Galli ka kutta: Crorepati. Yup, that's the title of a film. And unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, roaming out only when the world is dead outside, surviving on a diet of lizards and their relatives -- you'll probably call it the film.

Or, if you, like me, can't understand the hype surrounding it -- will stick with a film.

As a first attempt, let's just try to deconstruct and analyze the film -- you know, understand why it worked; maybe even get a hint of the answer to make a blockbuster, Oscar winner (apparently it's not 42):

• The plot: A guy born and brought up in a slum who has lived an extremely hard and cruel life manages to get selected for Who wants to be a millionaire? and manages to win some large amount of cash. Neat! So how does he know the answers to all the complicated questions that not even extremely learned men do? It is written. My first reaction to seeing the last line at the end of the movie? Not really printable.What, in your opinion stands out apart from other Bollywood films? Hero and heroine fall in love at a absurdly young age. They face various difficulties which keep them apart. Hero doesn't have enough money to elope with his love. He suddenly gets a windfall of cash through some means, things suddenly fall together -- boom! Everything's solved, there's a dance and everyone lives happily ever after. Except, perhaps the villainous/heroic anti-hero who sacrifices himself for the sake of the others. Brilliant, innovative screenplay.
• The director and co-director: We just might have something here. A globalized film? Something crossing nations? Interesting. Lets have a look at the rest of the cast.
• The cast: More or less Indian, with the exception of an Indian born and raised abroad. Who is undoubtely Indian of course. And derives all his acting skills from India. Without ever having lived here. Even his parents were born in Nairobi. But, of course, he's an Indian, and we love him.
• Screenwriter: Simon Beaufoy.
• Music: A. R. Rahman. The only guy who I can really appreciate. However, I don't really consider his music in Slumdog anywhere near the best he's made. Roza, anyone?
• Lyrics: Gulzaar. Fine. Nothing much to say here, really.
• The rest: A sprinkling of Indians in a western dish.

So -- what do we ultimately get here? A global film. Which shows the dark, true, underbelly of India (Shining). The truth behind the glamour. Which could only be exposed and truly depicted, without prejudice, by a foreigner.

Fine. I can even accept all of that at some level. What I cannot accept, however is that you only focus on the underbelly. It's as if you saw only the Dark Side of the Moon and never really understood why everyone else likes it.

To some extent -- the movie is good, and has some good points. The cinematography is excellent -- as far as I can tell as a complete amateur. The performances are excellent. But what I don't get is the awards that the movie is getting. There have been much better and more interesting movies produced in the past; the only thing they lacked and this has is a global cast. So why is it only this one that is getting all the attention?

Let's list out the awards won by Slumdog:

1. 8 academy awards.
2. 7 BAFTA awards.
3. 4 Golden globes.
4. Director's guild, Screen actors, etc. etc.

Does it actually deserve these? I think not. At least, not in comparison to its various predecessors. (Anyone remember Lagaan?)

So everything above just kept on bashing the movie. I didn't go into the plot details, because I really couldn't find that many worth spending my time typing out. Let's move on to the reaction to the movie here.

The movie has basically polarized the people, the media -- everyone except the politicians. They, seeing an oppurtunity to garner more votes simply jumped onto the convenient Oscar bandwagon (irrespective of personal opinion). The rest of the thinking society is divided among those who cannot but believe that the movie is completely Indian (with an emphasis on India) because its based on India, has Indian artists and was adapted from an Indian book. Then there are the few, who do not consider it truly Indian.

Frankly speaking, I really don't believe that it matters. At all. It's Indian, and it's not. End of the matter. I care about the fact whether Indians should be actually proud of the movie: you just have two options:

• You adore the movie, and consider it the epitome of cinema today. You accept everything it shows as accurate. Fine -- so why are you proud of an India full of bad schools, gangsters, prostitutes, cranky and eccentric game show hosts, torture? Did the Tehelka episodes make you proud?
• You don't accept everything the movie says. You speak and blog against it. Clearly, you are not really proud of it.

But still, a lot of people can't get the fact that a movie -- let's say, connected to -- India managed to win so many Oscars. And, going along with the sheep / mob -- they can't stop praising the movie, or proclaiming it Indian. I'm still waiting for proof that Danny Boyle's great great grand-Uncle on the maternal side was born in Bombay and brought up in Delhi. Surely, some ancestor of his has be Indian.

What really seems to have achieved the world's attention is that it's a mix of the H/B'wood genres; different actors and directors forming a melting pot. Agreed, that this is real, tangible evidence that the world is flattening and the whole East/West divide is breaking down. That does not  mean that the media actually doing so is par excellence -- it's merely the first that is doing so.