Indians Embrace the Triumph of "Slumdog" as a Victory of Their Country

By Somini Sengupta
NYT, The Arts, C7
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

This article is about how successful “Slumdog Millionaire” is and how India finally has something to be proud of. It has a good lede, which tells what the article is going to be about. Sengupta says one day it’s all about depictions of filth and brutality fueled angry blogging and stray street protests, and all of a sudden, India wakes up to the news of “Slumdog” winning 8 awards, and the country went “Jai Ho,” which means “Let there be victory.”

The article goes on into a summary of what happened at the Oscars when A.R. Rahman was awarded for best score and best song. Sengupta also talks about his performance and Rahman’s speech, which he dedicated the Oscar to his country.

Sengupta “but” statement is when she says India has never been so proud of their country since the time the man who played Gandhi, but he was only part Indian so it didn’t matter to them as much. But for “Slumdog,” even though it was a movie made by a British director and screenwriter, and backed up by two American studios, almost the entire cast was from India and the movie took place in India. The main character, Dev Patel is British, but of Indian descent.

The article ends with a quote from 9-year-old star Rubina Ali Qureishi’s mother Mrs. Qureishi saying she is very excited to have a daughter come back home, greeting her with her favorite food, Chinese style noodles. “She has crossed the ocean. With God‘s blessing she will return.”