prosperous neighbours to look after us as though it is their duty to do so. Please, show some self respect. Film units come film units go, the location and people remain where they are.
Looking Westward for sustenance is a very third-world thing to do. It embarrassed me to see the slum kids��� avaricious parents demanding money on television. If the chap who played the street kid in Mira Nair���s Salaam Bombay is today an autorickshaw driver how is Mira responsible? How do we know he would���ve become a BMW driver if the movie hadn���t ���ruined��� his life?
Grow up. Enjoy the moment of glory. And when it passes on, don���t crib. No one owes anyone a free meal let alone a free life. Looking Westwards for a pat on the shoulder specially when the shoulder was injured, as it was in Gulzar saab���s case, is not an option.
Why were the Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire so important to our self worth? Why do we need to be defined by imperial cultural events? I don���t think A R Rahman or Resul Pookutty gained in stature by getting Oscars. Funny, though that many of us hadn���t even heard of Resul before the Oscar hoo-ha.
I think our Filmfare awards are more important to us. And to me Gulzar saab and Javed Akhtar, recipients for numerous Filmfare trophies in various categories, are among the the truest achievers in the country.
Lata Mangeshkar never needed international badge to shine as the most valuable emblem of Indianness.
It���s time the West began to accept us on our terms. That���s where Deepa Mehta���s Heaven on Earth acquires an extra sparkle. She has made it in Punjabi and with Preity Zinta in the lead. The signal Deepa sends to the West is unambiguous. She wants our cinema to be accepted on our terms.
Please, let���s not pander to Western expectations. Let���s not grovel on the ground when artistes and filmmakers from the West show an interest in Bollywood. It could be a misleading trail.
I for one was bitterly disappointed by the length and breadth of the two Pink Panther roles for Shabana Azmi and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Divided by more than two decades the two parts show the marginalised status of India and Indian artistes.
Even in Rahman���s case let���s not get carried away. Jai ho could be a false alarm. We may soon end up singing that old Mukesh song Tumhari bhi jai ho hamari bhi jai ho, na tum haare na hum haare.
(Views expressed by columnists in Bombay Times are their own, and not that
of the paper.)