Slum Shot Millionaires

If I would like to comment on the ending of Slum dog Millionaire, I feel it isn’t filmy like most Bollywood movies that come from the school of formula movies. One feels ending was a miracle, but I feel it wasn’t. In some way today I was got a feeling that India’s victory in this year’s World Cup was quite similar and in the end, the Three Musketeers turned out to be Sachin, Gary Kirsten and Dhoni.

Right from the start, this World Cup was played in a normal way by the Indians. The hype was there, no doubt, but it wasn’t like 2003, 2007 or other previous editions where people hoped for miracles than believing that team could do it. Never in the history of Indian cricket, had a team displayed such consistency over a period of time across the globe. It was not a one man show, it had characters who encountered different situations time to time and in the end the blow of Dhoni was similar to Jamal answering the last question.

Both the protagonists had a mission and took upon themselves to find their destiny. And some might call it luck, but every puzzle India managed to solve had a solid reason behind it, something very unusual when we look at the other Indian teams from the yester years. One had solid reasoning behind every milestone.

We are a nation fascinated by glory associated with miracles. This victory wasn’t a miracle; it was sheer hard work, of course things went India’s way on some occasions but overall if you ask anyone in our country, you find more optimists than pessimists. In the end it wasn’t the World Cup that interested us; it’s the journey from 2007 that helped the entire nation to believe it wasn’t a miracle after all.

Quite a few parallels if we compare the Indian team of 2007 to the start of the movie. We were at some point in time literally in shit or so as many believed we were after a dismal performance in 2007. The turnaround was through sensible choices and one such was appointing Dhoni as the captain. One must not forget the contribution made by Anil Kumble to bring in the character that was required in order to win the final war. Many battles were fought between 2007 and 2011, some were lost but the most important thing was progress and it was towards winning the war.

Personally I was happy to witness the metamorphosis of this team and on the final day in Mumbai, it was similar to Jamal being driven to the studio for that one final question. Who believed Jamal would falter at the last hurdle? None, somehow people were convinced he would answer and win the ultimate prize. The question wasn’t easy and it was a tricky situation but he went for it and in a similar fashion MS Dhoni took upon himself and went for it. After having played brilliant cricket, this team wasn’t destined to fail. Next moment all we see is people cheering as though they have personally accomplished this feat. Such is the emotion about yesterday’s victory.

Come next day, it is business as usual; people are recovering from the hangover of yesterday’s victory. The moment has passed yet the memories shall remain for the people who witnessed personally and to the millions and billions of other fans who followed it through some form of media.

All good things must come to an end; if it isn’t good then it is not the end. It wasn’t good for Sachin in 1996 and 2003 and his career wasn’t going to be a collection of sad ending World Cup stories. Reward finally arrived; good it came what he always wished for; even better the fact that it came at his home ground in India.

Jai Ho