Cloud 9

here are certain places you never imagine standing," said Simon Beaufoy, as he held the stage to receive an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire. "The moon, the South Pole, the Miss World podium and here." At Los Angeles's Kodak Theatre, they too would not have imagined the crush of humanity that would later cram on to the stage to receive the best motion picture award. It's been that kind of a year at the Oscars, and Slumdog Millionaire has been that kind of film. Endless and pointless debate has raged about the nationality of the film and its motivations, but in the over-the-top enthusiasm for its fairytale route through the awards circuit, the story of Danny Boyle's indie has become the stuff of Bollywood dreams.

This year, with the recession as backdrop, the Academy chose to keep the carpet redder, the props glitzier and, in calling on former winners in the acting categories to present the statuettes, the show celebrated itself like it never really has before. Watched from afar, the Slumdog narrative fed on that reaffirmed faith in the power of motion pictures and in turn nourished it. The Academy and its watchers thrive on making grand transformative points, most often about the human spirit. And Slumdog Millionaire, with its glimpses into urban underbellies and its celebration of human connections, would certainly fit that. Like it or not, it is a film impossible to ignore. Like it or not, you have to have been swayed by its anthem song, "Jai Ho". And whether or not this prepares the ground for an Indian original to cross over, there had to have been misty eyed moments when A.R. Rahman took his bow.

But the affection Slumdog Millionaire has drawn is on account of more than the film itself. It's come from the muchness of the Slumdog bandwagon. As the Kodak Theatre witnessed Sunday night, there's no stopping folks from piling on, and it's why Danny Boyle won so much goodwill. He just kept accommodating them. For a film to sweep the Oscars without a single nomination in the acting categories would normally be improbable - but, whether by design or old-fashioned graciousness, Boyle made his motley cast a star act. Even as the pre-Oscar award shows began making Slumdog the favourite, to us it continued to be the underdog making good. And that was how it remained through Oscar night. As they say, Jai Ho!