New Delhi: The rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum kid who emerges victorious at the end of a game show against all odds successfully impressed a majority of the 5000 odd members of the American Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Slumdog Millionaire beat the likes of Sean Penn starer Milk that follows the life and struggle of gay politician Harvey Milk, Holocaust saga The Reader and the Fitzgeraldian drama, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to bag the coveted Best film trophy at the Oscars this year.
"It does surprise me that it has captured so much enthusiasm of Academy voters. Because I would think they see what I see. That it's a really wonderful film, lovely film, very well made. But a great film? I'm not sure that is," said Oscar historian, Robert Osborne.
But the Academy is known to have overlooked cinematic classice, only to applaud popular productions reflecting the prevailing mood of American society in particular and the world at large.
Case in point being Kramer vs Kramer, a divorce saga starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep that was chosen for the Best Film Oscar over Francis Ford Coppola's hard hitting Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now.
Palme D'Or winning Taxi Driver might have wow-ed the critics, but it lost out on the Oscar to Rocky in 1976, the story of an underdog having his day.
Steven Spielberg's ET might have been a box office success, a special effects marbel that went on to become a cult film, but it failed to impress the Academy that chose Richard Attenborough's biopic Gandhi for the golden stattute in 1982.
So not many were shocked this year when the story of a slum child from Mumbai toppled the all American Milk and Frost/Nixon and biggies like Brad Pitt's multi million dollar The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Kate Winslet's heart wrentching drama with world war II as its backdrop.
"It's the story of optimism," said Oscar winner music composer A R Rahman.
Impressing the Academy might be easier said than done but Danny Boyle' tribute to the city that never sleeps 'Mumbai' brought with it hope, optimism and cheer in the times of recession.
The Bollywood style song and dance in the end with the uplifting Jai Ho gives everyone and even the West what it's seeking desperately -- hope!
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