Source - http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/film/jai-ho-mozart-of-madras/2009/02/23/1235237560783.html
"JAI ho" was the cry around Vivekanand Camp as Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars yesterday. Those words, meaning "praise be", from the movie's hit song, are the only thing many Indian slum dwellers know of the film that has taken the world by storm. Slumdog has not set box-office records among the millions of Indians who live in slums. But the international success of the movie meant many in Vivekanand Camp, a slum in Delhi, were curious to see how it fared at the Oscars. Hari Das, a 20-year-old school assistant, sat inside his family's tiny hut and kept up with award winners on his dusty computer, logged on via the wireless connection of a nearby office building. "I'm glad Slumdog has done well it is really an Indian movie," he said. "The characters and the story are from here." But Param Lal, 21, who has lived in slums since birth, said: "The movie has some truth to it but I think things are improving for many people who live in slums." Sukhpal Veer likes how "a poor uneducated boy can become rich", but says it is "only 50 per cent true to slum life". Even so, Param and Sukhpal joined a group of friends inside the one-room house of Anil Ahirwarl to watch the Oscars. They seemed nonplussed by Kate Winslet's emotional speech after winning an Oscar for best actress and stared blankly as best actor Sean Penn made an appeal for gay marriage to be legalised. Instead, they cheered when a scene from the film Gandhi appeared on screen, another movie set in India that picked up eight Oscars in 1983. They were also delighted when the slum children who starred in Slumdog Millionaire appeared on stage when the award for best film was presented. Slumdog Millionaire picked up eight Oscars, including best picture and best director. But by far the biggest cheer came from inside the tiny slum hut when Indian A. R. Rahman, the "Mozart of Madras", who wrote the music for Slumdog, won an Oscar for best original score.
