Movies and the effect they have.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire on DVD. Super print did not realise that it was not an official DVD. The print was super. Only when the compere mentioned at Screen Awards did I realise that this was piracy at a different level. After 26/11, I try not to touch a pirated print.

The opening shots where the protagonist jumps into that pile of shit just to get that autograph of AB was just brilliant. After a couple of scenes was the sequence of "Surdas" where the goons blind a child who will soon beg on the streets. That was gruesome. Being new parents my husband Rahul got up he could not watch any more of it. Later he questioned " What would happen to our daughter if something would happen to us." That was the effect this one scene had. It shook us as parents.

Some of us may criticise the content of the movie and claim that only when we show the poor the west notices. But this is also India and we need to accept that.

What we could do instead is that we need to stop giving money to the beggar children on the streets so as not to encourage this nexus. Instead give it to charities where the money is used correctly and reaches the people it should. You will get a list of such charities if you just do a google search.

Finally at the Oscar will Slumdog win or will Benjamin. Both are very strong contenders. My vote goes closer home.